Target vitals??

[GF.]

I've got a Block with the deer silhouette on it.The vitals are there, too, and the odd thing is.... I can shoot into it and like all of my hits just fine, but when I walk up to it, their diagram shows that I'm hitting kinda consistently out in front of the lungs they have drawn on there.


:confused:


I was thinking "well, that one'd hit spine for sure", but the more I look at the various slides of whitetail anatomy, the more concerned I am that I might encounter a shoulder blade in the process. Or two.:eek:

Maybe I'm just getting thrown off by shooting at a flat, featureless silhouette?? (Or maybe I should make sure that all of my arrows hit the same POI? I'm practicing with field points, so that doesn't seem quite right...)

Anyway, is it me, or are those vitals drawn a little off of correct? With all the 3D's I've bagged, I never questioned my knowledge of the anatomy, so it's not as if I don't know where to hold...

Just looking over some of the anatomical pics that are out there, I hadn't ever visualized a hard stop in the vitals at the fore edge of the heart as is often shown. Seems to me that the lungs ought to run forward of the heart for a bit and provide a little more margin for error. Like in the thumbnail....

:confused:

So here's the best question of the bunch - do you guys focus on heart shots, or just go for a solid double-lunger tight behind the shoulder?

The thing is, it really seems to me that holding off of the rear edge of the shoulder puts you into the rear third of the vitals, which really cuts into your room for error, but maybe that's the drill in bowhunting....

[ncboman]

according to the diagram, this should not be.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/ncboman/Bowseason%2007/102207126r.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/ncboman/Bowseason%2007/102207128r.jpg

:rolleyes:

[Bill Gunn]

Use This...

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/1527241/204232736.jpg

[GF.]

Bill - :D:D:D

NC - that's the exit, no? Looks like the entrance might have been higher and forward?

I've shot a few deer resulting in exit wounds in about that spot, and have usually tagged the liver, and occasionally the grassbag, as Herne calls it.

Nasty!:eek:

But if you tag a nice, big artery somewhere in there, I'd think that the pressure would get that good, bright blood leaking out, and in good quantity, just as in your pic.

Do you happen to recall what you found on the inside o' that one?

[dave-t.]

I have a pic of a terrible looking shot that was all lungs. I'll have to track it down. The lung area is bigger than a lot of targets allow for. There are very few of the ribs not covering an immediate kill area. Hit the middle of the rib cage b-side, and you have no worries.

[ncboman]

Bill - :D:D:D

NC - that's the exit, no? Looks like the entrance might have been higher and forward?

I've shot a few deer resulting in exit wounds in about that spot, and have usually tagged the liver, and occasionally the grassbag, as Herne calls it.

Nasty!:eek:

But if you tag a nice, big artery somewhere in there, I'd think that the pressure would get that good, bright blood leaking out, and in good quantity, just as in your pic.

Do you happen to recall what you found on the inside o' that one?

hit no guts, no liver, ... pure lungs. :)

[GF.]

She must've been taking a deep, cleansing breath when you let all the air back out of her....:D

[GF.]

I think Herne's got a pretty good line on it. There are twelve ribs on a side. Stay in front of #10, and let the tracking begin.

Lord knows I sure wouldn't want anything poking in between any two of my ribs!:eek:

[GF.]

http://skinnymoose.com/tailsandtrails/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/deer-anatomy.jpg


Hmmmmm... might be a little more room for error if you hit a few inches high rather than low. I notice, too, that the diaphragm on this one is totally relaxed (forward), so there's mor elung there than it appears - at least about half the time.....

[dave-t.]

Looking at that pic, it makes me think of why my buddy like taking hard quarteing away shots. In behind the ribs, just along the backstrap, and out in or barely infront of the shoulder. You get the length and breadth of the lungs with that shot.

He waits for that shot and says they don't run 40yds with that hit. I have a hard time aiming that far back, and prefer a softer angling shot myself.

[GF.]

I'm with you.... It's a great hit if you can make it.... But if you hold for aft of the ribs and push/pull/flinch/cant the shot a bit to the rear....

I guess I'd rather have a clean carcass every time than a super-short tracking job some of the time and a real mess part of the time.


Looks like the usual 10-ring covers from ribs 4-8... I'll go along with that.

Stitching through the meat of the shoulder gets you more into heart, but a pure double-lung sure bleeds easily....

[Twanger]

I tend to shoot to in the back half of the lungs, being fearful of getting into the shoulder.
As somebody said, back and high is far better than back and low.

I was hunting with a buddy one time, two trees 25 yards apart, and he hit the deer a little far back. The deer was bleeding good but as you know I'm not one to leave a deer in range unshot a second time. It was facing away from me at 10 yds and I shot her right in front of the hips, aiming for the heart. Center punched the heart perfectly and the arrow exited the front of the chest. It's still amazing to me that an arrow can go completely through a deer lengthwise. She dropped about 30 yards farther out.

It's an unusual shot, but I think a far better one than head on. I'd never take a head on shot. Done that. Didn't like it.

[ncboman]

There's a quartering in shot I want to try.

I saw a big buck on a video planted with the shot and I've wanted to try it ever since. Basicly a spine shot into the base of the neck just forward of the shoulder.

Often deer stop head down and quartering in and it's a situation I usually just wait out but I may not next time. :rolleyes:

[Twanger]

The second largest buck I ever took I shot that way Bowman.
It was quartering very severely towards me and there was no shot behind the shoulder. I decided to shoot in front of the shoulder and dropped the deer on the spot. It needed finishing however. It was paralized from the shoulders back, and would not die without more steel thrown it's way.

It was kinda aweful actually, and I'd like to think I'd never take that shot again.

[GF.]

I got exactly the same with the .54

Dropped on the spot, but could have lived a long, full life as a quadriplegic, I'm afraid. I couldn't get a second ball down the pipe (because I didn't realize until then that I had never fired a shot without swabbing first) and had to climb down finish the job with the Old Timer. Standing there watching the blood jet out of his carotids, I thought he took a very long time to die..... :(

I think the head-down, hard-quartering shot NC described could easily lead to the same result, assuming that you got into the spine good & clean. On the other hand, if one stopped with the near-side shoulder opened up - say that near leg is trailing behind and you've got a window between the shoulder blade and the spine, then holding for just under the spine could be a real good placement.

The kicker, though, is that a broadhead will easily penetrate the thin blades of a scapula, but the quartering-to angle could leave you trying to cut through all three of them at something of an angle, and that could turn into a fair amount of bone, especially if you hit the 'handle' of it, or ended up trying to carve through the blade lengthwise instead of just punching through from the side....

I don' know, though.... It would have to be an animal I really wanted and really thought that I should expect to lose my shot on if it were to get past me and into a broadside or quartering-away presentation. Wind, lousy shooting lanes over there, something like that.