head shots

[irish_redneck]

Agreed. I wait for the perfect one shot kill, or watchem walk away

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[Guns&ReligionCop]

To the people against a headshot. What if the deer doesnt present that perfect broadside shot where you would just take out a few ribs?

Learn to not shoot everything you see. Hunting is more than just shooting sometimes it invovles watching them walk away

[tughillhunter]

Patience as well. If you go for that headshot, how do you know he/she/it wouldnt move broadside after you take a risky shot? Patience. If it dont, let it walk.

[YFKI1983]

Learn to not shoot everything you see. Hunting is more than just shooting sometimes it invovles watching them walk away

Watch plenty deer walk away. But sometimes the perfect shot doesn't present itself. Last day of the season and you haven't killed anything, you see a deer that stops and only gives you a head/neck shot at 30 yards. You're going to let it walk and just settle for a year of eating chicken? If you practice shooting you should be able to make that shot if conditions are right.

[Guns&ReligionCop]

Watch plenty deer walk away. But sometimes the perfect shot doesn't present itself. Last day of the season and you haven't killed anything, you see a deer that stops and only gives you a head/neck shot at 30 yards. You're going to let it walk and just settle for a year of eating chicken? If you practice shooting you should be able to make that shot if conditions are right.

Yes I would let it walk! I did at the end of PA archery season. The very last day I was hunting in PA with the biggest deer I would ever gotten. I'm a great shot with my bow but I don't take questionable shots. I took a head shot once when I was a kid and was lucky and it worked out but I would never do it again. I shoot clay birds set up at 4 hundered yards I'm sure I can hit a deer in the head from 50 but I wouldn't do it. Part of hunting is finding the perfect shot not taking foolish shots just because you can or you are out of options. Then only time a deer gets bullet to the brain from a gun of mine is it finish it off.

Deer are not zombies or terrorists you don't need a instant brain stem shattering kill and any encouragement of this behavior is going to result in more people trying and more wounded deer.

[Doc]

Deer are not zombies or terrorists you don't need a instant brain stem shattering kill and any encouragement of this behavior is going to result in more people trying and more wounded deer.

That is what bothers me most. I know we have some inexperienced and new hunters on this forum, and it really bothers me that there are people recommending low percentage shots without the proper disclaimers about the tiny sized target they are choosing rather than the much larger higher percentage kill zones. I'm hoping that none of the newbies or others that are tempted to follow or experiment with some of this advice about head shots don't head out to test this out and start choosing targets that are tougher than they need be. It may sound very "preachy", but I believe it is important that some of the strange shot selections don't influence the choices of others.

And by the way, this notion that head shots are a nice clean miss or an instant kill, really is some very bad info. I have seen enough evidence to the contrary, and the consequences can be pretty gross.

[WNYBuckHunter]

What bothers me a lot is that people on here always talks about losing deer and making bad shots and gut shooting deer that makes for a long or impossible recovery. Most of the time, the hunter is aiming for the lungs.

Thus far, I've never heard of anyone aiming at the head and losing an injured deer.

Well, let me be the first to inform you of one that happened this season. A young hunter that I know took a head shot on a doe. The older hunter he was with was not happy, and they went to get the ATV to haul it out. They did not gut it right away, and when they got back, the deer had gotten back up and run away. No blood trail, and no recovery. They were both shocked about it.

I personally have taken head shots in the past, but mostly as finishing shots on does. If you are accurate enough to properly shoot them in the head, shoot them in the shoulders, or spine, it will drop them in their tracks, and if you are a little off, youre still going to get the vitals. Hunting is NOT target shooting, period.

[WNYBuckHunter]

To the people against a headshot. What if the deer doesnt present that perfect broadside shot where you would just take out a few ribs?

Let it walk, or wait for it to give you a better shot.

[the blur]

yesterday I was in the woods. I heard 6 shots in the row, then another 6 shots. after that I heard small caliper gun fire, like 12 rounds. all within 5 minutes. I'm like WTF is this guy doing ??? Sounded like he was target shooting in the woods.

[wooly]

Going back a bunch of years here. I took a head shot at a buck that was with some does in the brush and hit him right in the antler knocking him to his knees. He was still very much alive, but dissoriented and stunned, appearing to be bedded. Now I'm confused because this buck that is "bedded" there, has only one antler and all the other deer scattered but were still in the area I could see. After a good inventory while standing there scratching my head, I approached the buck to find an antler puzzle laying on the ground where he stood.

I then had to back up and finish him off with a shot behind the shoulder. I still have all those pieces of antler I gathered up almost 20yrs ago.

The following year I had a similar encounter with a bedded buck on a rise that only had his head visable facing the opposite direction of my approach. I set my crosshairs on the back of his head and let 'em have it. His head suddenly dissapeared and he seemed to roll down the gulley he was bedded atop. I immediately followed up to where he was laying only to find a blood splatter and an antler blown off at the base. We followed that deer for 3 miles in the snow (yes, this was when our entire block was un-posted/free roaming) and we never caught up to him. He bedded once and made his retreat to higher ground with no signs of slowing down. Never recovered that buck.

Guess what I'm saying is, those were my first, and last two attempts to put a slug through a deers noggin.

My 100% failure rate with the first shot in both cases was enough to say enough is enough.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

yesterday I was in the woods. I heard 6 shots in the row, then another 6 shots. after that I heard small caliper gun fire, like 12 rounds. all within 5 minutes. I'm like WTF is this guy doing ??? Sounded like he was target shooting in the woods.

You were not near letchworth were you? I was on the farm and heard the same kind of fire come from the hogsback area on the park. Sounded like they were on top shooting down into the bowl...

[Doc]

..............Guess what I'm saying is, those were my first, and last two attempts to put a slug through a deers noggin.

My 100% failure rate with the first shot in both cases was enough to say enough is enough.

That's funny! Luck like that is enough to give a guy a complex .... lol. Adjust that darned scope down an inch of so.... ha-ha.

But seriously, that just points out how small that brain really is. You're only talking and inch or so between the perfect brain shot and a miserable experience like you encountered. But luckily the direction that you were off (high) probably resulted in a relatively harmless "de-horning". It doesn't take much more error than that in a low direction to cause a wounding loss that could be a very miserable and lengthy death for the deer.

[zoschag08]

I do as Iong as I know it's not too far of a shot.

[dbHunterNY]

Seriously. Something must be wrong with that particular cartridge. Powder didn't burn all the way? A 30.06 going through the sinus should have blasted a hole through the back of the deer's head.

that's what i would've thought too but it just didn't nothing indicated that it was a bad round. the sound and everything was normal. i can only think it must have hit at the just the right acute angle and then the hide and bone of the skull worked like a layered foam block target. you could feel the bullet under the hide.... very weird but true.