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Shoulder hit or gut hit...you decide

Shooting for your exit is the best aiming strategy you can have IMO. I prefer an armpit exit if I am picky but anything tight to the offside shoulder is going to give you good results.

This year I got on a hot streak of quartering away deer and it was ugly/awesome how quick they died. I'd simply put my pin on their off leg come up the mid-body and execute the shot. Dead in seconds and like others said in sight.
 
If I had to choose between the two I'd take the shoulder hit. With a good fixed blade head or one of the smaller expandables and decent KE, you will blow throw a shoulder blade and get vitals.
 
My partner shot one last year squarely on the ball of the shoulder. BH barely penetrated. I killed the deer one month later in a greenfield. She was feeding like a champ although she did have a bad limp. The wound was not even visible on the hide although it was very hard to the touch. Seems like it calcified. I would rather miss on the shoulder just because there is a greater chance of survival.
 
Neither ! But gut shots are fatal and shoulder hits can miss the vitals and lead to unrecovered deer that will likely survive . I shot a giant buck a few years ago in Fentress co and hit the buck I the shoulder , only getting a few inches of penetration . I lost the blood trail and was sick to my stomach , until I saw the buck following a doe the next day . I was relieved to see him still alive , knowing that he didn't die unrecovered .
 

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