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Hunting & Fishing True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

#51
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Never had made a neck shot before, but this year I'm processing all the meat myself, and wanted to preserve as much as possible. I hunt with either a .30-30 or .300WSM, depending on whether I'll be in the woods or on a field, respectively. The above posting about magnum calibers being key to neck shots made sense though to me. So here it is from yesterday, in Vandalia, Missouri. Winchester Supreme Elite in .300 WSM, dropped right where I shot it, kicked for a few seconds then was done. Now to try my hand at making my own jerky/burger...

NeckShot.jpg
 
#52
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Never attempted neck or head shots in my years of hunting. Followed the fathers footsteps in his teaching ways of going for the heart or double lung shot. Always worked for me. I have taken all my deer and elk with single shot kills, my elk this year was taken with my .243 shooting 55 gr winchester ballistic silvertips at 120 yards. Dropped with a heart shot....didnt even take a step. pinky entry hole golf ball exit, no meat waste. Admittedly usually shoot a .270 w/130gr bullets but had the little one for mule hunting that day,and mistakenly took the 55 gr clip and not 95gr, but managed to bugle in and harvest a 5x5 bull elk.
To each their own, do what works best for you.
 
#53
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Apparently I'm doing the impossible.

I've taken 30 or so whitetails this year with a .223AI and 75gr Amax's in the neck, a few inches below the head. Furthest was 165yds. Most are in the 130yds range. All have dropped and been DRT. None have taken a step. All shots from a cheap 2 person ladder stand, or my climber. I'm usually cold, tired, hungover and have to pee really bad.

Most of these shots have been in the tall grass on the border of thickets and swampy areas. Places where I don't want to go trudging around in the dark with a flashlight. Or trudging around at all. I'll leave the tracking jobs to someone else who has a greater affinity for snakes and briars.

Would I do this with a factory barreled rifle like those used by the majority of the hunting populace? No damn way. But given the right equipment and ammo, I'm not doing 'dark magic' like people keep telling me I am.

There's two arteries, a wind pipe and a spinal column wrapped up in an impressive nerve bundle, encased in a small amount of tissue. A grazing miss would be a flesh wound....
 
#54
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I'm happy for those of you with success at this. A couple weeks back the property owner where I hunt returned feeling sick about his hunt. Last year he'd shot a nice buck in the head on purpose at over 100 yds. This year he tried to shoot one in the upper neck. His aim was off and he hit it in the head (just a few inches from point of aim) and knocked it down. It got back up and ran; it appeared he'd destroyed its left eye but last seen it was half a mile away and still going.

The two does with it spooked and came by me 3/4 a mile away, I put one low through the brisket of one, ruining no useful meat, and she was down in just a few seconds, no fuss no muss.
 
#55
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I prefer high shoulder or neck shots and just confirmed again last week why. About 4:45 I was sitting in a ground blind on a large field with my brother when three deer popped out, one at 125 yards and two at 260 yards. He decided he would take the close one and I would take the two furthest so we went to town. I dropped the first one in its tracks with a high shoulder shot with a 155gr scenar, and began to get on the second when they spooked from my brother firing 2 rounds and missing. The deer began running and I knew a high shoulder running shot wasn't going to be possible so I went to the vitals and held my lead on this deer running full out, pulled the trigger, saw red mist and heard the THWACK. The bullet smacked the deer in the vitals liquifying the heart and lungs and blowing its underside out. The deer ran 150 yards dropping more blood than I had ever seen, there was a 12" wide blood trail the whole way to the deer. It was easy to track even through the thicket it ran into but I still don't like to have to recover deer or drag them out of the woods, I like to drive my truck to them and load them up right where they went down. Shoulder or neck shots for me.

Here's the exit wound from the high shoulder shot.

IMAG0149.jpg


And here's the carnage from the vital shot. Lapua scenar's are devastating on game.

IMAG0150.jpg
 
#56
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ATH</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm happy for those of you with success at this. A couple weeks back the property owner where I hunt returned feeling sick about his hunt. Last year he'd shot a nice buck in the head on purpose at over 100 yds. This year he tried to shoot one in the upper neck. His aim was off and he hit it in the head (just a few inches from point of aim) and knocked it down. It got back up and ran; it appeared he'd destroyed its left eye but last seen it was half a mile away and still going.

The two does with it spooked and came by me 3/4 a mile away, I put one low through the brisket of one, ruining no useful meat, and she was down in just a few seconds, no fuss no muss. </div></div>

Bro I gotta ask, why would anyone want to shoot a nice buck in the head. I've only been doing this all my life practically, and I enthusiastically await a sensible answer!
 
#57
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Salmo22,
I've read your feelings on this on a few sites. Why don't you just tell everyone what you really think ?
Go a head and say it......Your just better than everyone else !

cool.gif


 
#58
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: A10XRIFLE</div><div class="ubbcode-body">IF everyone started taking Head/Neck shots there would be alot more wounded and unrecovered animals out there, Pretty much dead oppisite of your summory.

Neck: In the neck you have a 3" area that incapacitates everything else is tissue, hit one in the throat it will run a mile or 2 and then die.

Head : Brain and stem about 4-5 inches, the rest is bone and cartiladge, hit the mouth, nose, ears, jaw your just going to permanently maim the animal or kill it very slowly and horrificly. Added the fact that over 60 percent of hunters are hunting for both Trophies and Meat the head shot pretty much blows a nice headmount/shouldermount out of the picture.

The best post I've seen on the subject.


Best shot is a Heart/Lung combo they are dead within 20-30 seconds even if they run off they are always found as the blood trail is easy to follow. Better shot is possibly a high shoulder shot where you get the spine and lungs both. This shot is always a one shot stop but the amimal probably suffers more then the Heart/Lung combo as he, eventhough paralized has to drown on its own blood.


Think about it, out of the Millions of hunters less than 1 percent could repeat with precision and accuratly make the shots your talking about, the other 99 percent would just make a mess. </div></div>

The best post I've seen on the subject.
 
#59
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I sit on both sides of this fence. Long story short, I will not be taking the same shot on a deer that is 30 yards away instead of 300 yards. When they are feeding in to you with their head down, their spine sticks out just a little and makes a great bullseye. This goes for archery as well, though if you shoot expensive broadheads, i warn you may not be getting it back out of the vertebrate undamaged.
 
#61
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I am mostly a lurker on here but I feel strongly about the subject.
After 25+ years of hunting as a 'meat' or 'table' hunter and guiding professionally for deer, bear and elk, neck shooting to me means zero tracking, without exception. Not even one.
I Have guided hunters my whole life and can't tell you how many people track their animals because they try to make up for shot placement by buying a bigger caliber and shooting for what they think is a heart/lung shot. Many times they wind up in the guts and guess who ends up tracking and finishing off the game.

Neck shooters forever.
 
#62
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: redneckbmxer24</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I prefer high shoulder or neck shots and just confirmed again last week why. About 4:45 I was sitting in a ground blind on a large field with my brother when three deer popped out, one at 125 yards and two at 260 yards. He decided he would take the close one and I would take the two furthest so we went to town. I dropped the first one in its tracks with a high shoulder shot with a 155gr scenar, and began to get on the second when they spooked from my brother firing 2 rounds and missing. The deer began running and I knew a high shoulder running shot wasn't going to be possible so I went to the vitals and held my lead on this deer running full out, pulled the trigger, saw red mist and heard the THWACK. The bullet smacked the deer in the vitals liquifying the heart and lungs and blowing its underside out. The deer ran 150 yards dropping more blood than I had ever seen, there was a 12" wide blood trail the whole way to the deer. It was easy to track even through the thicket it ran into but I still don't like to have to recover deer or drag them out of the woods, I like to drive my truck to them and load them up right where they went down. Shoulder or neck shots for me.

Here's the exit wound from the high shoulder shot.

IMAG0149.jpg


And here's the carnage from the vital shot. Lapua scenar's are devastating on game.

IMAG0150.jpg
</div></div> Are the Scenars a dual purpose bullit? I didn't think the were, but how do they go against the SMK and Amax? Are they the better of the Match pills for hunting? Just wondering?
 
#63
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dagsta</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Bro I gotta ask, why would anyone want to shoot a nice buck in the head. I've only been doing this all my life practically, and I enthusiastically await a sensible answer! </div></div>

Your guess is as good as mine. He was lucky and the rack did not split. This was not a precision setup but a Ruger 77/44 shot sitting on a stool.

For those posting pictures showing blown out necks and bragging on not wasting any meat, have you ever actually processed a deer? The neck contains several large muscles and, on any decent-sized deer, there is a significant amount of meat there. Way more than the thin, useless meat between the ribs that you shoot through for an under the shoulder lung/heart shot. So congrats, you just wasted several pounds of good eating venison blowing that neck out.

When I started hunting (and I am not that old), success was putting a bullet through the vitals so the deer was down in seconds even if that meant a short death run. Now, it seems everyone feels the need to launch an RPG into a deer, leave a gaping hole you can stick your fist through, and anything but a DRT is some kind of failure. It should not surprise me when I turn on Sunday morning hunting shows and hear them talking of how the 300WM is the minimum acceptable cartridge for whitetails.
 
#64
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

We had this same Heart vs. neck talk at the lease a couple weeks ago. Thansgiving morn I tried it out. Shot 2 does, one heart/lung at 125, one neck at 175. I had never shot one in the neck before. Vital shot deer went down right there but flopped a couple times on the ground, neck shot deer was DRT(dead right there). So this has kinda made me a believer in the neck shot, but only if shot can be placed with precision.
 
#65
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: clay_breaker</div><div class="ubbcode-body">We had this same Heart vs. neck talk at the lease a couple weeks ago. Thansgiving morn I tried it out. Shot 2 does, one heart/lung at 125, one neck at 175. I had never shot one in the neck before. Vital shot deer went down right there but flopped a couple times on the ground, neck shot deer was DRT(dead right there). So this has kinda made me a believer in the neck shot, but only if shot can be placed with precision. </div></div>

Welcome to the club! Pick a caliber you are very comfortable with and then pick your shot. Glad to hear your story.
 
#66
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Living with the biggest brown bears in the world, NOBODY will take a neck/head shot at these bears. The preferred shot on a brown bear is front shoulder. Breaks their front end down, and blows bullet and bone through the heart and lungs. I prefer lung shots on deer as well, no meat loss, the deer usually go less than 50 yards with huge blood trails. I load a slow heavy bullet in my 375 and usually they are dead in their tracks. Same with, 30-06, .308, 30-30, .243, etc. It is the preferred shot in most people's opinion.
 
#67
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I shoot all of my deer in the neck. in the thick brush I hunt on, shooting a deer in the lungs means a good chance of not finding your deer, unless you want to call out someone with a tracking dog. I've shot three this year, and all of them dropped with severed spines. they still kick around... nerves I suppose, but after shooting a deer in the shoulder 4 years ago, and not finding him for another week (nothing left but part of the spine and the skull), I go for the neck shots. It works for me. May not work for everyone though.

if I started hunting in a different area where trackign an animal wasn't so difficult, shooting the heart lung area would be a better deal
 
#69
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

125 yards and closer I shoot in the head, and they obviously don't run with half their head missing. Of course if its a nice buck just take the standard heart shot.
 
#70
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MuleHunter</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> High shoulder shot has a much higher kill percentage (heart, shoulder, neck, lungs, spine) than the neck/head shot (brain, artery, spine).</div></div>

this is why i go for the vitals. a .308 on a deer will just about drop one right there with a decent shot.

quick story: buddy of mine has tons of mldp permits to fill every year and they always shoot ever single doe in the neck to keep from damaging the meat. he is an excellent shot and has taken more deer right now than i will in my life time. he was sitting by himself one day and took a shot at a doe under the feeder. he thought it was a good shot but she didnt drop, not even stumble, just headed for the hills. he checked for blood, no sign of it, so he assumed he had missed and didn't bother to tell anyone back at camp.

the next afternoon, his dad bags a doe that was under the feeder he was at. he said that "every time the doe would get a mouth full of corn, start chewing and raise her head to look around while eating, corn would fall out of her neck, i couldnt tell when was wrong with her". the day before, my buddy had shot a clean hole through her throat that i guess didn't really wound her at all. when they looked at her closely, you could see daylight through either side of the hole. think if that deer had not been bagged the next day, that might have been a pretty slow death...

im not a supporter of head shots either. if you are a good enough marksmen to do it, by all means go for it. i am not confident enough in my abilities, and i would hate to blow the bottom jaw or nose off a deer, have it run off and die a day later. thinking about doing that to a deer makes me sick to my stomach. i believe one must be absolutely certain in their abilities to make a shot, and should have taken the shot many times in practice on targets or something before trying something like this on an animal.
 
#71
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kyle1974</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I shoot all of my deer in the neck. in the thick brush I hunt on, shooting a deer in the lungs means a good chance of not finding your deer, unless you want to call out someone with a tracking dog.

if I started hunting in a different area where trackign an animal wasn't so difficult, shooting the heart lung area would be a better deal </div></div>

you hunt in south texas? i agree on that. how hard it is to track the animal affects what kind of shot you take. i just think that hunters should be confident in their abilities to make that shot before taking it.
 
#72
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I've shot two animals through the head and it was not my first choice. In both cases, they were close but running away from me. One was a calf elk @ 35 yards and it took a follow-up shot through the ribs although the head shot went through the skull and exited above its nose. The other was a muley doe that was also behind some deadfall. All I could see was her head. That, despite being farther away (~80-90 yards) was more successful. She dropped and slid dead under another log.

Other than that, I have always aimed just behind the front shoulder and have found it to be very effective. Antelope it just drops. Elk and deer run 10-50 yards and bleed out. In all cases, there is little wasted meat. I would have hated to hit the 6x6 bull I got this year in the neck. There was a lot of good meat on him there. (For the record, that was with a puny .308).

Some good points have been made about not encouraging unpracticed shooters (esp. with so-so gear) from taking shots requiring more precision. I wholeheartedly agree. I see (and sometimes hunt with) guys every season who go out to the range once and fire off a box of ammo through their $450 hunting packages then call it good.
 
#73
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jackh</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kyle1974</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I shoot all of my deer in the neck. in the thick brush I hunt on, shooting a deer in the lungs means a good chance of not finding your deer, unless you want to call out someone with a tracking dog.

if I started hunting in a different area where trackign an animal wasn't so difficult, shooting the heart lung area would be a better deal </div></div>

you hunt in south texas? i agree on that. how hard it is to track the animal affects what kind of shot you take. i just think that hunters should be confident in their abilities to make that shot before taking it. </div></div>

mcmullen county. in some areas (usually where wounded game runs), it is extremeley thick... hard to see more than 10 feet or so. even with a good blood trail, it's hard to find them sometimes.
 
#74
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I have taken three bucks with kneck shots all died on the spot.
My brother just last week shot a buck in the kneck and it fell eyes open and didn't move. I have also shot bucks in the heart and lungs. One buck ran 120 yards while it pumped pieces of its heart into the snow before falling. I always go for kneck shots if it can be done. I have shot a buck in a dead run in the heart and it also kept going for a while.
 
#75
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

Some good points have been made about not encouraging unpracticed shooters (esp. with so-so gear) from taking shots requiring more precision. I wholeheartedly agree. I see (and sometimes hunt with) guys every season who go out to the range once and fire off a box of ammo through their $450 hunting packages then call it good. [/quote]

I know those guys, $50 scope on a $300 rifle that see's daylight 3 days out of the year. Some of them if they don't see anything to shoot at, haven't even been fired in 2-3 years. Dropped my doe this year with a neck shot at 200yds in high sage DRT. Guys at camp said they couldn't remember the last time someone killed an animal in one shot.
 
#76
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sootstorm</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Guys at camp said they couldn't remember the last time someone killed an animal in one shot. </div></div>

thats sad
 
#77
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I agree with most of you, high shoulder 99.9% of the time and they will be DRT. Where I hunt, Savannah River Swamp, some cut-downs get so thick, if the animal runs 50+ yards, you will most likely lose him. Thick isn't the word, you have to belly crawl through most of it.

So for deer, high shoulder everytime.

Small hogs, high shoulder.

Big Hogs, right behind the ear. I have seen big 350-400 lbs + hogs take shoulder shots and walk off too many times. The grissle pad on their shoulders can be 6" plus.

On another note, the meat loss arguement against shoulder shots has never made much sense to me. Yes you will lose some meat, lets say 5% on average. If you lose just one deer due to another type of shot placement, how much meat loss did you have on that one? 100% meat loss.
 
#78
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

I've got a couple whitetail deer with .223, 75 Amax. First was about 50 yards in the lungs and dropped cold but the second was in the shoulder through the heart at 200 yards away and went about 50 feet. Even though the heart was blown apart inside he could still run.

My hunting buddy got his first deer of the season last week that was facing us at 50 yards or less with a 270 Win. It went over 100 yards away and the bullet tore all the way from the chest and came out the back side.

So, it seems like it depends on shot placement and the will of the animal.
 
#79
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

punched my first neck shot monday on a small button buck. He stopped just long enough to see what interrupted his sleep in the jagger bushes. I was quietly stalking in behind them and he kicked up, ran out 12-15 yards and turned around. nice easy 30 yard shot but all i could see was head...i could not tell where the body was or how it was situated so i aimed 4" south of his jaw and sqeezed. he sucked his feet right up and bruised his belly button hitting the ground. this was with a 12ga lightfield 2-3/4 slug
 
#80
Re: True "One Shot" Kills - Neck vs. Heart/Lung Shots

so i take it that you NECK SHOT guys dont like a venison neck roast slowly cooked it a crock pot with all the fixins? just asking here.
 
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