Remember......it's better to shoot them in the guts than to shoot them in the shoulder.

Only if you have a tracking business.

I wish I would have shot back last year.

You're also better off to hit too low than too high.

You and a lot of other folks…These huge expandables folks are using now are lethal if you hit one through the soft body cavity…..They leave some massive wound channels….They suck though if you hit one in the shoulder. Hitting one too far back is not the ideal hit but its not a “bad” hit like we make out to be….especially if the deer is standing at an angle.

It is what it is either way

I’ve never lost one that I hit in the shoulder. The ones hit back are the difficult ones to find for me.

I plan to shoot them right in the cornhole

You talking about the actual scapula or shoulder blade, or forward in the leg bone that comes up to the scapula? Busting through that front leg bone into the heart or one lung is one thing. I’ve never seen a scapula hit deer recovered. I agree with CNC, dog or no dog, in the guts is much easier to recover and much better percentage of recovery for me and folks I’ve helped track.

All things shoulder. I’ve had much better blood trails than with straight gut shot.

Agree with that 100% on lack of blood trail. At least most of the time. The expandables helped a lot with opening the wound channel up on gut shots.

Low "gut shots" actually bleed very well....but they also usually get pushed by the hunter due to that very fact.......

My main point is that “too far back” isnt neccessarily a bad shot…..They are usually far more recoverable than too far forward. A deer shot like this is smoked....... all day every day

My 12 year old killed his first nice deer 2 years ago. Deer was at least 6, maybe 7-8. Old warrior.

We took him to the taxidermist who found an old wound from a broadhead UNDER his chin/left jaw. Not sure how the 'hunter' got that shot off.
Of course the deer was missing his left brow tine too.

If you are into long tracking jobs and calling in tracking dogs, gut shots are just for you. Personally, I prefer to make a good shot to the chest and go get my deer without having to call someone with a dog to come find it hours later or the next day after the coyotes chewed it up.

It really isnt about trying to intentionally hit one too far back…….What it boils down to for most folks is just modifying their normal aiming spot slightly from what they have in the past…..A lot of bow hunters I know have quit aiming for the crease of the shoulder and instead they find the crease then drop back “4 inches”…..

Basically you’re just dropping back off that shoulder wall that exists and giving yourself some wiggle room for error. What I’m trying to point out to everyone is that you’ve actually got a LOT of room to play with missing too far back…..but you don’t when it comes to too far forward. Most people don’t have really tight groupings either when they’re shooting at real deer. Trying to hit a spot in that crease that has little room for forgiveness is just asking for something to go wrong. When bow season starts this will be one of, if not the most common phone call that comes in for trackers…..

”I shot too far forward and stuck it in his shoulder…..I got 4-5 inches of penetration and he ran off with the arrow in him…..it fell out at 50-75 yards……We got a little blood for another 50 yards and then it just peters out”

I’ve heard that story repeated over and over and over and over and over……

With that hard quartering away shot, if he would've started that arrow 6" further up toward the shoulder, you would have never gotten a call to track it. He most likely would've fallen within sight.

That deer actually didn’t make it 100 yards……The hunter shot it right at dark and knew he’d hit it farther back than he meant to so he just backed out immediately and we met him the next morning. He didn’t actually need a tracking dog but it’s just one of those situations where you never know for sure until after you track it and he decided to play it conservatively. Its easy to look at it now and know what we know…..Before hand though all we had to go on is that it was getting dark and it was hit way back. In my opinion the hunter did the right thing after the shot. He could have went in there the night before and found it dead himself but he could have also just as easily went in there and jumped it…..which happens A LOT.

But to your point about “if he’d started the arrow 6” further up”……I’m sure that was probably his intention, but like I was saying…..those groupings arent nearly as tight for most folks when shooting at the real thing…..and why I suggest giving your self the wiggle room of dropping back “4 inches”.

Probably a quartered away shot with the deer feeding with its head down.........I tracked a gun shot wound like that one time that blew the deer's jaw off. The hunter just got nervous and yanked the trigger.

Gotta cornem in closer..wont have to call no dog man