This is interesting to read after listening to the Hornady podcast recently with Mike Robinson where he stated the head or heart shot is the one they encourage for deerbox to avoid meat damage and he also said the exclusively use Hornady CX copper bullets. I wondered what the general opinion would be on.
Where to aim for neck shots
- Thread starter Mungo
- Start date
This is extremely useful. Thank you.
That image is fantastic and shows very clearly that the cervical spine is NOT in the middle of the neck. Many thanks for posting it !!
IMO this is at least a must read or better still get or print a copy for future reference.
I’ll throw this into the pot, I’ve always tried to place the shot between the eye and the ear when broadside... old mentor who sold Venison at the farmers markets, had two mantras, “shoot for the table” and “meat is money” I can hear him now bless him
Willowbank.
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Post #40
That’s superb. Thanks!
Yes.
I have taken the odd neck shot over the years. A very memorable one was a fallow doe. Front on, maybe 40 yards at most. 308 shooting 130gr Fox at a fairly punchy speed. Hit just under the chin. It sucked a fountain of gut contents out of the oesophagus - created a 10 foot green spray across the snow behind.
It has been mentioned further up the thread
Another quotation from a source I have shamefully forgotten, concerning a shot for the spinal cord:
'Trying to hit a hosepipe running up the sleeve of an overcoat, wrapped in a hearthrug.'
I mainly shoot Roe nowadays as I'm too knackered to be pulling Reds about mostly with head shots to preserve meat (which is why I shoot for my freezer) I do take neck shots high (preferred) and low but only neck shoot if looking straight at me or straight away. I mainly use Remington 95sst which I think gives a bit of margin for error because they frag and hit so well. If chest shooting I use a 75 because I have had jellied whole shoulders on the exit side after a broadside shot and that's when the bullet has missed the shoulder entirely. I hear a lot that is no such thing as overkill but to me throwing away a whole shoulder is verging on the criminal even on small deer. One caveat is that I must be about 100m and have bipod or very good rest with no drift of the crosshairs at all. longer ranges, shooting off the knees I will chest shoot or wait for another day.
Shot a buck the other day with head shot at about 80m the other day as that was all I could see of it when shot taken. I was glassing a mob of five when I noticed a buck keep licking a white patch on it's back, thought it had been rolled by a car, turned out it was pickled in mange. Would have taken the old Texas heart shot in that situation.
Shot a buck the other day with head shot at about 80m the other day as that was all I could see of it when shot taken. I was glassing a mob of five when I noticed a buck keep licking a white patch on it's back, thought it had been rolled by a car, turned out it was pickled in mange. Would have taken the old Texas heart shot in that situation.
And the chest shot has been likened to "trying to hit a grapefruit suspended in a barrel".
Both quotes highlight the big advantage of head shots, ie, you can see exactly what you're supposed to be aiming at. No guesswork involved.
That's more a heart-shot, rather than chest. My concept of 'chest' is a hole through the lungs, perhaps including the heart and/or great vessels as a bonus. A much bigger target.
This is perhaps a brain/high spine shot, I guess; rather than 'head'? I imagine the guesswork needed for this one relates to the mobility of the target-area relative to that of a chest - as well as its relatively small size?
Initially I was very nervous about taking head shots, largely due to the stigma against it that I've picked up on from this site. However since I started head shooting a significant proportion of my annual cull, I have found that the fear is much, much worse than the reality.
The thing that really helps is that there is no "clutter" around the target area. No mass of neck or chest, causing you to have to estimate the precise place to try to place your shot. The target size is no different to that for a neck shot, I don't think, but at least you can see the target!
The eyes of the deer will always be in the same place relative to the point on the head that you want to hit, which is more than can be said for using the front leg (for example) as a guide to placing a chest shot. The leg could be forward or back, or the deer could be slightly quartering. So using that as a guide is an estimate at best. However, use the eyes as a guide to head shoot a deer looking straight at you and you know exactly where to aim, without any guesswork and without any distracting other parts of the deer's body in your sight picture.
If sub moa groups are the norm (as most shooters would have you believe) then there really is no challenge. But maybe they're not the norm? Maybe they're only the norm among the targets people post pictures of? The rest of the targets go in the bin.
If the targets people post on here are to be believed then I know that, compared to most, I am a very poor shot indeed!
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Does your trophy deer eat any different to hinds/does/calves?
Answer NO, just more reasons this "deer management" bolocks, is just playing at Jurassic Park
After all the heads/feet have been cut off they hang in the Game Dealers and go through the same process.
I have always held this viewpoint and have certainly never been involved in a stalk for trophy purposes....although recently I sold an prepped 11 pointer head for more than I got for the carcase at the dealers, so perhaps there is something to be gained from Dunwater's perspective.
(ps neck shot, side on)
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levigsp
Well-Known Member
And the " hilar shot" "gives you a clear aimimg point"? and "doesnt easily result in wounding" ? People take the broadside shot for one reason, it gives the largest margin for error, hit in exactly the right spot and its down and out, miss the right spot and the deer will still die, but not instantly.
Now hitting the right spot on the " hilar" as every bit as difficult as hitting the right spot on the neck.
That may be, however there is a reason why we have so many deer as they are left for a "couple more years" times that by a very large number and the couple more years equates to a lots more food.
A GM muntjac will eat just as many of your plants as a doe or one with a couple of stumps.
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