I am relatively new to hunting, been hunting about 4 years. Reading online, everyone has a different opinion on where the place a shot on deer.

This season my brother shot a great 8 point at 250 yard with the 140 gr AMAX bullet in 6.5 Creedmoor. He said he was aiming high shoulder. We approached the deer and it got up and ran off, thus we lost the buck. There wasn't a single drop of blood. The buck wasn't running well, his front left leg was unusable but still he took off.

Obviously we weren't happy. Then yesterday I had a 110 yard shot on a spike. The spike was facing me. I aimed lower chest, hit him in the heart. He ran maybe 20 yards and went down for good. There was blood everywhere. I shot him with a 95 gr Berger in .243.

My question is, where do y'all aim? How in the heck did we lose that 8 point? I've talked to several people and most of them say aim high should or for neck shots.

Whitetail get it right behind the shoulder into the pump station. Axis and elk get it dead center shoulder.

I like my hunters to shoot them right square in the shoulder. I don't like looking for wounded deer.

I tried the high shoulder shot for first time on doe last week. Doe rared up and ran off. Couldn't find it. No blood. Used 6.8 spc, Hornady sst 120. 100 yards.

I will not do it again. Just not for me.

To start with, the AMax isn't a good choice in the Creedmoor. There are far better deer bullets like the 140 Berger and 130 Accubond. But you didn't ask about that and I apologize.

I have never lost a deer or antelope when putting a bullet in the heart/lung area. Others prefer a shoulder shot but I have never been a proponent of that placement. Obviously, your head-on shot also works. There are numerous pictures and diagrams on the internet that show the placement of the internal organs. And I'm not being a smartazz by saying that. Lots of people actually don't know.

Thanks!

Yeah I have about 100 loaded AMAX bullets. We've never had a problem with them but we usually shoot heart/lungs.

Once we shoot up the AMAX bullets I'm changing to the ELD-X.

To each his own.

Pump station

Most would be well served to keep their shots in the boiler room.

High shoulder shot...last doe ran 65 yards. Last 3 bucks dropped on the spot, 2 were paralyzed so I shot them again so they did not suffer.

Center shoulder, no wheels means no tracking

This is my third season using a 260 with a 22" barrel, which is about the same as the 6.5 CM. The best results have been with Barnes TTSX 100 grain at 3100+ using H414 or H4350. Nosler Partition 100 grain run 3200+. The light heavy construction bullets consistently have provided impressive DRT out to 212 yards, but are strong enough to hold together up close. Also use a 308 with 175 SMK's with the same placement, and never recovered a bullet. Amaxes are much softer and best for broadside heart, lung, and base of the neck. More often than not, they do not penetrate through a mature buck the handful of times I used them from a 308, so they are not my first choice, but they will work.

These are my preferred shot placement for deer.




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Dang TexFlip! You shot all those animals with heart/lung?

Neck shot, no looking

No the axis where all center punched in the shoulder with 120 A-max. The hogs were behind the ear or heart/lung. Other than one whitetail doe, I haven't had anything make it more than a step or two with the 6.5 creedmoor/A-max combo.

Neck shot . Throat if their looking at me.

Opens Thread

Says High Shoulder

Closes Thread


Boiler

I'm not chasing Deer...Walking is over rated

He didn't ask about bullet choices. Pot meet kettle

I'm a neck shot guy. Been doing it for 20 years. Drops them in their tracks.

So you've had good performance with the AMAX? Maybe it wasn't the bullet.

The buck did drop right there and didn't move. We should have waited long but we got down from the stand, walked up to him, and he got up and ran. His front left shoulder was clearly broken though, I just don't think it broke the second shoulder.

Depends on how I feel that day. Most the time heart and lungs, sometimes high shoulder other times neck and from time to time head. I don't discriminate I like them all

Heart/lungs for me.

My daughter dropped her spike units tracks with a double lung from a 6.8 120 grain SST. My deer took two steps and fell over dead from the same round with a heart shot.

Yes I have. I've shot 5 axis bucks from 100 yards out to 350 and they have all dropped where they stood with a shoulder shot. Shot 5 or 6 whitetail and all but one doe dropped; she made it about 40 yards. Probably killed 20 or so hogs and never had to track a single one. All with 120 A-max.

But the A-max isn't a good choice in the Creedmoor.

Break that shoulder.
There is only about 3 lbs of deboned meat on the front shoulder. Not worth having to go find one because he could still bolt. I have seen a lot of whitetail deer that were heart or lung punched go several hundred yards and ball up in the thickest stuff they can find.
They can't go very far if both front shoulders are broken.