Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game First time big game hunting...some newbie questions

Well, I will be going big game hunting for the first time this fall (Elk & Deer).
I have a few questions and figured the Campfire was the place to ask them [and get harrassed about being such a noob <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />).

Anyways...just exactly where is the 'killzone' on a deer/elk? I try for a lung/heart shot, correct?
So, what exactly am I aiming at? Just below the shoulder?
Forgive the ignorance, I've just never done it before. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Next: Once the animal is down, what is the preferred way to deal with it? I understand that elk sized game would probably have to be quartered and packed back to camp.
How about deer?
Do I hang it, and if so, how long?

(Information: I will be in 35-55 degree weather, about two to three hours away from home)

Do you suggest hiring a butcher, or do you do this yourself?

Thanks for putting up with this...gotta learn somewhere. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Good luck this year!

Shot Placement:
On a perfectly broadside shot (yeah, that happens a lot), aim right behind the shoulder about 1/3 of the way up. That will take out a goodly portion of the lungs and most likely the top of the heart. I personally would rather miss a little high than low, as I've had good luck with higher shots.

On a quartering on shot, I line up the near shoulder, on a quartering away, I line up the off shoulder. Simply line up your vertical crosshair with the appropriate leg. Again, I am about 1/3 of the way up or a little more.

I like to get the animals dressed out ASAP, although where I am hunting makes a difference on how I handle it. Hunting locally, I just field dress and get it home to skin and quarter. I then stick it in a refrigerator for a couple of days then butcher it myself.

When I hunt out of state, I will most definitely bone out the backstraps and tenders and cut off the shoulders and hams on the spot. You'll need to get the meat cooled fairly quickly, whether it be with ice or cold air. I always like to hang the pieces separately until they get a glaze on them. If you let the pieces of meat touch before that, it's likely that you'll get some spoilage.

The best way to learn is to have someone who knows what they're doing show you.

I like to butcher my own, but my group has all the equipment to do so. It saves a lot of money, and I get the cuts exactly as I like them. Besides that, frying up some backstrap as we cut makes for a mighty good time.

Matt - Go to the local sporting good store and look at a bow target - usually they will have the "kill zone" of a deer outlined on a life sized cut out of a deer - Elk AFAIK is in the relative same place - just a bit bigger!

Good luck - BTW - whats the weapon of choice?

For a target zone, I imagine a basketball size area centered between the deers front legs, from any angle! So, thats where I try to put the vertical crosshair.
Then I try to put the horizontal cross hair in the middle of that.

Thanks guys...Teal, it'll be a Steyer SSG III, with a Leupie Tactical.

Very handy rifle. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Well I hope all goes well, I would also look into the local Barnes and Noble - sometimes in the sports - hunting - section you will find books on wild game anatomy - usually in color - buy it or just look and remember either way its a possability.

Right on, the target is not any particular point on the hide.If you have a dog at home, use him for practice to pick out aiming points that will angle thru the chest cavity.
I would suggest unloaded with the bolt removed if you don't want to use up a lot of dogs or be beat on by your kids <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hit the books, go to the local F&G office, contact sporting goods stores, or search the internet. All of the above should have pictures with vital zones diagramed. As someone else said, basically between and extending just behind the front legs/shoulders is your placement point.



It isn't where you "aim" or put the crosshairs, it's where the bullet goes. Assuming a 2 to 3 inch high center of group at 100 yards, your bullet should go dead on at about 200, and 7 or 8 inches low at 300 from "point of aim" (crosshairs). at all reasonable "average" ranges, I prefer to put the crosshairs behind the shoulder at about mid body (or corresponding mid-body height point from other angles). At close ranges I'll hold lower, at a "fur piece", higher up - seldom above the animal, unless I accurately know the range. If you have to hold above the animal, you are shooting too far. Especially at your stage of experience.



Butchering is simple- I've never taken an animal to a butcher in 40 years of big game hunting, except one bear for sausage.



Simply bone out and seperate out the muscle groups. If they have no integument and are straight grained, it makes steak. This includes tenderloin & backstrap pieces, and large rump muscles. On larger animals there is some steak on the front shoulder. If it has only one or two integuments, or a couple muscle bunches running in different directions (neck pieces, front shoulder, some rear haunch pieces, it will make roast. Small "clear" strips of steak-like meat make good stew pieces (you don't want ligament, etc in these). The rest is burger.



On larger animals I like to bone out the ribs, and use as same in slow-cook "BBQ Ribs" Otherwise I bone and burger the rib meat.



I do not put bone (large game) in my freezer. It may not be the nice neat, diagramed butcher's cuts you see in magazines, but it works for me.



Vac-pack if you can. It greatly increases "shelf life" and favorable flavor.

Once down, the real deal is to get it cooled quickly, kept clean, fly-free, & dry. Get your pictures (lots of pics!) fast, gut it (if making a mount, you might want to cape it first, then gut - but do it as quickly as you can).

Get the hide off, and chunk up big animals so the pieces can cool quickly. If skinning has to wait for morning, try to get some logs or something under the animal, and prop the body cavity open, belly up overnight so it can cool as much as possible, or smaller animals can be hung whole with the body cavity braced open. Keep all hair, gut contents, and dirt off the meat - I don't worry much about a little clean vegetation. Spray generously with citric acid or 5% (store ) vinegar (retards bacterial growth and fly-egg laying, and promotes crusting of meat) & place in tight, heavy duty game bags. Avoid the cheese-cloth crap. Hang in shade or any cool place. Keep pieces seperated for air circulation. If hanging isn't feasible, build a rack of logs, or rocks, or whatever you have to do to get the pieces up where air can circulate and the meat can cool. Keep moisture off - rain, or dew, or snow. I often rig an 8X10 or so poly tarp over it, either strung, or on top of branches placed over the racked meat. Again- air circulation is mandatory - don't let the tarp contact the meat. You will find such a tarp an invaluable aid in butchering/keeping it clean/dry. Cheap, and weighs nothing, takes little space. Also can serve as shelter, water catcher, blind, gear protection. Handy things!

2 or 3 days is no problem with freshly killed meat in the temperatures mentioned, as long as it is kept, clean, dry, fly-free, cooled soon and well, and kept that way. Never put it in plastic! I "aged" my recent caribou only 3 days, two outdoors in 75 degree temps as we were packing it out, and one in a slightly cooler garage. Night temps were in mid 40's. That's about (we could have gone one more probably) as far as you can push it in those temps, but in cooler temps you can go longer. Just depends.

He has excellent flavor and is tender, by the way. There are many many people who are convinced caribou tastes terrible. The stuff they ate - once- probably did. Probably their sample was from a big, magnificent stinky, rutting bull, or it wasn't cared for properly after killing. Same can be true for any meat, including domestic.

Have you taken your hunters safety course? If I remember correctly, they teach such things as kill zone in those classes. I may be wrong though as it's been over 20 years ago.

This game will give you a good idea of the kill zone of deer at different angles.... May take a while to load on dial-up but worth the look if you're questioning shot angles and such.

Yes I have...strangely, I do not remember that being a part of the class, though. It was all about safety, conservation, laws, and polite behavior.

Mathias, for newbie hunters I tell them to get on their hands and knees when describing the kill zone. "Most" animal vitals are very similar to ours, right along with the skeletal structure. The best thing to do in my book is to break shoulders and take out the heart area. The lungs sit a little behind the shoulders, just like your's do, when you are kneeling. Keep that in mind when the shot comes. Flinch

This might help,if not its kind of cool to click on the arrows anyway. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
http://home.mn.rr.com/deerfever/Anatomy.html
http://www.bowhunting.net/NAspecies/elk2.html#circulatory
Scroll to the bottom of the second and theres anatomy and other info on turkey and bear also.

Shot placement on AK game here