Thread: Neckshot placement

Originally Posted by Carlsen Highway

Phil, if a bullet from a rifle will pass through both shoulders of a deer, or even one shoulder and exit the other side of the body, then it will certainly not have a problem with those neck muscles of a stag that you mention! (You can commonly recover bullets or peices of them from neck vertibrae though because they are tough bones and hard on bullets.)
As for your other query, the answer is that the localised shocking power of a high velocity bullet is considerable and even if you do not squarely impact the vertibrae, the impact damage will cause the animal to drop immediately. The severed carotid and jugular will mean that he is effectively dead in seconds after that. High speed bullets like the .243,.25/06 and .270 come to mind. Thinking about it the .44 magnum for example might be different as they just bore a calibre sized hole right through; the slowest bullet I have neckshot a stag with is a .30/30 from memory (worked fine, no pass through, bullet impacted vertibrae) but realistically, the neck is an intensely vulnerable target, and with anything like reasonable shooting you are golden.

Hi Carlsen, that's not exactly what I meant but you're right mate a bit of muscle around the next wouldn't be any stop to the bullet!
I haven't had much experience with neckshots like I said but what you say about the shock seems legit. I do recall someones write up awhile back which is what had be wondering what i posted originally. Here it is http://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.n...t-2013-a-5443/ If you have a look at the third pic it looks like the bullet is below the vertebrae and it is still in tact? The chunk of meat missing from the throat means those vessels would definitely have been smashed and it would have bled out as you said. I'm pretty surprised it went 150m, that deer is champion haha. I reckon this deer would be the exception not the rule but interesting nonetheless aye. The cal was .270.

Phil, the bullet looks like it cut across the windpipe. All of these discussions assume we hit what we are aiming for. For example if we want to talk about killing shots that allow poor shooting, then when you start talking about body shots, you end up with the poorer shooters simply aiming for the 'big' bit, which usually ends up with hitting the animal too far back.
Precise shot placement is the trick and knowing some anatomy, plus having the control to do it under pressure when you have an animal in front of you. This is what your researching here so all will be well.