I've been talking about this with my dad today, and he has always used neck shots on deer and elk. Many of
the experts seem to argue against this as a low percentage shot. It seems that neck shots account for more
instant kills than shots in the heart and lung area. The heart seems to be just as small a target as the spine,
but is there more room for error because if you miss you will probably hit a lung? I'm just trying to see what
most opinions are on this subject. It seems to me that the neck shot is a pretty dependable target area because
of the spine and the large arteries running blood directly to the brain.
What are your guys' thoughts?
300H&H

I am very comfortable with a high close to the head neck shot on game...It has always worked for me....A lower neck shot is risky if you do not break the spinal cord or vertabre or cut the juglar vein...I have seen quite a few animals wounded with lower neck shots...

The heart/lung area on elk and deer are just about a sure thing and you have an 12 ot 18 inch leeway....probably the better shot to take.

There is a lot more leeway in a chest shot not least because your bullet has to move a lot further away from the point of aim to give a wound that won't kill within 50yards or so.

Proponents of the neck shot often site that it is a kill or clean miss proposition which is very unimaginative. Depending on species a deviation of about 1.5" is a windpipe a nasty ultimately fatal but not recoverable wound. High neck shots have a nasty habit of hitting jaws, a truly awful wound.

If you do have to take a neck shot (and there are times you will have to if you are to shoot the deer eg cover obscuring the chest, high crops etc) make sure the deer is front on and at a range you can guarentee to hit the target from the position you are in.

When you shoot, reload instantly and cover the distance quickly to the downed animal, with this shot it is possible for the bullet to miss the major vessels and only shock the spinal cord causing the animal to fall and be incapacitated. In this case there is a chance that it will recover and be able to get up and run away.

When you get up to the animal take care! Both for it's sake and your sake. If the spinal cord is severed it's unconscious and depending on whether the major vessels are hit it might need bleeding. If it is a low neck shot there is a good chance that it is still concious but unable to move, consequently it will be terrified out of it's mind at the sight and smell of a human bending over it. Any doubts administer coup de grace quickly.

A neck shot is another club in the stalkers itinery, to solely neck shoot is limiting and IMHO asking for trouble, sooner or later you come unstuck. It has it's place and that's all.

Heart/Lung without a doubt.

Besides the other good reasons given above, access to the heart/lung area is another big plus. You won't always be confronted with a perfectly standing, broadside deer or elk for a killing neck shot. The heart/lung area will be available to you in many more situations.

Heart/ lungs every time for all the good reasons cited above.

Another good reason to avoid neck shots is that the neck is often the first thing to move while the deer’s body is still. How many times have you been watching a standing deer that is moving its head (and therefore neck) in an inquisitive manner?

A few years back I jaw shot a deer with a badly placed high neck shot. When I caught up with it and killed it 45 minutes later it gave me such a look of contempt that I vowed then and there always to try the lung/heart as the first option, even if it meant loosing a tiny percentage of meat. That decision cost me my “job” as a commercial venison hunter’s unpaid assistant, but it was worth it not to see the pitiful sight of a jaw shot deer.

No, it has got to be heart/lungs. In my experience a bullet in the heart or lungs is always fatal and very often drops them on the spot. It is a much more reliable than a neck shot, IMHO.

Ranges in excess of 100 metres do not even think about it unless you have that confidence in your own ability that only comes with good equipment, perfect conditions and plenty of experience.

Many years ago when I was first learning to hunt deer, I asked the old man that was teaching me" Where's the best place to shoot a deer?".
His response, "Shoot at the big part".
Think about it a little bit. From any angle, shooting at the largest mass presented will place a bullet through the heart lung area.
I have never had a deer travel more than 40 yards after a "heart lung" hit and that includes a big handfull of bow kills. But I did spend 7 hours after a nice buck shot through the brisket the first and last time I tried a neck shot. I did not get the buck but was fortunate to get a sighting 2 weeks after the season that showed me he had survived.

Heart/Lung bigger target better able to compensate for all those things that cause those sights to waver. We all like to beleave that we are "rock steady" when it comes time to pull that trigger but the reality is that those sight are moving all over the place especially if we had to move fast to get in front of moving game. Because of my mobility problems I have changed my shot point from H/L to center and sightly below center on the front shoulder. I shoot to break both shoulders because I can't chase after animals that don't know they are dead. Even with that shot placement if I'm a bit back I'm in the H/L area and if a bit forward I'm at the top of the aorta so I take out the heart and lungs anyway. I am old enough and have hunted enough that I can pass a shot that isn't what I want so I haven't put a bullet anywhere than in that shoulder since I started hunting with handguns in 1989. They die in place and meat damage with pistol calibers in't like what it would be with a wiz-bang, speed of light shooting matchkings, short, fat, warbird rifle round.

Oh and low necks shot deer will sometimes scream which is very unpleasant indeed. They're not even meat efficient as one shoulder is normaly caught.

Although my post generally agreed with the rest, I'm a bit miffed at the totally negative approach to the high neck shot....I have shot literally hundreds of plainsgame on cull hunts that require neck and head shots and I have never lost an animal, if fact I don't recall anyone who has during a cull operation, although I'm sure it has happened...

I have seen a lot of gut shot animals from people that missed the heart/lung area and I mean a lot of gut shot animals.

Poor shooting is poor shooting and a jaw shot or a gut shot, makes little difference, but a jaw shot animal with a proper rifle seldom makes many tracks, a gut shot with any caliber will make a lot of tracks...

Other than the jaw shot and a high crease, it is hard to not kill an animal with a high neck shot, you have the juglar, the vertibre, the windpipe, the spinal cord in a small area...A shot there with a proper caliber will kill them every time.

I use the neck shot often on females of the species, spikes and animals that are intended for camp use or for my plate..Its cleaner and neeter.

I've gotta go with Ray on this one.
The only time I shoot for the chest of any game amimal is when it's head is making a trip to the taxidermist. And to be honest, that has not been many times. I have only 3 true trophys on the wall.
My main sight zone is high neck or head(for does).
I have never had a deer or boar take as much as one step when it's been hit in the neck or head.
I've had to track 2 of the 3 solid chest shoot deer that I have on the wall. One went about 200yds into very thick cover with a gashing hole thru both lungs. It was almost lost. That was a very disappointing feeling thinking I was not going to be able to find that animal. But, after 6 hours on my hands and knees, second guessing my shot the whole time, it was finally found.
I must add that I am very patient in waiting for the proper shot opportunity and if the shot doesn't present itself then the animal walks.
Just my experiences.

I will never take a neck shot if a lung shot is at all possible. Perhaps other animals behave in a different manner than deer but to me nothing moves faster than their head. I can visualize one now bending it's neck to pretend to eat and it's eye is on you. Suddenly it's head snaps up and you could miss the neck by four feet!

But I am not where you are and I am not you. I notice that Michael Jordan was a flop at baseball and could not field his position. As Ruth said "it's not bragging if you can do it".

On this vein you can stop deer from running most of the time by shouting "Maw" (Van Dyke "The Still Hunter") and it's easiest to hit a running deer at the top of the jump and not as the feet hit the ground and spring up.

I learned here however that a high lung shot could miss the lungs and also the spine. That has not happened to me but I belive it.

Everyone seems to be overlooking the often used, never admitted to, "Texas Heart Shot"!!!
CDW

ALSO, Ray; how much time do you spend on the computer to have almost 6100 posts in 2 years?
HOLY SMOKES!!!!

I aim for heart/lungs on deer, roe and moose. I think this is the safest shot. A deer may run 200 meters with a heart blown up but no further. I try to aim just behind the front leg to prevent to much meat distruction.

Johan

Heart lung only.I have seen the jaw shot off one deer and tracked a second a long ways when the hunter punctured the windpipe with his neck shot.The heart lung area is a much bigger target with much higher odds of a fatal hit.

I will take either shot and the angle of the shot and what cover is concealing are the deciding factors . I never shoot directly at the onside shoulder bone as I prefer my bullets to do their destructive talents in the vitals, not the eatin meat.

Old habits die hard...

I grew up hunting where only shotguns/slugs were allowed, we also did a lot of driving. The accuracy of our firearms and the fact that the deer was doing warp 7 or so precluded anything but heart/lung shots. We also wanted to break the shoulder bones as a deer can run a long way without a heart. Even on opening weekend when we would sit all day our guns weren't up to neck shots.

Now I hunt with a rifle or muzzleloader most of the time but I still shoot for the same target spot I used to, especially since I hunt public land.

If your skills and patience are up to it take whatever shot you think is ethical, otherwise remember that the heart/lung vital area is the size of a basketball, the neck the size of your wrist.

Good Luck,
Bob

Woodrow,
To answer your question, I am a booking agent, hunt consultant, animal pimp or whatever you want to call it so a good deal of my time is spent in the office waiting for one of you to call and book a hunt..I entertain myself on the computer to kill time...so I am here or off hunting some place in the world, or at the range shooting or building a rifle or mowing mamas one acre yard. thats about it....

Woodrow,
ALSO, I use the Texas heart shot on any good trophy animal that presents its a$$ to me, I use enough gun and they are invaribly near instant kills.....I shoot meat animals in the neck and head.

No neck shots on moose for me. Moose are related to deer, so maybe the site below will help you decided:

http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife/geninfo/hunting/huntak16.htm

I take the best shot I'm presented. Mostly go for the heart/lung area for all the traditional and very good reasons. HOWEVER, I've taken a couple of mulies with other hits. One was a neck shot at 25 or 30 yards on a mulie with a .50 muzzle loader, an instant knock down and nearly instant kill. The other was also a .50 cal muzzle loader on a nice size mulie buck at about 35 yards, best shot I had was to the back of his head while he looked away and was real close to a steep & deep draw. I didn't want to wound him and have him get down in the thick stuff. Needless to say the 385 hollowpoint through the brain housing group was effective! But yeah, I plan on taking 'em in the heart & lungs when I can. Guy

Shoot em right in the mind.

Peter

Peter Walker: In the mind????? What are you doing? HAIR STRAIGHT BACK???
CDW

Peter Walker: In the mind????? What are you doing? HAIR STRAIGHT BACK???
CDW

PS: When are you leaving for the lion country???

Woodchuck

I thought you were gone to work.

Peter

Here's my ancient shooting philosophy and practice for mule deer and elk: Shoot 'em though the nearest shoulder, and if you can, shoot 'em through both shoulders. If you break their framework down, you break them down - pure and simple, and " excessive meat damage" be damned: At least when they're on the ground they won't be running off and taking their "meat damage" with them!

AD

I've got to go with the heart/lung crowd.

The PROPERLY PLACED neck shot is certainly deadly and Ray is right that bad shooting is bad shooting...and there are indeed botched shots for the shoulders. (And every other place)

But in my little mind, here is the catch. The neck shot is a much more difficult target, especially as range increases. And while Ray is correct that poor shooting is poor shooting, there is a catch to this when going for a neck shot..........the NECK is something that most plains and deer type animals constantly have in motion. Looking this way and twisting around to look that way. It doesn't matter if you are the best shot in the world if, just as you squeeze the trigger, that animal 150 yds downrange decides he wants to flip his head around and look this way or that. Friend...you just missed or wounded your target!

On the other side of the fence, the shoulder chest area is a pretty fixed target unless the whole animal decides to skidaddle. The critter can't flip his chest this way and that just as you shoot. Chest shots may not produce quite as sudden a kill as a good neck shot, but IMHO it's a lot more reliable for most us mortals.

A brain shot is just plumb nutty in my book for deer and elk class animals.

[ 07-28-2002, 23:33: Message edited by: Pecos45 ]

If you have a realistic idea of anatomy, deer behaviour, your own skills and most importantly what happens if things go wrong, you can make an appropriate shot which will range from chest, liver, neck sometimes head and sometimes a pass.

Kind of depends on the distance and what shot I'm presented with. Neck and head shots don't bother me if I'm close enough to be sure (two of the old timers I used to hunt with would only take neck shots, they both were much better shots than me), but you put any distance into the equation and I'm shooting for the heart/lung shot, usually through a shoulder. Moose I'll try and take both shoulders where possible, because the damn things can go for miles with a lung/heart shot, and I'm too old and fat to pack them far. - Dan

I've taken a lot of neck shots and a lot of heart/lung shots. I usually take a heart/lung, but it's just for the table I prefer the high neck.