Shot Percentage Poll!

What's your preferred (HIGH PERCENTAGE) shot on Big Game?

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BIGREDD

BIGREDD

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There are a couple of threads running where some brave fellas have admitted to wounding and losing big game for various reasons and inevitably the question of shot-placement comes up.:eek:
This is a hot topic among hunters and the opinions on shot placement are varied to say the least.;)
With the addition of multiple poll answers I think we should be able to get a good idea what CGN hunters feel the BEST PERCENTAGE SHOT PLACEMENT'S are for big game.
I will only post the options for standing game in quarter positions on level ground for the sake of simplicity.:rolleyes:
Pick your two or three favorites, tell us the order of preference, where you hold and why!
Also make sure you pick one of either #6, #7 or #8 to show your preference for hold as well. :cool:
 
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I have only shot broadside. I have passed up tons of deer, elk and moose because they never presented a good broadside shot. Other than when my bro comes to hunt with me, I hunt alone and the last thing I want is a 2 mile drag because I wounded a biggun. Plus I hunt for meat so I always make sure I can get a clean one shot kill, I have to, I hunt with a muzzleloader so I have to be damn sure that the one shot I have is a good one.

My moose was 18 yards away so I took him broadside in the neck, right behind the ear. My elk was broadside at 37 yards or so, he was a one shotter, and my deer last week was a one sotter as well.

Why a neck shot on the moose? I lost absolutly no meat at all. The deer and elk I only lost some rib meat which equalled a couple of pounds of hamburger.
 
No doubt about it, a well place shot in the Head or Neck is going to kill! However considering the variables : size of target, bone mass, movement, not to mention the actual shooting required it's only an option for a very select few. Personally the only guys I know who have the talent and time behind the trigger for this shot are the first ones to shoot in the Boiler room. For a hunter it's always about increasing your opportunity for a kill, marginal shots do not fit with this ideal.

That said, I've notice that it really comes down to respecting the animal you hunt. Animals will be lost DESPITE doing everything to ensure a good kill and we as Hunters grudgingly accept this. Unfortunately some people they see this acceptence as a license to take marginal shots or use marginal/inappropriate equipment.
 
Its hard to make a choice. Range is a factor, equipment also.
My logic is timing, if quartering away chances are the animal will not swing all the way around and face you before all the wheels are set in motion. Longer shots and such. Also firearm or bow . A bow shot quartering away is much better , less chance of contact with bones of the front sholder.
Another bit of logic is movement, drawing a bow with a quarter shot will have less of a chance of you getting noticed.
And overall , firearm or bow, the quarter will open the vitals up a bit better for a clean shot. In most cases a broadside will have some angle to it , so its 6 of 1 type deal.
Frank
 
I much prefer broadside with the near front leg placed forward, or quartering away. This opens up the heart to recieve more damage, and a shot a little far back is still a double lung shot for sure.

I shot my second deer ever quartering steeply toward me from about 150 yards. The doe dropped in her tracks, but I lost the front shoulder from all the meat damage.

I'd take a head/neck shot only if the animal was facing me with it's head down feeding... pass through should still hit the vitals. I could've shot last years buck in this manner from under 100 yards, but I had lots of time to wait 'till he turned broadside, then took one step forward with his left leg.
 
Took 2 deer so far this year with a crossbow. Every deer I have ever shot has been a clean one shot deal. One shot behind the shoulder closest to you, broadside or quartering shouldn't matter as it will still go through the boiler room.
 
ive shot only at broadside animals and have killed every time!!! and i aim for the vitals and i have did one head shot on my bear.
talk to ya all later
Riley
 
shot my deer on broadside pres.
depending on the bullet, many shots are achievable.
Broadside-wise, I like rapid expanding ones. For all other ones I'd like a deep penetrator like Barnes, NP, or Failsafe.
Never hunted with FMJ.
 
I've shot game using every shot angle mentioned, with the exception of the Texas Heart Shot and straight away.

They have all been solid hits and the animal was recovered either right on the spot or after a short distance.

I don't think its a matter of the shot angle rather than being able to make the shot and doing whats necessary to make it. Taking a solid rest is the most important thing, lots of people think they are a better off-hand shot than they really are. Making sure your rifle is shooting true sounds like common sense but we have all heard about guys shooting at game and missing or wounding them later to realize that grampas 303 is shooting a little left and a little low. If you drop your rifle hard, go somewhere and check it out, don't HOPE its still on, prove it!!

Be true to yourself and don't shoot further than your comfortable with.
Any of those shots mentioned, with the exception of the THS will be effective if the proper considerations are addressed and the proper equipment is used for the job.

Brambles
 
Great post Red!

Anyone who has hunted knows that a broadside shot on unsuspecting game offers the best chance of a clean one shot kill. Trouble is that sometimes Mr. Murphy gets in the way - I believe we are all aquanted with him. On a hunting video I saw a recommendation for shot placement that is so simple and so intelligent that I can't believe I didn't think of it myself...or atleast hear of it before. Anyhow it goes like this:

Aim directly at the space between the animal's front legs - then bring your aiming point a third of the way up the body and you've got him. How slick is that? It's fast and there is no second guessing. It works at all angles, and prevents shooting too far back on quartering away shots.

I do not believe that a straight away shot should be taken on unwounded game. However, in the event that I should have to make such a shot, I would prefer to try to spine him, rather than to attempt to shoot through the length of the body. A soft point is unlikely to penetrate more than 3' - and on bigger game that's not enough to reach the vitals.
 
I am trying to think of the game I have seen get away when wounded. The only ones I can think of were to long of shots for the shooting position/conditions/skill/buck feaver ect... and the other is deflections in brush.

I have never seen an animal get away that has been shotwith 30-06 class rifles in the neck or right up the ass.
How many of you have actualy seen a deer get away that was shot in the neck? A few of you I am sure but I still have never seen it.

I would much rather have to shoot a one in a life time big buck up the pooper/back of the neck at 20 yards than have to try an of hander at 200.
At least the bullet is going right where I aim it. That, for me at least, is higher percentage.
 
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Maybe I'm the one whose wierd but to me a broadside shot is a dreamshot. The only time I have shot big game up to now is straight on (plz consider that I AM only 13), but , I don't know, broadside is just so much easier. My first shot was very complex. I was about 45 yards away with a rifle sighted for a hundred, so I had to lower my shot a bit (but not too much!). But wait. I was 25 feet up in the air, so the angle got into the formula. Then, I had to picture the vitals to know what to hit. Anyway, I was stressing the hell out of myself trying to figure out where to put the crosshairs. A leveled broadside shot on the other hand, is so easy that you can actually think about important stuff: like how you are going to mount it afterwards.
 
Shooting straight away is not the hardest shot to make if you are just interested in putting the animal down. Doing it cleanly without massive amounts of meat damage is another story! I have found this shot to be very effective with archery equipment though.;)
As far as neck shots go they are the same as head shots... low percentage... and I have seen far more wounded or lost animals than clean kills with this option.:(
 
Wherever I can get a bullet into the vitals without puncturing the gut !
Right at the butt of the ear is a favourite, and a couple of times, into the eye (that's all I had a clean shot at ! - dropped like a stone) Texas bulls-eye to me is a desperation shot ... I don't take it. This year was year 39 one of only a very few that I've gotten "skunked" - camp was successful however.
Knock on wood - haven't "lost" one yet, and have only required a second shot on two that I recall.
 
Boomer said:
Aim directly at the space between the animal's front legs - then bring your aiming point a third of the way up the body and you've got him. How slick is that? It's fast and there is no second guessing. It works at all angles, and prevents shooting too far back on quartering away shots.
Click to expand...


I've been using this method for as long as I can remember. I place the vertical cross-hair between the front legs. Unless it is a perfect broadside, or the animal is quartering very slightly, then I aim behind the shoulder. IMHO broadside is the best. I have not taken a head shot or texas heart shot. I have taken only one neck shot. I have also missed. :redface:
 
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