Neck shots

sauer

Well-Known Member
Ok before I ask a question ...no I. Personally do not neck or head shoot beasts , that's my personal choice .....
I'd rather engine room shoot than blow a jaw off on an attempt head shot ....
I have no problem with those who GENUINELY know their capabilities and equipment .....problem I have is with those who think they are better than actually are.
So no arguments please about if it should or shouldn't be done ....

For those who know ...my question ....when you neck shoot ....where in the neck do you do this ?

A) top of neck near atlas joint/ head ? ( con small target ?)
B) base of neck near top of shoulders ( con saddle / meat damage?)
C) half way up length and halfway aiming to split neck/ spinal cord?

Please just a genuine query ..has to how and why folk chose their shot ?

Paul
 
When shooting them in the neck, I always aim for the neck :)

In a way that is a serious answer. I will only shoot them in the neck if they are facing directly towards or away from me and I usually aim to hit them as high up as I can so either under the chin or in the atlas area if the shot is from behind. However, life does not always present me exactly the shot I want so sometimes I take what I get and this can mean hitting them lower down the neck. I don't have the knowledge to support this but suspect that deer hit higher up the neck die faster than ones where their neck is broken lower down, which is why I like to go as high as possible. Also although the neck is a small target this far up when you are only shooting them facing towards or away from you this also means that the chances of a non-fatal strike are small. I'm under no pressure to shoot deer and so only take shots I like, I sat one night during the sika rut this year and managed 6 or 8 stags in the scope including some of the best heads I'd ever seen and I didn't get the shot I wanted so I didn't shoot any of them, so this lack of pressure helps.

As you say a chest shot is never a bad decision and I'd prefer to be doing that but I simply can't afford a runner on a goodly amount of the ground I shoot over as a runner will mean a lost deer. So, there is a balancing thing going on - a chest shot deer is always going to be dead within seconds of being hit but I might never recover it whereas with a neck shot there is a much higher chance of a miss (though with my front or rear only rule hopefully not a wounding one) but an almost zero chance of not recovering anything that is hit. Where I think there is a good chance of a recovery, or it is physically possible to retrieve a runner, I will chest shoot them after that they get shot as high up the neck as possible or, occasionally, in the head.

Different people will shoot different ground and balance up the risks differently to me so there isn't a right answer to this one.
 
I only shoot them in the neck if no other shot is on. When I do it's half way up and centre and limited to under a hundred metres or less.
 
I think that it's perhaps worth pointing out that neck shots don't necessarily mean severing the spine or spinal column. The spine takes a slightly 'looped' route through the neck meat and it's quite where you might think it to be. However, a shot in that area is a real hammer blow to the brain. Yes I do take head and neck shots, but let's just say that I don't take them without processing the outcome in my mind first. I mostly shoot roe and have hit individuals in this area that really have died instantly. The reaction to shot is, in my experience, an animal that doesn't even manage another step. In those that I have taken in that way, most I'd say have not have their vertebra shattered at all. It's the - correct me here folks, hydraulic or hydrostatic? shock that kills them. Head shots are different for me. I aim for the head; not for the Atlas area. Head is head, neck is lower down than that. Essentially I think that trying to aim for the narrowest part of the deer save for its legs, is probably not one I'd go for.

I take chest shots by choice mostly given our ground. But if I'm in a tower and there's something at 50 yards out - and I don't have the confidence to hit it in the neck then I shouldn't be shooting at its chest either. The point here though, again, is that a well placed shot in the neck doesn't necessarily mean spine. I have to declare that I have not shot large red in the neck. There's a huge amount of tissue in there and I don't know the shock effect of hitting them somewhere soft but I'd imagine a 200gr .300 Win Mag would leave a nasty mark. I'd be interested in those who do take these shots on larger animals as to just where they aim and what results they've had. There are some handy cut-away diagrams of deer skeletal structures on the web.
 
'Trying to hit a target the size of a hosepipe, hidden in an overcoat-sleeve wrapped in a hearthrug.'

When I've done it, from a well-rested position and at short enough range, it's been just below the head on deer looking directly at or away from me and just above the shoulder on broadside beasts.

To quote a second source which I've also forgotten - 'On approaching a shot deer, I prefer to see it staring glassy-eyed into the next world, rather than looking anxiously back into this one'.
 
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....where in the neck do you do this ?

Ideally, hitting the spine or as close to the brain stem as possible would be ideal. However, in my neck of the woods, not the preferred shot.

Here's the target on which I practice.
deer-ray.jpg
 
All of the above.

Prefer chest shots, if not then I prefer head shooting to neck shooting, if I can only get a neck shot i'll take it.

Whether they will run or not with a chest shot has got nothing to do with the choice. If I habe to get on hands and knees to follow up then so be it.

Neither is meat recovery
 
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Shot a few over time in the neck only as a chest shot was not an option just gone for the middle. Used .223, .243 & .308 every single one has just buckled at the knees and dropped on the spot.
2 have then tried to stand again a few seconds later, the dog was quick on the case and both were dead when I got to them. Don't know and can't explain why they tried to stand.
Wingy
 
I opened google translate in a small "inset" window and typed the text. Tedious but gave an approximate idea. It would say what the reaction to shot would be, how far it might go on and so on. The button to the lower right of the picture would show the labelled x-ray
 
I tend to shoot high up in the neck (side on) if close up and on a stable shooting position. Sometimes if the deer is walking towards me I will shoot it front on anywhere in the neck that will allow the bullet to exit cleanly without traveling through the body. Front on shots tend to be at very close range as I find that the neck from the front (or back) is too narrow for me to feel confident in a clean kill at longer ranges.
 
I tend to shoot high up in the neck (side on) if close

Personally i believe that's a cause for a nasty wounded Deer in waiting. Why. ???? Shooting at the most mobile part of a Deer Neck also as already stated the spinal cord doe's not run true up the neck so very very easy to Blow a wind pipe out.
I've Neck Head and Rib shot my fair share of all species of Deer and screwed shot's up as I'm human.
Trust when you take a wind pipe out and lose the Deer that will slow you up if you have respect for your Quarry.
Now I'm under no pressure to shoot 250-300 Deer a season i personally leave the neck shot . Park Culling totally different I've got to Nut Em all . Most Rifle shot's can shoot tight small groups on paper as a pulled/screwed shot only hurts your pride and ego But field conditions excitement etc and pressure a living moving Small target is a different ball game. :thumb:
 
Paul, much prefer chest shots, but, if I have to shoot a deer in the head, I make sure that it's looking away from me, and aim at the atlas joint. Slightly high or low still kills, and either side is usually a clean miss. All because I spent 2 hours and many miles, chasing one I blew the jaw off. Once done, never repeated.
 
For those who know ...my question ....when you neck shoot ....where in the neck do you do this ?

A) top of neck near atlas joint/ head ? ( con small target ?)
B) base of neck near top of shoulders ( con saddle / meat damage?)
C) half way up length and halfway aiming to split neck/ spinal cord?

Paul

Hi Paul,

I cull deer and the owner of the land requires the animals to be neck shot. I shoot the deer at top of neck near atlas joint / head, preferably from behind or straight on.

I practice on paper neck shaped targets throughout the year, and I am confident in taking these shots up to 150 yards provided I am in a comfortable shooting position, I am relaxed and the deer are standing head up. I use a Sauer 202 XT in .243 Win, with a set trigger and a Swarovski Z6i 2.5 - 15 x 56 BT scope.

It really depends on the shooters ability, confidence and experience, and it is not for everybody that is for sure. People should only shoot well within their capabilities.
 
Levigsp - interesting webpage. Any idea on the translations - I bearly manage coherent english! :D

Quick, short Translation. It says, hope your not deliberately taking this shot as most hunting leaders frown on such a shot. Forget hanging a trophy on the wall with a head shot
 
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Use of a rapidly expanding soft bullet makes head / neck shots very much more certain. I used to cull on an estate where just about all cull animals were head shot. We used ballistic tip varmint type bullets and only took head on or back of head of head type shots. A ballistic tipped 243 would cause massive damage to the head / top of neck and even if slightly off would cause instant fatal damage. Not pretty though with top of head often removed and eyes dangling out - need a strong stomach. Trouble with such bullets is that they may not penetrate shoulders etc.

A standard deer bullet designed to penetrate several inches of a deer through shoulder / bones etc is probably not ideal for head and neck shots as there is not enough mass to cause massive expansion. Personally I now use a standard deer bullet and take body shots 90% of the time. Occasionally if I am trying to remove deer and only a back of headshot presents and its close, I will take that.

If I was regularly taking head / neck shots and in an unenclosed area, I would try and find two loads that shot to same point of impact - a ballistic tip rapidly expanding bullet for the head shot, but magazine filled with standard bullets for fast follow up if required.
 
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