Everyone says that the key to "yanking the rug" on a whitetail is shot placement. What is your favorite spot to shoot on a whitetail with a small bore?

Without sounding to simple or even sarcastic.

The same place I would shoot if I were using a .338.

Now then I do agree with the folks that shoot the big stuff about "Texas heart shots" and needing the extra penetration in those angle but the "favorite" spot really should not care what bullet you use.

Jim B.

Best place to aim IMHO is for the heart and lungs. The larger calibers can get there from several different angles with the right bullet but my favorite for a couple of reasons is behind the shoulder about 1/3 of the way up and the only shot I would take with a small bore excluding head shots if the right conditions presented itself.

Not to copy but as already said.I aim for the same spots with the small bores as I do with bigger stuff.

Can you believe a 180gr XTP is considered "small caliber" in the muzzle-loader
world? It's devestating in a broadside heart/lung shot, just as a 22-250 was when
I hunted in Nebraska, prior to moving to Iowa. Aside from the small target zones
of the head and backbone areas of the neck, you just cannot beat a lung area
shot. Another plus to shooting in this area is that they are usually totally blead out
by the time you get to them.

Visualize the chest cavity vital area as a basketball. No matter what angle you are shooting from, you want to hit the center of the basketball. The center reference on a standing broadside shot is the top of the crease of the shoulder and and inch forward, but remember, it's in the center of the animal. If you hit this imaginary spot, you will "yank the rug". The angle doesn't matter all that much. Quarting to, quartering away, frontal, broadside, up hill, down hill, broadside. You're shooting for the center of the imaginary basketball. Just don't be stupid and try to go through a hip bone or bung hole to get there!

Heart-lung. then the neck

How small are we talking? I was in this situation this fall shooting whitetails with a groundhog rig. 223 Rem and 50gr V-max moly. Smallish deer, and the broadside shots on the chest cavity (lungs) did work, but they made a few tracks occasionally. I went to shooting them in the head and had much better success. Shots were on relaxed feeding deer at 150 on in with a very accurate rifle and I found the base of the ear to be an easy target and very effective.

ughhhhhhh what is this topic?

I have found a 60 gr. Hornady out of a 222 to 22-250 to be very effective up to 200 yards with a shot placed just a hair behind the shoulder...they seldom go 15 yards and most just die on the spot, if all goes right...I have shot a lot of deer and antelope and culled Springbok and Blesbok,also a few Kudu cows with this load in a 222...Never lost one but a couple gave me moments of uneasyness.

The downside is bloodshoot meat, no blood trail,sometimes your in trouble if you hit the shoulder bone, so I don't recommend their use, except under controlled circumstances and in open country.

There were several of us who used to use the .243 and 6mm on whitetail deer in Mason Co. , Tx. The shot that would "yank the rug" was just behind the shoulder but a little higher than center......right below the spine or grazing the spine.

When you say small bore, do you mean the .243 Win. and such ? My favorite shot, with a Nosler Partition, is through the near shoulder and the lungs. Seems to dump them like a CNS hit. The off shoulder works too but not as convincing.
I don't do head shots at all. And only neck shots if nothing else is clear. E

Hmmm, Ray Atkinson condones the use of Matchkings, but not smallbores for deer, seems a bit bassackwards to me. Sorry Ray, I couldn't help it. I'm even thinking about shoot some coyotes with Matchkings this winter before I risk them on deer, your picture was convincing, but I still like my Nosler BT.
Yardbird

Yardbird,
Your skimming my posts, not reading, and comming up off the wall...

Condon the use of Matchkings? All I said was a matchking in the ribcage will work, I don't use them, won't use them, but I don't deny anyone else the use of them....

Small bores: I have used them, but I said one must modify his hunting method to fit the caliber, keep shots behind the shoulder, use a proper bullet preferably under 100 yds for the most part. and hunt in open country as they do not leave a blood trail..

I never dismiss a caliber or bullet of any kind, what I do dismiss is a hunter who doesn't understand how to use them.

I have killed many deer in Mexico on our old ranch with a Win. M-63 auto in 22 L.R. and with perfect success and never lost one..I have lost a couple shot with very large rifles over the years, it happens. Using such things as matchkings and 222's etc. is much like bow hunting or muzzle loader hunting, you have to modify your style of hunting...makes since to me.

Are we squared away now? please read carefully.