The one that got away

[pianoman9701]

This topic gets me more butt hurt than the ladies who have turned me down over my life.

I can't imagine a man of your gentle and sensitive demeanor ever getting turned down, Bean.

[Bean Counter]

Yeah just once or twice 

[vandeman17]

I've taken more than half a dozen bucks in the neck. Never had one take a single step - dropped in their tracks. This was plain unlucky.

My dad used to shoot all his deer in the neck. I watched him shoot some that looked like someone took out all four legs because they wouldn't flinch, move or anything, basically collapse. Bad luck for sure.

[tgomez]

  If he would have waited and shot the deer in the chest, it would have died for sure. No one said you couldn't kill one by shooting it in the neck. But obviously the guy who harvested the deer shot it in the heart or lungs, that's why it died that time. It's simple lungs-heart a bigger target and more of a ETHICAL shot. That's what I was getting at. Of course something will die if you hit it square in the jugular and the neck bone, but a lite patience would have had this guy his life trophy. It was bad marksmanship, not bad luck. I've seen people kill deer by shooting them in the ass, does that make it a good shot? NO. just my  on the matter.

[vandeman17]

If he would have waited and shot the deer in the chest, it would have died for sure. No one said you couldn't kill one by shooting it in the neck. But obviously the guy who harvested the deer shot it in the heart or lungs, that's why it died that time. It's simple lungs-heart a bigger target and more of a ETHICAL shot. That's what I was getting at. Of course something will die if you hit it square in the jugular and the neck bone, but a lite patience would have had this guy his life trophy. It was bad marksmanship, not bad luck. I've seen people kill deer by shooting them in the ass, does that make it a good shot? NO. just my  on the matter.

On the same token, I have seen people aim for heart/vitals and be too high for vitals and too low to break the back. I wouldn't say it was bad marksmanship at all. Every one of the deer my dad shot in the neck dropped immediately in their tracks. I bet if he would have been an inch or less higher or lower he would have killed that deer. At 90 yards with a rifle and a good rest I find both vitals or neck shot to be ethical but that's just my 

[Skillet]

I have no problem taking a neck shot if that's what you have to work with.  Just a little trickier with shot placement than you'd think at first - "center mass" of the neck doesn't always get it done. 

I've done it on a whitetail in the timber - only time I've ever seen a deer die before it hit the ground.

[DUCKDUDE]

I dont think an old grey ghost like that would of presented me much more of an oppertunity.  I dont think he would of just stood up and stared at me i think he would of just straight bolted.  Thats why he got big in the first place and why i took the shot i had.

[pianoman9701]

Lots of Monday morning QB-ing going on. Usually, a neck shot for a deer is lights out. It looks like this one was square in the neck. I don't see why the hunter should be chastised at all. It was bum luck. Elk are a different story.

[vandeman17]

Lots of Monday morning QB-ing going on. Usually, a neck shot for a deer is lights out. It looks like this one was square in the neck. I don't see why the hunter should be chastised at all. It was bum luck. Elk are a different story.

  100% agreed

[idaho guy]

Neck shots are great and where we hunt in Idaho(thick) you have to take any lethal shot opportunity you get . I agree that you probably wouldnt have had anything but a running shot had you not taken what was presented. Shot is not far off-just bad luck and it happens eventually to everyone. Sucks but cool the old guy put him down

[RadSav]

I'm not a big fan of neck shots for that reason.  Really have to know what bullet and velocity you have before taking those shots.  But some times you just have to play with the cards your dealt.  Neither right nor wrong.  Just bum luck. 

I get irritated by folks rushing to the spot someone else killed or shot at a deer.  The first big buck the wife shot with a rifle did not go down in his tracks.  There was a rig across the canyon that saw her shoot and the deer make it over a little hump (no question hit hard).  You'd of thought you were at the raceway hearing them fly around the roads trying to get there before we did.  When we arrived at the shot location (Walking) those guys were already in the trees looking.  Luckily for us the buck had not made it to the trees and was dead less than 40 yards from where he was when she hit him.

Go find your own deer!  That is how fights break out when hunters rush to the shot hoping to tag an animal before someone else has a chance to finish tracking.  With that kind of neck shot I expect it wouldn't have mattered.  Sounds like the buck wasn't much effected in the short term.  But it still irritates me when I see it happen.

[Bullkllr]

Next time wait till a buck stands up, then shoot him square in the chest. Theirs a reason they tell you to shoot game in the heart and lung area. I've hunted deer sense I was 12 and have never attempted to shoot a deer in the neck. You wounded the buck, but did not make a fatal shot. We call that a flesh wound. But hey, atleast you were close my friend. Lesson learned, and at least you have a few pictures of him for memory sake.

I have never attempted to shoot one in the neck either....... but will admit I did shoot one in the neck. Luckily it worked out.

It happens. A few years ago my older son shot at a blacktail buck in a slash pile and missed clean. I said "shoot again". Just as he squeezed off the buck spun toward us and jumped off the pile. He disappered. When we got over there he had a 308 cal hole in his neck right below the head. I said, "Wow, great shot!" Son said, "Yeah, um...I wasn't aiming for the neck..." 

[bigmacc]

.

Go find your own deer!  That is how fights break out when hunters rush to the shot hoping to tag an animal before someone else has a chance to finish tracking.  With that kind of neck shot I expect it wouldn't have mattered.  Sounds like the buck wasn't much effected in the short term.  But it still irritates me when I see it happen.

 ...Irritates me also....sorry for the O.P but at least an old timer got him.

[RadSav]

.

Go find your own deer!  That is how fights break out when hunters rush to the shot hoping to tag an animal before someone else has a chance to finish tracking.  With that kind of neck shot I expect it wouldn't have mattered.  Sounds like the buck wasn't much effected in the short term.  But it still irritates me when I see it happen.

 ...Irritates me also....sorry for the O.P but at least an old timer got him.

I know a few old timers that are just as big of A-Wipes as their kids!

[wapiti hunter2]

That's what's bad about neck shots, either they good or not.

  to what H2O said. 

Never taken a neck shot in my life and likely never will. That's why.