Shoulder shots

[KCramer]

Situational for me

 

[375Shooter]

Where I am at, using a shotgun is the only legal method for deer hunting. The terrain is quite hilly, with quite a bit of brush - you may only get a shot at a quarter of the animal at best. Shoulder shots anchor well and do not destroy too much meat. It is situational, but yes, I will take a shoulder shot if it will fill the freezer.

 

[Snowboy]

First off just want to ask how many guys here try to shoot animals in the shoulder? Secondly I want to know why? Not trying to be a edited just would like to see the reasons behind this.

If you are an excellent marksman and the conditions are perfect then why shoot a shoulder when a spine shot will bring down your target instantly with less meat damage.
I would recommend a lung shot every time. Without both lungs your target will not get far. Oh they are the largest organ also easy target.

 

[Memberberries]

With the exception of very narrow shot windows I prefer behind the shoulder and it's never let me down but sometimes you have to track them a few yards.

I've only ever not recovered one doe, shot her through the shoulder with a 308 and she made it 30 yards and disappeared into thicket on the other side of the property line (not on good terms with the neighbor) huge blood trail that I couldn't follow due to politics.....

Only one other buck have I taken a shoulder shot and lost 11lbs of meat to bullet and bone schrapnel. Lung shot deer lose a couple ribs worth of meat at most.

 

[esshup]

Distance, what gun I'm using and animal behavior dictate where I shoot deer/elk. If the animal is calm and the wind isn't bad, less than 100 yds it's head/neck. Any further than that and I aim behind the shoulder to miss the scapula, but high enough that I hit the spine or go right under the spine. Either shot the animal is DRT, no tracking.

I have had heart shot deer that didn't have a piece of the heart left that was bigger than a golf ball run 75-100 yds. At times the terrain makes it a LOT easier for recovery if the critter is DRT.

Hogs? I was told years ago to shoot them in FRONT of the shoulder where their neck makes a crease in the skin when they move their head side to side, and 1/3 down from the top of the neck. Every one I've hit right there was DRT too.

 

[340Wby-4-everything]

As one previously said, on dangerous game, shoulder is a must as if you leave them mobility, they will kill you or try. Mtn game - goats and sheep, etc, to keep them from going off cliffs and then with African game, since the heart and lungs are protected by the shoulder internal anatomy is slightly forward, if you shoot behind shoulder for the boiler room, you may likely loose animal to the bush and or be in for miles of tracking and even worse, if you wound and lose them, you pay anyway.

 

[Kaptoe]

Too much experience on this site to start an argument and I don't want to. Most of you are probably better hunters than me anyway. My failures are more informed by bow than rifle but all, not some of my lost animals have been from forward shots. I have found every animal eventually that I have gut shot. Granted some meat spoilage etc.

My aversion for front shots, particularly with a bow is so great, when I lost an elk in 2016 I told myself "if you shoot one more animal forward with your bow just stop hunting with it,"

 

[SnowbirdUT]

Shoulder shhots for me have always cost allot of meat. Since I started shooti g Bergers I shoot 6 inches behind the front leg at mid body. Animals collapse on the spot and no blood loss

I shoot for the same spot on mule deer, antelope and elk (haven't drawn a moose or bison tag yet). We like to eat the animals we harvest and I lose a lot of meat when I hit the shoulder.

I use Berger bullets. When we hit the animals in the hart/lungs, there is lots of blood and the animal falls quickly. The tricky part in Utah is that the terrain is steep and thick with sage brush and scrub oak. We've shot animals that tumbled several hundred yards which makes it difficult to find.

I shot a cow elk yesterday with a 270 WSM using the 170 gr elite hunter. Not a long shot. The animal was quartering away slightly. I shot the back of the hart/lung area and parts of the bullet exited just behind the far shoulder (I found parts of the bullet in the far side of animal). I hit 1" of the scapula on the off side. Didn't lose much meat but was bummed my shot placement wasn't better.

 

[Yotekiller]

If wind call isn't 100% I'm aiming for high shoulder. It offers a wide margin for error and most of the animals are going to buckle right in their tracks and never take a step.

 

[Tulsa Reiner]

First off just want to ask how many guys here try to shoot animals in the shoulder? Secondly I want to know why? Not trying to be a edited just would like to see the reasons behind this.

Kip Adams, wildlife biologist and education coordinator for the Quality Deer Management Association published an article in 2019 explaining why hunters should aim for the center of the shoulder, straight above the foreleg, and halfway between the back and bottom of the chest. He showed anatomical drawings illustrating that this shot will NOT likely hit the humerus (upper leg bone) because of the way the humerus angles forward to the shoulder joint, and the shot WILL be the most likely to hit the heart. Of course, this is true for straight lateral shots only. Adjustments have to be made for quartering shots.

 

[flylo]

I like neck shots, break the spine & he's not going anywhere.

 

[krinkansas]

I used the high shoulder shot a lot in Africa when shooting bait for leopard. I didn't pack the correct ratio of soft/solids and ended up going through my softs quick. I had to got to solids so I didn't run out of softs. I shot 8 or so impala and 3 zebra with shoulder shots using solids. I was blown away at how they just crumple in their tracks. a few ran after the shot but we didn't have to track far.

 

[DWier]

Base of neck. DRT. If not, you missed and not an injured animal. My preference but not always possible.

 

[deaddownrange]

I always try for opposite shoulder if I can. But I have learned that you will miss 100% of the shots not taken.