I have been reading on these forums for decades, and it's always entertaining when the subject of bullet performance comes up. 1/2 dozen guys love what we will call "bullet A"; touting it as a bang flop DRT bullet for everything from mice to moose.

Then next 1/2 dozen guys hate "bullet A", because it destroys to much meet and bounces off anything bigger than yearling doe.

If you read between the lines most of the time the argument is really not about bullet performance as much as it is "what you are doing with the bullet". What are you asking of it, and what does it do best. Most do what they do VERY well, but it can come down to application, and how you are applying it that will form your opinion. It can simply come down to two dots, that can have two very different outcomes. So is it bullet performance or application failures we see/read about?

Back dot works well for broadheads.

Move that front dot up 8-10" is where I shoot 99% of my deer. That gives me those DRT results regardless of what bullet or cartridge I am shooting.

Different strokes for different folks.

Given that presentation I'll take the right hand dot no matter which bullet I happen to be using.

The first two replies illustrate the point perfectly..!

mathman, as a bow hunter myself, that placement is automatic for me as well regardless of the projectile.

I think mathman's point is that the deer is not completely broadside, it is slightly quartering .

I'd aim for the opposite side shoulder

Same here, just a little higher than that dot though.

Rifle, muzzle loader or bow, double lung them just breaking a rib going in and out at most and they run about 35 yards as they crash through the brush bleed out and drop, if you're quiet you'll actually hear them drop.

Also done the same with an arrow where the deer simply flinched like he was stuck with a thorn, took a few steps as the blood poured out of the exit hole and fell over.

You're right on the money.

First off, if I hit either of those two dots….I missed where I was aiming. But any bullet though, that deer is dead.

JMHO- I don't want to mess up any of the shoulder
meat and the ribs are junk anyway so I shoot the
ribs/heart/lungs. They'll run out of fluid and die

I would take the dot on the right from years of bow hunting. As was stated earlier, aim for the off side shoulder.

That'll git 'er done every day ending in Y

@mathman,
I see the point, and you would be correct. The dot placement was not meant to be "100% precise" but rather just illustrate the point that some are asking a bullet to break a rib, others looking for both shoulders, kinda thing.
I did make the dots a little low in the body, just because the shooter seems to be above the target a bit, but there is always room for preference of exact shot placement. You'll never please everyone or get 100% agreement. lol
Thank goodness the vitals are a tad site bigger than a 1" dot..

Those low aiming points leave little room for wind, shakes, you name it. A little left on the one or a little low on the other ends up with a non lethal hit and a lost critter. To each his own, though.

May be why some say "that bullet is crap" when the bullet did just fine but did not hit where they thought it should

Even that front dot misses shoulders. It could barely clip the rear of the leg bone and if it does clip it bone fragments will go all through the heart and lungs just speeding up the killing process.

For me here is where it's at. Top w a firearm and bottom with an arrow.

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Your bottom yellow is my aim point. I am not a great field shot, and that placement leaves a lot of margin for error, which I have plenty of.

I'm usually gunning for the lower right dot with any weapon of choice. If the animal is at the peak of the mid-range bullet rise, it's hitting near the top yellow dot, and I'm fine with that too.

I should probably edit that. High shoulder with a decent rest. I hunt a treestand 99% of the time and my knees/legs make a decent rest for my elbows.

I also hunt the thickest schitt around so shots are not long and I want them down.

I do know that they will run off a few yards when shot with an arrow in my lower left spot and tracking is no different but that's just how I do it.

Here is a view from one stand, probably the thickest area around that stand as just to the right of me about 30 yards is an old road that deer travel. To my left is just brush and timber but not quite as thick.

Funny thing is all of those dots will result in needing a sharp knife and backstraps on the fire.

Or connect em all and shoot somewhere in the middle!

Try Hammer Bullets.....maybe the best of both worlds. A mono with high weight retention for almost guaranteed exit wounds.....but, the “petals” break off at entry giving immediate and very pronounced tissue damage. They are also reputedly very easy to develop a very accurate load with!

To more directly answer the question......with Hammers, either will work nicely! memtb

An impact on the lower right dot looks like a direct heart hit with an exit through the opposite shoulder (lower part), both lungs catching some along the way.

I agree. And low-cavity shots generally bleed well.

There is a lot of margin of error for me also, especially if trying an offhand shot.

Same here.
And with the absence of some sort of shooting support, the bottom one is also the preferred spot with firearm.

Unless I'm inside about 30 yards, I don't even think about an offhand shot. Had neurological damage when I was 18, so I shake really badly. My offhand groups look like buckshot 😏

You and I think very similarly when it comes to shot placement. Though I might choose to take either aiming point with a firearm, arrow I definitely want to miss the onside shoulder.

+1

Never lost one yet in 30 years aiming there. From slugs to bullets.

Over the years I've moved my aiming point to closer to the lower red dot behind the shoulder because in my experience it puts more blood on the ground faster. I've always used heavy or premium bullets and they never opened as quickly as the SST's or BT's that I'm using now. The only rifle shot deer that I've ever not found was the withers shot with a TSX because the deer's lower body was screened by too much brush. That shot would have been about 1/3 down the body behind the shoulder. I won't try that ever again. 5 drops of blood and two days of looking on bare ground.

This fall I'll have been punching the Whitetail for 68 years and the pocket behind the shoulder shot has been my favorite. Wobble factor has grown significantly this year so center mass of front half will be my aim zone. If an aim point avails itself (really close shot) it'll be straight above the front leg about half way up. 6.5 CM, 100 grain TTSX, I ask my bullets for exit. Shooting the TTSX a strong probability of exit exists. My first Whitetail harvest was accomplished with a Winchester 40 grain .22 Long Rifle. Punched the white spot under the chin. Adequate performance! No exit but long lasting grin.

Me - I'll put my crosshair on the small brown patch between and above both dots on that shot........

I prefer both dots on the right side!

Prezactly!

A hit on the yellow dot behind the shoulder may (has) occasionally drop one in its tracks, but except for the initial spray and hair from a pass-through, it’ll be a long time before any significant blood sign appears. If the bullet doesn’t go through, you may end up with essentially nothing but tracks for quite some distance. I hit a doe just there a week ago with a crossbow, and even though she stood in one place for several minutes, neither the entrance nor exit wound leaked a bit. Only when she finally moved from that spot and wiped a little blood on the weed stems was there anything to follow, and dang little even then. She didn’t go 50 yards, and was totally bled out inside, but the blood she leaked would fit in a shot glass.

Don’t like the lower left red dot 🔴 at all. Just behind the dot you might get some heart. In the dot you’ll break bone and maybe get fragments of bone and bullet in the frontal heart and frontal lung. And you might not. If the bullet exits it will be in front of the right shoulder and probably miss the right lung; too far forward. If you hit in front of the dot you’re in for a tracking job; perhaps futile. Even if you nick the front of the upper shoulder bone a deer can go a long way on three legs and a little lung. Bad spot to intentionally hit. Right hand red or yellow is much better with anything.

Where the cross hair is and the gun goes off in the area showed deer don’t have dots on them in real life

That's where I like to shoot 'em too.

Bingo! WAM also is right. Sometimes DRT, sometimes DRAT (dead right around there). But always going home in the truck. And BTW, I AM a great field shot 😏.

Inside of 100 yards with a good solid rest? Neck! For farther or less than ideal circumstances, I'll play the dot game.

I usually go for the crease on a standing shot like that.
It don't happen very often where I get a shot like that.
Sometimes I take a neck shot or many times a shoulder shot If I have trees brush in the way.
Then you have the running in the open and ducking down low let er buck in the brush shot.