Rifle hunting, do you shoot your deer in the shoulder or the heart/lungs and why? Is your shot placement different on a large mature buck than it is on a small doe?

High shoulder or same methodology. A deer that is recovered where you shot it is better then having to look for a deer, which has a higher unrecoverable potential .

If I am meat hunting I will shoot them for sure through the lungs so the animal will bleed out better. I will also shoot a trophy animal the same way as you won't have to look far if you made the shot. However if I am looking at a trophy and I can't get a better angle I will shoot the shoulder which does not mean he will drop at the shot. Many times hunting in the brush you might have to take a higher on the body shot to hit the spine which works also.

Under 75 yards with good time for shot and rest, I will shoot mid or high neck, beyond that either shoulder or behind shoulder works fine; deer's position and time for shot and rest will dictate for me.. Shooting 7MM-08 vs .300 Win Mag or 7MM Rem Mag will generally result in less lost meat.

I have put more deer dead where they stood by aiming as shown than I can count. You get CNS and vascular system simultaneously. (You rattle their cage, and send a shockwave through every vessel in their body all at once)

For me it completely depends on the condition and situation.

If I am in more open country where tracking is a breeze and not in the hairy thick stuff like you find in a lot of south texas, I put it right through their wheel house about 1/3 of the way up and just behind the shoulder crease with them dead broadside.

If it is thick, I am putting it through their shoulder and doing whatever I can to break them down right where they stand.

I ask because I spent a lot of time this year looking for 2 bucks I shot this past year. Both were very large mature management bucks, and both were center punched in the shoulder. One with a 280 REM 140 grain core-loc, and one with a 140 gr 260 REM Nosler ballistic tip. Both only went 30-40 yards, but in thick brush with no blood trail. I'm considering shouting behind the shoulder in the future. I assume they will run further, but will leave a much better blood trail?

Heart/lungs.

I do not like torn up shoulders, it wastes meat.

Does, in close enough, brain stem. Dead before they hit the ground, easy field dress, no torn up meat.

This my shot placement at these angles. If I miss a little I am still good. If I miss and I am down in the shoulders and break both of them, they are not going far. My preferred shot is quartering to me and their butt hits the ground before their head does. They do not kick or move any. I call it my culling shot...shot the last deer or one in the back of the group...the others don't know what happened. I don't like tracking and dragging deer out of thick cover or bad terrain. Been using these shot placements for the last 30 yrs now.

However, in a pinch I'll take what they give me like this neck shot on the on the one on the river bank, or the big bodied buck in the back of the back of the truck, he was shot in the center of the chest facing me. He had that look of, "I'm about to bolt" look. Both of these I had a steady rest. Prone on the river, the other I was in a stand with a good front and rear rest. Both dropped.

This ^^^^

Only shot I will add is if the deer is facing me with head down feeding I will put the bullet between the withers. DRT

IMO, a blood trail is not required.

Done the same.

I rattled in a buck once and had to shoot him off-handed at about 90 yards. I was up in a 2 man tripod when he came in behind me and I had to stand up to shoot him over the backdrop. I hit high in the shoulders below the spine but back towards the lungs just a little. He whirled and jumped thru a small hole about 3' off the ground into some very thick whitebrush. I had no bloodtrail for about 75 yards due to him running fast and the shoulders were covering up the entry and exit wounds. I was able to follow his running tracks till he started to finally leave a little blood. He ran about 250 yards IIRC. The few times I have I missed my aiming spot and hit in this location then they did run, leaving very little blood at first. The very few that this happened on was not enough for me to change my shot placement. I found every deer.

Heart/lung for me, I'm trying not to destroy meat. I've never seen a heart/lung shot deer go more than 100-150 yards. The 150-yrd buck did have the bad luck to die in the middle of a stock tank on a 37 degree day.

Dead center shoulder

I tuck them in tight behind the shoulder, basically the same place I aim for with a bow. To me you have a little more room for error and with 95% of my deer killed in thick overgrown swampy river bottom land where you only have a matter of seconds to shoot I’ve found this to be my preferred method. I generally use a larger big bore like a 375 H&H with a heavy bullet in the timber and have never had one go more than 25 yards and when hunting open crop land I still shoot them in the same place but with a smaller gun and never had one of those go farther than 75 yards unless I screwed the shot up which knock on wood hasn’t happened in a long time.

STX last pic above, idk if y'all call that high shoulder or not but thats where I go

More point of the shoulder is what I called it.

I go right for the shoulder/body crease half way up the body. Most don't take a step and the ones that do don't go far with good blood trail if you're using the right bullet (I go soft tip, not the hard Accubond type). Also a lot of (relatively speaking) room for error as if you miss a few inches in any direction you should still have a dead, easy to track deer.

Geez. Bobo said it right 1st. High shoulder will break down the vertebrae and is the most consistent DRT shot out there.

I believe you are dead right in most cases.
I've never been a fan of ballistic tip bullets for shoulder shots on larger animals.

I'm a neck shooter out to 125 yards. Passed that I'll go high shoulder on big deer and behind the shoulder on small to medium. I try to keep my shots close.

I let my feel, confidence, and conditions guide my shot placement. If they are closeish and I feel comfortable and confident neck/head it is.

Further distance and less practice/confidence I aim for bigger targets, in or behind the shoulder. Lately I have shot several quartering to or away from me with an entry/exit in front of the shoulder (chest/base of neck) and exit just behind the shoulder. It douse a number on the hear/lung are doesn’t mess of the shoulder/legs and keeps you from flirting g with the guts as much. If it’s a rushed shot I just put it in the middle of the front shoulder or adjust as appropriate for the angle.

I tend to go with what the animal presents and not worry about damaging meat. Most of the “bloodshot” meat is surface level and even on shoulder shots you tend to not lose much if you know how to clean and butcher. It almost always looks terrible and bloody but rarely is a significant amount of meat actually damaged.