Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What is the motivation to shoot deer in the shoulder?

I have been hunting since the early 60's. In that time period to follow, I have done as many of you old timers, shot a truckload of bucks.

One time in the mid 60's, I shot a buck in the shoulder and never ever did it again. It was such a mess and totally uncalled for, except that it taught me I did not want to do it again.

When watching the so called pros on TV, I frequently see them taking shoulder shots. It makes me question their mentality. So what are your opinions? By the way, I always shot Hornady SP bullets and never the Nosler type.

i do so i dont have to go look for them, every buck or bull i have shot with a high shoulder shot required 0 tracking.....in some places i hunt an animal that runs 100 yards could mean a hell of a lot more time packing them out

I think the idea is to keep the deer from running and being claimed as a kill by another hunter.

As a kid I was taught to always aim behind the shoulder because it would ruin less meat and a bullet thru the lungs was a sure killer. This is the shot I try to take if possible. However if I had a booner quartering to me I wouldn't hesitate to put in the shoulder that I can see.

I only shoot behind the shoulder to conserve meat. If i have a shoulder shot to kill cleanly, then i will take it. Some meat loss is almost always going to happen regardless of where it get shot.

Its simply more loss when they are shot in the shoulder square on.

If I shoot a shoulder than means I missed and shot too far forward..No need to damage the shoulder meat. Some good burger and roasts in those shoulders.

A three legged deer can run as far as a four and you are hitting the same vitals (lungs) going through the the shoulder.

I have seen a lot of the TV folks shooting a really high shoulder, but that is to impact the spine and will drop an animal in its tracks. Disconnect the vertebra and it is down. Problem I see with that shot is you are not hitting the vitals and they can continue to live a while even if they can not move. Not a valid shot in my opinion.

I'm a shoulder shooter. The area I hunt, the South Texas brush country is THICK, and everything sticks, pricks, bites, or stings. I aim where the Scapula and Spine meet, when possible. If they are hit here they don't move from their tracks, not always DRT but don't get up.

I'm all about anchoring critters. There are no downsides to drilling shoulders.

Yea me to steelhead, front shoulder on deer are not what I call a favorite piece of meat so I don't care if they get banged up some, I save what I can. They don't leave the scene if popped in the shoulders and that's a plus hunting where I do. I have always just thought that people worrying about loss of meat so much that they change bullets even though the animals die quickly was funny.

Shooting in the shoulder tends to anchor critters better than shooting behind. I generally want to be 2/3 of the way up or so. If you shoot low, the meat is thicker on the shoulder so you lose more meat and it doesn't anchor as well. On smaller parcels of land, it is handy to anchor quickly, as it can be a pain in the ass to locate the adjacent landowner to get permission to retrieve your animal. In rugged country, especially on bigger animals like elk, it is handy to anchor the animal when said animal has the ability to make its retrieve much more difficult by running down a mountain with no road access to the valley, into blowdowns, etc. What many people would considered a shoulder ruined in its entirety can be salvaged mostly by separating the muscle groups and scraping the clotted blood off the outside.

90% of the time I hit high shoulder. I hate tracking or extra packing. I cut all my own meat, So loss is minimal. Clean it, Throw it in the grind, A Little blood shot is not an issue.

As a kid I was taught to shoot 'em in the shoulder so they wouldn't go anywhere and get claimed by someone else. That was in the good old days when we hunted in the mountains of N Central PA. Literally a guy behind every tree. Still remember the first deer I shot through he lungs - couldn't believe I pulled the trigger and it ran away! Of course it was plenty dead and less messy than that square in the shoulder shot. I'll still do it if I need the critter to stay put and I don't have a rest for a clear neck shot. Most of the time though we just put a nice hole through both lungs and collect them a few yards later.

+1 to this response.

so they dont run far

Yeah, I'm from the coal regions of Pa too. I will shoot the shoulder if the deer is near the edge of something.
Some of our areas are anywhere from cliffs to deep ravines. A good shoulder hit is almost an instant kill, right into the heart. Drops a running deer like a bag of cement too.

I learned to aim into the crease behind the foreleg. Haven't seen the tracking that some have. I think 30-35 yards is the longest I've seen an animal go, but I know of some that have far different experiences. I would only shoot a shoulder through error. I know the high-shoulder hit is dramatic in that they drop right there most of the time, and only go a few steps the rest of it. To my thinking though, if the ribs aren't facing me, it is time for a neck shot. To each his own.

IME an animal hit directly behind the shoulder may drop instantly or it may make it 50 or so yards. I think I saw one elk make it about 200 yards, but it was steep downhill.

Shoulder shot critters may drop on the spot or make it 50 or so yards too. I get pissed every time I see a heart get destroyed too.

I see no reason and no upside to shoulder shots (high shoulders are something else) unless they simply give you confidence. I killed an elk about two weeks ago, and one shoulder was shattered (accidentally shot too far forward). That bull made it about 50 yards before crashing. I've seen antelope run with both shoulders broke too. Never very far, but they still run.

Here is CT the problem is that if a Deer runs off the property you are hunting, you have to call the Game Warden and get permission to go after the deer. I am lucky the neighboring property owners hunt to and we have an agreement about this issue. As for shoulder shots on White tails, its fine with me, I would rather have the game down on the ground. Then again I don't shoot soft bullets that tend to break up either. One of my neighbors told me once that there is not a whole lot on the front shoulder of a deer to begin with. At most I might have lost 10 lbs off of a Buck I shot that field dressed a tad over 180 lbs. Then again a guest the same year should have taken a shoulder shot but he wanted not to waste a couple of handfuls of meat and that buck ran off and we never was able to find him. I looked for him for a week after that. That guy never hunted my property ever again. In europe they train dogs to find game once shot, its to bad we can't do that here, a good tracking dog would have found that deer. It still bothers me some 30 years after the fact.

My learnings and experiences mirror HuntnShoot. I learned to hunt with a master hunter who was as shrewd as any hunter I had ever hunted with. We used to hang a deer for a week or so, depending on the weather. So a shot up deer, was a no no. I generally shot a 270 or '06 and put deer down within yards. In all those years of hunting, I only lost one buck. And that was simply poor shooting on my part.

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