Shot Placement

[Loyalist Dave]

Lets discuss where folks like to place their shot on a deer. Below are two photos and what I've been told are four basic points on a deer to hit, with a variation on one.

Sorry if the placement is not quite the same in the photos as you would have them. These are just to give the reader an idea of what I'm talking about when I slap a label on each of the four shots.

 

[waarp8nt]

I prefer heart and lungs. The only deer that ever required a follow up shot, as I shot a little too low on the heart and lungs do to a misjudgment in distance on my part, I ended it with a follow up shot to the neck.

 

[BrownBear]

Hate to waste a good heart and hate to waste good ribs. There's no one do-it-all shot for me because not all shots are the same. Some face-on, some broadside, some angling away, and some angling toward you. From the front I only shoot close or with a real solid rest, then use the center of the white throat patch for my target. Broadside, get those lungs. Same on the angling shots, but with some geometry to line the bullet path through the lungs. For me the point is what's going to happen on the table, so I make my adjustments accordingly. Horns? Meh.... Chew treats for the neighbor's dog.

 

[Elkeater]

Not where the red dot is, on the letter D.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Most critters shot through the heart leap in the air some legs straight. A good sign.

 

[rich pierce]

D. But can’t always get a perfect presentation shot. Quartering away is probably the most challenging. I aim for the far leg.

 

[azmntman]

Most critters shot through the heart leap in the air some legs straight. A good sign.

Almost every animal I have heart shot does what I call the "heart lurch". Very distinct and a very good sign. The letter "D" looks like where I aim for sure. For a 100 yd shot (furthest I like to take) I go for "C"

 

[Patocazador]

I like the quartering-to (E) shot if it presents itself even with a bow. They drop right there.
If broadside I shoot for the lungs with a muzzleloader. Since distances matter more due to the ballistics of a round ball, I want a bit of leeway.

 

[Walkingeagle]

My aimpoint is preciously between the red dots for C and D. This has always treated me well.
Walk

 

[Patrick Thomas]

C. But a little farther forward and a little lower.

 

[Ames]

I'll wait for "E" if I can get it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

See I was always a Lungs only guy. I like to eat the heart, and on only one occasion did I the animal fall more then 20 yards from where hit, and on that occasion the deer had fled from a group of hounds and fox hunters, and paused to look over its shoulder so I got a shot. I think the adrenaline not normally present fueled its run.

I know guys that swear by the neck shot but they don't shoot traditional rifles. I'd never try that shot simply because of the amount of movement possible.

I recently tried the E, shoulder quarter toward me, as I'd heard from several traditionalists who swore by the shot. Dang if it didn't pole-axe the deer right where it was standing.

LD

 

[hanshi]

I always imagine a slightly "smaller than soccer ball" size sphere in the chest of a deer. This is what I aim at. A large number of the deer I've taken were taken with some degree of a quartering shot. For the more or less broadside shots this puts the prb in the "c-d" area; this corresponds with the soccer ball analogy. For quartering shots I'll aim for the opposite leg, which again puts the shot on the soccer ball. I never shoot at the neck but have accidentally killed a few with that shot when they "twitched" as the trigger was pulled. I guess they sometimes are startled by the flint lock snap; I just don't know.

 

[user 31257]

I usually hold about where the “c” is, sometimes a little forward of that, but I think I’ve hit and killed deer with every one of those shots plus a couple more.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I think much depends on what is available to you at the time. Here in the NE, trees and branches often obscure the more desirable targets, so you deal with what you have. If the chest/vitals area is covered you take a neck shot. The buck I took last fall had paused looking away from me at 80 yards with nothing but butt, neck and head showing. I wont take a butt shot and if he had taken three more steps he would have been out of sight, so I had to go for a neck shot, just over the line of his back.

 

[WRustyLane]

The only deer I ever took was standing in my dad's garden. I shot her in the neck in the spine and she dropped immediately as she was paralyzed. My dad then cut her throat and she bled out. When we skinned her she had an amazing amount of fat on her probably from eating dad's garden every night.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

A lot of the deer hunting around my area is meadows..., and you get brush up a little higher than the underbelly of the deer. So you have a tough time going lower than C on the images, unless your bullet hacks through brush. Trying to spot the "far front leg" when they are quartering away from you is really tough too. The diagrams are on an ideal photo, broadside. I often get more of a presentation like this where I can't see the deer's legs:


LD

 

[FiremanBrad]

If they can’t breath, they die!

 

[Sidney Smith]

I always go for a heart/lung shot. Its the best choice for success IMO. Miss the heart get the lungs and vice versa, and most cases a quick to fairly quick kill. Other shot choices sometimes with a slight error and the animal gets away.

 

[shane a gress]

For reasons unknown I usually take the shoulder shot. They mostly don't go far. They are not alive when I get to them. I'm not sure why this works when the bullet does not hit the vital organs. I don't pick this shot on purpose, just seems to be where I hit them.