How big is the kill zone? ***Poll added for extra excitment!!***

How big are th evitals of a DEER

  • 6"

    Votes: 13 14.9%

  • 8"

    Votes: 40 46.0%

  • 10" or more

    Votes: 34 39.1%
  • Total voters
    87
Gatehouse

Gatehouse

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How big is the "kill zone" on bg game animals.

We have all heard "keep it in a 8" paper plate, and you will do fine" but what is the reality? How big is the vital area in truth?

Back it up with FACTS, not just what you heard arond the campfire...;)
 
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I consider the vital zone to be the lungs and heart and on a deer this area is approximately a 10 inch area, not a circle! Many diagrams of deer anatomy are completely askew... showng the vital area heart/lungs in a circle behind the front shoulder.... wrong.
Standing broadside with both front legs even and straight down, the center of the heart would be on the rear edge of the front leg approximately one quarter of the way up (5"-6") from the belly line to the back line. The lungs are in a crescent shape rounded toward the front of the animal. This irregular shape of the vital area causes a lot of misses.... shots too far back! The liver and Stomach are centered in the rounded area behind the lungs and are much closer to the leg than many diagrams would have you believe.

These are my personal observations and come from 35 years and uncountable gut piles of experience.

Even this diagram is showing the lungs much farther back and more circular than they really are.
deervitals.jpg
 
Its all about angles , and knowing Anatomy . That the liver is the most rearward organ that will make for a deadly shot. Forward of that is the Heart/lung , why I say it that way is that those 2 are co located , and a single projectile can take both out with a single shot. The heart being located in the forward lower third of that mass.
Each animal have larger , and smaller organs , so more care has to be taken with each.
The moose is like a deer , and has larger vitals than lets say Elk and Bear.
Knowing the angle at which the body is positioned at the shot will dictate a more forward or rearward hold.
Also tree stands can be a bit miss leading , in a hold higher which you may think is the right thing to do , may not be, becuase of that magic triangle formula that we all know of where the distance is from the base of the tree, or hill if on the ground, to the target. So a low hold is required when shooting up or down. Depending on distance , this can been very little, or at extreme range, aloth.
Never try and determine how much room you got, split that frecken hair! Biggest problem folks have, shooting at the animal. :runaway:
 
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On our smallest deer; the blacktail around here, I'd say 8" minimum. Like BR says the kill zone is not a true circle shape, but its at least 8" across in any direction for a coastal blacktail in my experience shooting and butchering them.

edit to add: actually the Queen Charlotte Island deer are even smaller.. forgot about that..
 
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When my Dad got me started, his 'suggestion' for basics was, on an ideal broadside shot, pull for the immediate back side of the shoulder. Quartering away, aim for the opposite shoulder and quartering towards you, aim for the lead shoulder or the one closest to you.
 
I had a chance to measure a couple (not including smaller deer), one medium sized buck and one average sized doe. I'd have to look up my notes but they were about 8 and change inches long and just under inches high at the highest point. Of course, the problem is it can be tough to be accurate measuring once someone's run a bullet thru 'em. :)

Of course, that's just the lungs. so The area may be a little larger than that depending on the angle - but if we're talking about the 'sure shot' kill zone where you've got a double lung and maybe the heart, bigred's probably right on the money (surprise surprise) saying somewhere around 6 inches high and maybe 8 or 9 inches long. in a sort of slightly egg-ish shape.

"Conventional" wisdom for deer (ie, the recommendations you hear the most) talk about a 6 inch 'kill zone', and about 8 inches for moose. And that's probably a good value to work with if you're calculating something like max point blank ranges (bullet never goes higher or lower than 3 inches). That way - if the animal is slightly quartering away or towards you, you'll still be in line for a double lung, rather than just hitting one lung.

Here's another interesting question - on a front on or quartering to shot, how big is the frontal kill zone?
 
I guess going for a perfect kill shot is the ideal in order to dispatch the animal quickly and humanely. There is another tactic or possible course of action to consider, that being to break serious bone, anchour or knock the game down and then finish it. In addition, would it not be possible to impact greater shock to the vital organs by hitting say shoulder bone. I'm thinking say on Moose or Deer in particular but another 'method' along that line comes to mind, be it on a different game animal. An elderly native guide in the B.C. interior, guiding for Grizzly and using a .30-30, when required used to pound them through the hips, then go in for a finishing shot. I gather from his experience he found busting them through the shoulders, they could still come at you whereas if you broke the hip or hips, it would pretty well anchour the Bear. I don't know, but I do know a .30-30 wouldn't be my first choice.
 
I shot a black bear at 11 meters with a recurve , spine shot , cause I was frightened cause he made me , and nothing but air between us. This was in a corn field after the corn was removed. He caught the sound of the lower limb brushing through the dry grass along the fence, and turned and looked me right in the eye. It was jump the fence or let loose. I caught him high , and he had no mobility with his back legs at all.
To my surprise he bolted like a flash through the fence and gone. I noticed only after that I had nocked a field point for a follow up shot :rolleyes:
I took after him right away, and could not catch up. It got dark , so I went after him the next morning, and caught up to him between a brook and a fence line , a trail a blind guy could follow, 1 mile from the field. I was able to finish the job with an arrow through the chest.
 
Oh ya, the trail was 2 feet wide where he drug himself up and down gullies , amazing . Not proud of the shot at all, but sometimes we all make mistakes under pressure. :rolleyes: :redface:
Oh , it was a 71 lb recurve with a cedar arrow tipped with a 145 gr zwickey delta. If I would have had backup , I would have taken more time.
 
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Ya, I see your point Levi. I've never had an experience along the lines of what the old fella' related to me or what you've just related with a bow. Black Bear and Moose, with a rifle mind you, in a very few instances I've broken their back and with the exception of thrashing around, neither moved more than a couple of feet.
 
I'm just amazed the arrow actually broke the spine. That's impressive. Too bad about the shot, but sounds like you made your best effort and hit what you were shooting for. Sometimes the animals are just a little tougher than we think, and there's only so much you can do with a bow.
 
Salty said:
On our smallest deer; the blacktail around here, I'd say 8" minimum. Like BR says the kill zone is not a true circle shape, but its at least 8" across in any direction for a coastal blacktail in my experience shooting and butchering them.

edit to add: actually the Queen Charlotte Island deer are even smaller.. forgot about that..
Click to expand...

QS deer, Sept 2006:

DSC00774.jpg


They are small!

"Conventional" wisdom for deer (ie, the recommendations you hear the most) talk about a 6 inch 'kill zone', and about 8 inches for moose.
Click to expand...

Every moose I've ever downed had lungs bigger than 8" across. Maybe our moose up here have bigger lungs cuz the air is so clean.;)

Once on a double lung shot on a caribou, I held the lung up to show a buddy the hole. My 300WM left about a 5" hole clean through the center. Still plenty of lung left around the hole too.
 
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