Bullet Placement

TomBeckett

Hello everyone!!
I was just wondering what your views wrer on this subject!!
If you are going to shoot a deer at say 100-150yds as thats mostly the average range that you will get would you go for a neck shot or would you go for the animals Vitals behind the shoulder there for heart and lung shot??
I was been persuaded last night that you always go for a neck shot but this i disagree with unless the animal is very close? he said to me that if you shoot a heart/lung shot that you will loose alot of meat this i also disagree with. in my opinion if you use a well configurated bullet like 165gr nosler partition or norma spitzler that will have good penetration without causing a huge exit wound in otherwords a clean kill..


What are your opinions?

Umiq88

Neck shot every time i dont see the idea behind shooting them through the gut when a neck wound provides a smooth clean kill where they will drop in a heap with no meat loss. The only problem is hitting them there everytime and theres where the fun comes into it.

Also smaller calibres can be used like maybe a 22/250 which i know not everyone favours but for the hunter that takes under five deer in a year it means the rifle can be bought relitivly cheaper to other higher calibres, can also be used for other vermin like foxes without destroying them, bullets are alot cheaper and the rifle will be lighter

I know for someone who is culling alot of animals that a larger calibre is probably a better way to go and a neck shot is not always favourable but how many people out there are killing a huge amount of deer

moby10

i think that it all depends on the terrain and espacially the back drop. i always favour the neck shot simply because you dont lose any meat. but if i dont think that i am steady enough or the deer is moving too much i will always play it safe and take the heart shot. and if i am not comfortable enough with the heart shot i will not shoot.-safety first.

.243

neck,neck,neck always,if you think about it you are shooting at an average neck is about 4" from top to bottom it holds all vital organs,blood vessels,nerve routes so if you cant shoot say a 2" bull at 150yrds on paper theres something wrong.going for the heart and lung might sound to be the good choice but you only know roughly what area you are placeing the bullet into,and have fun when you shoot right at the point the deer turns ,the bullet hits the intended target passes through misses either lung or heart internally and your shot target runs and runs till it runs out of steam,ive seen it happen a 3 mile trek through the woods and the animal has ran itself into the ground and it meat is basically useless because its so ridgid from stress.I shoot deer with a .243 (hence the nick)with a 100grain soft point in the neck every time (and ive shot a lot of deer with this bullet)and 9/10 times i never even needed a bone saw and they have ranged from the little pricket to the 10 pointer.so if your not sure on the neck be very sure on heart/lung placement and if your still not in any way sure weather to off a shot your better judgement will will tell you not to,there will always another deer in the future for the pot ,hope this helps in some way