Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best place to shoot a deer quartering toward you

Agreed, shot placement and angle is everything. I'm generally hunting from about the same height that the OP is and I've never lost one when hitting them where described. A better example of this spot is JPro's picture. That's the sweet spot.

Aim for the heart, only somewhat issue is that chest will fill up before it starts bleeding out, might not have a blood trail for a few yards or so if they decide to run. I love that shot and wont hesitate to take it.

Imagine the kill zone like a basketball and you want to aim so your bullet passes through the center of the ball.

That's how I always explain it to new hunters also.

Exactly.

Yep, crease between the shoulder and neck to save meat, and closer to the point of the shoulder if you want to break down the skeletal system a little.

Looks good to me! Seems like lots of hunters forget to shoot for the exit. This shot saves the rear quarter if everything goes right.

Far shoulder for quartering away, near shoulder for quartering to.
SnT

It seems like the only deer I generally get to shoot at that angle is the occasional buck, as most of the does I shoot for meat will get a broadside lung hit. I do manage to shoot a fair number of hogs with the quartering-to shot, sometimes as they are crossing a shooting lane diagonally. I rather like the shot, as it tends to dump them right on their snouts.

Bingo

Thats a neck shot if I ever seen one!

That's if quartering away, not towards @ 7S yards and the neck and head were very visible, I would shoot it just below the base of the head.

If I were a beginner, depending on the angle, middle back ribcage, toward the opposite shoulder.

This is the absolutely correct answer. Remember, you're not looking to put a bullet on skin, you're wanting to put it where it kills. The rest is just in the way.

Killed several with that shot. There's a lot of critical life enabling structures there.

LOL

My suggestion: you aren't aiming at a point on the outside of the deer. You are aiming at a point on the inside of the deer - with a view to destroying something immediately vital to the deer's life. Have a look at pictures of a deer's internal anatomy from various angles, or have a really good look at the anatomy of the next one you see dressed (if it hasn't all been turned to jelly by the bullet) and visualise that as you aim.

The heart lies low in the chest, but a hit there generally sees the deer bolt, even though they usually don't go far, and so you may have to go find it. Above that though there is important plumbing, heading up toward the spinal column, which dips fairly low between the shoulders. There is also a major nerve junction behind the scapula, coming off the spine. A bullet in this space will usually do a fine job, and if on the way it goes through, say, the socket end of the scapula the result is usually amplified by bone splinters. If you are high above the deer you may be putting it in between the upper edge of the scapula and the spine, or directly into the spine. From directly in front the shot into the spine in the neck through the front of the neck also suggests itself or, if the deer puts its head down, into the spine from above. The point is though to think about what you want the bullet to transect, inside the deer, not about things like where the "front shoulder" is.

On the two-track you are parked on.

I agree with you Yoder. That yellow dot is a very poor shot placement. No bueno.

In Nevada, you make your own roads..

I've shot two bucks positioned as in the pic, both times in the yellow circled area. First one was with a .308 180gr. RN, he managed to go 30yds. the second was with a 12ga. shotgun slug that one was a bang flop.