I think that we picture our shoulders on whitetail (at least I did). Once I started taking serious looks at the anatomy of whitetail, I was surprised at what a drastic angle the bone takes to get to the shoulder. You quickly realize the shoulder sits way forward...But if you didn't know better, you'd assume it's directly above the leg.
I've hit two deer in the 'knuckle' of the humerus. Both got almost no penetration and both lived. But I think it's better to occasionally lose one to a non-fatal bone hit than to purposefully aim too far back and lose a mortally wounded gut shot deer. Also, don't aim high! The deer that I posted and the one Muzzyman posted would be lost deer (or at best, spined) if they were, say 30 yards out and about the arrow was flying at almost a horizontal plane. Steep angle through the shoulder is okay. Horizontal through the upper shoulder blade is usually bad.
Here is a screen cap from a video three months after the shot to show where to me it looks right on the knuckle of the shoulder.
Absolutely the knuckle, was this from a stand? I have shot through the knuckle joint, once. Two years ago I shot a small buck from a steep angle. Entrance took the buck through the back of the scapula and continued through the knuckle joint on the off side. I have short arms and shoot a heavy arrow. Shot was 35 yards, I was surprised it made it through the other side.
I know this has posted 6 million times, but... You can really grasp how much room you have. I like to aim 1/3 of the body up the leg and forward a few inches. If you can take out some lung and the top of the heart they usually go less than 30. Thew frontal shot on my elk this year took out every major artery going into the heart, he lived less than 10 seconds.
I have hit it several times and have always busted through to the heart but it is definitely best to stay off it. It is too low anyway from a tree. I have hit it on exit quite a few times.
I've struggled with "shoulder phobia" for years. It got worse after I made a shot like Kroboy on a buck I'd been after for a couple years...never found him. I know where I need to aim but I always find myself aiming back a bit. EXCEPT for last year, nailed this doe!
How big was that doe? That heart is huge... or you have baby hands. LOL The thing is... the only way we get heart shots is to shoot where the heart is.
Haha, I guess I have normal size hands...I can palm grip a basketball. Maybe that's why I hit the heart...it's abnormally large.
I'd rather miss my spot and hit guts rather then miss my spot and hit the knuckle or big part of the shoulder blade. Thus why I have always stayed a little farther away from the shoulder. A persons room for error is much better. Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
Knuckle... yes but that is about the size of a golfball maybe and way too low. Blade from a flat shot is way too high unless shooting nearly straight down. The sweet spot in between is huge and lethal.
The big nine I shot this morning, I hit further back than where I generally aim because he wouldn't stop walking and I was loosing shooting lane fast. He slowed down but took a step just as I shot, being I was aiming for his shoulder...I still punched through both lungs like butter and he folded in less than 60 yards. I deffinitely hit both lungs too, saw them with a perfect broadhead cut through them both when I dressed him out. SO now I feel safe hitting shoulder or further back. On a buck that size it amounts to an area the size of a good sized meat platter.
You will get a gut shot deer every time if you treat it right. Not the case hitting the blade or knuckle. I've lost 2 deer in 27 years of bow hunting. One was a shoulder blade and the other was a spine. Most of my kills have been lung and or heart shots but a half dozen or so have been gut hits. Recovered every gut shot bear and deer with ease. I wasn't aiming for guts either. Just missed my spot. It's that room for error thing. Most of the non recovered track jobs of others that I've been on were shoulder hits. I've been on ALLOT of blood trails. Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
Yeah, I'm still going to target that front shoulder. It's all about the angles though. I always imagined the deer as being transparent and imagining where it's vitals are and try to get the shaft into those accounting for the angle (if any). SO far....I've never lost a deer except one and he didn't die...had a mechanical broadhead malfunction and kick out on a 180 class deer. I know someday it'll happen, it does to everyone but so far I've been fortunate that way. I have passed up a lot of shots I wasn't confident with too though. Haha, yeah I hear ya on being on a lot of track jobs. I generally get that job around here, I swear I think everyone within 20 miles of here gets a wounded deer and they call me to help look for it. I like the challenge and usually find them but I hate it when deer are in native grass or cross fescue or there's buckbrush waist deep...gahh. I also can't believe the shots some people risk and then never learn from....sad.
I hate a gut shot. I have made a few and recovered deer after usually way too long of a trailing job. I guess, maybe I didn't have the discipline to wait as I should years ago. Meat spoilage can be an issue down south too. Seeing the exit wound before the shot is the key that most hunters miss. Yes, tracking a deer across a thick grass field or pine straw is a pain too... more good reason to back out and wait at least 2 hours unless you are certain a deer is down. Now back to the phobia... My personal bias here. Archery manufacturers are feeding the phobia more than hunters with practical field experience to make a profit. They are communicating that we "need" a $15.00 broad head that is "like throwing an axe" through a deer or one that will "expand your kill zone." I am sorry, but hunters IMO are not in need of a larger kill zone as much as they are in need of knowing where the kill zone is. That huge hole above the knee is the size of a dinner plate as has been said. Every day, it seems, someone posts a thread; "I made a perfect hit but I can't find my deer." After 5 or 6 hundred yards, innumerable puddles of blood, and three days of tracking, they finally either give up or recover a rotten deer to the applause of nearly everyone for staying on the trail. The archery companies are feeding this crap, the hunting show people are feeding this crap and teaching hunters to intentionally aim too far back because their $15.00 head doesn't make a 6 inch gash when it hits bone and doesn't come out the other side. That just doesn't create the mania to sell broadheads IMO. Any deer hit solidly above the knee but below the spine with a sharp broad head, especially if he is broadside is going down, generally within 50-100 yards. The majority of hits I see on television... I would call too far back. I understand it does happen... but when we purposely aim too far back out of ignorance thinking we are doing so correctly is why I wanted to start this post. I never want to hit gut... ever. I never want to hit the front of the shoulder either. But the bone structure of the shoulder is way further forward, way lower at the bottom and way higher at the top than most people realize. I am simply saying that we owe it to the animal to know where the vitals are and shoot for them... and quit believing our miracle broad heads are going to provide a panacea for stupid shots, either in the guts or in the shoulder bones. This is my experience but worrying about hitting a deer in a tiny knee joint as compared to the risk of hitting a deer in the stomach as large as it is doesn't make much sense. Anyone who can shoot well enough to hit a deer in the stomach can darn sure shoot good enough to hit the sweet spot if he or she will just aim forward a tad further. I promise, you'll get better results.
I've only ever hit one deer right in the shoulder. I was shooting a 48# recurve, heavy aluminum arrows and a two blade Magnus head. I didn't get much penetration (maybe 2") and of course never found the deer or my arrow. He ran off with it waving like a flag. With a compound I still aim forward and I am confident I can hit where I am aiming or close enough to it. I shoot fixed blade heads (QAD Exodus now, used to be Muzzy). I am not a mechanical hater but watch the video of Justin shooting that buck recently. I got more penetration with my old recurve that he did with his Mathews. You may be able to blame the head but a bad shot is a bad shot. It happens and none of us try to do it on purpose. I know he practices a lot and is a good shot. It just happens sometimes.
