^^^^^^ Agree. If you want/need to anchor your deer AND it is presenting a good opportunity for a High Shoulder Shot, it is my preferred shot placement. BUT...the hunter and his/her equipment MUST be capable of the precision needed. Otherwise, go for the more traditional 'tight behind the shoulder' shot.

This with an actual deer rifle. It works out great.

Bucks get the high shoulder shot. They drop right there with a appropriate caliber.

I shoot deer in the lungs occasionally with a rifle and they run 95 times out of 100

Appropriate caliber, and you can hear the wheels turning!

Im calling Bull on this one. I seriously doubt you have seen one deer with a 8" hole blow out much less numerous.

Shoot them in the shoulder! Taking out a wheel really helps with tracking too!

. Same arguement for the long range guys who try convince that a 500 yard shot is as accurate as a 100 yard shot. Simple physics says BS.

What’s an actual deer rifle? I’ve taken deer out with my AR in 6.8 with high shoulder same with hogs. Seen it done with an AR10 in 308. So I don’t see what an actual deer rifle has to do with anything.

Yeah I have nothing better to do so I just make crap up.

I have seen several deer shot in the shoulder with a 30-06 that were anchored in place but very much alive with huge holes in the opposite shoulder.

It w as in the marshes of Louisiana where many people believed you needed to drop them right there. It did work the far majority of the time, but Ive never walked up on a live deer that was shot in the lungs.

As far as placement goes, I opt for heart shots. They don't run, they literally drop in place and there is zero loss of meat.

My son did a through and through lung shot today behind the shoulder through ribs on either side and it still ran 20 yards with very little blood trail as all that blood simply filled the body cavity.

Also, consider caliber and bullet construction. If you're on 7MM magnum, 270, 308 or some such, that's one thing. 243 and 7MM-08 are great deer rounds but require some judicious thinking and thoughtful bullet selection.

My of my buddies on the lease shot a big 10 at 100 yards in the shoulder with his .243 100gr Winchester Super X one morning 2 years ago. It initially dropped and then ran off. A different guy on the lease saw it that afternoon - bloody shoulder and all - but couldn't get a shot off due to his son yelling "That's the biggest deer I've ever seen!" Saw it again a year later on camera. Shoulder was scarred, but was still alive. Moral of the story is: Caliber+Bullet type+Placement+Distance.

Hunters shoot for different purposes (meat, trophies, etc.). Guys looking to anchor an animal frequently use the term "high shoulder." Effective, but it destroys meat because you're trying to smash that bone.

Traditional placement also works. But you will end up tracking your deer because it will run, even with a heart or lung shot. If you're color blind like me, or perhaps hunting in heavy brush, tracking can be a problem.

Lately, I've heard marksmen use the term "high shoulder" to describe a different type of shot. On a broadside or quartering deer, come straight up the outside front leg and place the hunting bullet dead center on the chest. The animal simply drops, with minimal meat lost. Note that this use of "high shoulder" differs from hunters seeking to smash that shoulder bone.

As a comparison, we took four whitetail this season. The 143 ELD-X dropped a mature 8 point cull buck at 173 yards. The bullet smashed two ribs and detonated the heart/both lungs. The bullet lodged under the outside rib and the shock was sufficient to snap the spine. The animal shuddered once after it dropped and virtually all of the meat was preserved.

The .308 180 grain lead nose dropped a doe and another 8pt cull buck in their tracks at about 70 yards. The bullet broke ribs on the buck, but both animals simply dropped. The shock was also sufficient to snap the buck's spine. Virtually no meat was lost and, as any ethical hunter wants, the animals simply never knew what happened.

Compare these three with the final cull. I used a .308 168 grain match bullet to cover distance (432 yards), but failed to account for the slight breeze circulating around the hill. The bullet struck in the traditionally-recommended area, penetrating both lungs, but missed the core shot I intended. Unfortunately, the bullet passed through the rib cage without striking bone. This left a tiny through-and-through. We saw the buck drop initially, behind the hill's crest. What I didn't see was him get up and move. He covered about 50 yards in the few minutes it took to get up the hill and realize what happened. Despite the lung shot, he was still breathing. I was livid.

For what its worth, a lot of hunters that visit our place bring way to much gun. Many think hitting a pie plate at 50 yards is good enough - and maybe it is. But I'd suggest that if you're not shooting 4/5 boxes of ammo through your deer rifle at a variety of likely distances each year, you can't really expect to consistently make a great shot at the deer lease. You're cold/excited and, as that dream buck wanders into your scope, you're gonna pull/push/jump the trigger. The result is a miss or animal you have to track.

INGE0071 PSA - Click on "Active threads" button at the top of the page to avoid bumping three year old threads.

If you hit them here, with just about any bullet that is designed to expand, you'll take out the central nervous and circulatory system at the same time. Add the hydrostatic shock to all that and that's a dead animal right there. Hit here I've never had one not fold up and be dead before it hit the ground. Look at the size of wound channels shot into gel, a shot here gets everything.

I don't like the attempt at a heart shot. It's a smaller target and most often results in nothing more than a double lung hit. We all know that's a tracking job.

High shoulder drops em every time

My preferred shot placement is more point of the shoulder.

These all work well from point of the shoulder to high shoulder areas.



I have shot these shots for the last 30+ yrs now on 100's of Whitetail, Mule Deer, Red Deer, Aoudad, Axis deer, hogs, coyotes and 1 Pronghorn. The amount of deer I have had to do a follow up shot is very minimal...it was due to improper bullet placement on my part. Still got the deer. If I miss my placement of the bullet then a shoulder shot can result in a minimal blood trail and difficult track in hard ground. In the last 30+ yrs I can not think of one deer I have lost to a high shoulder shot that I had to track. I shoot a .223, 6mm, .270, .280 and .308 when hunting. With my .270 I rarely have a complete pass thru and the bullet will be laying under the skin on the offside. With the right bullet the meat lost is about the same as you throw away when trimming any other bullet placement shot IME. I used to do all my own processing. When deer run you get more bloodshot than a deer that drops in his tracks IME. I grew up shooting heart shots and soon learned when shooting a lot of deer each year...that being by myself meant I had to track and drag. I soon learned that dropping them in their tracks made it much easier to drive and load them up. A good friend of mines Dad used shoot thru both shoulders and would say about his shoulder shots..."you take out the running gear and they can't go very far".

I also shoot upper shoulder as the deer drops in his tracks. I used to shoot deer right behind the shoulder...also works well but they run sometimes short distances and sometimes long distances.

Over the years i have shot deer in the head, neck, behind the shoulder, in the shoulder, and what would be considered high shoulder. With a confident shooter able to place it I dont have a problem with any of them. I dont shoot as much or as well as i used to so most of the time I stick to the shoulder, in behind or high.

I always tell my wife to follow the leg up and put the crosshairs in the middle of the front shoulder 1/2-2/3 the way up the body, should be a straight through the middle of the shoulders or high shoulder shot. The doe she shot this year dropped in her tracks quivered a second and was done. She shot at a hog last weekend, i was watching through binoculars and feel like she hit behind the shoulders. It ran like hell I never found any blood or a hog (150 grain 270 win).

If im not in wide open country I like anchoring shots so im a fan of taking out the front shoulders and the high shoulder shot. It sometimes leaves you with a mess to clean up, but i have fount it to be reliable.

I didn't twig to the fact it was a 3 year old thread, but it [/i]was[i] an interesting read

What about intentionally shooting hogs just to leave them lay for coyotes and buzzards? That’s my favorite thing.

With a rifle I'm a neck shooter but I've been shooting the same rifles a while and how they perform. I prefer my bow because I like to be close to the animal I take but on our MLD hunts I use a .243, 270 or 30.06 since they are "get'r done trips". I took most of our management deer with a 243 corelokt 100 grain round this year. I earned the nickname of "The Mechanic" from the guys I hunted with this year because when they would pick my deer up it looked like someone pulled the drain plug off an oil pan.

High shoulder/ point of shoulder is my favorite shot. I'll go to base/crease of neck depending on situation if need be. Both of those shots drop the deer right in their tracks and usually kill them immediately.

I'd only go behind the shoulder if using a bow or I've got a kid or woman using a small caliber like a .223. I don't mind blowing out a small amount of shoulder meat to make certain the deer is dead right there and I don't have to track it or worry about losing it - especially if it's a big buck.

Yep this - I have been shooting deer for 60 years - even if I tried to zero in on the neck or anywhere else I instinctively will go to the shoulder

What you see in the top photo. Shoulder/Spine/Shoulder, DRT.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

i hate high shoulder shots.

My favorite part of the deer to eat is a whole intact shoulder pot roasted. its the sweetest meat on deer and pigs.

My son shot a pig and a cull buck after Christmas. He blew through both shoulder blades on the buck and one on the pig. Was way too much trimming and cleanup after the fact with bone fragments everywhere in the meat. There was significant meat loss.

I have never seen a deer shot in the lungs run much more than 50-70 yards.

I always tell my kids, don't hit my shoulders, don't hit my heart. I'd rather give my backstrap away than give the heart or shoulder away.

IMO its unethical to purposely ruin meat so you don't have to track a deer. I owe the deer more than that.

I guess we could argue it’s unethical to shoot a deer in the lungs when we all know he is going to run and not instantly die

My last 5, 6,7 have all been high shoulder. Not a step taken. It’s the only shot I take now.