Saw this on Georgia Outdoor News Forum on the trad forum:

“I`m not posting this because I think I`m some sort of an expert but because I have shot at a few deer.Experience is the best teacher and I believe shooting deer and hitting them where you want to is something you learn from experience and often times bad experience.

I have developed a way that works for me and will share it with you...you may find it works.

Lots of people are great shots but struggle killing deer. Truth is a deer is seldom where you were "aiming" when the arrow gets there.You probably hit close to where you were looking and if you were shooting at a live deer like a 3d 90% of the time you will hit to high. I believe thats why a lot of the " I hit him right through the lungs" deer are lost because they are hit high. How many have shot over a deers back and felt good when you released the arrow?

I missed 9 deer in a row years ago by shooting over their back. I told myself I would shoot at the next one kneecap high and if I miss it`ll be low. I did that and when I recovered the deer it was shot through the heart.

I don`t try to make my bows super quiet. This is gonna surprise some of you. I want it to make a bit of noise. I shoot at the white hairs in the crease of a deers front leg...everytime if its broadside and not real close.Actually closer to the hair under the deer. If it don`t squat I`m gonna shoot to low.If my bow is a little loud every deer I shoot at will squat...not just some or most. That way I can shoot every deer the same and get the same results. It also gives you a "spot" to "aim" at and gives you a really good focus point.

I don`t think a deer will squat as bad past twenty yards but I don`t shoot long shots at deer so it don`t matter much to me.
I guess to sum it up ...I have read where lots of people have lost deer..I`ve lost them in the past but have done extremly well since I started shooting deer this way years ago.I would bet that most hit and unrecovered deer are lost for three reasons.
1. Shooter did`nt pick a spot and shot the whole deer....Aiming at the white hairs in the crease will give you a "spot" to pick.

2. Deer was hit high and even if it was still a lung hit the body cavity will fill with blood rather than blood on the ground for trailing resulting in a lost deer....Again aiming at the white hairs low in the crease will give you a mid lung hit on deer most of the time or a heart shot resulting in a super blood trail no matter what broadhead you use.


3. Hunter has very poor tracking skills.This is an "art" that is almost never "practiced. If you shoot enough deer and trail them being low to the ground you can almost "feel" where they went. Sounds crazy but I can`t explain it.Checking disturbed leaves and if you have a bearing you can tell where they went with practice with no blood.Most deer I can`t find I or someone else has hit ain`t dead and usually I can tell it purty quick.
Next time you drill a deer and you know hes down and your tracking him with lots of blood...try to trail him without the blood and read other sign for pratice. You got plenty of blood and you ain`t gonna lose him your just getting practice for when you have no blood on a high lung shot deer. It may just teach to trail at least till you pic up mouth blood on a high hit deer.

Hope some of ya`ll maybe pick up a tip here. My Buddy and a deers nightmare Chris and I were talking about this a couple years ago and I told him to try my deer shooting tip. He was worried about shooting low. I told him every deer he shoots under he would kill 15 . Ask him his track record since then...RC”

just so i understand what he's saying, is he saying to aim/shoot the deer where the red circle is in this pic (ie his "crease")?

Where’s the TL:DR version

That’s correct. I call it the pocket.

10-4

Booger..ive read that before..and its an excellent point in fact of understanding deer anatomy well enough to pick shots that KILL..everytime and in short order...with blood that can be followed in a sprint at midnight.

Pm sent booger

I do something similar, but aim a tad higher. It’s been my experience that an Alabama doe will drop 99.9% of the time. A buck will rarely drop unless alerted beforehand. That “meh” you make to stop one will cause him to drop. I went through a spell after I got into tournament shooting heavy where I was missing or hitting them too high because I was aiming for where the 10 ring is on a target.

I get my bows as quiet as possible to minimize the drop. I aim here:

Glad it works for him, but I’ll just keep shooting them behind the shoulder...

This. If he drops I'll kill him and if he doesn't drop I'll still kill him.

I should also add that he is mostly speaking from a trad shooters perspective. A fast trad bow is 190fps. I know compound bows are now shooting well over the 300fps mark. That’s a big difference.

Mine ain’t. But I still have maybe 80fps on you.

Yes shoot them in the armpit

I have always aimed at the heart on a broadside shot. If they don't drop the main pump gets gashed. If they do drop a bit it's still a double lung hit. I have never aimed under the vitals on a deer counting on a drop because I have seen them stand dead still till the arrow hit them. I also disagree with the guy about bow noise. A deer will certainly hear any bow at the shot. But there is IMHO often a different reaction from them based on how much that noise startles them. In other words there is a "Hmmm, what was that" reaction and a "OH S*#T WHAT WAS THAT" reaction. My old Q2 with silencers and a hunting weight arrow is only flipping arrows out there at about 258 fps but I have never had one duck under it yet. I am convinced the reason is because it is to this day the quietest bow I have ever shot.

Todd, when I shot compounds I also aimed low towards the heart on a broadside shot that wasn’t at a sharp downward angle. My bow was fairly quiet and was shooting around 250fps. However, my longbow is insanely quiet. Barely a dull thump is heard. Most recurves I’ve shot make a little more noise. Just enough for a deer to react. RC shoots both longbow and recurve. He would probably tell you that he may aim a touch higher with his longbow.

Where I aim on my bucks are totally dependent on how keyed up it is. However, I very rarely aim that low.

RC, aka Robert Carter is a Georgia stone cold deer/pig killing machine. He mostly uses a longbow. And kills a LOT of game with it.

I also started aiming low after missing or hitting high when I started out. I try to read the situation before I draw back though. There’s also a big difference in shooting Alabama vs. Midwest deer.

Yeah I seem to recall a shot you took at a buck on one of our trips to Illinois. As I recall I got blamed for not telling you the deer up there didn't duck like the ones down here do. LOL!

Midwestern does don’t walk around looking up in the trees.