Neck Shooting Deer.

My first deer was a 30-30 to the neck. Found the bullet in the spine. Bang, flop.
I think I was trying to decide between a headshot and a heart/lung shot. And ended up choosing between them both.
Happened so fast I didn't have much time to think about it. I hope next year, if the same situation happens, I'll shoot for the heart/lungs. And end up with the same results ;)
 
The headshot option is clearly my inexperience when I think about it now. As was the fact I took a neck shot. Some people can pull it off, but I'm too inexperience to rely on it.
 
I shot a deer in 2007 in the neck. It was facing towards me and all I could see was the head and about 16" of neck, the body was hidden behind a mound of earth. It was looking strait at me and was about 50yards away. I shot it, and it drop like a bag of potatos.

I waited a couple minutes, and went to check it out, to my surprise it wasn't dead and my buddy finished it off with a knife. It was messy, and I didn't appreciate seeing it suffer.

I don't advocate head, neck or high risk shots on game. The boiler room makes for a pretty big target which gives you a larger margain of error. I also wouldn't go out hunting telling myself that I'm going to be shooting my deer in the neck, but if that is all that presents itself, and you are confident in the shot... well....
 
I have shot perhaps 5 or 6 animals in the neck, only because they were very close, and the presentation was excellent. I will put it on record that I do not like neck or head shots, period. I once pasted a nice dry cow moose at about 60 yards in the neck because she was standing behind a patch of willow, with her neck & head sticking out in plain sight. My rifle was a 308 Norma Mag, and the load was a 180 Partition at close to 3100 fps. She went down like a sack of cement, but was up within 5 seconds and legging it out of town as fast as she could go. Fortunately, I had cycled the action and was able to put one more into the boiler room as she ran more or less broadside. That let her down permanently. Autopsy showed I had just missed the spine and the bullet left an ugly flesh wound. I shudder to think what may have happened if she had been able to run out of sight quickly. If I had had the patience to wait a few seconds, she probably would have walked out into plain sight, since she was not spooked, and was unaware of me at all. Nope, I much prefer high percentage shots, and cannot recommend neck/head shots for game animals. Regards, Eagleye.
 
The only neck shots I have felt comfortable with are head on. IN fact, I've been lucky in that I've only needed to take a few neck shots, and they were head on ones.
 
Only shot one neck shot deer.

Muley, standing still, head up, and facing straight on to me on the crest of a smaller hill than the one I was on, in a hayfield in BC.

Dropped like a sack of hammers.

I was laying prone, the range was right around 80 yards.

Not a shot I'd choose, but it was what was available.

Cheers
Trev
 
I prefer the the boiler room. I have seen the incapacited crying animal from a neck shot, and it made me sick to my stomach. We owe the animal a quick humane death. Whether it be thru calibre choice OR shot placement.
 
RobSmith said:
Somehow I would relegate neck shooting deer to the "bad idea" category ... Miss by so little as an inch, and you have a wounded deer running around, not worth the risk IMO.

Not to mention the risk of contamination with spinal fuilds/matter .... I can't see that being a good thing ...
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I tend to agree
 
I have shot over 50 whitetail/mule/blacktail deer with neck shots I used 22-250, 243 Win, 6mm-284, 270 Weatherby, 280 Rem, 30-06, 308 Norma Mag, 300RUM, 340 Weatherby, 375 H&H, 375RUM I just kept all of my shots within 150 yards when taking neck shots beyond that I aim for lungs/chest/heart.

All were bang flops I even shot a few in the back of the head once again all dropped instantly.


:canadaFlag:
 
First, the front shoulder offers a greater size target with heart,lungs and liver normally offering devastating hits. The neck shot is an aquired taste like the spine or head shot. I have had better results with neck shots as most of my opportunities have been under 100 yards. Spent lots of time looking for gut shot deer when hunting with my buddies that all were trying for a heart/lungn kill. I guess I'm the minority of prefering the neck. There is a lot less surface area to screw the shot up on in the neck vs the body area so I consider it a better bet at a clean miss instead of a half a day of tracking.
 
Spent lots of time looking for gut shot deer when hunting with my buddies that all were trying for a heart/lungn kill.
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If they can't hit the heart lung area,they certainly won't be able to hit the neck well enough for clean kills.
 
stubblejumper said:
If they can't hit the heart lung area,they certainly won't be able to hit the neck well enough for clean kills.
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The point being, make the best shot you know you can make. For me, this is the head or neck shot. I pass up a lot of animals that don't present MY perfect shot. I like to drop them in their tracks and practice enough to pull off the shot. If you don't shoot a lot, don't try it. If you do and are confident of your abilities, fill your boots.
 
Well, I've shot several deer in the neck (well, little coastal blacktails, anyway). I've used a .303, a 30-30, 7.5x55 Swiss, a .270, and a 7.62x54r. Most dropped in their tracks, in fact, all the ones I shot with Silvertips did. One deer shot with a .270 Federal factory load took two bullets in the neck with no effect. It had a neat, 1" two shot group in its neck, both bullets acted like FMJ's. I had a similar experience with the Federal .303 factory load. A Silvertip will generally take out the spine and jugular with one shot.
 
I've shot a lot of deer and in the bush there's way too much room for error when trying for a hard shot like the neck. Put it in the boiler room and drop them without wasting any meat. That being said my dad shot 11 deer in a row head shots only. Of course those were well rested tree stand shots inside of 30 yards.
 
I've used the neck shot, with the 45-70, at about 80 yards. Cast bullet too.
Deer was behind a group of beech trees, and it was the only shot offered. The result was an instant kill.
That said, I don't like neck shots, the spine is a small target. What happens if you just cut the esophagus. I think if you review this thread, you will see that most of the more experienced hunters here feel the same way.
 
Gatehouse said:
The only neck shots I have felt comfortable with are head on. IN fact, I've been lucky in that I've only needed to take a few neck shots, and they were head on ones.
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X2 for me. I've taken a few frontal neck shots, and my experience with all was a dead-on hit to the throat patch, DRT...

Given the choice, I prefer lungs, shoulder, brisket, throat, in that order, and have done them all...
 
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