Re: Neck Shots, advantages, disadvantages
A lot of this has already been said. I'm posting just to reinforce what has been written above. All of this is qualified by "in my experience" and IMO.
I'm sixty-five and have hunted for most of my life here in the Texas Hill Country. My hunting has been primarily for the freezer, population control, and culling. I typically shoot several deer per season. Many have gone to friends, the Salvation Army, and Hunters for the Hungry. My first deer was shot over fifty years ago with an open sighted 30-30 just behind the shoulders, through the lungs. It ran about 70 yards, leaving a blood trail.
Got four axis deer this winter with four shots, each through the shoulder. Two with 3006 and two with 308. Three dropped where shot and the fourth ran about fifteen yards. The axis are overrunning the Texas Hill Country and out competing the whitetails for food. They are not considered native game animals by the Texas Parks and Wildlife department and there is no closed season or bag limit. In drought conditions, the axis and whitetails eat the forbs and browse until they are gone and then the axis switch to dried grass and the whitetail starve to death. A game biologist told me the Texas whitetail do not have the stomach bacteria to digest dried grass. Don't know about whitetails in other areas.
For the last twenty-five years, I have used a Remington 700 ADL 308 with conservatively handloaded Sierra 150 gr spitzer boat tails for almost of the deer, taken from twenty yards to 225 yards. The Barnes tipped TSX would be my choice now, but I have enough of the Sierra's to last the rest of my life. Before then, for a while I used a Remington 600 in 243 with 100 grain spitzers. With the 18.5 inch barrel, the muzzle blast was very impressive. I got many decisive kills, but also lost a couple of deer I didn't think I should have. So I switched to the 308.
For a while I did neck shots. "You either drop them or miss them." Not necessarily. Neck shots can be impressive kills, and don't damage as much meat as some other shots, but I once used a neck shot on a whitetail with the 243 and had it go down like it was hit in the head with a hammer. When it hit the gound, it bounced back up like the ground was a trampoline and it disappeared in a flash. All I could do was sit there with my mouth open.
As mentioned by some of the posters above, on another neck shot attempt, the doe raised her head at the moment the shot broke. Fortunately, she ran about five yards and then stopped, and I got her with the second attempt. I didn't touch her with the first shot.
IMO, if one is going to make a neck shot one should try to visualize where the spine is in the neck and shoot for that inch or so of spine rather than shoot for the center of the neck top to bottom. IMO, the spine is about thirty percent of the way down from the top of the neck.
I know of a couple of head shots which resulted in a deer with no lower jaw. A shot through the heart and/or lungs will kill and they may run some, but there should be enough blood leaking out to leave a good trail. That's assuming one is using a cartridge which will penetrate completely and exit after having expanded. As a well know shooter/hunter is reported to have said, "A wide expanded bullet lets a lot of air in and a lot of blood out."
I heard recently "Shoot them in the base of the ear". I'll have to study that anatomically. It helps to be up on your game species anatomy.
I've heard it said that one should visualize a basket ball or soccer ball in the forward lower part of their torso and shoot for the center of the basketball regardless of the angle. Actually, I believe the heart is usually lower than the center of the ball due to gravity, but if you shoot for the heart you risk missing low or maybe only breaking a leg. It is amazing how far a deer can go when wounded without a killing shot. There are major blood vessels above the heart. So aiming just above the heart will usually kill effectively, even given a rifle which groups in 1.5 inch at 100 yards. Shooting as described will also usually damage one or both shoulders, reducing mobility.
Even so, I once shot a deer which was broadside to me through the shoulders just before dark with my 308 and it ran into some extensive brush. I couldn't find any blood at all that evening and didn't find the deer. I hunted from the same stand the next morning, and after finishing hunting, I went walking in the area where the deer might be and found it. It had run 40-50 yards before expiring. Even knowing where it started out and ended up, I couldn't find a blood trail. The bullet went through below the spine, but high enough to not take out a lot of blood leaking tissue.
My conclusion is that being certain of your rifle, sighting, ammunition, and knowledgeable on the anatomy is important in making humane kills. This includes being aware of trajectory and distance. Missing the range by fifty yards makes a bigger difference at 500 yards than 150 yards, true, but it still is important to get the distance correct at shorter ranges, especially if one is trying for a neck/spine or head shot.
"Point blank range", wherein your trajectory is no more than 3, 4, 5, pick a number of inches above or below your line of sight sounds good, but I believe that knowing your range and shooting for a specific square inch on the deer's hide to get internal structure/organs is better.
For what it is worth and your mileage may vary.
A lot of this has already been said. I'm posting just to reinforce what has been written above. All of this is qualified by "in my experience" and IMO.
I'm sixty-five and have hunted for most of my life here in the Texas Hill Country. My hunting has been primarily for the freezer, population control, and culling. I typically shoot several deer per season. Many have gone to friends, the Salvation Army, and Hunters for the Hungry. My first deer was shot over fifty years ago with an open sighted 30-30 just behind the shoulders, through the lungs. It ran about 70 yards, leaving a blood trail.
Got four axis deer this winter with four shots, each through the shoulder. Two with 3006 and two with 308. Three dropped where shot and the fourth ran about fifteen yards. The axis are overrunning the Texas Hill Country and out competing the whitetails for food. They are not considered native game animals by the Texas Parks and Wildlife department and there is no closed season or bag limit. In drought conditions, the axis and whitetails eat the forbs and browse until they are gone and then the axis switch to dried grass and the whitetail starve to death. A game biologist told me the Texas whitetail do not have the stomach bacteria to digest dried grass. Don't know about whitetails in other areas.
For the last twenty-five years, I have used a Remington 700 ADL 308 with conservatively handloaded Sierra 150 gr spitzer boat tails for almost of the deer, taken from twenty yards to 225 yards. The Barnes tipped TSX would be my choice now, but I have enough of the Sierra's to last the rest of my life. Before then, for a while I used a Remington 600 in 243 with 100 grain spitzers. With the 18.5 inch barrel, the muzzle blast was very impressive. I got many decisive kills, but also lost a couple of deer I didn't think I should have. So I switched to the 308.
For a while I did neck shots. "You either drop them or miss them." Not necessarily. Neck shots can be impressive kills, and don't damage as much meat as some other shots, but I once used a neck shot on a whitetail with the 243 and had it go down like it was hit in the head with a hammer. When it hit the gound, it bounced back up like the ground was a trampoline and it disappeared in a flash. All I could do was sit there with my mouth open.
As mentioned by some of the posters above, on another neck shot attempt, the doe raised her head at the moment the shot broke. Fortunately, she ran about five yards and then stopped, and I got her with the second attempt. I didn't touch her with the first shot.
IMO, if one is going to make a neck shot one should try to visualize where the spine is in the neck and shoot for that inch or so of spine rather than shoot for the center of the neck top to bottom. IMO, the spine is about thirty percent of the way down from the top of the neck.
I know of a couple of head shots which resulted in a deer with no lower jaw. A shot through the heart and/or lungs will kill and they may run some, but there should be enough blood leaking out to leave a good trail. That's assuming one is using a cartridge which will penetrate completely and exit after having expanded. As a well know shooter/hunter is reported to have said, "A wide expanded bullet lets a lot of air in and a lot of blood out."
I heard recently "Shoot them in the base of the ear". I'll have to study that anatomically. It helps to be up on your game species anatomy.
I've heard it said that one should visualize a basket ball or soccer ball in the forward lower part of their torso and shoot for the center of the basketball regardless of the angle. Actually, I believe the heart is usually lower than the center of the ball due to gravity, but if you shoot for the heart you risk missing low or maybe only breaking a leg. It is amazing how far a deer can go when wounded without a killing shot. There are major blood vessels above the heart. So aiming just above the heart will usually kill effectively, even given a rifle which groups in 1.5 inch at 100 yards. Shooting as described will also usually damage one or both shoulders, reducing mobility.
Even so, I once shot a deer which was broadside to me through the shoulders just before dark with my 308 and it ran into some extensive brush. I couldn't find any blood at all that evening and didn't find the deer. I hunted from the same stand the next morning, and after finishing hunting, I went walking in the area where the deer might be and found it. It had run 40-50 yards before expiring. Even knowing where it started out and ended up, I couldn't find a blood trail. The bullet went through below the spine, but high enough to not take out a lot of blood leaking tissue.
My conclusion is that being certain of your rifle, sighting, ammunition, and knowledgeable on the anatomy is important in making humane kills. This includes being aware of trajectory and distance. Missing the range by fifty yards makes a bigger difference at 500 yards than 150 yards, true, but it still is important to get the distance correct at shorter ranges, especially if one is trying for a neck/spine or head shot.
"Point blank range", wherein your trajectory is no more than 3, 4, 5, pick a number of inches above or below your line of sight sounds good, but I believe that knowing your range and shooting for a specific square inch on the deer's hide to get internal structure/organs is better.
For what it is worth and your mileage may vary.
