where do you aim on a whitetail side/front

[kennisondan]

Broadside :  I used to shoot only heart/lung shots/; I went to shoulder shots that angled through the vitals; I tried lower neck shots; they all worked fine, with no misplaced shots...  since going to handgun rounds that will not expand :  I am contemplating the heart lung shots that penetrate one of the shoulders as well. 
Frontal :  Direct frontal :: middle center going through the center of the chest cavity
quartering frontal : wherever the entry needs to be  for passing about eight r ten inches in through the center of the chest.

I noticed that the  shots that disrupted the shoulder either going in or coming out dropped them and they could not get up and died shortly.
A few heart shots dropped rite there but some ran up to fifity yards..
the shots that hit the spine either in the neck or upper shoulder or upper chest : dropped instantly.

what is your choice of shooting spots, and your experience with different shot placement..
also was there some amazing response to an otherwise good hit that you would like to share ?
I read where great chest shots run off all the time...for instance.
thanks.
I expect some surprises : that some folks shoot the neck, the head, the spine only for instant kills... that some always just shoot lungs
dk

[Glanceblamm]

On the classic broad side, the ideal shot will take the top arteries off the heart and get the lungs as well. I like to aim a bit higher than this "say right behind the point of the front shoulder" which will allow a little margin for error.
The broad side does not always present itself as you know, so what I do is to imagine that there is a ball in the chest cavity. All shots are aimed to pass through the center of this "ball" regardless of the angle.

[Jerry Lester]

My preferred shot is through the facing shoulder into the vitals with an exit behind the off shoulder. This has proven to be the quickest "hit the ground in their tracks" shot for me. 

[Graybeard]

I've never been very successful at getting deer to pose "just the way I want them to" so I play it by ear as the shot develops. I'm gonna put that bullet thru the lungs if I can but some times the deer just plain don't cooperate like the last one I shot last year. It was a doe feeding toward me up in a high shooting house stand. It never really gave me anything but a head on shot as it kept walking straight at me.

I figured since it was coming toward me I might as well let her come on closer and closer but at about 50 yards I decided that was getting close enough and light was fading real fast. So I waited until she put her head down to feed on the grass and put one right into the center of the neck breaking the spine. It sure rattled around as I moved her closer to the stand to wait for the bus to come pick me up.

Ya gotta shoot them where they let you really. If quartering to you a shoulder thru lungs and out shot is a good one and likely the best. But if quartering away that shot ain't gonna happen so I try to plug the off shoulder on the way out. Broadside or nearly so I'm a firm beliver in center of lungs. So hit they might run but not far and with anything I'm gonna be using I'll have an exit and a good blood trail to follow.

Might be the only shot you're gonna get is with it walking straight away. If you're above that's not so bad as you can shoot downward thru the shoulders into the spine and still take either heart or lungs out or higher up into the base on neck to break the spine there.

I had one that the only shot offered was between the eyes as it looked back at me thru a pair of trees. I had waited and waited for a clear shot as the buck moved thru thick brush but it was about to get away with no shot yet offer. I was using a 14" TC 7-30 and put a 120 BT right between the yes. That skull kinda rattled like the spine of that doe last year did.

I evaluate every shot and make a decision based on what's presented. Seldom will any two be just alike.

[Redhawk1]

On the lines of what Graybeard said, I take what shot presents it's self.  I like a high shoulder shot, but on the back portion of the shoulder, it takes out the shoulder, top of the lungs and sometimes shocks the CNS, I will also take a shot right behind the shoulder. It all depends on how much time I have to shoot and the shot presented to me.

[Mikey]

dk:  what you and Graybeard and Redhawk1 said.  Mikey.

[911ne]

Agree with Greybeard, I am mostly a meat hunter and take what shot makes the cleanest kill.