Shoot Or No Shot #1

[cohunter14]

You are positioned with the wind in your face when this bull comes trotting around the corner. You were aware he was coming, so you have come to full draw with your bow, or you have him in the crosshairs of your rifle or muzzleloader from a solid shooting position. He is 17 yards with a bow, 67 yards with a muzzleloader, and 117 yards with a rifle. Do you shoot? If so, where are you aiming?

You can edit the picture and draw your aiming point on there by right clicking on the image, saving it to your desktop, then opening it with Paint and drawing your spot on there.

 

[TheBigShow]

With mz I would be shooting just s little left of the dark neck hair at the point where dark goes light


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[Bowhunter1]

I am shooting with all 3 weapons. I made the same shot at 17 yards on a whitetail buck a few years ago. That was one of the quickest kills I had and on a whitetail deer the throat opening is only about 2 inches. From the arrow release to him lying on the ground motionless was 7 seconds.

 

[TheBigShow]

With mz I would be shooting just s little left of the dark neck hair at the point where dark goes light


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On height would be where the tip goes light to dark


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[Bowhunter1]

He was looking up sniffing the air downwind of me. I slipped it right down the throat and it came out inside the last rib.

 

[87TT]

I think here. For bow.

 

[Bowhunter1]

I think here. For bow.

I would be shooting about 3-4 inches lower. That green spot is a little high in my opinion.

 

[Bowhunter1]

This is where I would shoot. at the red spot.

 

[Ol Arky]

frontal elk skeleton by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Here's an old picture I knew I had but had to look for it...

Since I can't bow hunt any more, with both muzzleloader and rifle I would take the shot since I didn't take the shot on a whitetail at about 100 yards last year and kinda regret I didn't..

 

[87TT]

This is where I would shoot. at the red spot.

I think I'll stick with my spot. In the picture it looks like a slight downhill angle and if that elk stops and starts to whir, I want a little more gap above the sternum. Like Corey says, "think about where the arrow is going to end up" JMO

 

[f16woody]

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]It depends for me...IF then Elk is stopped at 17 yards with my bow and I am aimed 8 inches up from the point where the dark hair starts and just slightly left at that moment I would shoot.  At 17 yards, my bow would be an inch high using my top pin so I'd aim an inch low of where I want the arrow to enter the cavity void.  Also, based on the camera angle, the Elk may not be as quartering to the shooter so the left/right aimpoint may be more toward the center if that's the case. Another consideration should be what you expect the Elk to do at the shot...likely spin/duck in the shortest direction to leave...so center of mass left and right and 8 inches up from the [/font]point where the dark hair starts [font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]may be the best choice overall.[/font]

 

[sniperbait]

This is where I'd be aiming for.

 

[cnelk]

This is a good spot when the elk is directly facing you.

 

[cnelk]

In the above pic, the shooter is off center, IMO the arrow should enter off center, and travel diagonally thru the elk, hitting as much as it can


I try to stay away from the neck mane and thick neck meat too

 

[cnelk]

Its quick death when it all works out.

 

[cohunter14]

For those that haven't seen how this one played out in real life, here's a link to a quick video showing the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj0D_AW8OKU

 

[lang]

I'd take all three.  I wish I would have known about frontal shots 20 years ago.  I think I would have tagged 3 or 4 times the number of elk but was only taught broadside or quartering away were the only ethical shots.  First frontal I took was on a bear last spring.  I put the video in the other big game thread.  It lasted just over 1 minute before falling about 80 yards out of a tree.  So far it has worked good for me.

 

[82ndreddevil]

Based on the angle of shooter to target in the pic I think the blue dot will get you in the vitals and avoid the shoulder. Still not a shot I want to take.