Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: Cacatch on September 22, 2010, 02:17:44 pm
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I once read where ISHI would sometimes kill deer with neck shots. I wonder, has anyone else ever purposefully taken a deer with a shot that wasn't the typical "kill zone" with bow?
Thanks for any response,
CP
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I've read old books and articles that noted the neck shot as a viable kill shot. It's not really the norm today, as it doesn't seem as reliable. Seems there's more meat than vitals. Of course, for those folks that did hit the throat/jugular/whatever, it seemed to bring whatever they're after down quick.
I know that I wouldn't do it unless I also knew my set up could sever the spine if I messed up :P.
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I'm with Kegan on this I shoot for the neck with a rifle never had one move off the spot but that's with a rifle with a bow I go for the normal kill zone.Ron
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It seems that some compound shooters could get away with the neck shots with their 'targeting systems' where accuracy is not as big as an issue. For primitive shooters, I can see where I'd be less likely to promote a 'head shot'. I guess if you are comfortable enough with your accuracy, a neck shot would be viable.
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Not a good plan. The vitals are a bigger target.Bigger is better
Thanks Leroy
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All good responses and very much appreciated. I was considering going for the neck, because I know that if you can get your point into the spine just behind the brain, it will immobilize/drop/kill the deer, but it is tricky as stated because it's a smaller target.
What it really ammounts to is my day-dreaming about season starting has got me to thinking up things like this. Opening day is still a week and a half away so what else can I do til then but practice and dream? ;D
I guess it reallly depends on the shot that is presented, if any. If it's a pretty close shot, which in my set-up it just might be under 10 yards, I might go for the neck, otherwise I'll just go for the kill zone.
Thanks again for the responses guys...
CP
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2 years ago i was really on my shooting game. i had nothing but time so i shot all the time and got really good that year. i was borderline cocky about my shooting, but i shot a deer in the neck that year. i was hunting in a small creek bed and had a trail crossing at 14ish yards and a doe came by but i mis-judged the height of the grass and all i could see was her head and neck so i aimed for the corner of the throat patched and let it fly and this was the result. the trade points burrowed into the spine and she went straight down, i gave a quick follow up shot through the back once i stood to my feet, but the neck shot did the trick. i probably wont aim for the neck much again, but if its something i feel good about, i wont hesitate. lots of stuff in there to hit, its just a small target.
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I would not try a neck shot! A good friend of mine was accidentally shot through the neck with a .357 a few months ago. The bullet went in one side, out the other and into his shoulder. It didn't hit anything vital and he is fine today.
Give me a broadside or quartering away shot in the boiler room any time!!!
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OK....now for my two cents.....a neck shot with a Bow is not only risky business....but in my book...kind of reckless....if done with a rifle...the kinetic energy does so much damage that along with the bullets devastation there is little chance of a wounded animal...but with a Bow....compounds or stick...this is not the case....6-7 years ago I shot a big whitetail doe....when I went to.dress her out...I noticed a growth on the side of her neck....so I took my knife and cut the hide where the lump was...half expecting to find a tumor under it....well what I found was an aluminum shaft....so I.flopped her over to find another lump on the other side....this poor deer had been show through the neck....had broken the shaft off I'm both sides....and had healed up and survived this ordeal....so I could never condone the neck shooting of a deer with a Bow....enough of the rant....
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Wow Mike, that sucks. But on the good side, I bet you felt good to put her out of her misery. Can you imagine how she felt in cold weather, walking around with aluminum transversing her neck. Good thing you got her anyway. Thanks for your input.
CP
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I wouldn't try a neck shot with a bow. I've killed quite a few deer with neck shots with a gun, but I've had to finish a few of them off, too. I shot one in the neck a couple years ago that hit the ground like it was poleaxed. As I was climbing down out of the tree, it got up and took off. Never found anything but a few hairs and two drops of blood. I don't think it even came close to killing it, just temporarily paralyzed it. That was the last neck shot I intentionally took on a deer.
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OK....now for my two cents.....a neck shot with a Bow is not only risky business....but in my book...kind of reckless....if done with a rifle...the kinetic energy does so much damage that along with the bullets devastation there is little chance of a wounded animal...but with a Bow....compounds or stick...this is not the case....6-7 years ago I shot a big whitetail doe....when I went to.dress her out...I noticed a growth on the side of her neck....so I took my knife and cut the hide where the lump was...half expecting to find a tumor under it....well what I found was an aluminum shaft....so I.flopped her over to find another lump on the other side....this poor deer had been show through the neck....had broken the shaft off I'm both sides....and had healed up and survived this ordeal....so I could never condone the neck shooting of a deer with a Bow....enough of the rant....
This is good enough to convince me! Of course, I wasn't considering the neck shot anyway. I'll do well to hit the boiler I figure.
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I shot one at 65yds last year with my flintlock in the neck. I was as bloody as the deer by the time I got her loaded up in the 'Gator. I've got scars on both arms where she kicked and worked me over with her hooves. I finally found my hammer to put her down and save me a little blood. I'll pass on a bow shot to the neck on a deer, but a head shot on a hog is a different story.
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a neck shot with trad gear is a high risk shot to be sure. when i shot compounds, i took several with a quartering toward me shot at the base of the neck. this shot proved 100% fatal with a 2" expanding broadhead going through the entire chest cavity. the last deer i killed with a compound was a six pointer walking toward me. hit him just below the throat patch, he fell over backwards spraying everything within 10'. this may seem reckless, but i could shoot a 3" group at 60 yards with a compound back in the day. i've killed two animals with trad gear with accidental neck shots. a 150lb boar and a 100+lb doe. the boar fell over at eddie's feet but i had to finish off the doe with a second shot. deer react much too fast for necks shots with trad gear.
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I agree with chris,only neck shot i'd be willing to take would be a quartering to and only to slip the arrow into the vitals.Neck shots are too iffy.deer moves just a bit and you got problems.i shot a bedded down doe with my wheelie a few years back.Nailed her dead center of the throat patch and expandable didnt open she jumped up and off she went and my arrow jus fell out.Head was gobbed up with hair not a drop of blood.No more neck shots for me.Put one in the ppump staion!Much better results ;)
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As far as I am concerned,there is only one good shot to take,heart lung area,now don't get me wrong I have hit them in a lot of other areas and recovered them,a lot of them very quickly but
it wasn't what I was looking at when I shot and alway disappointed in my shooting when that happens. :) If you hit one 3 or 4 inches below the back bone and about the same up from the
brisket,behind the front shoulder and in front of the last rib you can be sure the deer ant going
going far. I have seen then go 150 yards to the outside but most time 50/60 yards and sometime much less than that. I don't try and tell people how to hunt but as for me it's the rib cage. :) :) Pappy
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i thought about a neck shot when i was younger.but it scares the crap out of me to think about a deer suffering an not finding the deer.i would not want to come up on a deer screaming in pain because i made a mistake on the shot.it does happen an it is not pleasent.kink
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Heads and necks move far too much and far, far too often compared to the pumphouse.
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I wouldn't take a neck shot but that's me personally. Main reason being is that I've missed enough times aiming for the heart haha, and thats with a compound and sites. Also I was talking to a guy from my club the other day, and we were talking about how tough deer are and he was saying that the year before last or further back he was shooting a compound and didnt see a twig in the way farther down range. Arrow hit the twig, kicked left and went right through the deers neck. Said the deer dropped, stood back up and walked around with half of the arrow hanging out each side. Then he slowly walked off. The guy gave him sometime went and searched that night and the next day, followed blood for a few hundred yards and then it disappeared. Kept looking as he went through the woods all that winter and never found any sign of a dead deer. I just think it's safer and quicker to "let the air out of them" with a double lung or a well placed heart shot. But that's just my opinion, dont want to tell anyone else how to hunt.
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I appreciate all the responses and reasons guys, both the pro's and the con's. Actually, I had never thought of shooting a deer in the neck, I have always heard about the kill zone being the place to shoot and that's where I had always planned to stick him. I just got curious if that was what everyone did, since I read about Ishi shooting neck shots. I'm just trying to figure out why the natives would take a neck shot if it meant the possibility of losing meat, and if it was successful with old-time primitive equipment, then why couldn't we do it. I'm sure the natives could put em down when it was on the line more often than not, but I can't believe that they would have been much better shots than some of you guys who wouldn't go for the neck. That's really the only reason I brought it up.
Thanks again, :)
CP
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The reason why Ishi would make neck shots on deer was cuz he could. Simple as that. When your brought up as a kid in Ishis "days" he probably carried a bow and arrow everywhere he went from childhood to adult. Pretty much all Natives grew up in this manner. Ishi knew his capabilites. He knew if he had a non-vital hit he could simply track the animal until he followed up with another arrow or until he retrieved his quarry. Wether he tracked his game for 5hrs or 5 miles it was nothing for him cuz he had skills to do this ;).
But in this day in age....I ain't gonna starve cuz I passed on a neck shot. I passed on the neck shot because I don't have a "need" to make shots like this anymore.
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Yeah, good point too.
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I've shot 2 and 8 point in the white spot I called.And 9 point below the white spot in a corn field I stalked.Only shot I had both times.Both died with in 50 yards.I here all the people saying O'GOD.But I was taught if and oppertunly comes up take addvanage of it(SHOOT).Or go home with out your deer.If you don't shoot you can't kill.Sorry but I kill my deer not harvest them.