Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Neck shot bullets?

22-250, 70gr sp....bang flop,
I agree with whatever is in the gun at that time.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4543775/First_deer#Post4543775

I will agree - that neck shots doesn't always work.
A local PGC game warden will tell you about how many times a year he is called to dispatch a deer - after deer season is over - who was shot in such a manner that it's lower jaw was broken and the deer could not eat and was slowly starving to death.

Add to that - that just hitting the windpipe isn't always going to kill a deer right then and there.
Unless the deer drowns in its own blood, the only thing that the neck shot is going to do is cause you more grief then what is solves - in finding a wounded deer.

It is also a matter of scale & numbers.

We are a group of dog handlers providing a voluntary service to a very large area and group of hunters.

A guess is about 1500 hunters have our phone numbers.

So that is a lot of hunting and activity - many times things go right, sometimes they don't.

Good thing is - they call...

Whatever I happen to have in the rifle. Makes no difference.

This year, I found the 235 gr .54 roundball works quite admirably and as well as anything at neck shots

I think shot placement is more important than bullet type when shooting deer in the neck. If you shoot them through the wind pipe they will run forever. Make sure you shoot them in the center of the neck and you will be fine.

A lot of it depends on the size of the deer--and the neck.

I have seen big mule deer and northern whitetails with a neck over 15" in diameter during the rut. The spine and blood vessels take up very little of that space. (I'm not even going to talk about the windpipe. They can go a LONG way when hit only there.)

It takes considerable knowledge and shooting skill to hit the vitals inside such a neck. And even then things can go wrong. I have seen a 150-grain .270 bullet hit the neck vertebrae on a big mule deer buck--and not break the bone. The buck fell and then got up again--and was shot again. During butchering I found the 1st bullet expanded and resting against the vertebrae, "perfectly" but widely expanded.

I will use a neck shot on such big deer, but only with no other alternative, and only if the deer is close enough to be absolutey sure of the shot--and is facing directly facing or away, so the spine can be centered with a deep-penetrating bullet.

I'm certain a Sierra GameKing, or a Nosler Ballistic Tip would do what you are looking for. And there isn't any reason that you wouldn't have either one in your gun for hunting deer, anyway.

I'm not big on neck shots however I have taken them. The ammo isn't the major consideration but how well you can place the shot under the conditions. My dad is a mighty fine shot but was fooled by a downhill angle magnified by failing light conditions. He blew the jaw off but thankfully a quick follow up shot finished the doe. I had a nice buck sneak up within ten feet of my blind before it came into view. All he gave me was his head and neck and was nearly looking in my blind. I dispatched him with a single shot in the neck placed in the white patch just under the chin with my .40 S&W Sig. Not the best choice but the only under the circumstances. OBVIOUSLY FROM YOUR PIC YOU ARE QUITE CAPABLE FROM THE SHOT PLACEMENT. I would say whatever bullet you are using is fine.

Neck shots are show stoppers for sure. I dont think the bullet matters much. I figure the ft lbs can also break the neck if the bullet fails to make contact. Never had one walk away.

Though, I did have one almost get to his feet once. Second shot anchored him on the spot. The first bullet deflected off the neck bone and took a curvy path into the chest. It was a 30-06 and 180 bullet. I didnt see that one coming.

Joseph

Just about anything will work for a neck shot. The last time I took a neck shot I was using my 300 win mag and the old style 165 gr. solid base nosler bullets. The nice muley buck went down in a hurry

If I were only shooting deer in the neck I would be using a NBT or Vmax in my .223.

ymmv

Brett (Mac)

Mule Deer, that is exactly what happened to me in 2009. Shot a Muley at 320yards right thru the neck with a 120gr Barnes TTSX and watched the deer rear up & drop dead (I thought) until I started approaching the deer 45 MINUTES LATER, the buck stood up and ran off.

Luckily, we were able to chase him down a draw and place the TTSX in his side to close the deal. After dressing him I noticed the TTSX penciled thru center of his neck like an arrow which left me wondering 'would a BT/VLD been better for a neck shot? I started this post partly due to the 2009 scenario vs my buck you see above using the VLD.

Yap, last couple yrs I have not been fortunate to have one stand broadside for me. Lol Guess that's another reason I love deer hunting, you never know what there going to do.

even a 250 grain 45cal hornady sst creeping along out of a smokepole works on the neck

I shoot them in the head/neck with whatever I'm toting at the time.
6.5x55 spitting 129g Hornies



7stw and 150 TTSX......this one was facing me, I'll spare you what her face looked like. Thats the exit

Substitute Red and Fallow deer, and the same is 100% true also. I helped a friend to try to track a reg stag he'd pulled a frontal neck shot on, and although there was a good blood trail at the start, with in a couple of hundred yards it had stopped and we never did find it.

That said, I still neck shoot a lot of my deer, especially Roe, and have never had a problem...I don't take side ways neck or head shots though, rather confine my self to front or rear...

Thats about how I view it now, based upon my experiences.

140 gr Nosler Partitions work fine out of my 7 x 57 on the few neck shot deer I have taken. On all of them I was very close well under 50 yards. I had an Uncle that it was the shot he liked the best. He hit them in the center of the white patch on the neck and down they go. He could shoot. I don't think he ever shot pass 50 yards. In his old age he do them in with a 22 hornet and he did in a lot of them, he was never with out fresh venison.

Neck-shot doe ... approximately 75yds away, .243AI, 85g TSX @ a MV of 3450 FPS. She dropped instantly. Have had the same results many times via fast moving TSX's in the 6mm 85g flavor and the 7mm 120g ...



Long story short ... load up with the bullet you NEED when things are not optimal ... and place it where it needs to go regardless of the situation and/or shot angle ... I don't know how to fly any better than that.

243 with a 87 V-Max or 85 Sierra HPBT.
308 with a 150 NBT.
7WSM with 140 NBT.