Whitetail Shot Placement for a Successful Hunt

There's a lot that goes into a deer hunt. It all comes down to seeking a perfect shot.

October 15, 2025 By Tim L. Lewis

Hunters dedicate a lot of effort to achieve the opportunity to take a game animal. When the chance presents, often only for a brief instant, the shot needs to be perfect. There is no time to be unsure about the ideal target location.

The most reliable and reasonable organs to target are the heart (and/or the great blood vessels exiting or entering the heart) and the lungs (providing both right and left lungs are compromised). True, brain shots, spine shots, and shots that hit the carotid artery, jugular vein, abdominal aorta, or a femoral artery will prove quickly lethal, but these are small targets and hitting them can involve a degree of luck. The eating apparatus comprises most of the head, so, when the brain is selected as a target, a close miss or a skull-deflected projectile can doom the game animal to starvation. Hits to the liver and other abdominal contents will likely bring about the animal’s demise, but chances run very high the end will be contrary to every hunter’s goals and wishes of a fast and humane kill.

The lungs occupy a roughly triangular region. The forward apex of the triangle begins at the bottom of the junction of the neck and chest, just forward of the leading edge of the front legs. The triangle’s bottom line extends back about double the distance to the back of the front legs, angling slightly downward for a drop of an inch or two. From the lower intersection of the neck and chest, the upper side of the triangle runs up and back to a terminus roughly about four inches below the perceived top of the deer’s back.

Whitetail buck with yellow outline of lungs. — Lungs conform to approx. shape of yellow outline. Spine drops rapidly toward front of chest to support heavy neck and head. As a result, only lower half of perceived “chest” supports vitals. (Photo illustration by Tim L. Lewis)

The triangular nature of the lungs’ position readily illustrates that neck-ward of the middle of the front legs, all the perceived “chest” actually is flesh and vertebral dorsal fins. Hits in this region do not enter or damage the chest cavity.

This triangle does not show up well in dissections of harvested deer because air is almost always introduced into the chest cavity by the wound or the dissecting process, resulting in collapsed lungs occupying only about one-third their natural space.

The heart’s position, however, remains fixed through most dissections. The heart doesn’t lay along the bottom or the chest, but rather, hangs vertically; the pointed section of a Cupid’s heart hangs down near the sternum. Straight above this lower, or ventricular portion, the upper portions of the heart extend almost up to the lower part of the spine. There, large vessels leave or enter the blood-pumping muscle. The carotid importantly carries blood to the brain. The aorta is the largest efferent vessel, supplying blood to the majority of the body. Pulmonary arteries and veins deliver and receive blood from the lungs. The vena cava is a large vein returning blood to the heart. Interruption of flow in any of these vessels is quickly lethal.

Dissection image of a white-tailed deer. — In this writer’s dissection of a bow-harvested whitetail, yellow outline is roughly position of lungs in life. Heart labeled ‘H’. Above middle of the leg, more distance exists above the lungs, green line, than involving the lungs, blue line. It is easy to shoot above the chest cavity in this region and forward. (Photo illustration by Tim L. Lewis)

The heart’s position can be seen in the accompanying photograph. The lower chambers, the ventricles, almost touch the sternum. These are muscular chambers that pump blood. Injury to this region of the heart interferes with its ability to pump thereby reducing or curtailing blood pressure. Damage to the upper chambers deprives the ventricles blood to pump. Injuries above this level compromises the great vessels so, in a vertical dimension, a large leeway exists for execution of a perfect shot. Interestingly, the heart is heavily innervated by the vagus nerve which means wounds to it cause pain or alarm, provoking an incredible burst of adrenaline. Therefore, heart-shot deer often flee remarkable distances in the few seconds of remaining life. Note, that with the lungs containing no nervous tissue, injuries strictly to the lungs are less likely to result in massive adrenaline release.

To target the heart on a broadside deer, the hunter should sight an inch or two behind where the foreleg meets the bottom of the chest and elevate about one-third of the distance between the bottom of the chest and the top of the back. A few inches above or below this place will still impact the heart. When animals are not exactly broadside, hunters must estimate the heart’s position. The elevation, of course will be unchanged. On quartering to or away game, many hunters suggest aiming toward the far foreleg.

Whitetail deer is used here as an example for it is the iconic big game animal of Florida. However, the foregoing information can be applied to hogs or coyotes (or for hunters who travel, for elk, bear, moose, and sheep) for the locations of their organs do not vary significantly.

Editor’s Note: Much more information on how wounds kill, shot placement, and recovering targeted game is included in writer Tim Lewis’s book "Tales of Trails; Finding Game After the Shot." Find it on Amazon.