Quote:

---

Yes bullet construction matters more than speed. Accuracy is more important than either speed or bullet construction and more deer are lost to poor shot placement than to anything else...and should be an embarrasement to the shooter.
Nosler BT type bullets have a reputation for being extremely accurate but somewhat unreliable on game, especially at velocities over 3000fps and close in shots. Nosler has come out with another bullet called an AccuBond to try and resolve the problem..dunno anything about them but I have had a BT failure on a desert Mulie at 35 yards and 3400fps muzzle velocity. Too fast and Too close to do the job the bullet was designed for.
I also have gone back to lead tipped spitzer type game bullets for WT sized animals. If I was hunting Elk, moose or brown bear I'd be shooting Nosler Partitions or another one of the deep penetrating slow expansion bullets like a Bear Claw, Barnes Triple Shock, A Frame etc but my Speer flat base HotCor's, Grand Slams and Sierra Game Kings do a nice job of expansion on Texas sized WT's and hogs out of my 270 and 300Wmg.
Bullet placement on head shots is critical and the imaginary line that runs level from the rear corner of the eye and bisects the line from the base of the earhole looking sideways at a deer is one of my favored shots on doe deer. I also like a frontal top of the head shot from an elevated stand on feeding doe deer centered between and just behind the eyes in front of the ears to hit that Tennis ball sized brain...the bullet passes thru the brain and out thru the throat for a clean kill and no ruined neck roasts.
If you can't reliably hit a tennis ball at whatever distance you are taking the shot from then don't take the shot..period. Go try it in the off season out of your stand and you will see just how hard that shot really is. Then hang a tennis ball from a tree limb and let the wind move it around and try and hit it from over 150 yards... try it again with a 9" pie plate that is the kill zone sized target for a properly placed heart lung body shot.
I started years ago with a BB gun in the back yard and it took me forever to hit the ball more than 1 out of 5 shots at over 10 yards much less a 100 yards..or a ping pong ball at 20 yards with a BB gun. Throw out a ping pong ball or tennis ball on the ground and make it walk with a BB gun or 22 shooting offhand...easier said than done!
Facing a deer on level ground with no quartering angle I hold for the spot where the "cowlick" spot of fur comes together on the bottom third of the chest, once again a tennis ball sized target for a clean kill. Think about a three dimesional target for the placement of a heart shot. From the side at a 90* angle at distances over 150 yards I like a base of the neck where the spinal cord joins the body to not below the cowlick or the tennis ball sized depression area just behind the shoulder at the elbow fro a thru and thru behind the front shoulders....understand I'm not shooting a teeny tiny bullet but a 150 gr 270 or 180-200 gr 300 Wmg. I don't lose many deer...and have not lost any in the last 15-20 years. Quartering away from me over 150 yards I'll place the bullet in the same elbow spot, or just in front of the hip and behind the ribs with the angle sharp enough so that either bullet placement will pass in front of the off front shoulder with both shots being a heart lung shot, under 150 yards and with the deer stock still quartered away from me, the aimpoint is the base of the head underneath the ears on line with the eye socket at some point in a semi circle from earhole to earhole.

I am capable of making these shots and have made them all of my life once I spent the necessary time to learn to shoot accurately with equipment capable of making whatever shot I choose. If the shot is not there for whatever reason...I let the animal walk away...period.
I take these kinds of shots so I don't waste any meat anywhere on the carcass. After I cracked a tooth on a piece of bone shrapnel from a point of the shoulder side to side shot when I first started hunting 40 years ago I promised myself I'd never have to throw away the front half of a deer ever again ...and haven't.
The back third of the head is the kill zone and is really about the size of my fist or a tiny bit larger maybe as big as a softball or a little smaller on most does. The front two thirds of the deers head is not a kill zone period and is to be avoided no matter what except on a 180* from behind head shot on a stock still animal under 150 yards and the the point of aim is the imaginary line about 2 1/2" below the crown of the animals head and even with the base of her ears...preferably perfectly centered in the height of the front edge of the ear opening.

I can count the number of "wish" shots I taken on one hand and missed but I still practice about 50-60 rounds of live ammo of the same brand and weight that I intend to hunt with and dry fire twice that every year so I can respect the animal with my best effort at trigger discipline and breath control.... anything less than my best effort is an insult to the animal and to me and I don't take or give insults lightly or easily.
Many many years ago I had an experienced combat sniper tell me to concentrate on shooting not just the "center mass kill zone" of a target but to pick which button on his shirt I wanted to hit no matter what the distance...that it the concentration on the finite little "targets" like a shirt button or wrinkle in the skin or white spot of a scar and to think three diminsionally about the vital organs that was the key to better bullet placement. Think about it, don't aim for the whole critter but try and shoot the tick off his neck!! JMHO
Ron

---

Damn. Did your fingers get tired? That's the longest post I've ever seen on here. That would have taken me a couple of hours the way I search and peck.