Shoulder Shot

[ET]

I have heard numerous times of the mention of a shoulder shot to drop a deer. Let me share an experience with one deer that someone else tried a shoulder shot on. While deboning a deer I found a bullet hole through the scapula. This deer obviously survived a shoulder shot and healed because I didn’t see any anomaly from his movements. He didn’t survive a boiler room shot and didn’t get more than 50yds. The only time I’ve seen a drop right there is from a spinal shot.



As for the spinal shot I was aiming at the boiler room and believe the deer tried to duck at the sound of the shot. He just didn’t duck far enough.



Anyway I would enjoy hearing from others of shot placement on a deer.

[rambler]

Excellent post

[tar12]

I shoot a lot of deer through the depredation program here..with a centerfire...and almost with out exception they are high shoulder shots...DRT...I am not chasing and tracking if I dont have to..I can honestly say not one single deer has survived the shoulder shot...bullet choice and construction plays a large role in this.I find deer every year here either dead or wounded..some reasons are obvious...poor shot placement being the number one reason and I believe not using enough gun to be a close second..in recent years they legalized the use of .410s here...I personally feel that was a huge mistake..I understand it was done to provide the younger ones with the opportunity to hunt deer...but in IMO its not enough gun in inexperienced hands or seasoned hands for that matter...I bring this up as I have seen first hand why the .410 is a bad idea with wounds very similar in size to what you pictured...I also witnessed first hand my best friend shooting a doe at 60 yards broadside in the shoulder with Savage 50 cal.pushing a 250 grn SST with 44 grains of 5744 ...she went down hard but was up and running quickly with a moon pie shaped crater on her shoulder..we were both stunned! After jumping her 2 times over the course of 300 yards we jumped her for the final time along a overgrown canal...she broke to my side and the 60 grns of Vit 120 pushing the BO ended her run..now get this! After she was field dressed we got her hung in the barn and peeled her hide off to discover a modern broadhead lodged in her vertebrae that was encased and healed!Thats not the end! She also had a conical lodged in her right rear ham that had healed! As we were peeling off her hide 2 pieces of buck shot rolled out!Buck shot is not even legal here!As to her shoulder wound? That SST had just exploded on her shoulder with one small fragment making it through...

[71yella]

I lost a nice buck 3yrs ago while shooting a CVA inline,, 2 50gr pellets and 240XTP mag, about 90yd shot, gun was acting funny and not shooting as well as it had in past, at the shot it knocked him down and I watched in disbelief as it scrambled to his feet after crappie flopping around for few seconds. Looked for rest of the day and half the next only to get pictures of him 2 weeks later about 1/2 mile away with a nice dime sized wound in about the exact place as your picture. I think bullet passed under the spine and didn't expand at all with only 100gr charge. I no longer shoot xtp mags in MZ. Wife shot a doe yesterday with her optima and 200shockwave 2pellets, instant blood trail and dead deer about 120yds away.