Can Someone Explain Neck Shots To Me?

[emrah1028]

Having shot a whopping one deer in my entire life, I have little experience with actual kill shots. I always here of neck-shooting deer (or antelope, elk, what have you).

So what exactly is a neck shot? More to the point: where do you aim and why is it lethal? Mind you, I don't want to start a flame war about what type of shot is most ethical. I just what to know what exactly does the killing with a neck shot.

Is it severing a main artery? Breaking the spine? Also, is it the bullet itself that does the damage or the concussion from the secondary wound cavity (if such a thing really exists). And what about slower-moving bullets that don't cause said secondary cavity (again, if such a thing exists), but just pokes a clean hole through the animal?

Help me understand.

Emrah

 

[schmalts]

Is it severing a main artery? Breaking the spine? Also, is it the bullet itself that does the damage or the concussion from the secondary wound cavity (if such a thing really exists).


Emrah

Yes
Also limits meat loss due to shooting at an angle that may hit one or both shoulders.
All situations are different and also on what type of animal. I have taken more than a few deer in the neck but those times were in situations with solid rests and very high confidence of hitting where I was aiming. Results will vary but I never lost an deer that was hit in the neck and never had one go out of sight.
I would only do it on close shots too, but that is just me because the chest is a lot bigger target.
If you plan on having a taxidermist do a shoulder mount you don't want to neck shot anything as a plan.

 

[2rocky]

+1 to Schmalts.

My neck shots have been:
Head on at 20yds, (white patch) blacktail
Behind the ear on a wild pig at 120 yds
Blacktail at 50 yds.
A hail mary on a running away buck that I lead so the bullet hit the neck ( I would have been happy with a top of the shoulders impact)

The neck on a BT is small enough that a hit with a high caliber bullet will break the spinal cord. A miss is a clean miss. Not the case on an Elk. Too much hair and muscle on them to feel confident for me.

Here is a good discussion about the neck shot on hogs
http://www.skinnymoose.com/hogblog/...ment-on-hogs-arguments-against-the-head-shot/

 

[tarheel]

I've killed several whitetail with neck shots at ranges from 10 yds with a muzzleloader to 75 yards with a 30-06, and one mulie. All were hit as close to the head as possible and were with good rests and absolute certainty of hitting my mark. The one with the muzzleloader was the only one which had the neckbones and cord severed, all the others suffered terminal shock to the spinal cord; no bone struck, but they all dropped in their tracks without a wiggle or kick.

The mulie was the weird one; 30-06 with Nosler ballistic tip 165gr back when they first came out and nothing was yet known about their performance on game. The bullet struck him on the back corner of the skull just where the neck joins, did an almost 90 degree deflection into the neck, traveled down the esophagus to where the bronchi separate, entered the top of the heart and exited the bottom leaving it looking like a four pound tulip bulb. Weirdest thing ever; he didn't stand a chance.

 

[drahthaar]

In my experiences it breaks the spine and they go down. I have killed several bucks over the years with a 22-250. All neck shots, all broken spines and zero tracking. Its a devasting hit for sure, but confidence and steadiness must be high.

 

[devon deer]

As already mentioned, getting close, firm rifle rest, and 100% confidence in your own ablity.
Its different in the UK, as its all private land i don't want any deer i shoot running onto a neighbors farm at last light, so if its a fairly long shot i will nail them through the shoulders, or preferably if close enough a neck shot.
But things can go wrong, thankfully its only happened to me once (i have shots 100's of deer), it clipped the esophagus and ran off, luckily i tracked and found it.
But done correctly its a lethal shot.
Cheers
Richard

 

[Lawnboy]

My dad taught us kids that as neck shot is as good as any shot. He would of rather had us take a neck shot than a body shot. I think his reasoning was that it was either a dead animal or a clean miss. I have shot 5 bulls in the neck and they all have dropped like rocks. He always told us to aim at the base of the neck where the neck and head meet. You wouldn't want to shoot much lower than a foot down from this location towards the shoulder because you'll probably get more meat than anything and possibly loose the animal. I've heard people tell me its unethical but I honestly have never lost an animal doing it and like was mentioned before it ruins very little meat and its either hit or miss. I will take that shot all day long.

 

[StrutNut]

I have only taken that shot once. Black Powder at 70 yards. My rifle is very accurate and I have shot that distance and longer and know how it hits. I had a solid rest. Whitetail buck was heading right at me then had seen something he didnt like and froze. All I could see is hit neck and head. I had the gun on him and just held slightly above the white patch and slowly squeezed. When the smoke cleared he was on the dirt, feet up.

 

[genesis273]

You wouldn't want to shoot much lower than a foot down from this location towards the shoulder because you'll probably get more meat than anything and possibly loose the animal.

Exactly! Like mentioned, the nect shot will almost always result in an instant kill, but I have shot one buck in the neck close to the shoulder with a 7mm mag. I always sit and wait for another deer due to our liberal limits. While sitting for 45 minutes after the shot, I noticed the buck starting to move. I ended up shooting him again once I noticed he was trying to get his barrings to get back up. The meat shot just shocked the spine, temperarily paralyzing him.

 

[----]

Growing up, my dad and grandpa's only took neck shots. I watched them kill dozens of animals, all either head shot or right at the white patch. They always flopped right on the spot. (Not sure why there were using .300 winchesters for it?)

I tried one neck shot once, and lost the animal. It was a 180 yard shot and I shot a big cow in the high neck. She dropped in her tracks. I sat down on a log, to give her fifteen minutes or so. While I was sitting there, she just stood up and trotted off, kinda wobbly-like. I followed here for a half mile or so before another guy shot her. I didn't see it skinned or anything, but it looks like I hit her too high above the spine, just connecting with that dense meat and maybe shocking her spine. Not much blood at all.

I'll never take a neck shot again, unless it's my only option on an animal I really want to kill.

*edit to add- I guess I killed a bear a couple years ago with a neck shot. It was like 25 yards, and all I could see was his head and neck while he was standing on his hinds grabbing berries out of a bush. That guy tumbled ten or fifteen yards and died in a hell hole. Took us something like three or four hours of digging through the creek bottom to find him.

 

[POk3s]

I've killed one deer by hitting him in the neck (my first one...on the run) and 2 elk I've hit in the neck. Only one elk was on purpose. Like everyone else said it's just lack of meat loss and everything I've ever hit in the neck has been down for the count.

The deer I hit was running left to right and did a complete front flip and was DRT.

The first elk I hit in the neck I had spotted a cow on an opposite ridge line. About a 250 yard shot but before I could get set up on it it walked into the trees. I took off towards where it disappeared on a run and right about the time I got to where it disappeared my dad started shooting (who was walking that ridge line). The elk filed passed me at about 30 yards and I got on the last cow and said in my head "when she sticks her head out from behind that tree I'm taking her". Well I did just that and she was also DRT.

Then 2 years ago I put a good stalk on a raghorn bull. He busted me but just froze and looked right at me. I got on a knee and the shot was about 150 yards slightly quartering to me. I put it on his shoulder but ended up hitting just left through the neck. Down for the count but another shot was needed to finish him off.

Basically it's ease of kill. They're dead or you missed...unless you clip the esophagus like was mentioned earlier. Like everyone else said, 100% confidence in that shot.....or sometimes you get lucky.

 

[Moosie]

There is a main artery in the BUTT too but that's not an ecceptable shot unless you are from Arkansas or Montana.

Stick to the Vitals. Bigger area, better chance of a kill.

 

[genesis273]

There is a main artery in the BUTT too but that's not an ecceptable shot unless you are from Arkansas or Montana.

Stick to the Vitals. Bigger area, better chance of a kill.

I agree 100%! Only reason I didn`t mention reasons why not to shoot in a more suitable place is because he said

,"I don't want to start a flame war about what type of shot is most ethical."

, so I gave an example of an almost bad experience. I forced that particular shot because the buck caught my scent and was almost out of there! I learned from that one! However, I like your analogy better!

 

[dustinf]

I'm a "behind the shoulder guy", but:

Every subsistence hunter I know or have read of, shoots for the neck. They also refer to things I consider a "gut pile" as "delicacies."

 

[emrah1028]

Ok, so where EXACTLY do you aim for a neck shot? I can see that the joint of the neck to skull area would be devastating, and so would any severing of the spine. But how fare down into the neck is it still a "kill zone"? I don't mean the ridgeline running from the skull to the shoulder. But how far from the "ridgeline" down towards the throat? I figure if you aim too far down you'll get the throat, right?

Emrah

 

[belly-deep]

In my opinion, you're best off waiting for a frontal shot and then aiming right in the center of the neck. I think that leaves you with the smallest margin for error.

Still, I tried for that exact shot this year on a doe and she turned her head just as I pulled the trigger. She still dropped from the shock so close to her spine, but by the time I got up to her she was wiggling around a bit. The shot had actually hit her through the esophagous and she was making a disturbing gurgling sound. Of course, blood was shooting everywhere and it was a lethal shot, but still, the margin for error on neck shots is so slim that I would only take one under 100 yards and only if I had a very solid rest.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Just shoot them through the ribs and forget the head and neck shots!!!

 

[sweetnectar]

Just aim for the guts. Oh wait that was suppose to be for the wolves....lets see...I like what Moosie says. Vitals are number one for me.

 

[spook12]

There is a main artery in the BUTT too but that's not an ecceptable shot unless you are from Arkansas or Montana.

Stick to the Vitals. Bigger area, better chance of a kill.

Would have said vitals before,however now BUTT it is.

 

[Jwill]

There is a main artery in the BUTT too but that's not an ecceptable shot unless you are from Arkansas or Montana.

Stick to the Vitals. Bigger area, better chance of a kill.

We call that one the Texas heart shot.