A somber revelation - I killed a baby deer last year

[Bessy]

This is serious ****.

Get a lawyer.

Stop talking about it.

Delete your posts in this thread.

Get a lawyer. (I hear Marc Berris is good.)

I wonder if he has thought about a civil suit from the surviving family.....

[Demogorgon]

When I was younger I had a couple spine shots that I had to coup de gras with a knife to the throat...and it's a lot tougher than it sounds with the fir in the way, you have to punch it in rather than slice. A couple experiences like that and you will hit the range more and look for the heart shot.

Coup des gras with a knife to the throat? Whatever happened to a little redneck brain surgery?



And before anyone asks, I hit it in the heart/lungs first:

[FJ540]

My experience with deer shot placement is that center mass double-lung + heart bonus is always the way to go, even if you are 20 feet away. Heads are too unreliable, and due to the morphology of the deer skull people end up shooting too low and just hitting the jaw. (ouch). Same thing goes for the neck. there are way to many places for the bullet to pass through before it even expands, so you pretty much have to hit the spine-> which means you will probably have to do a coup de gras again anyway.

When I was younger I had a couple spine shots that I had to coup de gras with a knife to the throat...and it's a lot tougher than it sounds with the fir in the way, you have to punch it in rather than slice. A couple experiences like that and you will hit the range more and look for the heart shot.

My shot placement was exactly where I aimed it. It's not a "hit the range" issue - I poked a hole clear through the jugular and dropped the deer where she stood in a big puddle of blood. The benefit of that shot is the shock wave gives the deer brain and or spinal chord damage while leaving the meat completely untouched by bullet or stomach/intestinal bacteria. When I gutted it, it looked as though I'd washed it out - but never did (Thielen even commented how clean it was). My "bambi zero" is within a milk jug from kneeling at 100yds every time in quick succession (and I stalk with a monopod) which allows for both cold and hot barrel shots to hit the equivalent of an 8" plate. I happened to be standing when I made that shot, but I'd been resting for hours (waiting) prior so I was rock steady.

Having said that, if I wasn't certain of my ability to place my bullet (like if the deer was moving around or it was really windy), I wouldn't have gone for the neck. She was holding steady grazing when I pulled the trigger. Next time I might just wait for a clean double.

[Snowgun]

My experience with deer shot placement is that center mass double-lung + heart bonus is always the way to go, even if you are 20 feet away. Heads are too unreliable, and due to the morphology of the deer skull people end up shooting too low and just hitting the jaw. (ouch). Same thing goes for the neck. there are way to many places for the bullet to pass through before it even expands, so you pretty much have to hit the spine-> which means you will probably have to do a coup de gras again anyway.

When I was younger I had a couple spine shots that I had to coup de gras with a knife to the throat...and it's a lot tougher than it sounds with the fir in the way, you have to punch it in rather than slice. A couple experiences like that and you will hit the range more and look for the heart shot.

My shot placement was exactly where I aimed it. It's not a "hit the range" issue - I poked a hole clear through the jugular and dropped the deer where she stood in a big puddle of blood. The benefit of that shot is the shock wave gives the deer brain and or spinal chord damage while leaving the meat completely untouched by bullet or stomach/intestinal bacteria. When I gutted it, it looked as though I'd washed it out - but never did (Thielen even commented how clean it was). My "bambi zero" is within a milk jug from kneeling at 100yds every time in quick succession (and I stalk with a monopod) which allows for both cold and hot barrel shots to hit the equivalent of an 8" plate. I happened to be standing when I made that shot, but I'd been resting for hours (waiting) prior so I was rock steady.

Having said that, if I wasn't certain of my ability to place my bullet (like if the deer was moving around or it was really windy), I wouldn't have gone for the neck. She was holding steady grazing when I pulled the trigger. Next time I might just wait for a clean double.

I never meant to imply it was only a "hit the range" issue, only that even if you can shoot lights out, you can aim at the wrong spot. Since you don't have those nifty orange marks on the deer, its tough to get feedback on your reticules against a brown background. People will naturally tend to drift to the center of the head (wrong) or the center of the neck (wrongish). Add the fact that the ideal anatomy to strike in these places are small, and then any accuracy issues on top of that (wind, distance, skill) and it's a crap shoot.

And who shoots the neck anyway? The vital to fat/fur/skin/muscle ration is terrible, especially with larger deer. No vitals target I've ever seen has that as an option. You'd be better off aiming for the leg.

[FJ540]

Neck is like a head shot only without damaging the skull. Shockwave = brain damage and they drop where they're standing. With the right placement, you damage their nervous system as well and the deers body simply stops functioning like turning off the switch.

But it's not the shot you want to take at any kind of long range. I wouldn't do it at 200 yards even though the bullet isn't likely to be more than an inch or two from where I'm pointing it in the worst conditions.