Whitetail POI...... What’s your intended Target?

[JTH]

As an archery hunter, primarily hunting from tree stands, you learn pretty quickly that placement depends on shot angle. In my view, the same generally applies to rifles, but we have a little wider margin for error if we know how our bullets perform (shock, fragmentation, ability to break bones and still penetrate) Depending on the angle of the animal, I'm picking placement so the bullet travels through the center of the chest, with the goal of destroying both lungs. If I can break shoulders in the process, that's what I'll choose. On a broadside, standing shot for an animal that's calm, I'll take the high shoulder shot every time I can if I have a good rest. If the animal has any angle to it (not broadside) that changes everything. If they're on high alert and could bolt away at any second, then I'd slide back into the V in case they move or hunch down before the bullet gets there. If you've got the right caliber and projectile, frontal shots, properly placed, are devastating. I'll risk sacrificing a shoulder, for the certainty of "dead right there" performance.

 

[nicholasjohn]

its makes a difference if the heart is full of blood or not

That's a VERY good point, Sir. If the heart is full, it often explodes. If not, you just get a hole through it. Ditto for lungs - If they are full of air, the results are different than they are if the animal has just exhaled. Now obviously we can't be watching to see if the deer is inhaling or exhaling, or time bullet impact to coincide with its heartbeat. But it is good to know that these things are variables in the equation. Also, if your bullet hits the rib on the way in, results can be a lot different than if it slips through the intercostal muscles between the ribs. Expansion will most often be quicker and greater when you hit the rib, and there may also be secondary projectiles going through the lungs with your bullet if that rib blow up. These variables in the equation are often the reason why two deer shot in the same spot with the same cartridge & bullet will often react differently to the shot. One goes down right now; dead as a hammer. The other runs 100 yards, and we are left wondering why. You've pointed out one possible reason for that.

 

[one3]

In the 60's there saw a gun writer for, Outdoor Life, his name was Jack O'Conner. He was a great author. He always said, a lung shoot deer will only go as far as it can hold it's breath. I, would say, the same holds true for a hart shot deer. No matter what you shoot. It is dead, it just hasn't realised it.

 

[TrialbyFireFormed]

One deer ain't that much where you from? In Colorado (just moved here) you can get 2 b tags or 1 a tag and 1 b tag. You can also get as many c tags as you want but most of those are ****** areas. In Georgia you could shoot like 9 or more and up to 2 bucks.

Kawartha lakes region, Ontario Canada.
Man, those are some big numbers,
Maybe I should move lol.
Anyone else wanna join in and post ur tag limit and where ur hanging ur hat?
It would be interesting to compare.

 

[Swamphunter]

In the scapula or the neck. I want them down because we have lots wolves so I don't want the deer running off. Most shot are inside three hundred yards.

 

[Possum Cop]

Kawartha lakes region, Ontario Canada.
Man, those are some big numbers,
Maybe I should move lol.
Anyone else wanna join in and post ur tag limit and where ur hanging ur hat?
It would be interesting to compare.

Louisiana is 6 Deer per year and you just buy your license pretty much anywhere, no lotteries or any BS money making schemes like a lot of the states have.

 

[wv270wsm]

Kawartha lakes region, Ontario Canada.
Man, those are some big numbers,
Maybe I should move lol.
Anyone else wanna join in and post ur tag limit and where ur hanging ur hat?
It would be interesting to compare.

Wv I believe last year legally you could kill 9 deer . Depending on county I've seen as high as 11 in recent years . And between me and my two sons we generally will almost tag out every year . That's a bunch of steaks , burger , and deer HEARTS!! With that being said we don't buy and beef burger throughout the year . Mixed with pork it comes out perfect

 

[Cb750]

Kawartha lakes region, Ontario Canada.
Man, those are some big numbers,
Maybe I should move lol.
Anyone else wanna join in and post ur tag limit and where ur hanging ur hat?
It would be interesting to compare.

Hey man I'm only about three hours West and South of you I get 1 here same as you but I'm close enough to a couple places that draws for additional tags so every now and then I get 2. I also archery bear hunted there this past fall and go to a deer camp in 60. Love that area.

In terms of shot placement. Archery primarily which is heart and lungs. I used a copper slug this year though and dropped a big doe with a frontal shot. She dropped where she stood and was dead right away. Some extra bone fragments to clean out of my meat this year. Not a lot wasted. I have used a .223 at the back of the head top of the spine and it dropped there.
I've had a sleepless night as well over a deer. Never again. Got a dog to track wounded game and have never had to use it. Lol.

 

[Possum Cop]

Wv I believe last year legally you could kill 9 deer . Depending on county I've seen as high as 11 in recent years . And between me and my two sons we generally will almost tag out every year . That's a bunch of steaks , burger , and deer HEARTS!! With that being said we don't buy and beef burger throughout the year . Mixed with pork it comes out perfect

Same here. We don't buy hamburger. Kill around 300 pigs a year and 6 deer a year.

 

[Deleted member 115360]

6? Six? Wow that's something!
Wish we had those regulations but unfortunately we can only harvest, now get ready, 1 deer.
Yup just one , unless u apply for the controlled hunt in an area I have no land.
We used to get an archery tag, gun tag, and black powder tag, but that changed long ago. I just have to be picky now otherwise it's over much too quickly lol

We can kill 3 does a day from the 3rd week of September until mid January, but only 2 bucks a season. I've been hunting them since I was 9. When I tell people that I've killed a thousand deer in my lifetime they think I'm lying, but there were years in my teens and some in my 20's where I would kill 50 a year or more. I never counted them. These days I kill 12-15/ year, but I could kill hundreds if I wanted to.

 

[Possum Cop]

We can kill 3 does a day from the 3rd week of September until mid January, but only 2 bucks a season. I've been hunting them since I was 9. When I tell people that I've killed a thousand deer in my lifetime they think I'm lying, but there were years in my teens and some in my 20's where I would kill 50 a year or more. I never counted them. These days I kill 12-15/ year, but I could kill hundreds if I wanted to.

Louisiana was one buck and one doe a day until around 2000. I agree with you on the fact that people don't believe the numbers that you can kill when you are a die hard hunter. It's a way of life for some of us and a hobby for others.

 

[ndking1126]

My 2c. Lung shot with bullets that expand well and with reasonable penetration. (Berger in my case) Just an opinion on adrenaline taking over. If an animal has significant amount of lung damage if you make the heart kick in and pump the blood harder and faster it will drown animal and increase blood loss. That being said i have had to track more deer that were heart shot than lung shot. Never had a deer make it much more than 50 yds. with double lung shot. This has been over the course of 30-40 deer between three people.

Not many people commented on my theory directly but I saw yours that did and one other. Both seem to agree, so that's interesting. I have killed 4 deer, two with lung shots, one with a high shoulder, and one that seems to have hit center mass than traveled up a rib and hit the spine (still not exactly sure what happened). The two lung shots went about 25 yards each and left blood trails a blind man could almost follow (arrow on one and federal fusion on the other). It's a very small sampling, but it seems to support my theory. Oh, I killed an antelope, apparently hitting the jugular vein. Just barely hit her on the very front in the neck, perfectly placed in elevation. I underestimated the wind, and just barely got it. It took me a while to find the impact, haha.

 

[Magard]

I've never aimed for the heart. Because I like eating the heart. I also think that lung shots are easier to make, have more room for error, and kill just as fast.
It's inevitable that some meat will be lost when you shoot an animal anywhere else than through the skull. So it's not that I'm a trophy hunter (I don't think I have a single pic of me holding up a rack of a deer/elk I've killed) as much as I just accept there's meat loss and go for the lungs. When it's an option for deer season, I usually prefer does anyway. Their meat usually is a little fattier and tastes better.

Any animal I've killed usually goes straight to a butcher or straight to my shop where I can do the cleaning myself. I understand the desire to trophy hunt, but I honestly don't care. I like meat. I like the chase, the "hunt" part of the hunt.

When it comes to meat damage, I'm not picky. I'd have no problems stepping up in caliber if it meant faster kills on game. In the end, I don't want the game to suffer at all, even for a moment if possible. If I shot an elk with a 308 and it ran 200 yards before dropping, with perfect shot placement, my next trip I would probably at least have stepped up to a 30-06 or a 300 win mag. I prefer the instant they get hit to fall. We're all lucky enough to have been born humans. If I was born a wild animal, I'd want my death to be instant. I'll sacrifice a bit of meat to ensure a painless death.

My only regrets in hunting have been when I made a bad shot and caused an animal to suffer. But that's just my $0.02

I too am a lung shooter. They bleed out into the lungs. It seems like better eating meat. They don't go fare either.

 

[StumpGrinder]

Lol not sure how ppl are gonna react to ur threat but I'm sure ur just joking around.
As for shot placement, I wouldn't be aiming further behind the heart unless u wanna shoot liver or go further and get into the worst thing ever and gut shoot it.
Higher, yeah. More forward, for sure, higher and forward even better.
Just make sure ur not getting into no mans land. Lots of deer are shot there and never recovered by the hunter. They end up being tasty meals for the yotes.

I wonder how well deer hunters know a deers anatomy and organ layout? (And I'm not targeting you WV but the question applies to you and everyone)
I know there's tonnes of hunters on here that can look at a deer and they don't see hide, they see through it into the skeletal system and the internal makeup, that's how I see them. I bet if everyone did it would definitely increase their success and drastically reduce the amount of wounded/unrecovered deer.

I would wager that 85 percent of hunters just see the outside of the deer and aim in a general area.

I want to read and reply to everyone's contribution to this thread bc I really appreciate everyone's input. It may take a day or so but I'll get there.
Thx for your and everyone's input into this thread. LRH seems to be a great forum with lots of great ppl.

On a standing flat footed broadside shot run the vertical straight up the front leg till the horizontal is about 1/3 up the body and squeeze. Anything from 22lr up will put them down with this placement. Shoot copper bullets and you can eat right up to the hole!! High shoulder will drop them in their tracks but it sure mess up a lot of meat. Grind it into burger.