If you have the choice - do you go for the high neck shot near the head where there is less surrounding 'meat' or do you go low, where the neck meets the body?

I only execute neck shots at times as a "coup de grace" - always near the head.

Good question ..... I'm a sorta high average kinda Guy which for my preference means the options in the boiler room are where my trump shots go.

But to entertain the question; IMO:

quote:

high neck shot near the head

It's more hit or miss; the telling shot immediately noticable. It's the shots where the lower jaw disappears or the neck muscle is hit that require lots of follow-up (especially for those animals that do the dash as you're closing on a beast with not an untoward thought in your mind) and those popped through an ear go into the Pogo-Stick mode meaning getting a follow-up shot is iffy. The immediate congested sinus relief for an animal means you'll find them the following year and blame the scar on a barbed-wire fence.

quote:

where the neck meets the body?

Here there's alot more room for error, a shot in muscle can be the immediate drop or a neck/breast/brisket not particularly effective - they'll go for miles if you ever recover an animal - like the "jaw-shot" above. Look at Robertson's "Perfect Shot" and try to memorize where the vertabrae are for countless spieces - all dfferent.

Now, you're asking why does this Guy have an opinion and is willing to forthrightly state it? Gee, Expereince comes from bad judgement and a lot of RSA & Namibian culling - it ain't all nice. Those brain pan shots through the eye or ear are all good, the rest are "Well it wasn't pretty but he's in the Bag" - Ugh! After you've chased an animal for miles to get another telling shot into the bread basket (= 10 Ring) that should have initally been taken.

Always a high neck shot.

Atlas joint whenever possible next best for me is mid neck last choice low neck.

Low neck is the trickiest shot of all as the spine runs lower in the neck than most people think. A lot of stalkers think the bone structure is like this.



When it is more like this. Clip one the fins below and the deer will drop to shot before getting up and running for miles. Unless you have a fast GWP with you you will not find a runner from a shot like this. If the chest is clear why do a low neck. I only take low neck shot when the rest of the neck and chest are obscured.



The trouble with mid or low neck shots is they do not kill the deer but merely incapacitate it.

I will also head shoot wild deer if the conditions are right and I have a good steady rest.

I only took two shots in neck.
One as second shoot on female deer, because after first shoot she laid down and raised head (arround 110 meters).
Second was on red deer stag at 10 meters on stalking.
I would never take neck shot where neck meets the body. The best neck shot is if animal is directed directly to you or away from you.

quote:

Originally posted by DJM:
The trouble with mid or low neck shots is they do not kill the deer but merely incapacitate it.

I agree - I have noticed this too. DJM would you say you prefer the head shot to a neck shot (outside of park culling?)?

Very interesting views gentlemen. Keep them coming. I take quite a few necks shots over the course of a season (when conditions are right) but love seeing how our collective experiences differ.

My average skill highly suggests me shoulder/boiler shots.

Even with the park culling I probably shoot as many through the top of the neck as I do the head.

Head shots have everything to go wrong, I have a a few dramas,

I remember one xmas eve shooting a Roe doe kid in the head at about 25m with the .25-06 and 115gr BT.

It looked like all had gone to plan, the kid dropped like a stone before getting up all dazed, fortunately the wirehaired was with me and the situation recovered.

The jaw and nose was completely destroyed but the bullet had not penetrated the brain or spine.

So I would say high neck over head, it depends on lots of variables though.

yes. you shot it in the face, iv done it myself and will pass up this shot or drop under the chin if the shot in there now .

using the right cal and bullet ,like a 25,05 100gr BT or 270 using a 110gr v max you will decrease the chances of a runner.

use a 6.5x55 with a 160 +gr and you better have a fast dog.

i shot a fallow fawn last week just under the but of the ear ,under a 100yds a two inch pice of skin was all that heald the head on .using a 270,110gr v max.

this round is the best i have ever seen for necking.

quote:

this round is the best i have ever seen for necking.

Do you switch ammo when after stags during the rut? Or do you use this for heart/lung shots too?

Best

G

This is risky business I prefer to avoid unless there is just no other choice. It does drop them on the spot though but it is not easy to figure out the right moment when they don't move at all. Last reason against it: Head shot roe just don't look good anymore...

When culling in some nasty terrain where a 100m flight of a dead red deer means 100m drop (and the recovery road is on the top) instead of neck shots we mostly use high shoulder shot (marked red):

DJM excuse me for borrowing you pic



Shooting is close (out to 50m or so) and if you miss high, animal still goes down but you always cover it for a second shot.

I like base of neck as there is more room for error,not real keen on head shots.

i don't realy hav a preference
what ever is suitable at the time due to the situation i am in
head neck shoulder don't really care as long as the shot is good
ATB

i dont shoot very many stags, but the odd client of friend will use my rifle .

im lucky as the SST 130gr hornady lite mag, shoot into the same hole at a 100yds as the 110s .

i had the head of a well known german firearm company out for a stag ,he shot a mature sika stag on the hill at 165yds just behind the shoulder with the 110s ,i forgot to swap as we were culling .

any way the bullet done terrible damage on the hit shoulder destoryed the lungs/high heart and never marked the off shoulder.

i would not be happy putting the shot on the shoulder ,i think it would be only a matter of time before you get a problem.

quote:

Originally posted by john wickham:


i would not be happy putting the shot on the shoulder ,i think it would be only a matter of time before you get a problem.

sorry John
forgot to add i only use soft points as i don't like BT's or changing bullets for each situ i am in but understand why others do
ATB

quote:

Originally posted by john wickham:
yes. you shot it in the face, iv done it myself and will pass up this shot or drop under the chin if the shot in there now .

Yes I had only just set off from the car and was not really switched on.

The Roe Kid suprised me and I placed the cross hairs on its forehead just above the eyes.

Being so close the bullet was still below the line of sight and struck the deer right on the end of its nose.

I am happy to use .25-06 with 115gr BT I prefer these over 100gr as they penetrate better than the 100gr. In the 300wsm it is 150gr BT and the 243 70gr BT, can you see a pattern here. I use the same rounds for chest shooting to, all of the above bullets are suitable for front on chest shooting Mature Fallow Does & Mature Sika Hinds as the bullet does not pass the diagphram. The 243 and 70gr allows the same with roe and smaller fallow and sika.

For jobs that are purely head/neck shooting it has to be 243 and 70gr, although 243 and 70gr is more than capable for chest shooting all uk deer.

In normal circumstances, I avoid neck shots (except a close-by "coup de grâce", when a knife is out of the question). My reluctance comes from the fact that if the animal slightly moves his head at the shot, there's a great risk to blow away the esophagus, losing the beast and sending it away to die a lingering death.

However, I made an exception for this wily Roebuck which I stalked for weeks, without ever getting an opportunity to shoot. Only once did he lose caution. It was July, the 30th, mid-rutting season. Through my scope, I watched him slowly walking away in high grass, with only his neck and head showing. In despair, I waited for a better opportunity which never came. Light was fading and when he was about 150 meters away, I decided to act before he disappeared. I had a good rest, felt steady when centering the back of his neck, so I let fly. The .30-06 165 GK entered the right spot and came out off the throat, blowing out a vertebra.




In


Out

I really detest the low neck shot - I find it inhumane in extreme. An extremely aware but paralysed deer is quite often the result and the carcass damage can actualy be charged as saddle shot if you have got too close to the shoulders.

I've done exactly the same as DJM on a pricket with an 85gr BTSP 243. Followed up and shot but a scary moment.

I do take neck shots if it's all that's offered but I'd rather not. I find they tempt me to snatch the trigger in order to avoid head/neck movement.

Most of this stems from gamedealers who seem to think that deer stay still and are within 100m of a steady rest in good light.....

I'd rather shoot a larger number through the chest than a small number through the neck with a greater chance of problems.

I've turned into one of those 'high percentage' boiler room shooters, don't ask me why

Sometimes it doesn't go as planned and you spend many hours searching for nothing and then laying in bed awake at night

The more often that happens the more it plays on your conscience and the more likely you'll turn into one of those 'high percentag' type boiler room shooters too!!

But, to answer the question, wholeheartedly agree with majority on high neck shot vs head or low neck, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

Dom, I totally agree with you. There is just a much larger margin for potential error when shooting for the boiler room.

A friend of mine is a Schweißhundeführer, he once in a while tells about the supposedly "headshot" boar he finds with the jaw or nose shot off, close to starving.

On Roe, I like high neck shots as they tend to be a "hit or miss" affair...I'm not keen on the low kneck shot for reasons already mentioned, nor do I like a high neck shot when the head/neck is broadside on...

With the larger species of deer, I tend to shy away from neck shots in favour of heart shot, if possible.

I was once involved in the follow up of a neck shot rutting stag..There was initially plenty of blood, but that stopped after a couple of hundred meters, and with no dog present, the beast was never recovered.

quote:

Originally posted by Dom:
I've turned into one of those 'high percentage' boiler room shooters, don't ask me why

Sometimes it doesn't go as planned and you spend many hours searching for nothing and then laying in bed awake at night

The more often that happens the more it plays on your conscience and the more likely you'll turn into one of those 'high percentag' type boiler room shooters too!!

But, to answer the question, wholeheartedly agree with majority on high neck shot vs head or low neck, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

I definitely agree with these sentiments Dom, I'm shooting 80%+ in the heart/lung area with no problems - but there is definitely room for a well-placed neck shot in different scenarios throughout the season, especially when shooting herding animals.

if you can, do .

if you cant ,dont .

I'm far from an expert and always find these discussions useful and informative. Last night I watched an amazing sika stag (they are still in season here in NI) feeding. I didn't shoot because it was nearly dark, he was in pretty thick cover and if he had run at all finding him was nearly impossible, I don't think I could have extracted him myself and he was 180 yards away and never presented a clean broadside shot.

Today I shot at a target, it lasered 95 yards but I'd guessed it was 100 when I put it up, off sticks and found that I was hitting perhaps an inch to the right of where I'd expected. Looking at the back of a deer's head that is about enough to give you a miss with a neck shot. It is also enough to give you some nasty injury with a neck shot but an inch to the right on a broadside chest shot probably doesn't make much odds.

So, in the mean time as an inexperienced stalker I'm sticking to broadside only shots even if it does mean I can't shoot the occasional good stag. The other thing that I think is useful about a chest shot is that if I do get a runner that isn't recovered if I've shot it in the chest I can be fairly certain it is lying dead somewhere and that it probably had a fairly rapid death. I know there will always be exceptions to this but on balance I think it is a reasonable generalisation.

I also saw the results of attempts by an "expert" to shoot a large park red deer in the neck with a 243. He had to shoot it 4 times to put it down, all the shots hit it in the neck in what looked like "about the right place." A wild deer on the hill would have been long gone after the first shot.

Following from John's comments above: I can't so I don't.

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:

On Roe, I like high neck shots as they tend to be a "hit or miss" affair...I'm not keen on the low kneck shot for reasons already mentioned, nor do I like a high neck shot when the head/neck is broadside on...

Pete,

I must admit to hating that statement. In most cases it's true but it's not infallible. I've shot a roe in the eye doing that (high crops in the summer) - not pleasant.

I'm aware I'm owning up to a lot of mistakes - percentage wise I think I'm as good as most, I'm just out a lot. I am certainly much much more deliberate than I used to be a few years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by 1894mk2:
Pete,

I must admit to hating that statement. In most cases it's true but it's not infallible. I've shot a roe in the eye doing that (high crops in the summer) - not pleasant.

I'm aware I'm owning up to a lot of mistakes - percentage wise I think I'm as good as most, I'm just out a lot. I am certainly much much more deliberate than I used to be a few years ago.

I agree its not infallible which is why I phrased it "tend to be"... No one is 100% and anybody who says they don't make mistakes, is either lying or doesn't stalk much.

Personally my mistakes tend to happen when I go for hear/lung shots; not sure why, but thats just a personal observation regarding myself..

BTW, what happened to the Roe you shot in the eye and what caliber were you using?

Regards,

Peter

quote:

My average skill highly suggests me shoulder/boiler shots

What he said

It fell, thrashed, got up and stumbled 100yards before pausing momentarily.

6.5x55. The front of the eye was gone, no other damage at all.

I tend to shoot for the heart/lungs but will take a neck shot if I'm in a solid high seat on deer that are looking at me. I find it tends to guarantee they are fixated on someting and stand alert and stil with head up. Always just under the chin or atlest no more than 6" below if I can help it.

I've shot deer with side neck shots in the past and although there were no incidents, I tend to avoid it now especially as it usually means they are feeding and prone to movement.

I had an incident last week on a pricket that moved as I took a slightly quartering towards me shot. The bullet ended up going in just inside the shoulder high and exited through the front of the left haunch. I couldn't believe it as I didn't recognise the movement at the shot, but it goes to show that even with the percentage shots, stuff can go awry. The deer moved five yards and went down at which point it's head came up. When the herd dispersed I dispached it.

Rgds,
FB

i have only done it once on a unharmed roebuck, and that were with a 12 gauge double rifle, distance 23 meters.
but when out on horseback and following up on damaged deer i do take them and keep with in the top 6" part of the neck, this is also done with a 12 bore rifle so even if slightly off the energy is there to ancor the deer for a quick follow up shot, again max distance 35 meters.

when out stalking, i wait for a boiler room shot, or get them the next day

best

peter

How many of us with hunting hardware on this forum can delivery accuracy for neck shots of shall we say 03 inches groups up to 250 - 300 yards with ease and without fancy rests ?

I will put my hands up and say I cannot do that
even if I do it will be a one off fluke and not worth talking about.

I have only ever taken one neck shot, on a Red calf & this because it was all I could see of the beast, head down into a very narrow burn, DRT, @ 80 yds using a .243, mum followed a few seconds later with a face on chest shot, the neck shot was construed by my stalker as a "needs more range time" in my notes, I believe he could see more of the beast as he was higher up the slope & to my extreme left, & therefore expected a more conventional poi.....So I reckon I am saying only neck shoot when needed & with a good setup.

Keep away from the head unless its from directly behind.
Side top 1/2 neck.
Frontal lower neck (back line height) is way better than frontal chest.
Frontal chest and head shots on deer are too be avoided whenever possible in my unhappier experiences!

Why do you "have" to take a neck shot? whats wrong in waiting for a "better" shot to present its self?

What Im trying to say is I have to much respect for my quary to risk a poor shot.

Hi mate, I guess for some people a neck shot within a reasonable distance and from a rest isn't automatically considered a 'poor shot'. As such there aren't any ethical difficulties with taking the shot.

i have used the neck and base of skull shot in many years both on smal game and big game when the distance is less than 100 meters, and at longer range the lung heart shot. i believe it is more human to kill an animal quick and with the least suffering possible.
regards
YES

quote:

Originally posted by bumscratcher:
Why do you "have" to take a neck shot? whats wrong in waiting for a "better" shot to present its self?

what is a better shot??
if you pull a neck shot what is the result??
compared to pulling a chest shot???

on another point
why do most ever bother considering zeroing an inch high at a hundred if they are not able or capable of chest shooting a deer at 150yrds and that is quite a big target on a roe or fallow compared to a balloon of paper target