Why no head shots on deer?

[blackdiesel]

I've noticed hunters have no problem shooting pigs with what would be considered under-powered PCPs by shooting them in the head. Manny even uses a 22 cal on occasion on boars that weigh more than a full grown buck. But when it comes to deer, even at very short distances hunters always use H&L shots. I understand saving trophies for some bucks but H&L shots are used on does too.

MOD EDIT - Moved post from General Airgunning to Hunting gate.

 

[MrMel72]

Deer can turn their head very fast, extremely easy to richochet a bullet off a skull with severe non-lethal damage.

A boar can bearly move the head without moving the body 

 

[Cookie]

I know people who shoot deer in the head or neck using centrefire rifles, mainly to prevent damage to the meat. They use soft points/ballistic tips etc.

 

[KYAirgunner]

I shoot deer in the head with a center fire. Like Cookie said in the post above to prevent the meat damaging. It's a little more difficult shot but it's worth it I think you get a lot more deer that's not totaled.
Leo

 

[Chip]

This was the subject of quite a bit of internal discussion, particularly after I killed an 11pt for Outdoor Channel's "Huntin' the World" in 2011. It came down to trophy vs. pest/predator/problem control. Hogs, coyotes, etc. get winged and there's not so much turmoil, but risking blowing the jaw off a wallhanger and folks will hang you for it. As time went by and our prostaffers had opportunities to shoot, and film, deer falling with a variety of chest, spine and neck shots, and the basic premise of shooting a deer at all became accepted and headshots were no longer considered a necessity.

As MrMel72 above mentioned, deer are constantly moving their head. I didn't realize it until faced with the decision to go for the head. It was getting late on the last day of the hunt, filming light was going away fast, and the biggest buck I've ever seen in the South stepped out. I didn't want a difficult recovery, I wanted him to fall on camera, and at 47 yards it was a chip shot for the Benjamin Rogue. All I had to do was be patient. So the better part of this video was studying his pattern of moving his head. Ultimately I opted to take him as soon as he put his head down to eat, knowing it would be relatively steady, vs. when he had his head up and on a swivel.

The shot comes at the 4:10 mark.

 

[blackdiesel]

"MrMel72"Deer can turn their head very fast, extremely easy to richochet a bullet off a skull with severe non-lethal damage.

A boar can bearly move the head without moving the body

Yes but they stay still while eating just as a boar would; and a lot of deer are taken from bait areas.

 

[blackdiesel]

"Chip"This was the subject of quite a bit of internal discussion, particularly after I killed an 11pt for Outdoor Channel's "Huntin' the World" in 2011. It came down to trophy vs. pest/predator/problem control. Hogs, coyotes, etc. get winged and there's not so much turmoil, but risking blowing the jaw off a wallhanger and folks will hang you for it. As time went by and our prostaffers had opportunities to shoot, and film, deer falling with a variety of chest, spine and neck shots, and the basic premise of shooting a deer at all became accepted and headshots were no longer considered a necessity.

As MrMel72 above mentioned, deer are constantly moving their head. I didn't realize it until faced with the decision to go for the head. It was getting late on the last day of the hunt, filming light was going away fast, and the biggest buck I've ever seen in the South stepped out. I didn't want a difficult recovery, I wanted him to fall on camera, and at 47 yards it was a chip shot for the Benjamin Rogue. All I had to do was be patient. So the better part of this video was studying his pattern of moving his head. Ultimately I opted to take him as soon as he put his head down to eat, knowing it would be relatively steady, vs. when he had his head up and on a swivel.

The shot comes at the 4:10 mark.

 

[blackdiesel]

Thanks Chip. Veering off this subject for a minute, do you know if Crosman will offer a big bore rifle in the near future? When I say rifle, I'm talking about something that looks more traditional instead of a bullpup design.

 

[KYAirgunner]

I found an affective way for shooting deer in the head and I've tested it a couple of times and so far it's never failed. what I do instead of waiting for them to put there head down or be still I just yell hey! they perk there head up and I squeeze the trigger simple as that.

 

[BitFrost]

Hahaha! I'm sure it works, but it's still funny imagining. I'm sure it creates a different mood than what it would have been, if you'd stay quiet.

 

[Nomadic Pirate]

Hogs are a lot tougher animals than deer so the Heart/Lung shot with what really are relatively low powered Air rifles in the big scheme of things is a bit more dicey,
Deer is way more easy to kill with the safer, easier to take Heart/Lung shot.

If I had Deer on this island with this kind of terrain/vegetation that makes tracking a nightmare I would definitely still take the headshot, ...it's all about patience and timing, follow his movement pattern and get in rhythm, anticipate, so you take the shot as he stops his head instead of making the decision after he stopped and than take the shot,...... that little time lag might make all the difference. 

 

[KYAirgunner]

well it all kind of started one time when a deer came across the field and almost went into the woods so I used my imagination and i yelled at him. and that's all he remembers.

 

[BitFrost]

"KYAirgunner"well it all kind of started one time when a deer came across the field and almost went into the woods so I used my imagination and i yelled at him. and that's all he remembers.

Haha, I bet! Almost cheating.

 

[Beermaker]

This is a VERY controversial topic on hunting forums and in many outdoor publications. All I can say is that if you are proficient with your weapon, there is no quicker way to take down a deer. I have shot more deer in the head or directly behind the ears and ALL of them have dropped on the spot with absolutely not flopping, flailing, etc. Keep in mind that I hunt in very thick cover and most of the head shots that I have taken are at no more than 30 yards. 

 

[Steven]

I have only heard of people using head and neck shots on deer in the UK.
But I never heard of head shots on deer in the USA.
I believe that neck and head shots are to prevent the meat from damage.

I might be wrong on some or all of this. lol

Steven.

 

[Gritz]

Years and years of poaching history has been written with head shots on whitetail deer, often with a .22 rimfire. That might be one reason why deer hunters began to shy away from it. When you show up at a ranger station to register a deer with a hole between the eyes, (at least 50 years ago) there was probably room for some suspicion about time of day on your kill tag. Also I feel like deer hunting has gone almost religious in its trophy mentality. Our rule of thumb was always, if you take a doe, standing head shot if you feel like you have it (i.e: short, clear, calm shot). If it has antlers you are on your own for it. This proved a good rule for many reasons. It meant if you heard a shot you had a deer on the ground or you completely missed. My first deer was a doe at fifty yards between the eyes.
Another possible reason might be that deer hunting with high powered rifles, and often with people who were not accurate with them because they only shoot about 5 shots a decade, are prone to shooting deer in the teeth. If you ever want to see someone turned off to hunting show them a deer that has had the entire front of its face exploded by a 30-06 in the teeth and then ran off to slowly starve to death. Where high powered rifles thrive is in the immense shockwave of power they can disperse into a chest cavity but this works against you when you are trying to hit a target the size of a golf ball while anticipating a smack of recoil. You miss a Heart shot by an inch you still have a deer. You miss a brain shot by an inch and you are trailing a bleating, blinded monster that will run for a day wildly smacking into everything in front of it until it goes crazy. I'm being graphic I know but it is to explain why the trend for head shots has been put away in the world of Deer.
Now a low powered rifle like a .22 rimfire or a high powered pellet do not have the same pit falls because a 150 grain bullet going 3,000 ft/sec will absolutely explode a row of teeth. A low powered projectile, while causing a great deal of harm won't be as dramatic. The other part of the equation (here I know I will get some differing opinions) is accuracy, but for the average person, hitting a golf ball at 50 yards with a high powered rifle every single time is almost impossible. Hitting that golf ball sized target with a pellet gun or .22 is almost a given when set up for the shot with care. In that respect, I think that head shots with an air rifle or even a .22lr would be in a completely different ethical equation than trying to accomplish the same with, say, a 30-06 on open sights that you only shoot a half a box of ammo through a year.
So the question is why are there no head shots on deer? Because people have been hunting deer in a differently for almost 50 years than any other animal in North America (for the average person). Air gun hunting North American deer is relatively new and people default to what they are used to. But with a new tool a new way of hunting has to be learned. I would never shoot a squirrel anywhere but in the brain with a rifle and no one would argue with that. But like anything else I am using a tool that does that for me consistently. If you believe that a brain shot is the best shot and it works for you then you are the judge. I would safely bet that one bad experience in this method would change your mind. So it is really up to you to test the shot and choose for yourself if it is the preferred method and pass on the results for the next person. If you remain honest in your results time will change the opinion. I know people who think using anything less than a 300 mag on deer is unethical.

 

[echochap]

I wrote this in a blog post a few weeks ago:
I have answered this question several times in several venues, but it is still one of the most common questions I get. Headshot or body shot?? This seems to be a never ending debate related to airgun hunting: whether you should use a headshot or a body shot. My position is that it depends, but overall I use both placements and believe both meet the three E criteria: they are effective, efficient, and ethical. But the results are dependent on several variables; what type of game are you hunting, what are the specifications of the gun being used, and are there situational influencers.The effectiveness of headshots and bodyshots are in my experience. A common statement you'll hear when this topic is debated is that if you take a headshot it's either a clean kill or a miss. In my experience both personal and watching a lot of hunters shooting a lot of game, is that I've seen my fair share of flubbed head shots. Remember what you are trying to hit is the brain, which is a relatively small portion of the head in most animals. But I've probably seen more game lost to bodyshots, not because they didn't kill the animal, rather they were used in the wrong situation It does not take a lot of power to kill a rabbit or a squirrel, when the vitals are hit properly 6-7 fpe will do the trick on rabbits, squirrels etc. But its delivering the pellet to the right location. A brain shot if done right will drop an animal in its tracks, while even a perfect heart lung shot may let the animal run a ways before dropping. I think the idea of a humane and ethical kill, while being the correct objective, is not being correctly interpreted or applied. I think the idea that an animal hit with a double lung shot that runs a few yards then lies down and expires is less traumatic than a headshot is much more an emotional issue than a practical one. The situation is more impactful on deciding shot placement, because in some environments an animal running twenty yards before giving up the ghost can mean the quarry is lost. If I'm shooting a rabbit in the desert he can run twenty or even fifty yards and it doesn't matter, I can follow him and retrieve my game. But a squirrel running 20 yards means I he may die up in the fork of a tree, in the drey, or in a den. So does this mean for squirrels I'll only use headshots? No it does not. Another variable to consider is the terminal performance of gun/pellet with respect to power and caliber. All things being equal, a harder hitting projectile will generally have more stopping power. And a larger caliber will not only impart more power, but will open a larger wound channel. So if I'm using a .177 springer in the fall woods, I'll stick with head shots. But with a .25 caliber 40 fpe PCP I won't take a second thought about a body shot, this is actually why I prefer the .25 and .30 calibers for small game. Another situation in which I like a body shot is for this precise reason... so that the animal will move after being hit. An example is when shooting pigeons from the roofs of sheds and barns. I want them to flop off the roof, and a body shot is effective in killing them but they will generally flop of the roof before expiring. An interesting discussion around shot placement is what I call the big game / small game dichotomy. Many small game hunters say that the only ethical shot is a body shoot, that you are likely to loose animals to a body shot and they are less humane. On the other hand many big game hunters say only body shots are ethical, head shots are likely to inflict wounds and are inhumane. To me it makes sense that whats right for one is right for the other, and both are right for both in the proper situation. So my view is use common sense, look at your surroundings, and make sure that you place the shot where you want it to go. Remember, a body shot means the heart/lungs and a head shot means the brain.