Rifle Shot Placement for Least Meat Loss

[Wildabeest]

yea i "finished" off a doe years back with a bullet between the eyes up an inch from 10 yards away. the deer seized and kicked for over a minute before I finally shot her through the heart. those sure-fire brain shots are anything but. i almost gave up hunting because of that experience. glad I didnt but I'll never take another head shot and even a neck shot makes nervous to consider

Reminds me to the guy who posted his air gun squirrel hunting videos. All head shots and those things flopped all over the place for quite awhile.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Another thing to think about is the velocity of the bullet you are shooting. My 270 results in more meat damage than my 9.3x62.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I shot two moose and one elk in the neck with essentially little or no effect: my first bull elk in 1971, a bull moose in 1996, and a calf moose the year before. The bull moose took TWO shots in the neck with one bullet actually lodged in spinal canal. Both put him down but he got up again. Absorbed three more shots before it was over and maybe lost only three pounds of meat overall. Bounced one shot off his ribs running away, Texas heart shot when he stood up as I fired trying to hit him in the neck, and in the head when he got up and turned to charge. All shot with 30-06 and 180 gr. Neck shot is dicey.

 

[belshawelk]

Bullets have a lot to do with it. I shot a cow with my Nosler .30 with a an ABLR. Shot behind shoulder quartering away. Bullet blew part and left a football size hole in off side destroying meat. This year changed to Barns LRX solid copper. Shot a cow through front shoulder. Found bullet in off shoulder against hide. Perfect mushroom. I couldn’t stick my finger in the hole. Perfect everything. No meatloaf broke both shoulders. She went down like she was hit with a Mack truck. Both shots were at similar distances.

 

[Doublecluck]

Tough shot. Made one like that myself a few years ago. But I ain't pro staff. mtmuley

Yea but that don’t count because your bullets are traveling so fast they break the space time continuum and anything that they pass is instantly killed when their body and soul are separated in the vacuum.

“Pro staff”- without getting myself in trouble, It’s a inside joke the kids and I have about “industry” people. Friends we’ve had and how they changed. Pretty much anything we do successfully is “because were pro staff” story for another thread.

 

[matechakeric]

I shot two moose and one elk in the neck with essentially little or no effect: my first bull elk in 1971, a bull moose in 1996, and a calf moose the year before. The bull moose took TWO shots in the neck with one bullet actually lodged in spinal canal. Both put him down but he got up again. Absorbed three more shots before it was over and maybe lost only three pounds of meat overall. Bounced one shot off his ribs running away, Texas heart shot when he stood up as I fired trying to hit him in the neck, and in the head when he got up and turned to charge. All shot with 30-06 and 180 gr. Neck shot is dicey.

that's one tough SOB

 

[OntarioHunter]

that's one tough SOB

Indeed. Of the three animals only the calf moose provided a boiler room shot initially. The tough guy was bedded down asleep in deep snow. Torso shot would have been too high in the body. A neck shot was the best available option. I had about five minutes to think it over. Couldn't quite see his horns and I had a bull tag. Had to wait for the sun to burn through and light him up better.

 

[F250]

I prefer just behind the shoulder when hunting. However, in the east, where tracts of land tend to be small and fence line borders close, I take the high shoulder shot to quickly immobilize the animal. I shot hundreds of crippled deer and some moose over the course of my career. For those - two shots as fast as possible - one through the lungs/shoulder, and one at the base of the skull. The goal was to stop and kill the animal as quickly as possible. More often than not there was an audience. For close work, a .22 rimfire. Longer distances were for the .243.

 

[FEENIX]

the most lost meat is an animal that gets away

Agreed! But sadly, it is often due to poor shot placement.

I like the heart/lung area for a higher percentage shot, and even if I blow the entire vital area, meat loss is still not bad.




Heart shot taken @ 200Y with .270 AI 175 Matrix VLD.




Lung shot taken @ 250 with .300 WSM 215 Berger

 

[OntarioHunter]

Agreed! But sadly, it is often due to poor shot placement.

I like the heart/lung area for a higher percentage shot, and even if I blow the entire vital area, meat loss is still not bad.

View attachment 166537
View attachment 166536

Heart shot taken @ 200Y with .270 AI 175 Matrix VLD.

View attachment 166543
View attachment 166544

Lung shot taken @ 250 with .300 WSM 215 Berger

That poor little gal sure walked around around a lot after a "vitals shot". And look at the size of that exit wound! Only 250 yds? And shot with a big 215 gr bullet. Shooting in flat country I don't understand why the bullet entered high behind the right shoulder and exited low in the belly blowing out the guts. Nothing hit in that area of the body should have caused that kind of deflection. Gotta say I'm very surprised a small deer shot high on the shoulder at that distance with that weight bullet didn't get knocked over. Guess I'll pass on 300 WSM. Or was the bullet to blame? Maybe you didn't lose much meat ... but you were darn lucky! The bullet could have as easily wandered in another direction and blown off the entire opposite shoulder.

 

[FEENIX]

That poor little gal sure walked around around a lot after a "vitals shot". And look at the size of that exit wound! Only 250 yds? And shot with a big 215 gr bullet. Shooting in flat country I don't understand why the bullet entered high behind the right shoulder and exited low in the belly blowing out the guts. Nothing hit in that area of the body should have caused that kind of deflection. Gotta say I'm very surprised a small deer shot high on the shoulder at that distance with that weight bullet didn't get knocked over. I'll pass on 300 WSM. Or was it the bullet? You didn't lose much meat I guess ... but you were darn lucky! The bullet could have as easily wandered in another direction and blown off the entire opposite shoulder.

Sometimes they expire differently. Both harvests have minimal meat damage. Well, where I hunt elk is open too, and I have a bull and cow and a black bear tag. I do not carry different rifles for each game. The bottom-line it boils down to a personal choice of rifle set-up/chambering/load, intended purpose, and the "NUT" behind the trigger's ability, competency, and experience. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE ...

Yes, there is always the possibility of a bullet wandering (Murphy's Law) in another direction but let us NOT turn this into an ethical hunting issue as this is NOT what this thread is about. Let's move on.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Sometimes they expire differently. Both harvests have minimal meat damage. Well, where I hunt elk is open too, and I have a bull and cow and a black bear tag. I do not carry different rifles for each game. The bottom-line it boils down to a personal choice of rifle set-up/chambering/load, intended purpose, and the "NUT" behind the trigger's ability, competency, and experience. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE ...

Yes, there is always the possibility of a bullet wandering (Murphy's Law) in another direction but let us NOT turn this into an ethical hunting issue as this is NOT what this thread is about. Let's move on.

I am also a one gun guy because like you I hunted deer in elk and grizzly country. Sorry, I didn't understand we were looking at two different deer.

 

[FEENIX]

I am also a one gun guy because like you I hunted deer in elk and grizzly country. Sorry, I didn't understand we were looking at two different deer.

It's all good. Cheers!

 

[thusby]

This is how you do it. My nieces first deer from last year. I believe she was aiming for the lungs but I wasn't complaining.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Convince me you wouldn’t do it...

View attachment 166493

Actually, I did pass a similar shot on my first opportunity at a big 6x6 bull elk on my first morning of my first hunt. I tracked the bull broadside through the aspens, but never could get a good shot at the vitals that I was confident about. I was ready to thread the needle at around 80 yards. I could see nose, then rear quarter, then the very front of the shoulder, then the rear of the torso, etc as it walked through my little viewing lanes.

Finally, I looked ahead to a nice 4-6’ wide opening a few yards ahead of it and waited. It promptly stepped into that opening... walking straight away and up the mountain. Big beautiful 6x6. I didn’t even consider taking the shot.

I was rewarded later that day with a decent 5x5, nowhere near as big, but just as gratifying.

I agree that I’d rather anchor an animal with a shoulder shot than to risk it running off. I usually hunt very small parcels of public land (sometimes as small as 15 acres) that don’t give me the luxury of tracking an animal for much distance. Anchor it when you can

 

[Gunner46]

A picture is worth a 1,000 words right? I would be aiming about 3 inches left and 1 inch higher than where the crosshairs are centered in this picture on an elk.

I agree100%. Right in the shoulder crease.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Behind the shoulder in the lungs.

 

[devon deer]

@sn.outdoors and @JLS shot positioning is called a Hilar shot, both deadly but have to be pretty much spot on.
Anything under 100 yards facing or facing away is ideal for a neck shot, if you balls it up the worst case is a nick to the neck (hopefully not a blown off jaw!) but a side on neck shot has too much room for error in my opinion.
Over 100 yards, double lung for me.
Cheers
Richard

 

[sn.outdoors]

Anything under 100 yards facing or facing away is ideal for a neck shot, if you balls it up the worst case is a nick to the neck (hopefully not a blown off jaw!) but a side on neck shot has too much room for error in my opinion.
Over 100 yards, double lung for me.
Cheers
Richard

Totally agree. The doe in the pic was standing at exactly 97 yards, and my rifle is dead on at 100. So I took the shot with great confidence the bullet was going where the crosshair was. Anytime I'm not 100% sure I can hit the hair I'm aiming at, I'll shoot for the boiler room.

 

[Firemedic92]

Range and velocity play a huge part in bloodshot meat. Also I’ve found using the copper bullets or a good bonded bullet produce much less bloodshot meat. This year I shot accubonds and had very little bloodshot out of my 308 and 7mm-08. I also shot 2 whitetail does with a 223 this year and a good bonded bullet at close range and had very little meat loss and both deer down within 40 yards.