Not ideal I know, but that is my most likely shot angle this year. I'm pretty well sky lined from that angle and the chances of being seen are too great to wait for a full broadside. Scoped 7mm-08, 140 BT's and about 75 yards.

Treestand or on the ground? I’ll assume treestand with your skyline comment, but there’s places on the ridge I hunt where I’m skylined with feet on the ground. I’d shoot for a third of the way down on the deer, just in front of, or just behind front shoulder. Either of those should wreck enough important stuff with a 140 BT.

Doc_Holidude

A good rule of thumb is to place the bullet so it will hit the far shoulder if the animal isn't directly broadside. That ensure you get the vitals. That trick was taught to me by a PH in Africa and it has held true in my experience. It isn't high tech and it isn't fancy but it is effective.

One of my FAVORITE shots on Critters. You get to break a front and rear axle,skewing vitals along the way. PERFECT! Hint.

No thanks on a 140 NBT for anything. Hint.............

Doc, 20' up in a tamarack tree, but I do think that behind the leading shoulder shot would get liver and gut and a mess from a quartering to angle. I took that shot once in fading light with my crossbow on what I thought was a broadside short coupled fawn of the year, but it was a mature doe at an angle toward me. Toughest tracking job that I'd ever had for hundreds of yards.

Stick, Agreed that a BT is a bit soft for a shoulder, but losing a trophy buck to a TSX was all I needed to experience to switch to faster opening BT's.

That's if quartering away, not towards.

Wrong. It works an all angles. In order for the bullet to hit the far shoulder it has to go through the heart/lung area. Try it. It works.

Neck/shoulder junction. Will break spine and be an instant kill.





Maybe 7 o'clock on my dot, maybe the dot. Somewhere right there will work fine. No steps will be taken and if any are his nose will be in the dirt with his ass pushing him about 10 yards max.

If you aim for far shoulder on a quartering to animal your bullet will be to the off side of the vitals. To center em you will want to aim at the neck/shoulder junction of the shoulder towards you.

No reason to worry about heart/lungs. Take out the CNS and it's lights out.

+1 Good advice.

My rule of thumb is to aim where you want the bullet to exit on the far side.

So aiming for opposing shoulder will get vitals??
pnc personal banking

Be lucky if it even goes to the inside of the bone on the opposite shoulder, a good chance of bullet turning and may catch a little neck meat and blow meat from outside of shoulder. Far from a lethal shot. Aim for the bullet to exit behind ribs if you want to catch center of vitals.

Aim for opposite shoulder here and see where it gets you. Will work fine if you go high enough and break spine.

Put it right in his shirt pocket. Right to the inboard side of the nearest shoulder, just like 10ga’s first picture.

Too far to the left..

Only saving grace to that shot might be that the NBT flies apart and gets some lung. A sturdy bullet will likely just tear a bunch of meat out and now you've got a runner.

Farther right and a whisker lower for me.

Just like my statement says except go up for my preference. CNS immobilized.

Either or, for up or down. Yep. But DEFINITELY come right another 1/4 of the deer's width.

Bang. Dead.

Point of shoulder…..exit the ham! If you’re using bullets that will not fragment! memtb

Another angle quartering to:

“Whatever you’re thinkin, rethink it.” Hit him on the point of the shoulder, of course. A bit high as to OP says he’s hunting from a tree. Just for fun, what if he’s facing straight towards you? Then there is no “far shoulder “. Maybe have to pass that one? 😁

+1!

Wait for it to move a little

At this angle you are not going to want the bullet to exit the far shoulder. You would aim to have bullet exit just behind the far shoulder. Then either DRT or a couple of steps.

Shoot him in the face.

Like my original post.

That works pretty good as well.

Why make a mess of meat by shooting in the shoulder at 75 yards? I was taught years ago that the white patch on the throat was the best place to hit a deer coming at you or when quartering to you at 75 yards. It has always worked for me and meat waste is minimal.

Why do you think a Nosler ballistic tip isn’t a sturdy bullet?

Agree 100%

I’ll toss in my experience chasing down and having to help kill three pigs and a deer in one day while helping a group. One guy was using a .25-06 with NBT’s. They were making holes like scoops of ice cream. There was enough force to stun the animal, which would recover, get up, and then start running off in the brush. Lent the hunter my backup in .308, and the problems stopped. That was the worst, but not only bad experience with NBT’s.

TTSX’s, not the TSX, top my list for hunting bullets these days. I mostly hunt in thorn brush country. Shots beyond 200 are pretty rare, so high bc is not needed. If high bc is needed, finding the LRX to work nicely.

My favorite of all shot placements is quartering at the hunter, put it on the front point of the near side shoulder with an exit just behind the rear of the offside shoulder. They drop where they stand with minimal meat loss.

Neck roasts are nice pieces of meat. So that is low on the list of choices, but does work if needed.

In Nevada, next to the road.

Shoot that one in his left eye. Instant death, and you will have a set of horns to rattle with .

^^^THIS^^^ but maybe a hair lower at the base of the neck in front of the shoulder. Like 10gaugemag said, maybe at 7:00 of where his dot is. There's a lot of plumbing that goes through there. I shot one there with a bow one time and when he spun around, it was like a garden hose spraying blood out of his neck.

I've killed a ton of deer with that shot.

I'm generally going for a hit anywhere in this outline with a rifle.

The shot shown above is correct. Edk

Tzone, Why don't I think that a Nosler Ballistic Tip is a sturdy bullet?
Being a Midwestern guy like yourself, you know that we just can't shoot that many deer up here, so my sample size is relatively small. I try to stay away from shoulder shots, so the deer that I've killed with a Core-Lokt, Interlock, Accubond, Silvertip, Partition, slug and TSX all ran after the shot. The deer that I've killed with an SST and Ballistic Tip didn't. Last year's buck fell at the shot from a shot high in the back, but a little too far back. I'm not sure that I broke the spine on that one, but there was enough shock to put him down and keep him there. Then I shot him again in the neck and the skin around his neck was stretched out of shape with about a 1" diameter exit wound. Seeing that told me that the expansion from that BT was pretty violent.

All dependent upon height/angle of where the bullet is coming from IMO

I concur.

Agreed, shot placement and angle is everything. I'm generally hunting from about the same height that the OP is and I've never lost one when hitting them where described. A better example of this spot is JPro's picture. That's the sweet spot.

Aim for the heart, only somewhat issue is that chest will fill up before it starts bleeding out, might not have a blood trail for a few yards or so if they decide to run. I love that shot and wont hesitate to take it.

Imagine the kill zone like a basketball and you want to aim so your bullet passes through the center of the ball.

That's how I always explain it to new hunters also.

Exactly.

Yep, crease between the shoulder and neck to save meat, and closer to the point of the shoulder if you want to break down the skeletal system a little.

Looks good to me! Seems like lots of hunters forget to shoot for the exit. This shot saves the rear quarter if everything goes right.

Far shoulder for quartering away, near shoulder for quartering to.
SnT

It seems like the only deer I generally get to shoot at that angle is the occasional buck, as most of the does I shoot for meat will get a broadside lung hit. I do manage to shoot a fair number of hogs with the quartering-to shot, sometimes as they are crossing a shooting lane diagonally. I rather like the shot, as it tends to dump them right on their snouts.

Bingo

Thats a neck shot if I ever seen one!

That's if quartering away, not towards @ 7S yards and the neck and head were very visible, I would shoot it just below the base of the head.

If I were a beginner, depending on the angle, middle back ribcage, toward the opposite shoulder.

This is the absolutely correct answer. Remember, you're not looking to put a bullet on skin, you're wanting to put it where it kills. The rest is just in the way.

Killed several with that shot. There's a lot of critical life enabling structures there.

LOL

My suggestion: you aren't aiming at a point on the outside of the deer. You are aiming at a point on the inside of the deer - with a view to destroying something immediately vital to the deer's life. Have a look at pictures of a deer's internal anatomy from various angles, or have a really good look at the anatomy of the next one you see dressed (if it hasn't all been turned to jelly by the bullet) and visualise that as you aim.

The heart lies low in the chest, but a hit there generally sees the deer bolt, even though they usually don't go far, and so you may have to go find it. Above that though there is important plumbing, heading up toward the spinal column, which dips fairly low between the shoulders. There is also a major nerve junction behind the scapula, coming off the spine. A bullet in this space will usually do a fine job, and if on the way it goes through, say, the socket end of the scapula the result is usually amplified by bone splinters. If you are high above the deer you may be putting it in between the upper edge of the scapula and the spine, or directly into the spine. From directly in front the shot into the spine in the neck through the front of the neck also suggests itself or, if the deer puts its head down, into the spine from above. The point is though to think about what you want the bullet to transect, inside the deer, not about things like where the "front shoulder" is.

On the two-track you are parked on.

I agree with you Yoder. That yellow dot is a very poor shot placement. No bueno.

In Nevada, you make your own roads..

I've shot two bucks positioned as in the pic, both times in the yellow circled area. First one was with a .308 180gr. RN, he managed to go 30yds. the second was with a 12ga. shotgun slug that one was a bang flop.

I agree also, that's terrible shot placement.

This is correct. anywhere in that circle = Dead Deer.

I like the midpoint of that circle in the vertical plane, right in the crease of the neck and shoulder on the horizontal plane. Maybe a touch higher than midpoint if I'm shooting at a downward angle.

Which was my original post with that pic.

The last 3 deer I’ve killed were all facing me or quartering to. I placed the bullet lower than the picture above basically between the 2 front legs in the solar plexus. None of the 3 took so much as a step and literally crumbled into a ball in their tracks, a couple death kicks and they were finished. Extremely fast clean kills on all 3.

My shot would be centered and in the lower 1/3 of that circle depending on if I was elevated or not. YMMV

"Best place to shoot a deer quartering toward you"

Near the road.

Hunting in the Long Pasture there in New York? 🤨

Point of the shoulder dead deer

Orange dot for me.

I would shoot the upper end of that circle and the deer wouldn't take a step.

You didn’t lose a trophy buck to a TSX. You lost a trophy buck to poor shooting.

I went to a deer seminar once and the speaker was extolling the “withers shot”. Since that buck was broadside with just his upper half exposed, I tried that shot. Five drops of blood and two days of looking resulted in my only lost deer ever. Minimal wound channels on previous lung shot deer with a TSX and reading Mule Deer’s posts about TSX’s under .30 caliber sporadic performance has me pretty convinced that my bullet didn’t inflict the damage that using a “softer” bullet would have. Last year’s buck with a similar high in the back NBT dumped him on the spot. I suspect that the TSX morphed into the TTSX for the same reason.

Much as I’d like to wait for a more broadside shot presentation, I’ve been picked off most often with deer quartering toward me and hunting the brush where I do, shooting early before they see or wind a person has been a better plan hence the question on the quartering to shot placement. I appreciate all the input.

Windfall/cra1948

check your quoting…you attached me to a Big_Stick/cra1948 convo. I’ve never lost an animal to a TSX or TTSX bullet. 😎

Doc_Holidude

Those TSX's do make for a tidy carcass Doc, but seeing a quarter size hole through both lungs on a whitetail instead of lung mush that I've seen with c&c bullets should have told me it wasn't what I wanted in a deer bullet. Now I'm wondering how my 140 grain NBT would do if it did hit a deer's shoulder? Even big deer aren't that large and I can only remember stopping 2-3 bullets in deer over a lifetime of hunting them.

yessir, every shot on every animal, no matter the variables, is it’s own unique occurrence. not every bullet replicates the exact “terminal performance” as the previous one did, even with every controlled or mostly controllable variable being the same. if one runs 80 yards and dies and one dies standing right where it’s shot, with every possible other thing being as close to identical(cartridge, load, rifle, distance, shot placement, angle, animal size, sex, condition of animal, weather, etc, does that mean the bullet is to blame for 2 different death scenarios? who knows? is the animal less dead? nope. not an exact science, for sure. for someone to say that they’ll never use brand “Y” bullets because they lost an animal one time to them, is like saying I’ll never buy this brand tire because I had a flat with them one time. about as many variables involved in both scenarios. repeated failures with said bullet or tire would be a cause for loss of confidence for person #1. but if person #2 never experienced the bad luck(or “bad product”) are they just really lucky or are the variables in their favor? guess we’ll never know that part either. I’ll keep using Barnes bullets with confidence until life experience shows me not to. if you can’t abide using TSX or TTSX bullets in any caliber, send them to me, I’ll use them. 😎

Doc_Holidude

Windfall: Wait until the Deer turns broadside and shoot the Deer through the heart/lungs!
Patience is a virtue and has manifold rewards - especially when Hunting Big Game.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

You've obviously never hunted in the big woods.

My primarily hunt is an open field I normally don’t have to face that shot
But when in the heavy cover I agree with SKane this shot pops up more that one would imagine so this is great info
When I am in the woods it’s totally different than sitting on my field

Hank

This worked

Wait here and you may SOL.

directions to the nearest gas station to my location

How do you not get heart/lungs with a properly placed shot on a quartering angle?

Never shot at a deer other than while I was on the ground. Far shoulder works.

If the deer is semi facing you, far ribs just behind the shoulder works. If the deer is angling away, far side just in front of the shoulder. If broadside right near the heart just behind the shoulder. I eat the heart and I like to hit just above it.

I always taught my boys to shoot for the center of "beach ball" between the front legs. That visualization seemed to work for them.

We have never lost a deer shot with a T/TSX, have lost them to piss poor shot placement though.

Have shot many deer with a quartering to presentation. No big deal, might lose a little more meat in the neck shoulder area, but better than no deer.

Reading all these accounts of surgical shot placement not only to hit vitals or CNS, but to save meat and the heart has gave me the feeling of inadequacy.

LOL.

The wait-for-a-broadside-shot crowd would be plenty disappointed in the Benoit family.

For a frontal shot, personally, Id switch to one of the quality all copper bullets. The copper bullets tend to be more forgiving if you hit big bone. Then Heart lungs do quite well. If you are able to place a Brachial plexus shot, That will be quicker.

Hey bud, how've you been?

Quartering towards, straight on facing you, quartering away, there's always a way. For me I guess it's not hard to imagine and bet all on wound channel tragectory in those heavily wooded, quick oportunities. Not everyone hunts in an open slaughter yard, am I right? I've shot downward angle, center spine between the shoulders before, That's not in the armchair QB internet forum advisor handbook, but it works.

Without a doubt, not that difficult. Take the shot that presents and fill the freezer.

Dancing on pinheads, mental masturbation, and fairy dust be damned.

I personally prefer a head-on shot or quartering-to shot over one quartering away. Easier to connect the dots and the guts seem to get nuked less when they are facing you. I've seen a bunch of big pigs take the head-on shot and run off with no exit, only to start painting the woods with blood from the nostrils in short order. Sometimes they don't bleed at all, but a head-on shot is generally a hard hit to take and they don't go all that far.

In da FACE!!

Yep. They're happy to put a bullet in one just to slow it down a bit. lol

How was opener for your group?

"We got some shooting in."

This thread had more interest than I thought it would. As a woods hunter looking into something like 10gaugemag's picture, waiting for a calendar broadside pose reminds me of the line from the song Thirty Point Buck... "There he was, gone". With 600,000 of us out there on opening day, our deer get a mite nervous and shooting something vital at the first opportunity seems the prudent thing to do.

Well, I shot one up the ass hole once. It worked and it certainly didn't go anywhere. But it was a mess I'll not soon forget.

Beautiful

One windy, snowy morning I watched a buck off in the distant trot thru a saddle on a ridge and head down a large rock strewn hill. I was familiar with the area and assumed he went there to bed down out of the wind. At noon I decided to play Indian and climbed out of the tree and went looking for him. About this time the snow stopped and wind let up and visibility improved as I worked my way on the ridge careful not to skyline.

After peering down into the valley and sidehill I spotted a brown spot in the snow. The binoculars confirmed it was a nice buck laying there quartered towards me. Took off my pack and laid it in the snow for a prone rest. Settled the crosshairs on the back where neck and shoulder meet.

This buck was bedded across a valley at quite a bit lower elevation then I was when I spotted him in a thicket. He was quartered towards me. I could not chance taking off my pack for a rest so put the crosshair on his back and shot him offhand.

I shot the biggest whitetail buck I ever killed right beside the asswhole as he ran away. 180gr factory Silvertip out of my 30/06 exited the base of his neck and folded him up. He’s not the only deer or elk I’ve used this shot on and it’s always worked.

Sometimes you don’t get the magazine picture shot.

Betting this didn't ruin as much meat as some would suspect unless the bullet stayed above the spine, then we know what happened.

Bet he washed his hand twice though...

You have to take the shot they give you, unless you're the Varmintmeister of course.

What! How could you! You killed them without perfect broadside shot presentation! Didn't even use a rest for the second one!

I’ve found the best way to shoot a deer or any ungulate is the same regardless of the angle presented. Simply bisect the front legs, hold a third way up from the sternum and Hey Presto! They either drop to the shot or perform a stiff-legged clop, clop crash. It’s hard to offer any resistance when your Aorta explodes, your blood pressure spikes into quintuple digits before falling to zero and the super vasculated anterior portion of ones lungs are turned into a smoothie.

"What how could you? You killed them without a perfect broadside shot presentation! Didn't even use a rest for the second one!"
...Or even without a 6.5 Creedmoor, grunt tube, Ozonic, rattle bag, feeder, 5-25x52 Swarovski, scent blocker suit, Mossy Oak camo or a hunting house? I suspect location, location, and location and a whole bunch of well honed hunting instinct gets it done for Roundoak every year.

That's a dandy.


Shot his twin just a click or two forward from where you hit yours, though mine was close enough to be considered self defense.

This buck was at just about the exact angle
as the picture depicted previously. He took an Accubond to the point of his left shoulder, face planted and expired quickly.