Basic Deer Anatomy to Help Understand Shot Placement – The Okayest Hunter

By Will Bowen | PUBLISHED October twenty seventh, 2023

Deer season is in full swing and tags are being punched throughout the nation, so I figured it could be a good time to evaluate primary deer anatomy, shot placement, and useful instruments. Hopefully everyone on the market had a searching mentor of some kind to indicate them the right way to put down a deer effectively. Should you haven’t had that I’d encourage you to hunt one out or to do your greatest when it comes to analysis to just remember to can harvest a deer appropriately. The purpose is all the time a fast and environment friendly kill. Clearly, issues occur if you find yourself a hunter, however we should always all the time have the angle to accept nothing much less. 

Okayest Anatomy Lesson

I can keep in mind being a child sitting in the lounge with my dad speaking about shot placement on deer. I used to be simply excited to get into the woods and take my first animal, so the concept of deer anatomy and shot placement was secondary in my thoughts. However but my dad nonetheless spent many nights attempting to show me. I can keep in mind him setting down a stack of searching magazines and a pen in entrance of me on the kitchen desk. “Okay son, now each time you see an image of a deer, put a dot the place you’d shoot it.” I wager I killed 1000 journal deer as a child. Whereas this train appeared enjoyable to me as a toddler, it actually is a superb train for these stepping into the game. 

Earlier than setting me free on my journal scribbles, my dad would sit down with me and focus on why we intention the place we intention. He emphasised important photographs and fast, moral kills. Due to this, on the age of seven I had a reasonably good grasp of what it meant to make a lung shot or a coronary heart shot. That is so necessary to a hunter, however as I’ve hunted and studied extra, I’ve discovered it goes deeper than simply making a great shot. It’s necessary to know what’s in there. So right here is my try at an Okayest Anatomy Lesson: 

All the deer’s vitals sit contained in the ribcage. The diaphragm creates a wall behind the final rib (simply ahead of the center of the physique) and every thing you wish to intention for sits between there and the entrance of the shoulder blade. 

From the surface, the shoulder crease of the deer is an effective reference level for all photographs. Behind it sits the guts (beneath the midline), the arterial trunk (midline to barely beneath), and the lungs (barely beneath midline to barely above midline). 

From the shoulder crease the vitals range on how again they lengthen. The center solely units inside the first rib or two from the shoulder crease, its comparable in dimension to a misshapen softball. The lungs nevertheless lengthen backwards by nearly all of the ribcage however don’t fairly attain the final one. They’re bigger than the guts, similar to the scale of an rectangular dinner plate. 

Lastly, we get to the liver which sits between the lungs and diaphragm. It’s usually your final probability at vitals on a marginal, far again shot. 

Vasculature runs all all through the animal, particularly within the torso. Slicing an artery wherever may put the deer down in a short time. So don’t low cost a nasty shot. All the time do your due diligence and take a look at the scenario. 

Shot Placement Suggestions

Solely take broadside or quartering away photographs for the very best effectivity.

All the time intention to your exit, the entry is necessary however not as necessary because the exit.

Know your broadhead and penetration potential, don’t ask your gear to do one thing it wasn’t designed to do.

When bowhunting, all the time intention for the guts. Most errant photographs go excessive, so when you intention on the coronary heart, you’ll nonetheless have a number of inches of buffer zone within the vitals.

Useful Instruments

In my research on shot placement I’ve come throughout a pair actually good instruments that I’d prefer to share with you: 

Drury Outside’ DeerCast Observe: Apart from the entire different helpful instruments on the DeerCast app, the monitoring characteristic could be very intuitive and useful. It presents a 3D mannequin so that you can choose numerous shot areas. The app then breaks down what you hit, correct wait time, and offers you a lot real-life examples. The one draw back is that this model of the app shouldn’t be free, nevertheless it’s nicely well worth the worth. 

Mossy Oak Shot Placement Information: Mossy Oak has developed a fast reference, shot placement information that’s excellent for that fast, refresher course. It discusses completely different angles and weapon sorts as a way to offer you a complete view of shot placement. 

OnX Hunt Shot Placement Information: OnX has labored onerous to offer a free shot placement information that features a ton of options. It offers transient anatomy classes and in addition takes you thru completely different angles and shot processes. In relation to a complete information, this one can be onerous to beat.