I shoot 'em as near to the road as possible...

Seriously.... The 270 is an EXCELLENT whitetail cartridge and you will get consistent bang/flop anytime you get a good clean double lunger.

I've never seen it fail and you ruin almost NO meat.

Use the ole standard 130gr almost any brand bullet.

The 270 moves 'em plenty fast to get massive blood and shock trauma resulting in an instant flop if banged well.

$bob$

Read this analysis of several hundred whitetail kills at a southern hunting club and draw your own conclusions:

http://www.scilowcountry.org/cedar_knoll_deer_study.htm

It appears that a shot through both shoulders is the best way to drop a deer in it's tracks.

I often "hunt the fencline" here on the home ranch and I always prefer a double lung shot. I use Hornady Interlocks for deer and have never had one go over 75 yards after being punched correctly. In Missouri if you shoot a deer and it goes onto adjoining property the landowner of said property must allow you to recover the shot deer. You must however notify the landowner first. I had a deer go onto an unfriendly neighbor once and after a little chat and showing the guy the blood trail he helped me find the doe that I had gutshot (I was young and excited). He did not however help me field dress the deer. As I was leaving he thanked me for being responsible enough to follow up on my bad shot and told me that I didn't need to ask to track wounded deer across his property anymore just get after it. Since this he and I have been on good terms.

I see alot of posts about how to get "bang flops" and I always wonder if the poster is trying to be responsible or are truly going to have trouble if the deer gets across a property boundry or if they just can't track wounded animals. That is too much to think about when you have a good legal shot at a deer. Just think about getting that 270 cal bullet in the boiler room and watch that deer until it goes down or out of sight, then go to the deer or the place you shot it. If it was where you aimed you will have a blood trail Ray Charles could follow.

as a bowhunter we aim at the heart but many deer will croutch for a fraction of a second before they string jump the arrow and we usually double lung them- which is the best way to hit a deer with an arrow.
when I hunt with my 30.06 I prefer a neck shot unless the deer is more tha 200yards- then I'll aim for the shoulder

I always try to double lung behind the shoulder broadside.
They NEVER make 100 yards.I did shoot a big buck in both
shoulders and he dropped in his tracks.Heart shots they
dropped or most of the time made a short 50 yard or less
dash.The only 2 deer I shot that ever went over 100 yards were liver shot.IF you leave them alone they tend to go a
short distance (100-200 yards) and lay down.LEAVE them
for a couple hours.If you track right away they will
jump up and can go a long way.

My advise is to hunt 200 yards from the boundry,take
good shots,heart/lung and you'll do just fine.

The 270 and 130 grain pills is poison on deer.

Shooting deer in the shoulders wastes too much meat. At long ranges, the shoulder IS the best shot for dropping a deer in its tracks, but deer aren't hard to stalk.

My average shot distance on deer is 48 yards.

i'll string along with jeff's advice, except i might make the observation that managing to bust BOTH shoulders can be as diffcult as a headshot in some ways.



the sure-fire way to drop a deer FAST and also actually hit the deer is with a rapidly-expandding bullet to the lungs. in 98-99% of the cases, you will see a deer drop within yards of where it was shot, both due to the shock of the hit and the fact that it can't breathe. my research indicates that if you hit the heart also, then that's great, but if you hit the heart without the lungs, you might be doing a tracking job.



in my opinion, the fact that a lung shot is easy to do and works in such a high percentage gives it a better chance for success, even if the head, neck and double shoulder shots will drop a deer instantly. a deer can run very far with one leg, and, like a head or neck shot, a small miscalculation can mean the difference between busting one shoulder or two.



go with the percentages and go with a lung-shot. it's the one that consistently and always will provide a quick kill and a deer on the ground in short order. a rapidly expanding bullet is a must. a softpoint or some kind of bonded plastic tip would be advisable; maybe sierra's hollowppoint GAMEking (not MATCHking!)



[edit] aside from the chance of a botched shot, the shoulder shot wastes a LOT of meat, whether you hit one or both. there is simply too much good meat up in the front quarters to waste on a shot that has only a 50/50 chance for success.

It eludes me why people make this so complicated. Either shot will work well.

However, anyone professing that a double lung shot if more effective than a shoulder is misinformed in my opinion. Guess what lives between a deer's shoulders? Answer: the lungs. A double shoulder shot IS a double lung shot. A shoulder shot does much more damage than a pure double lung shot but also has the advantage of hitting both lungs. The only downside is that it does ruin MUCH more meat. As a general rule, the more an injury causes pain with ambulation (broken bones), the less an animal will run if not pushed. Where I like to hunt, if a deer were to run 100 yards, it might be very hard to find.

My favorite shot is a slight quartering (away or towards) where I can hit one scapulae/femur, the heart and both lungs. With this shot you typically get an animal that will not move and only destroy one shoulder.

So, the choice of where to target an animal is dependant on terrain/location, bullet selection/durability, importance of saving meat and marksmanship.

Wes

Wes

As has been said, only a central nervous system hit will instantly take a deer down.

I prefer a behind the shoulder double lung hit. Most deer so hit drop in sight. Shooting the shoulders doesn't seem to make a huge difference, unless you break both of them, which requires a pefect broadisde and a little luck to boot a lot of the time. I prefer to stay off the shoulders and save the meat.

Don't hunt right on the property line, because sooner or later, a deer will get across. If you stay a few hundred yards away from the property lines, you'll probably never have a well hit deer get off the land you're allowed to hunt.

Many a Deer and Elk has fallen to the .270 with 130 Noslers and 140 Bearclaws right behind the front shoulder and even odder angles.A good bullet in the .270 works on anything in Idaho right behind the front shoulder.

Jayco

Tony,

You forgot to mention "in a county where the season is open."

Most of my deer hunting has been with the 270 and many have been heart shot. They have run from 30 feet to 40 yards---after coming down from a jump where all four legs flapped out sideways. Never have had one just fall over dead with the 270.