Shoot shoulders vs lungs on deer?

[Autorim]

Yes on the anatomy. Turkeys for instance, my professional bow hunting guides and friends tell me that the best shot is when the bird is facing dead away and aim right above the tail. My son demonstrated this to me in Nebraska this March. Smacked him just like that and got complete penetration out the breast - ran about 20 yards and fell dead - destroyed the heart lung area.

[ftw]

I come right up the front leg and when I get to where the body swells out, I pull the trigger. I hunted with a .243 for 20 years and killed 2-3 deer every year. I never had one go out of sight and most dropped within 20 yards.

I shoot the same with a handgun and have experienced the same good results.

 Once I let an outdoor magazine article convince me that I should shoot a deer through the lungs so the first buck that came along I shot him dead through both lungs. Do deer have after burners? This one kicked it in high gear and went off through the woods and out of sight. In actuality, I found the deer 20 minutes later about 100 yards through some very rough stuff. It will definately kill a deer but I will stay with my "shoulder" shot.

[Lead Poison]

Technically speaking deer don't exactly have "shoulders" at least not in the same sense as we humans do. Their front leg bones are not tied into their skeltal structure as ours are they are merely attached via muscle and tendons with no hard bone to bone connection. So it's not like you can break the joint of the shoulder as on a human and stop them. They can run quite well on three legs thank you so even if you put one of them out of commission it's no sweat for them to continue on three and in fact they can live a long and healthy life with only three legs.

The shot often called the high shoulder shot is really less a shoulder shot than a spine shot in reality. There is a magic spot up there high on what is generally called a deer's shoulder that catches the spine where it dips from the neck before heading up into the back to traverse the body. Hit there and it's instant lights out as that is a CNS shot really. Miss it high and there is another magic spot that has absolutely NOTHING of value to the deer and it might drop like lightning but then will be up and running very quickly and that's how a lot of folks lose deer they were sure were dead.

I am of the opinion that double lung shots are the smart shot to take. It's the largest target on the deer and no deer will go far with a hole thru both lungs no matter what put it there. Put that bullet low in the lungs and they bleed out even faster and leave more of a blood trail.

I claim no special knowledge of shooting deer with a .357 magnum as I've never shot a single one with it. Oh in my early handgun hunting days I did often carry a .357 Magnum S&W with me but never had the chance to use it on a deer and still haven't. I have far more appropriate in my eyes at least handguns for hunting use so pretty much never carry a .357 with the intention of actually using it on deer. I do carry a 3" S&W Model 60 with me most of the time when hunting but it's not for the deer that I have it with me. I'd give it a try if I ever had the chance on one inside of 25 yards most likely just to see how it worked but so far that's not happened when I had it with me. If I'm strictly handgun hunting it often stays home but it's always with me if rifle hunting.

Jerry Lester is our resident expert on the use of the .357 Magnum on deer. He has taken in excess of 50 with it I think. He recommends using a Remington 158 grain JSP pushed to about max velocity and says it works very well on them. Regardless tho of whether you use a JSP, JHP or cast bullet I'd suggest you treat it as a loud bow and take the same kinda shots you'd take with your bow althou you should be able to add a bit more range using it than the bow.

This is excellent advice!