Head shots

[t.caster]

...are OK for squirrels and bunnies.....but not for DEER!
Buoyed by a real good score on our woodswalk last week, I went to sleep on the eve of gun season Monday, with visions of head shots on a deer. Well, when this lone doe walks right up to my blind (15yds.) at noon on Tues. and turned to cross the river next to my spot, I instinctively hurried up a head shot to keep her from crossing over. She dropped her head, I lined up on her eyes and squeezed the set trigger on my Jaeger. Then things went into slow motion as the hammer fell...the pan flashed...the barrel went B O O M...just as she lowered her head a couple more inches...and mud on the riverbank exploded! And with one leap she landed on the other side (20 ft.!) totally unharmed but looking around and wondering, WhatTheHELL was all that??? I almost got reloaded before she walked casually out of sight.
I knew what I was doing....but what was I thinking? I had such an easy side shot!

I hope you all have better luck! And be Safe!

[Daryl]

My sentinents exactly, Tom. 

Years ago, I-to thought - head shots - perfectly instant kills! I did it a couple times on moose, was lucky but decided I liked my moose, elk or deer completely bled out which happened much better with a hole thoght both lungs.  Holing both lungs gaurantees a kill - the animal cannot live with a decent sized hole through both lungs. After that, if you want or have the time to break it down with other shots, go or it. The Double lung makes it a kill.

TNow, I do now like brain shots. The brain is small enough in most ungulates, it's too easy to miss at normal ranges, let alone longer shots.  There's lots of bone in there to deflect a ball or bullet. Nerve shock form a 'close miss', if that's all that happened, can be quickly overcome with the animal making good it's initial escape. With no snow to track, it will  perhaps suffer a starvation death, or worse maybe - being eaten alive by coyotes or wolves.  I do not like head shots.  The broadside lung shot, which also includes the liver, provides the largest kill area there is on an ungulate.  My opinion is quite strong on this topic.

[Ben I. Voss]

Well, I was lucky today and took a little button-buck with a neck shot. He wandered past my blind just after sunset and stopped in tall grass with only head and neck showing and like I said I was lucky and placed the .440 ball just below his skull and dropped him where he stood. I have to agree, the lung shot is the safest and I'd never have taken the shot if it had been much more than the 25 or so yards that it was!

[wvmtnman]

I too do not do head shots.  I did it once on a deer.  It was the most horrible death I could imagine.  Of course death from tramatic brains injuries usually are.   
                                                                        Brian

[lakehopper]

OK I am glad others feel the same about head shots. Why take the risk at a head and small area the size of a grown mans fist when you have a target the size of an 8 inch pie plate on both sides of the big game animal.

 In all 50 states the Hunter Education Courses teach our students proper shot placement. and the head is not a primary location; broadside in the chest area to hit both lungs, heart and lungs, heart lungs and liver. Thats a kill shot and yes the animal may drop in its tracks or run a couple of yards, Thats why we call it hunting.

Thank You

Glenn

[jimc2]

Totally with you guys on this. I teach a seminar on black powder hunting shooting and cleaning for Chuck Dixon and I use a life size cut out of a deer to show this same thing.Very surprising how many folks are not aware of the anatomy of deer,this thread is so useful and at the right time of year

[bob in the woods]

I'll be honest- backed up by what I see at the club, when it's "sighting in " weekend; most just don't shoot well enough . It is a difficult shot. If absolutely necessary, ie. wounded deer, I'd prefer a neck shot.
A friend shot a buck in the forehead with a 12 gauge slug. He fell down,but while walking over to dress him, he got up and ran off.  I often hear talk of guys "ear holing" deer. Optimistic for most IMO.

[bob in the woods]

Forgot to add this to my last post. If you want to drop deer faster, shoot a bigger ball. Works for me.

[timM]

I agree with lung shots as the safest sure killing shot.  It offers the largest kill target.

Need to mention the controversial Texas heart shot (smile) sure anchors them in a hurry! Can be a bit tough on the straps though.

[blunderbuss]

I generally take a chest shot low near the heart during the day so if I have to track them I have plenty of time. In the evening I'll go for the neck if possible you can get bone, wind pipe or juggler,drops them in their tracks. I took a shot at the neck of a deer once at 100 yards off hand with the cold wind blowing directly in my face, well the short of it is the ball went through the ears a fluke shot in one ear out the other never cut skin. It took awhile to find the bullet hole .It dropped like a sack of rocks

[Stormrider51]

I was once in a tree alongside a creek when a nice 4 pointer appeared walking directly toward me.  I figured I'd put that .50 cal ball right in the brain.  I let him get to 20 yards and fired.  He almost did a back flip and hit the ground dead as a doornail.  Or so I thought.  I climbed down from my perch congratulating myself for a perfect shot.  Instant death and no damaged meat.  I didn't bother to reload.  After all, I figured I was done for the day.  Then the deer jumped up and trotted away.  A little shaky maybe but he was moving fine after a few steps.  I was dumbfounded.  When I got to where he had been laying I couldn't find any blood or anything else to indicate that I'd hit him.  Then, about six feet away, I saw something light colored in the trail.  It was a sizeable chip of deer antler.  My perfect instant death headshot was actually an antler shot that rendered the deer temporarily unconscious but otherwise unharmed.  On thinking back on the shot it should have been obvious that I hadn't hit his head because I could see it in plain sight and there wasn't a hole in it.  I was too busy patting myself on the back to notice, I guess.  That was my first and last headshot on a deer.  

Storm

[Vomitus]

  If you know your capabilities and know your rifle like your twin brother,why not? Head shots are not my shot of preference, I pick the biggest killshot zone that is presented. That's with ALL guns. My hunting success with muzzleloaders is bleak to put it truthfully. With the "other" guns, I've shot nine big game animals in the head area(behind the ear,ear,cheek,upper neck).That's not because I like to shoot them there, it was all that was presented. Boiler room shots are by far the best place to get'um. Still waiting to break the ice on a moose or elk with the black powder beasty!

[hanshi]

Head shots should be a no-no; too much risk of a miss or a maim.  I feel the same way about neck shots.  I've killed several deer with neck shots but guess what?  Only one, my very first deer was killed with a neck shot on PURPOSE!  All the others were caused by over-leading running deer or having them "twitch" just as I pulled the trigger.  Accidents, imagine that.  I'm a heart/lung shooter; bigger target, quickly fatal, good blood trail and if your shot strays a bit it will still hit something vital.  Oh, and I should include spine shots in the very risky category.  Again I've killed a few with spine shots and again only one on purpose - He was walking toward me down a slope and that's what was available.

[Daryl]

HA! - that's interesting - hanshi - your post reminds me of an article written many years ago in "Gun Digest", wherein the author stated quite emphatically, that "All neck shooters are liers".

He went on to tell about every animal that he'd shot in the neck,  he'd actually aimed for the lungs.  It was quite a funny read.

That was around the time the big game guide in Montana took a fairly well known archer out goat hunting, and the fellow shot a goat at 20 yards after a long arduous stock, not with an arrow, but with a .357, then pushed an arrow into the hole and said "Take my picture". That article was called "Game Fakery"- sometime in the 60's or perhaps 70's, but 1968 rings a bell for some reason- red cover I think.

[SPG]

Gentlemen,

In my experience head shots are difficult to do cleanly for two reasons. One, the target is small requiring the distance to be less than 50 yards. Two, the head may be moved so quickly by the animal. Watch a deer when it is in normal behavior...the head moves constantly and in many unpredictable ways. It is easy to mess up a head shot. 

Steve

[Jerry V Lape]

For every successful head shot there are probably at least an equal number of broken jaw shots or face shots which result in long slow lingering death. I have found them frequently in that condition laying in the woods.  No thanks, I don't need a deer bad enough to want to take such a risk with an animal I respect.  Be patient, you will get your opportunity at the heart/lungs vital zone or maybe you will have to extend your hunt a little longer - which isn't bad either. 

[Vomitus]

  I just wish we had game(deer) as plentiful as some fella's describe on here.Locally,most sightings are on the edge of gigantic clear cuts.Hard enough to place a roundball shot at 200yards in the boiler room, never mind the head!
 

[Stormrider51]

  I just wish we had game(deer) as plentiful as some fella's describe on here.Locally,most sightings are on the edge of gigantic clear cuts.Hard enough to place a roundball shot at 200yards in the boiler room, never mind the head!
 

You should move to Texas.  The whitetail are so numerous that we have citizens complaining that the deer invade the subdivisions and eat their flowers.  Wild hogs are becoming almost as great a problem.

Storm

[hanshi]

Daryl, I've got that Gun Digest issue and remember the article very well.  And it's really a mind bender when you aim at a deer's boiler room and go up and find a hole in the neck. 

[James]

If you aim for the heart and miss by a little, good chance the miss can still be a killing shot. Aim for the head and miss the brain, you have a wounded deer.

[bob in the woods]

An interesting side note. My wife's Grandfather was from the Ottawa valley, and his " deer rifle " was a Stevens .32 Long RF.  If I remember correctly,that round carried an 80 gr bullet. My point here is, even with that diminutive round, he lung shot deer. And he regularly brought deer home !  That doesn't mean that I advocate .32 or .36 squirrel rifles for deer, but I think it does say a lot about the effectiveness of a good broadside lung shot.

[D. Bowman]

I have taken only one head shot. I was still hunting to my chosen spot to hunt for the evening with the wind in my face. I was almost to my stand when i noticed a bedded doe about 20 yards, she was facing dead away from me with no clue that i was there. Her vitals were blocked by a small log she was bedded against. I put the front sight between the ears and when the smoke cleared she was stone dead,never even moved an inch after the shot.

Would I take a head shot on an alert deer? NO! Would I take That shot again? In a heart beat!

[FRJ]

The most sickening thing I've ever seen hunting was the finding of teeth at the site of a head shot deer. The shot was taken by an excellent shot with lots of experience at more than resonable range. We finally found the deer after the yotes had eaten most of it!!!!!!!
I don't understand the idea that a person will lose meat with  a lung shot. With a lung shot your shooting thru ribs with virtually no meat on them. Very very little lost meat. A neck shot on the other hand may very well destroy a whole roast. I hunt and shoot with a longbow almost all the time and I found it disturbing how many of the members of my archery club had no idea of where kill shots were on the different animals that we hunt in the N.W.   Frank

[blunderbuss]

The best small bore hunter I ever knew used a .36 on deer but he double balled his rifle. He said at 50 yards the balls were about 1'' apart and it brought them down fast.
 Just for what it's worth, I ran across a statement from an American Revolution soldier that stated that when possible the rifle men would  shoot double and triple balls when shooting into enemy ranks at a distance. Maybe that's what the hunters were doing back in the day with the small calibers.

[hanshi]

Quite!  It's better to lose a few ounces of meat with a proper shot than a 150lb deer with a risky one.