What do you guys think about neck shots.

[RidgeHunter]

Also, this.

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Oh, and this.

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And probably here too.

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And definitely here.

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With this one, it's your call. I would.

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[Powerman620]

I have an 8 point on wall that was killed by neck shot, did not plan it but it happened. Would I do it as a planned shot? No, I hate wounding with a bad shot.

 

[Muleman]

Needless to say, the neck shot is as viable a kill shot as any. You don't always get a broadside shot. If a neckshot is offered, I take it. I've never done it but an old timer told me once that if a buck is running away from you to aim for the poopshoot!

 

[TerryP]

A hole in both lungs and traveling 1/4 mile? Out of the dozens upon dozens of double lunged deer I've seen, with both bullet and arrow....I've never seen one do more than about a 60 yard sprint and drop dead.

I don't see a heart shot deer making it 1/4 mile either.

Liver, absolutely. A liver shot deer usually beds down farily close and waits to die. If something (usually an overzealous hunter taking the trail up too quickly) jumps it, it will cover some serious distance.

Single lung? That's also another story. They can make tracks.

Its not my intent to get into a pissing contest with you about what you may or may not have seen.
All of the info I listed is based on 30+ years of hunting experience.
Two years ago my dad and I were out during rifle season up in Rogers county.
That evening he puts a shot on a doe at a range of less than 25 yards with a .270 Win 130gr psp. The deer went down at the shot, got up and went approx 100 yards and sailed over a 5 strand b wire fence. Traveled up a steep grade well over a quarter mile and over the top of the ridge.
The property owner south side of the fence came by at dark and went up there and found the deer right over the top of that ridge.
Bullet went in right behind the heart and vaporized both lungs, exit hole was the size of a tennis ball.
Just relating some things I have seen..

 

[Glocktogo]

Needless to say, the neck shot is as viable a kill shot as any. You don't always get a broadside shot. If a neckshot is offered, I take it. I've never done it but an old timer told me once that if a buck is running away from you to aim for the poopshoot!

Texas heart shot there!

I've seen a couple do crazy stuff. I double lunged a doe many years ago with a 240gr XTP out of a black powder rifle at about 15 yards. She left almost no blood trail and made it 250 yards before piling up on a rocky incline. Rangers pulled the jawbone and said "You killed grandma!" Estimated age was 9.5 years.

One time my dad arrowed a small 6 point that disappeared on him. We trailed it by a heavy blood trail about 85 yards. He had jumped and doubled back at a quater angle about 15 yards in high grass before piling up. When we gutted him we found that the 3 blade 125gr Wasp broadhead had pierced the center of the heart so that none of the blades had cut to the outside. There was a perfect triangular hole right through it. How he made it 85 yards I'll never understand.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

I think they're the "only way to fly" with a rifle or ML (not archery) - *particularly* when (a) it's the last day/hour of the hunt, and you have somewhere to be soon and don't have time to wait and track, and/or (b) when you're hunting near an adjacent owner's land and have no idea whether you can easily get permission to go on their land to track - or if you KNOW the landowner is an A-hole, etc.

Only time to NOT run with a neck shot is if the body is exposed but the neck hidden by brush etc, OR if the animal is so far away that the body shot is the only viable target with a reasonable (ethical) chance of hitting, based on likely field hold error, etc. Body shots are the exception to the rule of CNS shots (head/neck), AFAIAC.

Aim for the white spot. At the top/thin part of the neck, by the head. With an ML or slow centerfire (.45-70, .44 mag, etc.) use an ALL (soft) LEAD, HP bullet - or round ball - for maximum expansion. With a bottle-necked (high-vel) centerfire, pretty much anything will work, but avoid the extremes at both ends - avoid super light/ lightly-constructed or heavy/ heavily-constructed bullets, and run with a middle of the road soft point or ballistic tip (so that if you need to, you CAN take an ethical body shot, even a quartering one). Something like an 80 or 85 for example in .243/6mm, a 90-100 in a .25 cal, a 115-120 in a 6.5, 130 in a .270, a 130-140 in a 7mm, or a 140-150 in .30 cal.

If I find myself "stuck" hunting with a jacketed bullet (rather than all lead) during ML season as I did this year, then I'm going to favor a heart/lung shot over a neck shot, but either will work. Ditto if I have a heavy-for caliber, heavily-constructed bullet in a bottlenecked centerfire.

Sometimes a quick second shot is required to put them down, but no problem - they're *right there* to put that 2nd shot in. I suppose if you're averse to any kind of suffering, then you might say that using an ML in this manner is not ethical, because if you hit the trachea, etc., not spine, and a second shot is required, it may take you a minute or more to reload and deliver the coup de grace - I really can't argue with that.

After hearing my buddy's stories of lost elk (two in one year - after hours of searching by multiple people) hit hard with a ML (.50 cal powerbelt jacketed HP), I can't help but think that a round soft lead ball in .50, .54, .58, or larger, is about the only sensible way to go after elk with an ML - neck shot of course. Not because the powerbelt to the lungs didn't kill them graveyard dead ethically, but because it killed them dead ethically 50-500 yards away from where they were standing, with no blood trail.

I view head shots as ethical ONLY when the deer is very close-in, pristine dead-on-hold conditions, since the risk is so high of missing and injuring the animal (blow off the jaw) if it moves its head just as you shoot, and dooming it to a slow painful death. So in a nutshell: at 15 yards or less, base of ear. 15-90/100 or so, neck (this will encompass the vast majority of shots). Past that, use the larger target of heart/lungs.

If you view tracking as fun and exciting, and feel it is your duty to occasionally help provide the buzzards and song dogs with welfare, then don't take CNS shots. But if you view tracking (as I do) as an anxiety-inducing pre-cursor to possible animal loss, then neck shots or head shots all the way. DRT is the best way to hunt! YMMV and all that - I'm far from being an expert on hunting.

Archery, whole nuther story....heart & lungs.

I've seen a couple do crazy stuff. I double lunged a doe many years ago with a 240gr XTP out of a black powder rifle at about 15 yards. She left almost no blood trail and made it 250 yards before piling up on a rocky incline. Rangers pulled the jawbone and said "You killed grandma!" Estimated age was 9.5

Jiminy-Criminy! Grandma is tougher'n nails! How'd you ever find her?

I've never done it but an old timer told me once that if a buck is running away from you to aim for the poopshoot!

Umm, well, dead-on level, yeah - but from any angle, up or down, such as from a tree stand, then no, that's a surefire recipe for gutshot and lost suffering then dead deer - just clarifying- you're much better off just "envisioning the soccer ball" in the heart/lung area from wherever you are, and aiming for the center of that soccer ball - if you're up above, then you'd aim for the spine from just behind the "soccer ball", angling down into the middle of it, not the poop hole, if the deer is moving directly away. Or for the rear of the neck/spine, above the back. As for running deer in any direction, no I don't think so - not ethical at all, IMO - unless it's moving broadside and you're dead-eye-Dick. For ME, not ethical in the slightest - but I don't practice on moving targets myself.

 

[r00s7a]

Neck shots have been around a long time, even before the use of modern firearms. The egyptians only had fire as their weapon of choice, so the neck shots required two people to perform.

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[Coltcombat]

Last year I had a nice buck about 220 yards give or take and I decided for a neck shot. To me it presents a fairly good area with more forgiveness than the heart/lungs, plus it damages very little to no usable meat. The result was an instant drop and kill. I'm thinking about using this target for future shots if it's presented to me broadside or between broadside and head. Any thoughts on reasons not to? It might be easier to miss, but honestly, I would rather miss than not get a clean kill.

I stick to the gut, i wouldnt want to wound a deer and not recover it.

 

[Coltcombat]

I stick to the gut, i wouldnt want to wound a deer and not recover it.

when i say gut, i mean vitals...

please dont mistake for the actually "STOMACH/INTESTINES AREA"

sorry

 

[Coltcombat]

Neck shots have been around a long time, even before the use of modern firearms. The egyptians only had fire as their weapon of choice, so the neck shots required two people to perform.

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wow, this thread is wicked. haha