Hunting - Where's your Shot Going?

With my bullet choice, and the cartridges i usually shoot, behind the shoulder is preferred.
Ill take the shot im given tho.

If I'm confident of bullet placement, I always try to neck shoot. Otherwise, it's heart and lung, no shoulder.

BreechFace said:

many out west here grew up being taught to neck shoot as it wastes little meat and with a high velocity round the results are really good.

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I can't really click on a "choice" BreechFace because where I aim on a big game animal depends on a lot of things, not the least of which are: is the animal moving, how fast is it moving, how far away is it, how good of a rest for my rifle have I got, am I sitting or standing, am I breathing hard because I just climbed a steep hill, etc. etc. etc.
I grew up "out west here," and as best as I can remember, I was taught to shoot big game animals in the heart/lung area if I could. At least that's where I shot my first head of big game - a doe mule deer. But that was 60 years ago, I've killed a lot of big game since, and I've learned heart/lung shots are not always available, nor are they always the best - or worst for that matter.
Neck shots are not always available, and they're not always the best or worst either. For that matter, I'll have to say that neck shots are never the best (unless that's all that's available) if for no other reason than I like venison burger mixed with pork sausage for the best darned sausage and pepper-jack biscuits in the world.

Heart, lung, no shoulder. 30-06.

As 308Norma said, there are a lot of variables. I have taken head shots and neck shots when the opportunity was too good to pass. I have taken shots through the shoulder when that was all I could take and I knew the round I was using could do the job. The overwhelming majority of my kills have been Heart or High Shoulder.

I like shoulder or high shoulder better chance to keep them on small properth. Neck shots of its closer in.

Opportunity dictates to me where I shoot as most of us know that it can always be a fluid event where a matter of seconds counts. Ultimately the goal is a one shot for a humane clean shot. I have learned that it is best to let the animal go instead of wounding it and shooting it again so that you can claim a kill. I am not that type of hunter.

BreechFace said:

I guess I should have wrote what is one's "preferred shot placement," all these comments about situation dependent wasn't what I was going after. Obviously, if the game's neck is behind a 16" oak tree I'm not shooting at the neck.

Just gauging what peoples preferences are.

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I get what type of response you wanted but I for one have never hunted off of a blind, where deer are scouted and fed or a crop of certain growth is planted to attract them. I hunt in the open wilds of West Texas so my response would have remained the same.

I usually shoot heart lung although I have taken other shots on neck or heart through the shoulder. Haven't yet taken a head shot.

BreechFace said:

Neither have I. Never used a blind, tree stand, or bait.

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Me neither. However, if there's one thing I've learned, BreechFace, it's that deer hunters like us are very much in the minority here on THR.

stillquietvoice said:

I usually shoot heart lung although I have taken other shots on neck or heart through the shoulder. Haven't yet taken a head shot.

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Good luck tomorrow and stay safe.

I have found a 12 or 16 gauge slug to the shoulder is pretty effective on deer. If I'm using buckshot I aim "center mass" at the chest.

LoonWulf said:

With my preferred bullet choice and the cartridges i usually shoot behind the shoulder is preferred.
Ill take the shot im given tho.

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right between the eyes outta do it.. Lol

Heart 99.9% 'of the time.

Once I put one in his eye and through a buck's skull just because it was easy, to prove I could do it, and conserve meat.

LoonWulf said:

With my preferred bullet choice and the cartridges i usually shoot behind the shoulder is preferred.
Ill take the shot im given tho.

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I'm with LoonWulf. It depends on the circumstance. Some of the areas that I hunt is 30-45 degree slopes. That is when I'll take a neck shot at close range or a high shoulder at a distance. I just drug a doe out of a hole that was bad enough, but if I hadn't taken a high shoulder shot she could have gone to the bottomless pit.

South Prairie Jim said:

right between the eyes outta do it.. Lol

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yeah but then you gotta deal with brains on everything.........brains smell funny........

I don't take head shots anymore unless it's a straight on or quartering away. The last one that I shot broadside in the head did not die quickly. It was with my 30-06, bullet fragmented and took out both of his eyes and blew his bottom jaw off, but he wasn't fataly injured or even bleeding much.. He didn't know what to do or was still in shock so he just bedded down right there and I had to give him a mercy shot behind his ear. I don't care to repeat that, so I don't take broadside head shots anymore.

Where I shoot something depends on what it is exactly I am shooting, with what firearm, at what distance, with what round, as well as other underlying factors.

A .22 LR in the right spot of the noggin will drop a pig faster than other eventually fatal shots from high powered rifles, in other locations.

I tried a lot of different stuff that didn’t work very well in 300 blk before finding a combination that works well. That’s the same caliber, in the same spots but different projectiles make all the difference.

High shoulder preferred. If conditions are absolutely perfect I’ll take a neck shot because I very much enjoy venison ribs.

LoonWulf said:

yeah but then you gotta deal with brains on everything.........brains smell funny........

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No doubt

I generally put it right behind the shoulder crease for the double lung with a gun, and always with the x bow. But with a gun, under the "right" conditions (like if that deer just won't turn and I'm running out of daylight) its going in the neck. I've never had significant issues recovering a deer, following blood trails, etc. after a good lung shot with a rifle. Always find it in less than 100 yards- usually a lot closer than 100 yards.