Shot placement.

Question for you folks. Under hundred yards. Shooting Remington .243, 100gr. Core-Locks. Averge West-Tx Buck, or Doe.
Shoot thru the shoulder, or just behind it?
Thanks for any advice.

High point of the shoulder shot will anchor any deer in its tracks.

I usually go stet through shoulder and it drops them, in my experience the high shoulder shot is usually a game ender also but does not take put the vitals like a mid shoulder will.

X2...if you pull it any way your still in vitals..well except high up.

One thing about high shoulder shot...if you due pull high you can get right above spine.... As with any deer that goes straight down alway be prepared for follow up shot in case its above spine

Have used about every shot you can think of, for in the chest tight behind shoulder on a broadside shot will put one down but they useually run a little ways but will die soon and that is the least destructive on meat, ribs in and out, double lung shot. High shoulder unless you go high you will break the spine and DRT is the result but with more meat loss.

I've been reloading Nosler 100gr Partitions in my .243, and all deer shot have been DRT except one which was shot behind the shoulder.

I've pretty much always tucked it in behind the shoulder

I use a 243 and I shoot my deer in the neck. They can't go anywhere when they fall on there nose.

i do the same with a 223

Neck or neck/shoulder meeting point. DRT. Not necessarily dead though. I wouldn't recommend a head shot...with a 224 cal then sure

Dead center the sholder....breaks them down hard

he's right

I only take neck shots with my 6mm Rem. with 100gr power points. Well over 30 deer dead with it, none have gone further than 5 yards.

Like stated, a high shoulder shot drops them in their tracks. But it also damages the most meat. If it's a doe, I generally shoot them right in the crease of the shoulder about 1/2 to 1/3 way down which catches more heart and vitals and saves the most meat. If you need a DRT shot where you don't want to track or are close to a fence line and don't want them running off, I go for the higher shoulder shot. Or, with a good shooting position and a finely tuned rifle and load, a head shot also works and saves all the meat. But only take this shot if you are fully competent in your abilities.

Id say hi shoulder or neck.

I use a .243, 30.06 and bow. Shot the deer anywhere from the back of the vitals all the way up the neck or into the head and it will die! It depends on the shot the deer gives me. And, i shot shot a few head on in the neck and they died too.

The biggest mistake I see my buddies make is using the fancy bullet tips and it not penetrating through the shoulder. If you use plain core lokt or reload BTSP, they will crush the shoulders and deer don't run very fast with only their two back legs. Didn't say they won't try...

My favorite shoot is quartering away when I am 20 feet above the ground. I always shoot a couple inches below center mass because I have never had a buck jumnp up before the arrow hits him. I have had several squat down a little when they hear it coming. IF he doesn't squat, you are still in the kill zone.

Or and 85gr tsx....better than any 100gr anyday

Why do you think I am all for them!!!! Lol i agree

Concur I use the 80gr ttsx and its nasty medicine

I've only neck shot with the 243

High shoulder, shoulder or just behind it. It gives you a better target and allows a little forgiveness. If you hold in the middle of the shoulder, 3 inches in any direction will still result in a kill shot.

anybody care to post a pic of high shoulder shot? i googled it and it showed it in a lot of different places.

Found one and posted it one time will see if can find it again

It is an area on the high part of the shoulder blade where the neck and spine meet.

That deer foundered

No he is dead

^^^^^

That's where we aim!!!!!!

Here is one that Jeffbird provided

One that size you just shoot between the eyes

All of the things are just a tad bit high. Maybe like .5" lower is where we aim.
Yeah. Probably not because it will damage the rack and brain with my little 22-250

Didnt know they had those.... i dont dout they are nasty

This shot dumps them.

No guess work involved on How far they are gonna run with this shot


And for all you proponents of copper and bonded bullets, Ive been using this shot with 100% success since 99' with interlocks and corelockts

If it ain't broke....

I usually shoot just behind the shoulder, because you waste less meat that way (and they will usually leave a good blood trail/die quiclkly). That being said, I have no problem using the high shoulder shot if I am on small acreage or close to a neighboring property. I have never had to track an animal shot in the high shoulder, but you do lose some meat.

no one wants to eat sholder scrap anyway lol

I put that shot on a buck with 223 and 55 grain v-max, he didnt move. I wouldnt try it again but it worked once. The hi shoulder shot anchors them, shot my first several deer with it.

Personaly I would take all of those red dots and move them down one dots width, they all look a tad hi for me, not that they wouldnt work, but if it was my cross hairs they would be lower.

That's true for a flat, broadside shot. Once the shot takes on any angle, the aim point must be adjusted accordingly. The key is making sure the bullet will pass through the heart/lung area.

And this includes angles from above. I've seen hunters wound deer and never recover them because they didn't take into account the angle of the shot created by the height of their stand. And bullet drop on more lenghty shots can increase the angle of the shot even more.

With this shot your are looking to anchor the deer in its tracks by the impact of the bullet on the spine/neck area.
I truly prefer the deer angled to me and you put the bullet at the same height on the body but move it to the crease in the neck/shoulder area. Their butt will hit the ground and they will not kick one bit. They just disappear from the herd. Best shot in the world if shooting more than one deer in a group since all the other deer just look up, look around seeing nothing wrong or out of place and then go back to eating.

I usually aim here. Looks like it might be lower than most.

X2

What ever you are comfortable with and works. Thats what I'd use.

They aren't real hard to kill....

This. Saves the shoulder meat and typically crumples them up ASAP.

why do people worry about saving sholder meat lol theres hardly enough meat to do anything with...

Why be wasteful if you don't have to, but I guess I was raised different where it was the animal not the horns that mattered. But then again my parent and grand parents were raised dirt poor and to them shooting a deer meant having some decent meat on the table.

I was raised the same way. I take and debone the meat from the shoulders and run a couple of pieces at once thru a tenderizer and make cutlets out of the meat. I usually run it thru twice. To me it makes the best tasting steak on a deer.

X100 the other shots seem to high for me

My two scents might be worth less because I'm a "newbie" but I've killed all 3 of my deer, all last year, with a .243.

7Pt Texas 5.5 y.o. buck. 70 yd Spine shot (buck fever, first hunt, I pulled the shot up)....DRT

TX Doe... 90 yds. Double lung shot, ran about 80-90 yards, dead before I got there.

MS 10 point: 75 yds, High Shouder, DRT. Fell, raised head once, dead. This was an impressive shot.

All with 100 GR Corelokt. I don't understand the need for the bigger rifles or $40/ box bullets, unless you are consistently expecting LONG RANGE shots.

Can't wait for my year # 2 of deer hunting!

Does - If they're under 100 yards and I'm calm with a steady rest and they're calm, it goes between the eyes, under the ear, or at the base of the neck, depending on circumstances. If it's a trophy buck, I shoot at the mid to back shoulder area and keep shooting until he quits moving. Sorry, but when I launch at a buck, it ain't about the meat...

Shoot more than 3 deer, and you will understand.

A .243 is probably fine for 75% of the hunting people do...., but when shots are long, light is low or angles are tricky, you will need more gun

This is the last deer I killed.

80 yards, 130 grain interlock right in the same place stxranchman pointed out originally.

DRT right into the tree he was rubbing his horns on

Most of it depends on what I am shooting and what is being shot at and if I am meat hunting or shooting at something I would want to mount. Around here I usually just shoot young axis or WT I want to get rid of. I use a 223. If I am hunting some where else and see something that is in my mind really good I use a 270. Then I shoot right through the middle of the shoulder. I am not meat hunting and I don't care how much is ruined. That shot will usually dump them in their tracks.

I just don't like digging them outta the black brush and guajillo

I like them falling in the road or sendero where I can drive up to them

If you've never drug a 220lb buck a stand of black brush I suggest you try it, it will change your opinion

x3

I would move the dot forward alittle. If you break the shoulder they have a hard time running.

Thanks for all the great advice folks.
Ya done good!

They won't run at all if you hit them there....they won't have a heart

My favorite shot with a bow, but rifle...you will be looking for a blood trail...

My favorite shots rifle

Broad side- high shoulder
Quartering to.- mid to high shoulder neck crease(all time favorite)
Quartering away..depends on angle but normally top of opposite arm pit
Fully faced- center chested but you usually can get a slight quarter if you wait

They won't run at all if you hit them there....they won't have a heart[/quote]

deer can run over 100 yards with their heart exploded

Yes they will

Only shot I had due to trees....ran 50-60 yards

In fairness, I've used this shot and had their back legs sort of shovel them into the brush for 10 or so yards.

Shot a buck one season at 45 yds with a 6mm in the heart and he ran 265 steps. Shot a buck 2 weeks later in the heart at 250 yds and he dropped in his tracks.

Yelp ill take the shot I'm given but its not in my top locations.

Back when I started hunting it was meat shots and that is what we were taught. In the early 90's I learned where to shoot for no tracking. In South Texas brush and cactus by myself it was the only shot I took when given the choice. Nothing like driving up to a deer and loading it.

I shoot exactly at the red spots....and in 50 years of hunting have never had to track a deer more than 10 yrds. But I've also never used anything smaller than a 308. Bobo you only got about 1/3 of the heart....what were you shooting a 22 hornet?

Lol you really think it was still pumping...257 wby......that was the only thing left of the vials everything else was soup..
nothing left couldn't even use the wind pipe to pull guts out

Most hunters in Texas shoot from elevated blinds. Those placements will have a downward angle, even at 100 yards, which seems to be a Texas standard unit of measurement for blind/feeder set-ups. There is minimal meat loss, and the deer drop dead right there, with no adrenaline rush which helps the quality of the flavor and tenderness of the meat in the opinion of some.

Severing the upper end of the thoracic spine is like flipping the breaker box master switch. Being able to very reliably place shots within 1" is important to this shot placement.





Going just forward of the shoulder 1/3 to 1/2 from the top of the back does the same thing.



If the shot is not comfortable for whatever reason, then go diagonally between the front of one leg and behind the other, or into the shoulder area. There is much more skeleton and body mass to receive the energy, and there is a larger area to hit. I use this placement for longer shots, especially if it is windy.

This was about 375 yards with a 308 and 175 SMK's.



This is the exit on the diagonal through the chest with entry forward of the offside shoulder. 308 again with 175 SMK's with my wife doing the shooting.

Bottom line is know how to put a bullet in something vital from any angle. The better you are at this the more shot opportunities you will have. You also have to know your gun and your limits. .223 will kill a deer but may not have the penetration to reach the vitals on a angled shot (excluding head and neck shots) where as a 375 ruger would.

In the crease behind the shoulder about 1/2 way down. I try to avoid ruining as much meat as possible, since I like to hunt so I can avoid the grocery store meat department.

So far my experience with aiming where I placed the dots is nothing but DRT, right where they stood. 2 from a 20ft tree stand and 1 leaning against the fence behind my house at 290yds with the bar 308. Al of this is in the thick woods at or in LA. I dont particularly like pulling my deer out of the swamp so this is where my father taught me to aim in order to keep from being nasty, muddy, wet, and having to clean it after all that.

WOW A SMK DID THAT

Neck, middle, infront of sholder

Yes sir. 175 SMK's from a 308.

I want to know where you guys are finding all of these deer with targets already on them. That shore would be handy and wouldn't make my head hurt so much tryin' to figger out where to choot'em!

South Texas brush warrants DRT shots.

Doe kills - head shots...save meat

Bucks - high shoulder shots...DRT, and I wont miss a little shoulder meat from a buck

X2
My uncle shot a decent 8pt in Madisonville and the shot blew the heart into 4pieces yet it jumped the fence, crossed the road, jump the other fence and took off into the neighbor's property

Small centerfires, neck. Or quartered away low behind the shoulder. Anything else a high shoulder shot or neck.

Gave up on head shots huh?

This is how a large bidied Axis buck reacts to a high shoulder shot

No, never said that. He usually goes for neck. But this was a buck. And come to think of it he usually goes for the boiler room........but that don't stop me from my neck shots.

Yep. That how it should be.
That's how our deer react I guess you could say

I like lower, just behind the shoulder. I've used many different guns and with a bullet that expands, that shot seems to always anchor them. Most of my kills have been with a .244 Remington loaded with 85 grain bullets. It's deadly (or should I say "used to be deadly") out to about 300 yds. Probably some of you younger hunters could stretch that a bit, but my eyes are getting too old for long shots.

This.... 100gr Win Supreams about 2-4 in infront of the neck..... they will fall down

Option A




option B

I would have continued on both options and pulled the trigger rifleman.

Y'all some 2yo slaughters... 2nd one is the buck my FIL tried out the RRP 280 on.

You calling that 2nd buck a 2yr old?

X2

I feel sorry for any deer that isn't a 10pt at birth around ranchman

3 tops and that's just because of the staining

He is, no question on that one.

My poor lil 9pt would have gotten cut

I will agree fully on 3 but now way 2.

2, aged @ 4.5 this past yr.