The first two important things to determine is what part of the body the deer was shot in and how it ran off. Was surprised at the negative response to the neck shot about 3-6 inches from the head/ about 2/3 up from the bottom of the neck. The airway and breathing system’s largest organ is the lungs. And the lung shots run up to 75+ yards. A ⦠The downside is that your rifle must have enough power at a given distance to penetrate the shoulder. If you miss a little to either side of dead center you will damage a lot of meat in the hindquarter. The taking of life is a necessary part of hunting. These shots are also best left alone. Taken to an extreme to illustrate this point, if you were to shoot a deer with a cannonball, any hit to its body would almost certainly kill it, even if you hit the animal in non-vital areas such as its stomach or brisket. Meanwhile any other shot, such as a shot to the deer���s chest, has a great chance of being impeded by bones and muscle so that the bullet does not reach vitals; as a result, the animal will merely be wounded. His primary 6 Best Home-Defense Tactical Shotguns [Hands-On], 11 Best Concealed Carry Guns (By Popular Caliber) [2020], Best AR-15 Lower Receivers [2020]: Budget to Baller, 5 Best Aftermarket Glock Slides [Hands-On]: Looks & Functionality, 5 Best Pistol Red Dot Sights [Real-Views + Video]. Therefore, each time you see an animal you wish to kill, imagine this orange (its heart) suspended within the animal���s chest and adjust your aiming point as necessary. ... A deer shot neatly through both ⦠Again, visualize a softball hanging in the center of the deer’s chest. Mag., for example, you can just about shoot the deer from any angle, from any reasonable hunting distance and kill the animal provided your bullet reaches vitals, because the cartridge���s 220-grain bullet traveling at nearly 3000 fps has enough energy to penetrate the entire length of any deer regardless of what bones, flesh or hide it first encounters.�� This means that if the deer were facing directly away from you, you could aim for a point on the deer���s rear end that would send the bullet through the deer���s ham or hip, through its bowels and stomach, into its thoracic cavity, through its heart and/or lungs and out its sternum. Then envision an orange suspended by a string so that the orange floats in the front ��� of the box. The brain controls the body. The heart/lung shot is, after all, what is tested on our current stalking courses. I have never once seen a bench out in the woods. This shot also gives you some margin for error to the front and back by a couple of inches as well as a little margin if you shoot high. The Brain. But given an equal opportunity, I���ll take the heart/lung shot over the neck every time. Your bullet will pass through some of the paunch on it’s way to the heart and lungs. The bullet was recovered from the ham after traveling through about four feet of critter. But by the time I had chambered a fresh round and grabbed the shooting sticks he was gone. If the lungs are damaged or compromised, then oxygen levels suffer. And that���s when it dawned on me: Humans are not born knowing where to aim a rifle to best kill an animal; we must be taught via some education on basic deer physiology and actual hunting experience. If the heart is damaged, pumping efficiency drops and eventually the animal will die. As the animal (the box) moves or you walk around the box, the point at which your bullet must strike the box���so that it travels in a straight line through it and hits the suspended orange within it���changes. the neck shot is good, but so are neck roasts. When we are looking at the front of an on-coming deer a lot of vital area is exposed. ���Really?��� he said, now becoming visually disappointed for the first time. Get Our Top Shooting Drills and Zeroing Targets ($47 value - but FREE for a limited time). If ever you are unsure of your rifle���s power, your bullet���s design, the range or the toughness and tenacity of the animal, just aim behind the shoulder on a broadside animal. ���You had a clear shot at his chest with your .30-06���at 20 yards���and you didn���t shoot? The holes in the lungs are higher on the body and the lungs and chest cavity will take longer to fill with blood, so you may not see an immediate blood trail from this shot. This shot provides the shooter the largest margin for error. The outcome of a successful chest shot is invariably a fatal injury that causes huge trauma to major ⦠Yes, I may have to track my deer little ways, but the end of the tracking job is always predictable; a notched tag and venison in the freezer. Whether you shoot a .30-06 or a .375 H&H Mag, if you don’t hit vital organs, you won’t consistently or reliably kill deer. Grab some of the illustrated targets and head to the range and shoot from field positions. I hit a heart with two lungs last year and it ran about 50 yards before dropping. This path will very likely take the top of the heart out and parts of both lungs. That difference in point of impact is the difference between a killing shot and a wounding shot or miss, especially as the range increases. In most cases, traumatic damage from a shot to the brain means instant death. Most likely this shot will go through the heart and damage both lungs. Hit a deer in the head with an arrow, and the odds are overwhelmingly high that it will escape with a severe wound. For me, the center of the chest as close to broadside as possible is the shot I will wait for. Head shotsUnless at close range, a small movement in the head of the deer is likely to result in a misplaced bullet which can cause serious and unnecessary suffering. All the same, the neck is a high skill area and this means it can either be effective or disastrous depending on your experience. There is no substitute for good shot placement. Thatâs the first step to proper shot placement. Notice how the lungs extend from the belly to the backbone, which is about halfway to two-thirds up the body in the neck region to three-quarters up the body farther back. While the angle is different, the concept remains; the bullet must enter higher on the animal so as the bullet continues its downward angle it will hit heart and/or lungs within the chest cavity. 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