Neck shot placement

[Mungo]

Just the gentlest of suggestions, imagine an upside down pint glass with the mouth of the glass about half way down the neck.
That’s your mark for the males of 4 of your 6 species. On females the area is smaller, but still very doable.
Straight shooting on the bucks.

That’s a handy visualisation - but side on? I will take your word for it.

 

[muddy42]

This is quite informative: Shot placement | Best Practice Guidance
The second image on the page shows how thin the vital / instant death area of the neck is. I don't want an argument here, but if you are one of those "90% of my shots are head or neck shots and its fine" people, I suggest you take it up with the various authors (BASC, BDS, FCS, LANTRA, SGA, NTS, Deer Initiative, etc.), the guide explicitly discourage both approaches. For me these shots are extremely rare. I'll never say never, because sometimes I get dictated by short range, topography, position of trees, the fact the deer is about to disappear!

 

[Selous]

Make sure you have the right bullet for neck and head shooting. You want a bullet that will fragment and dump its energy into a small target. To be certain of a clean kill you want to take out all the arteries etc so that you get a massive bleed. A shot to the neck or head will stun and drop any animal. But a clean hole through the brain, nose or even neck / windpipe etc and the animal be up and running again very quickly. And when it runs, there is nothing much to stop it.

So if you are going to be consistently head and neck shooting then use a bullet designed to fragment - ie something more akin to a varmint bullet / foxing bullet.

But such a bullet is not much use for body shots on big deer. Ideally you will find a fragmenting bullet and normal penetrating bullet that shoots pretty much to the same point of impact. Fragmenting for the intitial neck shots, with a penetrating bullet below for follow up if needs be.

In my younger days I culled a lot of hinds with a heavy barreled 25-06 with 10x42 scope and 100gn ballistic tip driven as fast as possible. Head removal was easy - mostly done for you by the bul

Neck shots are my least favourite. I once had a client who shot a huge Red stag which was about 60m away and broadside on. We were already in a good shooting position when it appeared. He shot, the stag went down, got up, went down, got up and as I shot the client was shouting "it does not need a second shot." When we got to the stag he had shot the windpipe out of it, he still reckoned his shot would have killed it. I said it probably would but it may have taken days or weeks if we did getba second shot into it or a lot of dog work

Exactly the situation I was referring to. A hole in the trachea is not necessarily a fatal one, there is also a fair chance the oesephagus will have been damaged too which may be equally horrific

 

[Selous]

Just the gentlest of suggestions, imagine an upside down pint glass with the mouth of the glass about half way down the neck.
That’s your mark for the males of 4 of your 6 species. On females the area is smaller, but still very doable.
Straight shooting on the bucks.

This confuses me!!

 

[terrier1]

I never make the decision on where I will shoot it until I have the cross on the deer and finger on the trigger. Then its down to how far it is where I am shooting it from EG sticks high seat bipod and how steady the deer is. But as we all know head and neck shot deer are a lot cleaner to grallock.

 

[Dunwaters]

This confuses me!!

Sorry, not my intention, your target area for males of the larger 4 species is about the size and shape of an inverted pint glass, if you can imagine that superimposed on the deer’s neck and hit it you wont go far wrong. The females have smaller diameter necks, so present a smaller target.

 

[User00033]

But also why make life hard - a side on deer presents a bloody big and effective target in the h/l area?

Sometimes I simply cannot allow the deer to take a few steps, let alone run. Standing on the edge of a very steep slope with an impregnable chasm at the bottom being the most common. That’s when I’ll neck or head shoot it.

I suggest you take it up with the various authors (BASC, BDS, FCS, LANTRA, SGA, NTS, Deer Initiative, etc.), the guide explicitly discourage both approaches.

It is, and always will be, discouraged by the various bodies. And for the intended audience, that’s fair enough I think. But when do highly experienced shooters ever read a guide? Experienced men have always done exactly what they want to in the circumstances that present at the time, because they trust themselves and their kit. It’s a mindset thing, a psychological strength. A mix of confidence, patience and nowse, being able to read an animal and assess risk instantly. No different to many different skill based activities in all walks of life.

 

[rem284]

Sorry, not my intention, your target area for males of the larger 4 species is about the size and shape of an inverted pint glass, if you can imagine that superimposed on the deer’s neck and hit it you wont go far wrong. The females have smaller diameter necks, so present a smaller target.

Females may well have a thinner neck bone therefore a smaller kill zone. However a big Red stag especially during the rut has a lot of meat and hair hiding the neck bone. It isn't such a problem facing or facing away but there is quite a bit of guessology with side on neck shots

 

[Klenchblaize]

If you do get sucked into taking neck shots; I try very hard not to even if my above picture with the "black dot of doom" target suggests otherwise, you had better ensure you have a good sticking knife and know how & when to deploy it safely.

K

 

[paul o']

Side on with deer feeding , (In)

and (out)

.270 160ish yards . For my 2p worth if you cant shoot small , then the best advise is to shoot at the big bit ! and save the chase .

 

[NickJ]

I would advise you study all the pictures off deer skeletons and any carcasses you can to familiarise yourself with where the spine is as you need to be hitting that. Wounding with neck shots is a lot more common than many people think.

If the deer is facing you it obviously reduces the chance of hitting just the wind/food pipe.

I prefer a low to mid neck shot where one has a choice as the top of the neck is quite mobile especially if the deer is trying to work out what you are.

 

[rem284]

Neck shots are my least favourite. I once had a client who shot a huge Red stag which was about 60m away and broadside on. We were already in a good shooting position when it appeared. He shot, the stag went down, got up, went down, got up and as I shot the client was shouting "it does not need a second shot." When we got to the stag he had shot the windpipe out of it, he still reckoned his shot would have killed it. I said it probably would but it may have taken days or weeks if we did getba second shot into it or a lot of dog work

I will add tha I was so annoyed with him because this was far from his first fcukup of the week that I didn't ask if he had actually went for a neck shot and miss judged it a wee bit or if he had went for a chest shot and missed that by a long way. I also didn't ask if he did go for a neck shot, why, when the chest shot was perfect. A few years later he asked if he could come back and I said "NO"

 

[Deermanagement]

The most common mistake is to shoot too low down, a neck shot should be in the upper 1/3 and a fairly frangible bullet is an advantage.The effective area is actually quite large, nothing like that tiny little line on the illustrations you’ve seen, its about the size and shape of a pint glass on a sika or roe buck. Anywhere in the centre of that area will do and you’ve a lot more leeway than is generally acknowledged, you dont have to hit the spine to break it. A lot of neck shot animals will be unconscious but still alive, it can take a while for blood pressure to drop and shut the brain down, I use the knife to bleed them out but make sure its not able to thrash about before you get in close, any doubt ( or if the head is up) shoot again.
If you do neck a deer, dont hang about, get up there ASAP, if you didn‘t break the spine it may well recover enough to get up and depart.
Last tip would be to carefully mark the deers position before you fire, they often drop so fast you dont see it happen.
Neck shots are the marmite of stalking, love it or hate it with very little middle ground, personally I love it, its not perfect but then again no single shot site is.
Best of luck.

Agree especially. Neck shots require a fast follow up, rifle ready.

 

[rem284]

As someone else said, I wouldn't say I would never take a neck shot but it's with great reluctance and very rare that I do.

 

[Dhindes]

thanks so much for every ones comments - very useful

 

[Mungo]

Of course there are times when it’s the obvious thing to do.

30 yards, facing you, alert, chest high grass, while you’re holding a .270 loaded with 130gr ballistic tips. Rude not to...

 

[muddy42]

Of course there are times when it’s the obvious thing to do.

30 yards, facing you, alert, chest high grass, while you’re holding a .270 loaded with 130gr ballistic tips. Rude not to...

Brilliant! I totally agree, this sums up the type of situation where I head and neck shoot (or face-and-head-and-neck in this situation).

 

[Rake Aboot]

Neck makes the best broth mind.

Better to shoot them in the heed. You can't eat that bit.

 

[Kalahari]

Neck makes the best broth mind.

Better to shoot them in the heed. You can't eat that bit.

I can think of other bits of the anatomy you can't eat that you could shoot them in but I don't want to get banned!!!

David.

 

[Oldstalker]

There are many good points in the above postings about placement and study of anatomy is where it should start. With a dead animal in front of you on its side then feel for the vertebrae all of the way up and down the neck. That feel will allow you to see precisely where the bones are. I have shot deer in the neck in the Park at 200m on a still day off a bipod etc. At other times I have refused a neck shot at less than 20 metres. It is how confident you feel at that moment of decision.

When shooting front or rear then do aim sufficiently below the jaw so as not to risk a last (milli) second movement of the deer's head BUT equally do not shoot the throttle or immediately above it as the bullet will often go into the bone and then track it rearwards destroying valuable meat. From the side I have three points of aim:- if high neck then below the ear to hit the atlas joint (but the deer has to be keeping its head still), or low neck if it is moving its head about. But equally effective is "mid-neck, mid-neck" especially if the animal is looking towards you and then there appears a quite distinct angle in the neck and it is at this point that you should shoot. The advantage of front/rear neck shots is there is very little risk of wounding without the chance of a second shot (yes I have seen it happen by a colleague who is a better shot than me) but one usually kills, or creases or misses. He managed to so score the muscle on the side of a fallow doe's neck but without so disrupting the musculature as to render it with a neck pulled back by the muscles on the unshot side so that the deer is so disoriented and presents a second shot opportunity. On species with a black line up the back of the neck this is extremely useful, but again one needs to be wary of animals suddenly moving their heads about quickly.

Finally I had a client out one particularly cold morning for a trophy stag; it nearly walked into us and he shot it with his .270 at about 12 yards into its neck. It ran off but fell after crossing a fence about 180 yards away and I thought I heard a death rattle. When we looked it was indeed dead but the frozen hair on the mane had cause the bullet to expand before reaching flesh and it had barely penetrated to the vertebra - it was a big stag in the rut (mid 20s of stones Scottish weight) but we had been lucky.

"Never say "never"; never say "always". Shot reactions vary between animals and only experience will tell you by how much.