{"id":315,"date":"2022-10-03T04:36:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T04:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=315"},"modified":"2022-10-03T04:36:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T04:36:08","slug":"dont-aim-for-a-deers-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Aim for a Deer\u2019s Head"},"content":{"rendered":"


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There\u2019s a deer jawbone in the National Deer Association\u2019s collection of odd deer artifacts that is bent, misshaped and missing a couple teeth on the left side. Buried in a strange bulge of bone on the right side is a gray object. It is the bullet that wrecked the deer\u2019s jaw.<\/p>\n

This deer jawbone showed evidence of healing from an old bullet wound. A bullet took out several teeth on the left side before lodging in the right side. Lindsay Thomas \/ National Deer Association<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe Hamilton, a wildlife biologist from South Carolina and an NDA Board member, collected this jawbone from a hunter-harvested deer somewhere back in his years of professional herd management. The deer did not die from the bullet in its jaw. It survived long enough for the bone to heal around the lodged bullet and around the craters left by the shot-away teeth. It even survived long enough for its now irregular chewing patterns to grind a strange slant on the remaining molars. It survived long enough to eventually be killed, ethically, by a hunter.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s No Margin for Error<\/h2>\n
\"Deer
Even the brain of a fully mature buck like this one, at only 3 to 4 inches long, is still a relatively small target with no margin for error. Lindsay Thomas \/ National Deer Association<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think of this jawbone whenever I tell people they should never take aim at a deer\u2019s head. There\u2019s simply no margin for error around a deer\u2019s relatively small brain (about 3 inches on the average deer, as much as 4 inches on a large adult buck). If you don\u2019t read any further, get that into your head: No margin for error.<\/p>\n

Plus, a deer\u2019s brain is a deceptively small target. Yes, a big whitetail might look like it has a large head. But for reference, compare a deer shoulder mount to a skull mount. With the skull mount, you\u2019ll see that the cranial cavity only makes up a small portion of the skull. It would be easy for hunters to misjudge the location of the brain, within the skull, on a live, moving deer.<\/p>\n

\"Whitetail
A whitetail\u2019s cranial cavity is deceptively small and makes up only a portion of the skull. Outdoor Life<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forget about marksmanship. I\u2019m not maligning your shooting skills when I say this, so don\u2019t take it personally. Even a slight move of the deer\u2019s head as your otherwise precise shot is leaving the barrel can turn a lethal hit into a horrific wound that causes death only after long and brutal suffering or leaves the deer with permanent scars and disability after the worst of the suffering is over. Just think of the parts of a deer that can be hit by a slightly off shot without bringing rapid death: eyes, tongue, throat, jaw, teeth, nose, sinuses.<\/p>\n

Deer move, and their heads (and tails) move the most often. They may pause then move again suddenly as you pull the trigger. No matter how great a shot we are, we all need extra margin for error to ensure a quick, humane death and an ethical recovery. A deer\u2019s brain gives you none<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Aim for the Heart and Lungs<\/h2>\n
\"Deer
This anatomically correct model from the National Bowhunter Education Foundation shows the large window of the vital area, including the heart and lungs. There is significant margin for error with a vital-area shot, giving a hunter a very good likelihood of a fatal hit and quick recovery even when a shot is several inches away from the ideal aimpoint at the top of the heart. Lindsay Thomas \/ National Deer Association<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most rapidly lethal aimpoint that also gives you considerable room for error is the large vital area in the chest holding the heart and lungs, which should be taken from a broadside angle. The heart is only slightly larger than the brain at around 5 to 6 inches on average, but it is adjoined and surrounded almost completely by an even larger target, the lungs. Hitting both lungs while missing the heart still means a dead deer that you are likely to recover very easily. There are also major arteries throughout the chest cavity that, if hit, can cause a rapid drop in blood pressure and volume, leading to quick death even if you miss the heart.<\/p>\n

Farther out, lie parts of the anatomy that are not desirable as primary aimpoints but can still result in a fatal hit. There is the shoulder bone and blade, and if you err too far forward you can break these on one or both sides at the same time you hit the chest cavity. Too high, and you hit the spine. And if you hit far enough back to miss the lungs, there\u2019s the liver, which is usually a fatal hit and the deer can be recovered if given a little extra time to expire. We should practice and achieve proficiency to ensure we hit the core of the vital area, but it\u2019s good to know these bordering areas can still result in an ethical kill when things don\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n

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