Shot Placement

Quite the contrary.

mooseisloose said:
Hard on meat doing that no???
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At the base of the hump is the spine. And the hump itself seems to be a secondary skeletal type structure that helps support the moose' head and neck. Of the 3 moose I've shot the furthest shot had been 18 yds. As for deer I'm always up a tree stand and I'm always awaken from my sleep and have to take a shot on running (away from me) deer.
 
I've only taken one deer, but it was just about as perfect shot as you can get. In, both lungs and heart, out the other side didn't even hit any ribs. The deer was runnign full tilt, and continued to run about 150 yards. Luckily, i was in a stand and saw it go down.

If the animal's on the move, i'll shoot for centre of mass, ie, the heart lung shoulder area. However, if they're sitting still...i've taken a lot of small game with headshots.
 
Heart/lung shot. It is the biggest absolutely lethal target. If it is made with any reasonable caliber for the game, any tracking will be very easy and short, and bloodshot meat will be very minimal.

I have personally found three deer that were the result of attempted and slightly missed head shots. The resulting long and slow deaths were obviously very ugly, and very sad. I will not take such shots at unwounded game, and do not advise it for anyone who cares about humane kills.

Another, often overlooked advantage of a high heart shot is the resulting bleed out of the meat. I have come to believe it is beneficial to meat quality, and no other shot provides that advantage. If one really cares about meat, I think a proper bleed out is an important part of killing any animal, game or livestock, and I don't understand why it is ignored by people who will advocate neck and head shots because they don't spoil meat.
 
Even if the animal doesn't know you're there, it can and will move it's head in any number of directions. Lots of guys can hit an apple off the bench but few can hit an apple if it suddenly drops 12".
 
I have had to track three deer where head and neck shots were used that weren't instant kills.The people that did the shooting no longer use head or neck shots.A slightly off head or neck shot often stuns the animal,knocking it down,but it then gets up and runs off wounded.Worse yet is a shot that smashes the jaw and results in a long cruel death,or one that damages the eye and leaves a half blind deer.I use heart/lung shots exclusively.
 
Depends for me...

If I'm in a situation where I really want my animal to drop right there, right now (moose beside a river, or it's last light, etc), then a double shoulder shot will ensure the animal goes nowhere. Bad news is I then have to get to it right away to deliver a humane kill shot.

Under most other circumstances, where I can allow the animal to move 10-50 yards before dying quickly, I go for a heart/lung shot and then start tracking after 15 minutes.

FYI, just to see how much meat is wasted on a double shoulder shot, my father (a full time shoulder shooter, tired of hearing the "meat loss" stuff) shot a moose with a 300gr Silvertip from a .375 H&H through both front shoulders and when we were butchering the animal we cut away and kept all the "ruined" meat in a large ziploc baggie. Once we got home we weighed it - came to just under 5 pounds (and we cut away ALL the gore/bloodshot meat very genrously). And that's five pounds of second class front shoulder meat, usually hamburger. Five pounds of hamburger lost for moose that drops on the spot is not a bad deal at all, I figure!
 
Ideally, I always like to aim for the shoulder on the opposite side of the body, if the animal is quartering away or broadside. If it's quartering towards me, I'll shoot it on the point of the shoulder. If it's broadside standing and I need it to drop in it's tracks, I'll shoulder shoot it but if I'm back in the bush, having it run another 50 yards isn't really a big deal so I'll double lung it. I have shot two big game animals in the head but I also missed one that was standing looking at me. It happens! Luckily I was fast on the bolt and got him anyhow. I'll shy away from headshots unless it's all I have and it's a close shot, under 25 yards.
 
I shot one deer, and it was in the neck and it dropped instantly.
That was due to my inexperience. The deer was on the run, and the neck was the first decent hunk of meat in my scope to hit. Heart/lungs is my target.
 
rral22 said:
You haven't killed many deer if you think it will bleed at all after its heart has stopped. Cutting a dead animal's throat is a complete waste of time (and a good cape too if that matters.)
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You beat me to it! Absolutely correct.

I always try for a heart/lung shot, and in forty-plus years of hunting big game have never had an animal hit there go more than a few yd. Most are down in less than five, certainly not more than twenty-five. Not much tracking there! :)

Ted
 
Brain any animal and it'll drop, obviously. But it cannot be overstated that it only needs to twitch and you'll either miss or have a long day of tracking ahead of you. i've only shot one deer in the head. that was with a 3030 at about 40 yards, and the head was all i could see. looking back, it was a bad idea, but it was a split second decision. Spine shots are also an instant immobilizer but there's always no mans land between the spine and lungs that will result in a gone animal. the critter will drop like a sack of rocks, do the hairy chicken then get up and run away with little to no blood trail. i've never had to cry over loss of meat on a lung shot, and about 80% of the time the animal has gone down within sight. the rest of the time it was only 50 yards away or less.
 
The moose I took down this year (my first) was a full frontal. He was standing on the trail when I stepped out. I nelt down to steady myself and fired. The bullet went into the chest through the heart and stopped in the liver. I don't know how but he hopped three times and fell down. His hind leg was still moving so I put another in his head. For the cost of a reload, I would rather not let the animal suffer. This one didn't ,but I was not certain till I cut him open.And saw that the heart had taken the hit. I paced it out later, the shot was 185 yards
 
heart/lungs is ideal obviously... 99% of my kills have been heart/lung. but time of day/location sometimes lends to a head shot in my mind. if its 8:00am the last day of a frusterating hunt and all i can see is neck/head, guess what! :)
 
Heart and lungs is the way to go. If they don't go down immediately, they will very quickly. Large margin for error in the vitals. I have taken head shots when close enough and when vitals are covered. I have also seen animals where head shots have been attempted and resulted in horrific wounds - such as blowing off jaws, etc. and the animals have escaped. Thus, headshots should only be taken when you are close and have an adequate rest.
 
I am getting old and crusty, but oddly enough, I have developed some patience as well.:p

I don't hunt for horns, so I can wait for the deer I want, usually a nice young buck. Just behind the front leg, and the heart and lungs are usually like beet soup. When I use my ugly old 8mm-06, I use hand loads with 150 gr Sierra (Game Kings I think they are). The deer usually does the run for a few yards, then falls over stone dead. My old 32 Winchester shoots off the shelf whatevers. Deer seems just as dead as the others......:)
 
95% of the time i go for the vitals. Maybe 4% of the time i'll shoot for the head and 1% of the time i'll shoot for the front shoulder. It's just how i was brought up and it has worked well for me in the past. As has been previously said, when shooting for the vitals, you get the biggest margin of error. That's something that i like and tracking an animal 200 yards or less isn't a very big deal to me. If i do end up shooting a moose in the vitals, i always make sure to put another one in the head when i find the animal. I've heard too many horror stories of guys getting trampled when getting to close to a downed moose that they thought was dead but in fact, isn't. To each his own but thats the way i like to do things.

Dorian
 
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