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View Poll Results: Where do you prefer to aim on a deer with cast boolits?

Voters
271. You may not vote on this poll
  • Neck

    10 3.69%
  • High Shoulder

    36 13.28%
  • Behind the shoulder (double lung)

    141 52.03%
  • Break near side shoulder

    14 5.17%
  • Break far-side shoulder

    18 6.64%
  • Heart (irrespective of angle)

    42 15.50%
  • Other

    10 3.69%
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Thread: Where do you prefer to aim on deer with Cast Boolits?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master Shawlerbrook's Avatar
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    The same place I aim with jacketed bullets or my bow. Right behind the front shoulder, double lung. Never fail to kill in seconds. I know some disagree but neck shots are very iffy, shoot low and hit the windpipe and you will be chasing a deer with a tracheotomy trying for a kill shot.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master
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    I found that a shoulder shot will plant about anything where it stood. The op said cast boolit so unless you are one of the very good cast boolit loaders (I'm not), about 2000 fps is about as fast as you can push a larger cal boolit with accuracy. A cast boolit at 2000 or less impact velocity will not destroy enough meat to matter. I have shot several moose with 270win, 308 win, 338 win and 300H&H. I put a 180 gr Speer through both lungs and the heart at about 75 yds. It walked off about 30yds and stopped. The second shot was about 4" from the first and it rared up and flopped on it's back. If you don't drop a moose on the first shot it will walk into a pond if there is one close. Try skinning a moose in a pond and then tell me it's ok if they wander off 30 or 40 yds.

    The last whitetail I shot, ran off about 100yds after a lung shot with a 85gr 243 at over 3000 fps through the lungs. It took me a couple of hours to find it. I'm am not interested in tracking wounded critters so I want them to stop where they are hit. Front shoulders seems to be the only large target area that gets the results I want.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master Rapier's Avatar
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    First of all, you never shoot an animal unless you know exactly where to place an instantly fatal shot. They deserve that respect.

    For a deer a neck shot centered top to bottom is preferred, if the neck is clear and the deer is standing still. Next is a heart shot, behind the shoulder at the leg body joint about 2" up from the belly.

    Unless you want to loose half the meat on a deer, you do not ever shoot the front shoulder.
    With a swamp hog, just shoot the vermin, to kill, and then bury them. Dry land hogs can be real good eating, I shoot them in the head , neck or heart. Head is between the eye and ear hole.
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  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbuck351 View Post
    I found that a shoulder shot will plant about anything where it stood. The op said cast boolit so unless you are one of the very good cast boolit loaders (I'm not), about 2000 fps is about as fast as you can push a larger cal boolit with accuracy. A cast boolit at 2000 or less impact velocity will not destroy enough meat to matter. I have shot several moose with 270win, 308 win, 338 win and 300H&H. I put a 180 gr Speer through both lungs and the heart at about 75 yds. It walked off about 30yds and stopped. The second shot was about 4" from the first and it rared up and flopped on it's back. If you don't drop a moose on the first shot it will walk into a pond if there is one close. Try skinning a moose in a pond and then tell me it's ok if they wander off 30 or 40 yds.

    The last whitetail I shot, ran off about 100yds after a lung shot with a 85gr 243 at over 3000 fps through the lungs. It took me a couple of hours to find it. I'm am not interested in tracking wounded critters so I want them to stop where they are hit. Front shoulders seems to be the only large target area that gets the results I want.
    Living in MT, if they run 30-40 yards, they don't usually make it to a pond, in some areas, 30-40 miles won't make it to a pond. I shoot a 38-55 with a 255gr clip on WW air cooled PB bullet. I'm getting about 1600fps ish. This is the offside front shoulder of a deer I hit at 120 yards. Click image for larger version. 

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    Double lungs with the same weapon give me less meat damage so I tend to go for that. But again, in my area, a 50 yard run isn't anything to worry about. I also bowhunt and get very similar tracking jobs.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    30 yard shot on this animal, both lungs, ran about 50ish yards but was easily found even in what is considered "cover" here.
    Wound shown is the entry. Exited out bottom of chest/heart, steep downward angle.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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  5. #25
    Boolit Buddy

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    A most interesting topic. I'm an old timer who has killed a lot of deer. I hunted with my father and grandfather when I was a kid. They were avowed neck shooters. The deer would not run and fall in front of another hunter was their reasoning. A neck shot usually dropped Bambi on the spot. When I farmed I usually had deer in my corn fields. A shot from the tractor seat through the ears put meat in the freezer. Had kids who liked eating venison. But I found that deer shot through the lungs or heart were better eating. When field dressing and removing the entrails, the thorasic cavity was usually filled with blood on a heart or lung shot. The blood was not in the meat! Head shots and neck shots resulted in venison that the meat was bloody. There was no blood in the thorasic cavity! These later years, I always go for a shoulder, heart, and lung shot. The meat tastes better. My ole 45-70, 40-65 Win and 50-70 uses soft cast boolits! They make a large hole going in and usually try to crush a shoulder. The soft lead projectile has expanded and makes a large exit hole that lets out plenty of blood. I've had heart shot deer run 30~70 feet before falling over. Just shot a buck this past season in PA during the flintlock season. My 54 cal Leigh County flint rifle has taken plenty of whitetails! Big soft bullet through the shoulders does the trick. But sometimes in thick timber one only has a head or neck shot. Take it! Don't wait! You will still have Bambi in the freezer instead of him jumping out in front of your car or truck!

  6. #26
    Boolit Buddy ElCheapo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rapier View Post
    Unless you want to loose half the meat on a deer, you do not ever shoot the front shoulder.
    Good advice for high velocity jacketed bullet users, but this isn't what the OP was asking about.

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
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    I don't ever shoot for the shoulder either unless it can't be avoided on a quartering shot. Soft bullets make a lot of damage even cast.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master
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    P.S. Behind the shoulder or upper neck.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master huntinlever's Avatar
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    With my 45-70 405 grain, I prefer the shoulder.
    -Paul

  10. #30
    Boolit Grand Master Good Cheer's Avatar
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    Depending upon the terrain, your personnel circumstances and the time of day there's a lot to be said for the shoulder.

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy ElCheapo's Avatar
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    Alloy definitely makes a difference. I use straight COWW's and PC my bullets, resulting in a final hardness of 10-12 BHN. In my 30-30 I've used the Lyman 311041 and 311008 at 2200 fps to harvest deer with shoulder shots. Deer drop on the spot and the bullets give complete penetration with very little bloodshot meat. I used the same process to make NOE 120 grain roundnoses for my 300 BLK and used it on hogs. Worked well for small to medium hogs, but sub-par performance on larger hogs has convinced me to try the 350 Legend. I'm using the LEE 200 gr RNFP PC'd, at 2200 fps. Accuracy is great and it should be the equal of the 35 Remington on hogs. We'll see when I get the chance to bust a 300 lb boar in the shoulder!

  12. #32
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    I'm 100% with Tripplebeards (Post #3).
    geo

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy





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    Brain- prefer broadside with head down, however under hunting conditions that is not as likely. I can not advocate for others to make a brain shot, takes a really diciplined and patient trigger finger and mind set. No chasing, or tracking, and much easier butchering. Have to have a distance limit in mind, and be very aware of rifles trajectory at possible shooting distances. That being said -- this year I did 2 neck shots as that was what was available. It was a bit messy while butchering. Estimate that I lost about a pound of meat on one and about 2-2.5# on the 2nd one. Meat loss due to bone fragments, hair, lead & blood, mostly blood between muscle tissues. Every bullet or arrow is going to cause some meat loss if it goes thru muscle.

  14. #34
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by ElCheapo View Post
    Good advice for high velocity jacketed bullet users, but this isn't what the OP was asking about.
    True. And half the meat on the deer I've shot hasn't been in the front shoulders. Hindquarters and the backstraps are about 65-70% of the good meat. Front shoulders and neck are about 10% each plus a little bit from the front legs above the elbows. Solid neck (spine) shots are definitely effective but I tracked (and recovered) a friend's deer that was shot through the neck a bit lower than intended. The bullet went through the windpipe. The deer went over 600 yards and drowned on his own blood. My friend pulled the shot about 2" lower than he wanted. Not too much off the mark for field conditions. If it wasn't for fresh snow and patience the deer would have been lost. Tiny flecks of blood on the snow every couple yards kept us from getting the trail mixed up too many times with other deer tracks. Since I found that deer I've never taken another neck shot. FWIW my preference is quartering away a bit and break the far shoulder. I lose a little meat (part of one shoulder), but I don't lose the deer because they never go far and they bleed well. And if I pull my shot by 2" the only one that will know is me because the outcome will be the same.

  15. #35
    Boolit Grand Master



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    One thing about brain shots that needs to be kept in mind is that there is zero blood loss. Field dressing ASAP helps even though the heart isn't pumping any blood out. I first discovered that when I had three tags. Two buck tags and a doe tag. Two bucks were following a doe. I dropped the biggest buck on the spot. Second shot put the doe down about 50 feet away. The second buck turned at the second shot and ran between the two downed deer. It stopped and I shot it through the brain. I dragged them together to field dress them. I did the brain shot last. After skinning brain shot buck the amount of blood oozing out was like something out of a horror movie. Same for the meat. Taste was adversely affected. The other two were normal. The first buck was a neck shot and the doe was a shoulder shot.

    Later I helped skinning and processing 23 deer headshot by LE in a metro herd reduction. Most weren't field dressed for several hours. They all oozed blood after skinning and the meat was a bloody mess.
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  16. #36
    Boolit Master
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    My wife and I hunt for the meat and want to damage as little as possible. In that respect, CB's are actually more versatile than modern high velocity bullets at ranges under 150 yards. The old saying,-"You can eat right up to the hole"- applies.

  17. #37
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by quilbilly View Post
    My wife and I hunt for the meat and want to damage as little as possible. In that respect, CB's are actually more versatile than modern high velocity bullets at ranges under 150 yards. The old saying,-"You can eat right up to the hole"- applies.
    People keep saying that, but this is what the front shoulder exit on me deer looked like. 120 yards, 255grn flat nose .379 out of a 38-55 at 1600-1700fps. If you hit bone, I still get massive damage and meat loss. So I shoot for heart/lung now and try to avoid large bones in meaty areas.
    Click image for larger version. 

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  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy
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    I took two bucks this year with cast boolits. Marlin CB357mag, Lee 125rf, 6 grs Unique. Marlin CB30-30, RD165, 10.6 grs Unique. Both neck shots up close. If using 45-70, I'd shoot behind the shoulder at the distances mentioned.

  19. #39
    Boolit Master and Dean of Balls




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    Far side shoulder or near side shoulder depending on the presentation

    Last edited by fatnhappy; 02-08-2023 at 10:42 AM.
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  20. #40
    Boolit Master redhawk0's Avatar
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    Being a meat hunter....I aim behind the shoulder through the lungs...I can walk the extra 30-50 yards to recover the animal.

    redhawk

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