In bowhunting Making the best shot possible is more important than any of the other elements of hunting combined. The hightest percent kill shot for the Whitetail deer has to be the heart or lung shot. This best obtained from a broadside or quartering away shot, These will give you the best chance to take out the heart, lungs or both. There are other ways to get there like the "back door" shot. Sending an arrow up the poop shoot of a deer can clean him out from back ot front, taking the liver, heart and or lungs. But be advised this will make for one nasty gut job! If you are off on one side or the other there are main arteries that run down the hind legs you may hit. A deer with one of these cut does not last long before it bleeds out. The spine shot. It will not kill an animal but it will put it on the ground where it was standing, You must put another arrow in the animal to give a fast kill or the animal will suffer needlessly. I do not advise this shot on the fact that there is a high wounding percentage. If you do not hit the spine there is not much in the way of vitals that you will hit and end up wounding an animal that you may not be able to recover. Which ever shot you take make sure you use every resorce to find it. Do not go to the end of the blood trail and give up. Look until you can not look any more, Then look some more. Please, You owe it to the animal and the sport of deer hunting. Try to never shoot at a moving animal. A sharp whistle will stop a deer. He will look around to see wherer the noise came from offering you a shot. This can backfire, sending it running for the hills but I have not had it happen often. I'm sure you have heard if you can hit a "pie plate" you can kill a deer where this may be true in that the vitals of a deer are about this size. Aiming at a pie plate on the side of an animal will not do. When you picture a pie plate on the side of a deer pick ONE HAIR inside the pie plate to aim at, being off a little on a pie plate can lead to a wounded animal, But missing a HAIR has a good chance of being a near perfect shot.
