Neck Shots

[Adirondackman]

I have always taken Heart/lung shots but I'am considering a neck shot if I'am within 30 yards. My question is where should I aim? I'am shooting .530 PRB.

 

[Alberta Black]

IMHO you should continue to aim for the heart/lung area. Neck shots are iffy at best, with a good chance of wounding a deer.

just my opinion

AB

 

[shmrck1]

IMO also! Heart/lung always when possable.Just
wondering why at 30 yards are you considering
a neck shot
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[rabjr]

Please reconcider.

 

[Rocky Johnson]

My Dad always shot deer in the neck they don't go any whare but down like you set a truck on them.
But the heart lung is a bigger target and not much meat on them ribs to waste. So if you don't like the neck roast go for it. :winking: Rocky

 

[shmrck1]

My Dad always shot deer in the neck they don't go any whare but down like you set a truck on them.

Rocky,
That's assuming you hit the
vertabrae(sp) which is a lot smaller than the
heart/lung. IMO But to each his own...I still
insist a heart/lung shot is the best.
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[bramble]

The percentages are with heart/lung shots, and therefore that's my preference. Having said that, my first (only) bp kill was a neck shot. It is extremely effective if you place the shot in the upper side of the neck, hitting the vertebrae. Slightly lower and you can severe arteries. Anywhere else is very limited in its effectiveness. The closer to the head, the smaller the target and the higher liklihood of hitting something vital. If you are going to try this, why not go for a head shot. No meat wasted and it is a hit or a miss, almost never a wound. I am a meat hunter (as opposed to trophy). However, I'd rather ruin a shoulder or other meat than risk a wounded deer escaping. That is one thing that so disturbing that I get sick to my stomach.
Good luck, bramble

 

[playfarmers]

The first Deer I got with a muzzleloader was a head shot, but that is all that was showing from behind the trees. A few years later I helped track down 2 bucks with broken jaws, from attempted head shots. The hunters didn't even know they had wounded the animals. They said they tried for the head so that it was a kill or a miss. I have never tried a head shot since. I have taken a big doe with a neck shot that was eating, and showing the back of her neck to me. I hit her low on the neck, and the way she was standing, if the ball missed her spine it would have gone into her body cavity, between her shoulders. She dropped like a sack. I say stick with the best target provided, heart/lung.

 

[Plains99]

I've always thought neck shots were risky and doubly so for a muzzleloader. If he doesn't go down you have no back up shot and a seriously wounded deer that is in no way incapacitated from running into the next county before he stops. I noticed in this month's Field and Stream the writer advised a neck shot over a Texas rump shot if a deer is walking away. With a muzzleloader I don't believe either shot is credible for the same reasons as mentioned before. A heart lung shot is easier to make and much more certain of preventing a deer from traveling very far after the shot.

 

[Snowshoe]

My brother always takes them at the base of the neck with good luck. I do the lung shot. I have shot a few deer that left no blood at all even in snow. Lost one that i found a few days later hit though both lungs. I shot a doe at 20 yd with my .62 fowler and we were trying to track it but found no blood in the snow my buddy said "looks like you missed her" when we spotted her she was hit perfectly, only went 75 yd. I talked to an old muzzle loader hunter that told me you got to hit bone with a round ball. I am not conviced yet.
Shoe

 

[rudy parnell]

I talked to an old muzzle loader hunter that told me you got to hit bone with a round ball. I am not conviced yet.
Shoe

I am fairly old and I have the dubious honor of having made about every mistake that you could possibly imagine when shooting deer.

1. the neck shot will ultimately lead to a wounded deer that cannot feed and the critter dies a slow death of fever and starvation.

2. the texas heart shot is myth for a muzzleloader. It is nothing more than a shot in desperation or ignorance. In this case the deer will die of internal hemorage and fever.

In either case you will most surely kill the deer but the chances of recover are small if the animal doesn't drop at the shot.

Now as for the subject of hitting bone with the roundball. I have slid a 50cal. round ball through the lungs of a doe deer at 75 yards and never broke a bone. The deer ran about 100 yards. When I found the huge doe she had pink froth at the nostrils and she was stone dead. The lungs were turned to jelly.

This is my personal experience and I regret the day that I tried both the texas heart shot and the neck shot. Good hunting!

 

[BrownBear]

I'll take very specific neck shots under just the right conditions. I only do it at close range, standing deer, etc. My goal is to spoil as little meat as possible.

The neck shot I prefer can hardly be called a neck shot. I shoot for the neck right where it joins the skull. Too high and you get skull. A little lower and you get vertebrae.

That's the only reasonable neck shot for me because the vertebrae, wind pipe and arteries all packed in close together. It's a small target, and I can't justify the shot if conditions aren't just right to hit it reliably.

I've taken a few deer shooting head on at the white throat patch with good results too. In my sad experience that shot beats the stuffing out of any other face-on shot. Shoot for the chest and there's a big chance the bullet can veer off the brisket and pass along the rib cage and pass between the ribs and the overlaying shoulder.

I've tried 3 head-on chest shots, only one of which penetrated as planned into the chest. Long, nasty tracking jobs on the other two and a world class mess under the shoulder once I got them. Now I'll take the shot on the white patch if they are close enough for a sure thing, or else wait for the deer to turn and risk it moving out of sight in the process.

No neck shots is a good rule of thumb, but not a hard and fast ban for me when the conditions are just right. From the pure meat standpoint, it's sure nice to hang that spotless carcass for butchering rather than trimming around bullet holes.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Aim for the part of the neck where the heart and lungs are.

Remember that a round balls kills by hemmorage, suffocation (a punctured lung or diaphram won't draw air) and bone impact (immobilizing until blood or air loss kills), but not hydrostatic shock like a faster, longer bullet. Think tapping maples and shoot where the most sap is.

I've killed about 30 deer with large but slow moving lead projectiles. Poke a 1/2" hole in one lung and the deer is going to die. Poke a 1/2" hole in both lungs and the deer is going to die within 7 seconds or so. Try this: have a friend hit you as hard as they can in your solar-plexus and then time you to see how far you can run in seven seconds.

 

One would assume you've received enough "no's" on the neck shot to stick with the vastly better heart/lung shot. If not, I'll offer up another vote for "no" to the neck shot.

If the shot to the neck hits vertebrate it's good, if not, you've pretty much sentenced the deer to a slow, painful death.

I took one neck shot and hit the neck fine...but missed the vertebrate. Fortunately the doe made a bed less than 10 feet from where I shot at her, (I thought I had missed completely), and I was able to shoot her in the heart lung area. I didn't know I hit her in the neck until I skinned her, mostly because I didn't look for a bullet hole in her neck and there was no blood showing at either entrance or exit hole. That deer was shot with my 45-90 and a 480 gr. bullet. I'll never try a neck shot again. Might be fine with high intensity cartridges but I don't like it at black powder velocities with cast projectiles.

Vic

 

[marwat06]

Try this: have a friend hit you as hard as they can in your solar-plexus and then time you to see how far you can run in seven seconds.

:haha:

If I remember from my football days ... getting the "wind knocked" out of you dropped you pretty fast.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Yes it do. And, I swear, I have heard deer make an "Ooof!" sound when lung hit with an arrow. And I'm pretty sure I've heard it with a muzzleloader, though it's harder to be sure. I'm confident that even though a round ball does not carry a heap of tons of energy it does knock the wind out of a deer big time when that round nose pushes through hide, ribs and lungs. Imagine being run through with a broom handle! And then that .50 or .54 ball leaves a large complication in the deer's diaphram's attempt at creating a vacuum in the chest cavity so the animal draw in air.

Anatomy class: You breathe by the action of your diaphram pulling downward, pulling air into your lungs as the pressure inside drops. You exhale by squeezing your ribs together. A hit to the nerve plexus at the diaphram (ye olde solar plexus) spasms the diaphram.

 

[Adirondackman]

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like I should stick to Heart - Lung shots. I thought that at 30 yards and closer it would be an easier shot and I was hoping for a quick kill(don't go to far) and no meat damage.

 

[Plains99]

Boy, you'd think a .69 at 20 yards would have them spewing blood like a fountain. But then again every deer is different as are lots of other game. I've had animals that were hit hard leave very little blood trail. I like shoulder shots to help break animals down... especially feral hogs and elk... but with deer, which have a fragile nervous system anyhow and do not sustain tramatic wounds as well, I wouldn't think a bone shot would be that important. You are always going to have runners and drop-on-the-spoters with exactly the same hits.

 

[Snowshoe]

I swear there was none, not even a hint, the holes looked like they had closed up.
Shoe

 

[renovato]

I swear there was none, not even a hint, the holes looked like they had closed up.
Shoe

Unless the blood is spurting, fur can soak up quite a bit before it starts dripping. Part of why I prefer an exit hole. Hopefully one or the other will bleed quickly, leaving a trail.