Davoh

Anyone shoot their deer in the shoulder with an arrow? Everything I've experienced and have read indicates a Shoulder shot will make the animal lay down and expire sooner, making for an easier recovery. With rifle anyways. I've never been fortunate enough to take anything with Bow and arrow.

I know archery is a whole other ball game. But with Bow and arrow, especially with modern bows putting out 55-60 lbft of KE. (at range) It seems like it should be doable.(inside 30 yds anyways) I suppose it's a practical study of effective and actual penetration rather than what the numbers say.

Just for anecdotal evidence My dad shot a 200 lb Feral Hog in the shoulder blade with a 60 lb PSE 10 yrs ago and got a clean pass through. I'm pretty sure it would work with a 100 lb Whitetail.

What do you guys think? Personal experience would be helpful.

Paul L Mohr

Rifles kill in a different way than a broad head tipped arrow does. You may put a deer down putting an arrow in the shoulder, but then again you may not. It is no where near as effective as it is with a rifle or slug gun. Same thing for a neck shot. With a bow you are better off going for the double lung shot and better yet a pass thru shot.

Paul

MOTOWNHONKEY

Shoulder shot is not a good idea with a bow. Shoot just behind the shoulder get a double lung and the deer wont go 50 yds. My buddy shot one one morning perfectly right in the shoulder a complete pass thru. He called me at 8 on the cell and told me to look out for him. About an hour later I see a buck comming and sure enough he has a blood spot right in the center of his left shoulder. I watched him a far as I could. Long story short my friend never found that buck, There was no blood trail by me at all.

GregH

Not with a bow, bad idea. If you hit the spine of the shoulderblade, the thick part, it is doubtful that the shot will be fatal. No sense risking a wounded deer.

MNpurple

Yeah, I wouldnt actually try and hit the shoulder...aim behind it.

That said, I have hit dear in the shoulder BLADE and got penetration through both of them with no problem, but the shoulder blade is a fairly thin bone. You hit them in the big bone connected to the blade, then its not a good thing. The couple I have hit in the shoulder have expired IMO no quicker than a good behind the shoulder hit.

Stick it through the ribs.

mexhuntr

hey Motow same thing happened to a pair of friends this past season on our hunting trip to Zapata TX never found those bucks[:@]

Trembow

100 lb Whitetail? Who the heck wants to shoot a 100 pound whitetail? A big buck will run closer to 200 - 300 on the hoof, an average big buck anyhow.

Shoulder shot = bad idea.

Davoh

Central Texas, free ranging whitetail dont get much bigger than 100 lbs. I shot a nice 8pt in '04 and it might have weighed 140 somethin field dressed. Aged at 3 1/2 yrs. heaviest deer anyone had killed on our place in several years. Most of the mature does are anywhere from 80-110 lbs Field dressed(guestimate, we've never had a scale out there to weigh 'em) These aint no moster yankee deer! 250 lbs would be an extremely rare deer down here.

Now, on the high fenced, protein fed, farm raising, managed game ranches, that's another story.... and altogether different debate to begin with.

I do see what you guys mean about the shoulder shot. I'm just trying to draw from a larger pool of experience. Numbers and written estimations are no match for experience.

Trembow

Really? Everything else down there is (supposedly) so darned big!?
I knew that the deer were smaller bodied, I just never knew how much.

Shoulder shots are still a bad idea tho

turtleshell

100 lb Whitetail? Who the heck wants to shoot a 100 pound whitetail? A big buck will run closer to 200 - 300 on the hoof, an average big buck anyhow.

Shoulder shot = bad idea.
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Here in my part of the world, Eastern NC a 200 lb deer is a rare trophy 300.. no way, the average buck size is 130 lbs. Maybe he wants to shoot a doe. Not everyone has the luxury of living where they get as big a cows. Just think about this before you start condemming someone's size choice.