Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Shoulders

My rule of thumb - broadside shots - come straight up the leg, hold crosshairs at midbody, squeeze the trigger.

If hit exactly broadside and in center of shoulder, they normally hit the turf right there, flop around on the ground a couple of seconds but generally aren't mobile.

If the shot drifts back a bit, you're in the armpit and they do tend to be mobile but not in any organized manner - your "chicken dance". I have had animals go much farther than I cared for. If the shot lands a bit forward, your break major bones, scapula, etc and they drop on the spot.

On quartering shots I tend to aim for the center of the off shoulder.

Not directly broadside - when I thought they were - has given me issues over the years. I shot a bear once that I swear was dead broadside. I watched it for 20 minutes before I shot it, had a dead rest over a log and shot distance of 50 yards. I distinctly recall squeezing the trigger - everything was perfect. 'Cept the bear was quartering to me a tad. Only hit 1 lung and liver. That bear went 150 yards with a 45-70 hole through it. 150 yards in the Canadian bush - I was lucky to find it.

Mark, I too am an armpit shooter. Of course it depends on what angle you get so sometime you have to take the shoulder as that is what you got.

After a lot of years and a lot of dead deer I quit predicting what the durn things are going to do when shot somewhere besides cns. With a cns they just fdd.

Close as I can come to predicting is knowing that if the deer is relaxed and un aware there is about a 90% better chance of it dropping to the shot than if it is wired up.

BCR

I am generally an armpit shooter too (unless a nice head shot presents itself ). I have noticed that the faster bullets (i.e. .300 WM &165 Sierra, .243 & 70-80 grain bullets, .280 AI & 120 NBT)seem to kill quicker for me than the slower moving stuff.

You are risking messing up some prime meat shooting them there Thomas. (Yellow dot=rifle)



I know, I've done it . Try moving it more forward next time. Hit's the spine or wiring and they go plop.

No loin and backstrap destruction either. It's a win/win.

Note how much room for error you have if you come straight up the leg.

I'd also say that the animal is a variable. Deery creatures seem to be impressed with velocity and shrapnel. Bears not so much. The elk I shot last year wasn't real impressed with velocity either. I did the 'come up the leg' thing on him and hit exactly where I was aiming. He still stumbled downhill 75 yards. I'm not sure he would have gone that far had gravity not assisted.

'nother pic. i usually work for this shot too.. maybe just move the circle a tad to the rear.

I've had deer DRT from fast expanding bullets through the lungs, launched from a .25-06 or a .270. The only deer I've ever had run off from a fast bullet was a doe that took a 100 grain bullet .25 cal in the armpit, but the bullet cartwheeled down and went out the bottom of her belly; she bled little and took 1/2 hour to find.

The last two does I shot were both quartering toward me, and I took the onside shoulder in both cases. One was with a .30-40 krag shooting a 180 Nosler BT, launched at about 2200 fps. Shoulder broken, one rib broken on the onside, two ribs broken on the offside, and the shoulder muscles cut on the offside. She did a big face plant at the shot, but still made it 50 yards or so.

The other was also shot in the shoulder with a .30cal 125 gr Nosler BT, fired from a .30-30 at ~2350 fps. She ran about 75 yards before piling up, about 20 feet from a fence, which indeed would have made recovery a problem.

I think I'm seeing why, 80-90 years ago, guys who grew up hunting with .30-30's and .35 Remingtons, were tickled as hell to get '06's and .270's.

Agreed 100%.

I generally try to tuck it in low and behind the shoulder on a broadside presentation. I don't care if they run a little. They end up well bled out and I don't spoil a lot of meat that way. This past year I did take a high shoulder shot on one buck. For a couple of reasons I wanted him DRT. .308, 165 grain BT, yanked the rug right out from under him but cost me shoulder steaks on both sides.

Mark,

I try to keep it out of the shoulder; I hate wrecking meat for what I'd call no good reason. Not always possible, so I've pegged a few shoulders on entrance or exit, never both shoulders though., because if they are broadside I'm aiming behind the shoulder.

The deer I've taken out a shoulder on have gone right down if memory serves.

I'm a shoulder shooter..This one was hit a bit low (180 MRX)..I've hit several critters this low, and except for 1 time they always went 50 yards or so..A bit higher up they drop like a rock.




You cant see it, but this little bull was shot right in the front shoulder socket, and luckily it still clipped the heart, but he covered about 100 yards, (200 grain accubond)

I'm a "whatever is offered" shooter.....and quartering to or away,I'm generally going for bone either coming or going,aiming for the off side shoulder area if the angle is right.

Theory being to get some degree of running gear destruction along the way,with the gooey stuff destroyed at the same time.

I tend to hunt with fairly tough bullets driven fast(but not always),as I've seen the rug jerked out with moderate velocity rounds as well.

A Saskatchewan 10 point pushed out on a drive was loping to another piece of bush at about 180 yards slightly below me,sorta angling on,and a 165 Bitterroot caught him on the point of the shoulder as he ran....I saw him disappear as the rifle recoiled.....just jerked down.

A 140 BBC from a 7 mag caught a mountain mule deer at last light with a lower shoulder shot at 300 yards(kinda upper leg, mid body)....he pushed off with hind legs and tumbled down slope.Like JB said too far forward to catch vitals on the perfect broadside shot.In skinning that deer the vitals were not touched but he sure was dead when he stopped rolling..

A 300 lb black at 70 yards was hit perfectly broadside with the 140BBC from a 280 Rem @3100;just ribs/lungs/ribs,and he collapsed and never got to his feet.....I figured this was not supposed to happen, but his chest was just mush...yet a mule deer hit similarly with 130 gr Speer at 250 yards or so trotted off 30 yards before going down....you could stick an egg in the exit hole.

And a bull elk, quartering on at about 450 yards with a 300 Win Mag and 180 NPT @3100 from slight angle above collapsed like a safe fell on him.....the bullet took the onside shoulder/upper leg and wrecked the chest, penetrated to the off side flank....he never got back up...

Elk can seem kinda bullet proof at times....on 6x6 was hit with a 200 gr NPT from a 300 Weatherby at about 100 yards near the last rib with intentions of making it to the offside shoulder area,which it did, but the bull when next seen a few seconds later,was walking through the lodgepole clearly on 3 legs and another through the slats dropped him....yet another collapsed at the shot and cascaded down the mountain when a 160 Partition from a 7 RM hit him with a high shoulder shot..It broke them both and exited.This was a "7 em em,no need to shoot him again" type deal.....

And a perfectly broadside brown bear was held on the beach when a 250 gr BBC took both shoulders but no spine and blew out the offside;again too far forward to catch the soft stuff but I fixed that with the thrid shot back through lungs.....he was barely able to push along with hind legs for 8 yards or so.

You see funny stuff sometimes....I guess it sort of depends because I have seen some mixed results whether the shots were through just lungs, or shoulders....but it seems to me that nothing goes very far with either type of hit if a good expanding bullet is used that can handle the penetration required.

I figure I will always try to break as much bone as I can while still getting vitals,and have not had much problem one way or the other.

If God didn't want us to shoot bone, he wouldn't have given critters shoulders..........

Some guys just prefer to shoot the rear shoulders...grin

In my opinion, when speaking in broad terms of the "shoulder" to describe a specific part of game anatomy, such as with a deer, we don't always agree as to what is the shoulder. The shoulder at times is written to describe a single specific bone such as the scapula, at times it describes a specific joint, at times it describes all the bone within that region from the neck to lower leg, and at times it describes the entire front quarter of the animal, including all flesh and muscle, from the neck to lower leg. This area described as a "shoulder" can be very specific and small, or it can be very broad and large covering an entire region of the deer anatomy.

As a longtime selfbow/longbow hunter using very primitive tackle, I tend to have very limited range of shot presentations, compared to a rifle, when it comes to reliable through the vitals penetration. As a result, I tend to visualise the exact placement of the heart and I aim for the imaginary exit that will place the arrow on a path over the heart to the exit. When rifle shooting, I do the same, with the exception the rifle gives me far greater options in both shot presentations and in distance. As a result, I find that having the shot placement through and over the heart, while leaving the heart intact, to have the best overall outcome. The heart is too big a chunk of good meat to waste

I've experienced a number of low heart shots where the animal traveled several times farther compared to what I've experienced when shot over the heart. If any of you guys have experienced having the wind knocked out of you in sports, or from having lugs go flat from an injury, you cannot go too far, you'll go down quick. Flip side, we have a training film where the bad guy loses his heart from a pistol shot during hand to hand combat which was captured on a security camera. The guy kept his lungs but his heart was destroyed. That guy put up one heck of a fight while dead on his feet, at one point he ran a fair distance before finally falling dead from lack of oxygen. I'm of the opinion that game animals are no different; CNS or lose both lungs and they tend to go down quick, no CNS but a fatal wound while keeping one or both lungs, then they can go a good ways.

Best

Best

My shots are the sum of what time of day it is.If it's in the morning or early evening I like to shoot them behind the shoulder.If it's late evening or almost dark or a big buck,I shoot them high shoulder to hope to break their neck so I don't have to look for them.

Both Ga whitetails and feral pigs hit the dirt, no steps, when hit dead on in the shoulder joint. Our W/t's and pigs are in the 180-220 lbs size. Just killed a 200 lb pig last week, went through both shoulders, bang flop. FWIW, Dick

I've always tried for the center of the biggest and deadliest target, the lungs not too far above the heart.
If I have to shoot through a shoulder to get at those, I've noticed that works better/faster.
I idea is to give myself as much room for error as possible. Those darn critters have a bad habit of moving, sometimes even before I can shoot'em. Or they have the bad habit of getting me so excited that I don't hit'em perfectly. Or they have the bad manners to not be as far or even further than I thought. Or to insist that I shoot'em when the wind is blowing, etc. If I miss by a few inches, I still have a killing shot.
I've noticed that almost all the time I get at least one shoulder, especially if that shoulder is on the near side, they rarely go anywhere. On the off side, it at least slows them down.
I'll also admit to using both the liver and even the hip joint if the animal is wounded and I have no other shot. both, BTW, work. E

If the animal is hit already, I'll take any shot possible and not apologize for it. Even if it is a swampy special.

It's fairly rare occurance for me to need a 2nd shot though.

Yup! I like to hit them in that forward boney stuff......they just don't go anywhere.