biff
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 83
|
Post by biff on Feb 4, 2022 0:05:32 GMT -5
Point of shoulder with a sturdy bullet. Every gun. With bow, I aim for heart, preferably 1/4 away
|
|
|
Post by pacecars on Feb 4, 2022 8:51:45 GMT -5
I prefer heavy cast bullets for deer and pigs. I prefer to go through the shoulder and both when possible. I don’t like to track. If I can’t get to a shoulder then the lungs are the next choice.
|
|
|
Post by bula on Feb 4, 2022 9:45:04 GMT -5
Started deer hunting in N.E. Ohio around '74 or '75. It was slug guns or bows. Behind the fore leg for heart/lung was preferred. It's kinda ingrained at this point. I have to remind myself, that most of what I hunt with now, any angle can be made to work.
|
|
|
Post by kings6 on Feb 4, 2022 11:03:54 GMT -5
I’ve always used behind the shoulder about 1/3rd up so it was different to go with Ashly after the Oryx. Very strong instructions by biologists and guide to shoot through the front shoulder bone due to the vitals being more forward on the African antelope.
|
|
|
Post by cas on Feb 4, 2022 11:22:11 GMT -5
What does that mean to you? I've learned that it means different things to different people, some meaning up high the ridge on the scapula, others down on the joint where the scapula meets the humerus.
|
|
biff
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 83
|
Post by biff on Feb 4, 2022 11:39:01 GMT -5
What does that mean to you? I've learned that it means different things to different people, some meaning up high the ridge on the scapula, others down on the joint where the scapula meets the humerus. Kinda depends on the angle of the shot, but at the upper half of the scapula basically. the spine, trachea, main arteries, nerves, etc all run through that same area. Top of heart is just below, front of lungs in there as well. I quit using expanding bullets a few years ago and pretty much just use cast now. Hitting the upper middle of the shoulder with cast has been 100% dead on the spot for me. Not much meat damage and we make dog treats from all the scraps anyway so it's a non issue for us. Entrance wound on the last doe I took in January. I was in a tree so aimed for the exit. All 3 deer this fall dead on the spot. Bow, rifle, and flintlock. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by bradshaw on Feb 4, 2022 11:44:48 GMT -5
Ok guys, when hunting big game with your sixguns where do you guys like to put your bullets? I prefer the ear shot, in the base of the ear, out the orbit on the off side ***** From the Old Posts Never Die department.... For most American hunters, “big game” means whitetail and up. Brain shotBrain shots are for execution, not hunting. To shoot any animal in domestic confinement, with its head in a feed pail or backed up to a fence, is execution. Too shoot close from a stand, animal unaware of your presence, is execution. * A temple shot across the brain, on an imaginary line between eye & ear, scrambles the brain. The animal may drop stone dead. More than likely, it will thrash in the Death Dance. * A shot down into the medulla oblongata that takes out brain matter may drop the animal in silence. * A shot which passes through the brain just under the top of the skull neither kills the animal nor stops it breathing. The animal may try to get up and run. This “brain shot” does not stop the heart. The animal is alive until the shooter demonstrates skill. * A shot which destroys the vertebra attaching skull to neck usually drops the animal without theatrics. * A shot between the eyes must angle into the brain----not tangent the skull cap and not down through the roof of the mouth. * A brain shot which immediately stops the heart traps blood inside muscle. When the meat is butchered, or carved at table, it continues to seep blood. Neck shotAnother form of execution. If you drop a running buck with a neck shot, so what? It means your lead was a 1/20th second ahead. I see the neck of a deer, elk, or moose having three major features: 1) High neck, close to skull----thin, very small target. A center-shot cuts vertebra, severs spinal cord. 2) Head-on or facing-away----a center-shot allows vertical fudge. No lateral allowance. A narrow vertical target. Safest of all neck shots; requires cool marksmanship. 3) Middle or low neck----broadside, the neck bone close to nape, not centered. A shot which centers the neck cuts windpipe, a horrible wound; you may never see that deer again. Shoulder shot* Broadside to break both shoulders usually drops animal. Heart continues to pump blood into lungs. Unless lungs substantially wrecked, oxygen continues to reach brain. A shot which takes out both shoulder & lungs drops animal, while beating heart sends de-oxygenated on one-way trip to hemorrhaging lungs. * A shot from an inferior cartridge or bullet may stop against a shoulder, or break a shoulder, causing little or no damage to a lung, or lungs. This animal escapes on three legs to die a miserable death. To wish this fate on any animal, even a rat, is sadistic. To perform such an ignorant stunt on a cat or a bear invites vengeance on the shooter, possibly other homo sapiens in the neighborhood. * A shoulder shot increases the chance of lung hit, should the animal step forward at the squeeze. * A shot which breaks the shoulders generally drops the animal right there. Not necessarily an instant kill, but incapacitated. An animal standing over a ravine should be discouraged from leaping. Lung shot* A bullet centered on the lungs saves more meat than any other shot, except brain or high-neck. The heart beats, sending de-oxygenated blood to the lungs. Typically, the animal runs. Distance depends on animal, and whether adrenalized. As oxygen debt causes unconsciousness, animal keels over. * A proper lung shot produces the cleanest meat on the table. Heart shotA heart-shot deer may mule-kick, jump straight up, or take off on a dead run. Reaction tends to be more dramatic than a lung shot. * When the heart’s blown out, blood remains trapped in the muscle. * When the heart keeps pumping in presence of major hemorrhage----lungs blown out, femoral artery severed, etc.----blood drains from muscle. Up the pipeAn animal facing away, or running away, requires bullet enough to penetrate the animal lengthwise. Anything less is premeditated torture. AttitudeThere is no such thing as an EASY SHOT. Each shot aims every cell in our body. After the shot----and, the animal is on the meat pole---call it anything you want. But don’t call it “easy” while squeezing the trigger. David Brasdhaw
|
|
|
Post by bula on Feb 4, 2022 11:55:47 GMT -5
Never, EVER, have seen it explained so well, and in detail. Thank You. I put a heavy arrow, big broadhead thru a small Penn buck years ago. It was drinking in a run. The arrow sliced thru behind the fore leg and crunched into the creek bed beyond. The deer twitched as if fly bit. Picked his head up and turned to look at the bloody arrow. He put his head back down and drank again, then walked off. Blood coming outta both sides. A 12 ga slug thru the heart gets you a 100-150 yd dash and crash.
|
|
|
Post by bigbrowndog on Feb 4, 2022 12:41:56 GMT -5
David’s post demonstrates an excellent knowledge of body physiology. In my youth I’ve pulled some dumb “stunts” on taking game or putting game down, I probably forget and reattempt some of those stunts every five years or so. Cockiness, arrogance, bravado, or ignorance really have no place when we are dealing with taking a life.
Trapr
|
|
|
Post by clintsfolly on Feb 4, 2022 13:55:40 GMT -5
I have no accurate count of all the deer I have harvested but will with confidence say that it well over 100. I started at 12 and am 65. I have only shot two in the head. One was in the eye and out the back of skull and the other was throw the noses and out the neck but the bullet had already killed a 165 lbs doe thru the ribs. Yes two deer one shot the second deer was standing behind the first and hid in a stand of cattails. The other was standing in a bait spread facing me head down eating 38 yds with my custom 700 REM 280 REM about 30 minutes before dark. All the rest have been a broad side thru the ribs and lungs or shoulder. So just call me a rib shooter!
|
|
cmillard
.375 Atomic
MOLON LABE
Posts: 1,943
|
Post by cmillard on Feb 4, 2022 13:57:43 GMT -5
I personally like to stay away from the heart.... because that is the first thing I cut out and eat. High lungs for me, but honestly, some of the quickest kills I have ever had were spine shots (inadvertent). A whitetail I took a couple years ago was shot with my avatar pistol and I hit high lung area but hit a rib and travelled up, hit the spine, then tracked back down the off side rib. I found that bullet just under the hide by a rib. I destroyed about a third of my backstrap on that one from all the bone fragments, but that doe went down immediately and didn't move.
|
|
|
Post by seminolewind on Feb 4, 2022 14:28:46 GMT -5
Probably one out of every 10 deer I have killed gave me the opportunity to take my time and pick a shot. The others were either moving, partially concealed, or about to bolt and I had to take the best shot offered. A good bullet at sufficient velocity can turn a poor opportunity into a successful outcome. I don't hunt over bait and set my stands up for short shots, like I did when I bowhunted exclusively, so most of my deer are close, moving and spooky. If I can pick my shot, it's broadside, up the back edge of the front leg, halfway up the chest.
|
|
|
Post by leftysixgun on Feb 4, 2022 19:03:37 GMT -5
Probably one out of every 10 deer I have killed gave me the opportunity to take my time and pick a shot. The others were either moving, partially concealed, or about to bolt. A good bullet at sufficient velocity can turn a poor opportunity into a successful outcome. I don't hunt over bait and set my stands up for short shots, like I did when I bowhunted exclusively, so most of my deer are close, moving and spooky. If I can pick my shot, it's broadside, up the back edge of the front leg, halfway up the chest. I HEAR YA! Spoken like a bow hunter. I often set my stand just off the side of a scrape/rub line when I traditional bow hunted. I still try and set up that way now with a handgun.
|
|
|
Post by blackmamba on Feb 4, 2022 19:37:53 GMT -5
I've killed six whitetails with handguns, from 5 yards to 45 yards. All but one were with a middle of the body shoulder shot. The one odd one was a neck shot from about 17 yards, with the buck stationary and perfectly broadside. I was sitting on the ground with my back against a tree, knees up, and very steady. Immediate face plant, but required a finisher. If I had it to do over again, I'd stick with my shoulder shot. You can just see the dark spot on his neck where the bullet came out. He was a young buck, and I was trying to save as much meat as possible.
|
|
|
Post by potatojudge on Feb 4, 2022 22:10:08 GMT -5
Seems like my quickest kills have come from chest shots 2/3 of the way up the torso. Too high for the heart, which lives from just inside the rib cage closest to the ground up about 5 inches. Right above that are the great vessels- everything coming and going to the heart, left and right side plus lungs. Trash those vessels, the heart keeps pumping everything into the void that was the lungs. Bullet travels close to or clips the spine, perhaps with bone or bullet shrapnel, and the CNS shock drops an animal straight down. A deer shocked in the spine might drop, drag, and get up to run off, but not in the setting of destroyed major vessels, and actual spinal destruction will not be recovered from. As a bonus, this is where the muscles of the shoulder blade are thinnest and there's essentially no meaningful meat loss and the heart is intact for dinner.
All that said, there's lots of ways to kill, lots of anatomy that is mortal, and, barring a CNS shot, whether a deer drops or runs seems to be up to the individual deer's will to escape.
I have friends who, when hunting an area where a deer running 50 yards might mean hours of searching and lost deer, that rely on neck shots with high velocity fragile bullets. I don't fault them.
|
|