i shoot the shoulder.

You can make bad shots aiming at either place. The key is to sight in the rifle and take time to shoot it before season to get use to it again. And then shooting at either the neck of shoulders should be fine. WIth that said I still aim behind the front shoulders. Every time I take aim on a whitetail I can here my dad whispering to me "Shoot it in the front shoulders son". I guess that is the only reason I continue to do it.

Unless you have a steady rest and know the exact range plus your ballistics, etc... The shoulder shot is the ethical, higher percentage shot. A neck shot isn't fatal unless it hits the spine or the jugular. Both are much smaller targets than the lungs and/or shoulder. The neck shot is for above average shooters only. We should continue to teach kids and new hunters to take only the highest percentage shot.

Behind the shoulder. There are more vital areas to hit.

The shoulder has a larger vital area. Unless your shooting from a rest I think it is more ethical to aim for the heart/liver/lungs than the neck.

Behind the shoulder is the most ethical, and makes the most sense. Out west most of your shots are at or beyound 150 yards, and the spine becomes a very small target at that distance. The static force of most bullets now days is more than sufficiant to take down an animal. I well places bhind the shoulder shot with an appropiate caliber damages almost no meat.

I would aim behing the shoulder. If it does run away, it runs off and you have to stalk it. That is part of being a hunter. Also to shoot it in the neck you have to have a clear shot at the neck. It is quartering away and about to get dark and you have to take a shot, i would hit it behind the shoulder.

* manily because it was the shot i had play it safe aim behind the shoulder

I knew a guy many years ago shot a buck in the neck. He was getting ready to take a pic and the deer jumped up and ran off never to be seen again. The neck is a small target. Shoot for the lungs or scapula. Last fall I passed on a chance to take a 117 yd neck shot at a 150 class 10 point with a scoped inline.Just too risky the neck and head was all I could see.

They are called the vitals for a reason. Shoot them.

behind the shoulder. Honestly I dont save the ribs to eat so on a good placed shot i dont waste any meat i care to eat. I have taken deer with a neck shot but not my prefered method. I passed up the biggest buck i have ever seen still to this day becouse he wouldnt give me a good behind the shoulder shot. I had a neck shot but didnt want to chance it with a bow.

Be careful neck shots aren't always fatal. Lost a deer bowhunting years back with a neck shot. Must have just missed vitals. tracked for over a mile. Shoulder and beyond works better. you ruin more meat when you lose the deer.

Keep in mind a behind-the-shoulder shot is not a guarantee, even with a sufficient round and accurate rifle/good shooter combination. I shot a small doe last year with my 7mm Rem. Mag. I was aiming at the sweet spot behind the shoulder, but the round went a little high. I saw the doe bunch up, limp off a little, try to run and then fall. When I walked to within 30 yards of where I knew my backstraps laid, I was surprised when she jumped up, ran 200 yards and jumped 2 barbed wire fences then trotted off into the woods. I found where she had been bedded down and there was very little blood. I waited 2 hours then stalked into the woods where I had last seen her, I never found any blood or spore, I pushed deer ahead of me 4 times but could never get a good look or clear shot at any of them because the woods were so thick. I searched all day and never found her. The next day my wifes' cousin found her dead 2 miles away. I came out and examined the carcass and found that my round had entered between the spine and the lungs had went through and did not hit any "vitals". Unfortunately the carcass had been visited by coyotes, so the meat was unusable. This just goes to show you that there are no guarantees when it comes to deer hunting, and for the sake of the animals we should always take the most ehtical, high percentage shots.

A proper lung/heart shot should destroy very little meat unless the deer is quartering. There is scarcely enough meat on the ribs to bother with.

That being said, at very close range I might take a neck shot if the deer was facing directly towards or directly away from me.

I have taken 3 deer with neck shots and the rest behind the shoulder. It all depends on what shot is presented to you and how close you are. Just remember, only take a shot that you are comfortable with!

i think your safest bet is behind the shoulder ,it gives you the largest kill zone . but that being said i have on several white tails taken the neck shot . because i didn't have a clear shot at the shoulder. what it all boils down to is use commonsense and only take good ethical shots at either area of the body. you can miss and wound the animal in either place .

i like the shoulder area first and if i get that shot. if i want the deer real bad and neck is only shoot and i know i can make that shot i will take it. only shoot to kill and dont chance it.

in my opinion you should be able to hit both behind the shoulder and the neck. sometimes you don't have the option of taking a shoulder shot and you can go to the neck. i shoot shoulder. but neck is an option.

"God" is always capitalized. Recess is over, go back to class.

Shoulder...neck is just to small of an area

I must reside firmly in the shoulder community. I want to either take out the boiler room or break down the running gears, either is ok with me. I greatly prefer dragging to blood trailing. Way too much room for error in the neck. My brother-in-law shot one in the neck once and it ran for the proverbial country mile before it bled out. Thankfully he did hit the jugular but missed the spine, had he not hit the main line the deer would have a nasty wound and no blood trail to speak of.

I made the switch to neck shots 10 years ago and haven't looked back. One does not have to hit the spine for a neck shot to be a quick kill. It has been my experience since I have switched that those few shots that I have missed (not bragging because I am very picky about my shots almost to the point that the planets have to be aligned correctly) have been complete misses while every shot I have connected resulted in the deer dropping in his/her tracks. There is a lot of vital stuff in the neck such as the carotid artery, the jugular vein, and at the lower portion of the neck the brachial arteries. There are a lot of nerves and important connective tissue in there too. One may venture to say that the neck itself is one big vital area.
I am not pushing for everyone to try it because one must take the shot one is most comfortable with and is the most consistent with. An additional benefit of taking neck shots is that it has kept me going to the range on a regular basis to continue to hone my marksmanship skills. As with all shots at game whether you are using big magnums or smaller calibers, shot placement is of the utmost importance.

You are the only one that knows your own abilities as a shooter and if you have always taken a behind the shoulder shot then, like they say :If it aint broke, dont fix it" It seems that the majority of us out there do prefer the shoulder shot but if you know your rifle and know your capabilities then take the neck shot. Distance plays a huge factor in this to. Obviously at long ranges you want to aim for the biggest part of the "Kill Zone" that being the vitals, heart and lungs. At shorter distances a neck shot may be your only option given the terrain you are hunting in, but the shorter distance decreases your chances of serioulsy wounding that animal and putting that bullet where you intended to put it. To each their own of course, I have harvested deer by taking both shots and with the power and design of todays bullets they dont leave much room for error. We all want to bring down an animal in the quickest and most humane way possible, only you know at the time which way that should be. Take Care All.

Buck Boyz

Straight through both shoulders . I like to break them down and the bullet go through into the boiler room.