Shoulder Shots?????????????

Using dogs to hunt deer in Kansas is illegal. You can't even use a dog to help locate wounded game. I think it is a silly regulation and should be changed. At least to allow using them to locate already wounded game.

I appreciate all the comments regarding shoulder shots. There appears to be considerable disagreement about shot placement. I know that a shot through the lungs is fatal but I have difficulty following blood spore as I am at least partially color blind. I can see red like on a car or traffic light but I can't pick out blood drops like others that I have hunted with. Once they show them to me, I can see them but I can not scan the ground and pick them up. That is why I am particularly interested in "anchoring shots".:p
 
stubby, I guess what everyone is trying to say is that unless a shot hits the spine or the brain there is no guarantee of the deer being anchored in its tracks. A low shoulder shot UNLESS it angles in and gets the heart/lungs is only a crippling shot. A high shoulder shot that gets the spine will anchor the deer but that shot has to hit the spine. A good shot with a bullet of goodly size (such as the 45 Colt that you mentioned) hitting the top of the heart/lower lungs (lots of large arterys) will kill in short order. I can understand about the color blindness but a shot in this area starts profuse bleeding and leaves a good blood trail weather the bullet exits or not. If it exits it will bleed from the exit hole and the mouth, if it does not exit there will be lots of blood pouring out of the mouth. So much that it looks like red jello on the ground. Most of the time the tracking is like following Interstate-10. Unless the area is very grown up you will probably not have to track as the deer will be within usually 70 yards of where you hit it. In open area you will proably not lose sight of it. Where we hunt it is very gorwn up except for pipeline right of ways or feed plots. A good heart/lung shot will usually not let them get out of the feed plot before they drop. Even in the swamp or weeds or briars most times even if they do run they still do not get out of sight. If it were me I would take the center chest shot (top of heart/lower lungs) and worry more about how sharp my knife is then how far that deer will go. A 250 grain 45 Colt at rifle velocities at a reasonable range WILL do the job with that center chest shot, plus leave good enough blood trail to follow even if you have trouble seeing the colors. Good hunting my friend. :)
 
>>>>Deer don't have "sockets" on their front shoulders. <<<<

!!!! Damned if that ain't the truth, and damned if that fact hasn't escaped me over the last twenty years of deer hunting!

I have occasionally used a shoulder shot and done so successfully, but in thinking about the anatomy I have to conclude I've just been lucky.
That's a pretty broad piece of bone and theres no way you're going to actually "break" it. I guess when a shoulder shot works, it does so by simply destroying a lot of tissue in the area.

Something to think about next time I'm tempted to take a shoulder shot.
 
Keith,

What are you currently using? Will my Whelen work when I move up there (see PM)?


I was a hand grenade that never stopped exploding
 
It boils down to bullet construction. If you use a JHP or JSP I would aim behind the shoulder. Know if I am using a hard cast bullet I would go for the shoulder and into the heart-lung area. The JHP and JSP are going to expand where is a hard cast and it's wide metplat nose greats a large wound channel without the bullet fragmenting and has an exist wound to let the animal bleed. I rather have two holes than one. That is my opinion as a handgun hunter's view point. Check out Beartooth Bullets and Cast Performance Bullets web site. Also sixgunners.com and John Taffin's web site. They have a few good articles on the 45LC in handgun and levergun. Hope this helps Mark:)
 
southla 1
I do know the song of a beagle or redbone/bloodhound mix and I do agree that it is the best damn sound in the world second only to the throaty rumble of my 69 GTX 's 426 Hemi.

here in Ny we use the dogs to run bunnies and coons, heck I never thought of running deer with em, cuz it's illigal here, but it do sound fun. some day I hope to try it I'm gonna talk to the wife and try to use a weeks vacation sometime to do it. Thanks for the idea,
man! ya gotta love this forum
 
Spectre,

Yes, I think your .35 Whelen will be an excellent all-around Alaska cartridge. I use a .350 Rem. Mag which is ballistically identical - a .35 Whelen stuffed into a short action.

Where in Alaska are you moving to?
 
Juneau is nice, but crowded. You're on a limited road system with 30,000 other people. You need a boat to get out away from people, but of course that's the case in a lot of Alaska. I don't know what your trade is but Juneau is a good job market, as is Anchorage.
Juneau is on the ferry system so it's cost effective to put your rig aboard and go down the Inside Passage to some of the best hunting in Alaska. The northern islands have brown bears and the southern ones have black bears. They all have deer and goats.
 
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