First time Whitetail hunting question

[Darts2116]

Im going deer hunting for the first time this year in Up State NY. Typical distances are a 100 yards and in. I know the traditional boiler room shot (heart lung shot) gives the most meat. From what i researched a deer can run around 100 yards before dropping. Ive also researched the high shoulder shot that tend to DRT shot.  From what i read there can be significant meat loss with a shot like this.  All of this is Youtube and internet research so I take  it with a grain of salt.

I heavily leaning towards using a 24 inch Sako L579 Forester in 308.  I may use a Marlin 336 in 30/30 or Ruger American in 7.62x39. Any of the three should be more than capable at the ranges I will be shooting.

I like the idea of not having to track the deer but i don't want to waste meat either.  Any first hand experiences with both of these shots would be greatly appreciated.

[Onepoint]

You can never count on a single shot, last second flinch or 1/2 step and any shot can be off and turn into a tracking exercise through no fault of the shooter, so don't over think it, wait and see what presents itself.  I tend to just go with what works, heart and lungs, yes they can still lunge forward, but a good hit is a certain kill.
 Ammo will be fairly important with any of those calibers, but there is some pretty good selection for 30-30 and 308 now.

[cvasqu03]

The only advice I can give is to not be this guy.

[Danjal]

Learn anatomy of your prey and behavior, it'll go much further than you think.

Iirc the best shot for meat is a broadside double lung and heart shot. That said, you won't be picking your shot, you take what you can get.

[Scratch]

Here's a very recent story that may or may not help you in tracking.

My son in law hunts in my back yard on our 20 acre wooded lot.  He's been putting out corn, has a trail camera and his stand down there since opener.  On Tuesday, just a few days ago, he went out at about 5pm to wait in his stand.  He got a good broadside opportunity to get a big doe at about 25 yards and took it.  He "thought" it was a good double lung shot.  He thought he saw the arrow go into the left side, high in the lung, and exited on the other side so he figured a double lung shot.  Actually the arrow went through her, then hit and bounced off the fawn that was behind her. Scared the crap out of the fawn but didn't stick.  He took the shot at about 6:30, waited until 7:00, climbed down and found the very bloody arrow, then came up to the house and got me to help him track it. He's way more experienced of a deer hunter than I am, but he knows I love this kind of stuff so he came and got me.

We went down at about 8:00 pm with headlamps on and found lots of blood.  I'd say at least 4 spots in the leaves that looked like an entire cup of blood, as well as lots of drops and strips of blood. She ran about 60 yards from where she was shot then we could see her eye shine with our headlamps through the brush.  It was too thick to see her body, but we could see that she was alive, sitting down, and watching us about 15 yards away.  We were debating what our next step was when she got up and ran again.  We walked over to where she was sitting and found just like a tablespoon of blood.  Not much blood for laying there with possibly two holes through her for almost 2 hours, but it didn't sound like ran far as we did hear a slight crash. We debated about just going back out in the morning but thought we'd give her a couple more hours at least so we went home.

At 10:30 we decided to go back out.  We tracked her at least another 60 yards.  Not big cups worth of blood like before, more like a few tablespoons of it, along with some drops, and again we saw her eyeshine through the brush with our headlamps.  Still alive and watching us at about 12 yards away.  We watched her about 30 seconds when she jumped up and ran again.  We heard no crash this time, but we walked over to where she was, and barely found any blood on the ground this time.  He was now questioning his shot placement and we thought it would be best to wait until morning.

About 8:00 am the next day we went out again and picked up where we left off.  We found very little blood.  Just single drops and not many.  We tracked her about another 50 yards where she started running straight down a cut ATV trail and found the last drop of blood on a small leaf in the middle of the trail, then nothing.  We thought that maybe the shot might have just wounded her and she was long gone, but that maybe she ducked off the left side of the trail somewhere so as ethical hunters, we split up and started wandering around in that general direction.  We never saw any more blood but eventually found her, expired, another 30 yards off of that trail. 

It was a great double lung shot, through and through, and she still was able to live for over 4 hours and run about 200 yards.

She was a tough one.
Good luck.

[Onepoint]

I have had elk run 100+ yards after spitting their lungs out their mouth and a wounded heart, have had them drop where they stand with the same flank shot, no guarantees in any of it. 

Just keep in mind, shooting a live animal is different than a target, adrenaline and movement will factor with both the shooter and target, not every shot will be a perfect angle etc and a straight line going though at some angles even if placed right behind the elbow might miss most of the vitals, so keep that in mind when choosing to shoot, might have to sacrifice a shoulder for a kill for example,  on the other end don't over think it and pass up shots that are not perfect worrying about it not dying instantly.  I'm sure you have researched and heard all that already.

I have never purposefully taken a high shoulder shot just because it does ruin a lot of meat.

[Darts2116]

Thank you all for the information I truly appreciate all the insight.

[Hodgie]

I hit a deer a few years ago at less then 20 yards with an American Predator in x39. Double lung and knocked the heart. When I fit it it killed and mule kicked about 7 feet in the air then ran about 50 yards and dropped dead. It was the day after thanksgiving so there?s a lot of brown on the ground but you were able to find the blood trail pretty easily and track it down.

It?s your 1st hunt so depending on what kind it is as far as style you may not see a damn think all days my 1st three were a complete bust unless you count the 30 deer that were all over my property when I got home.

[GuitarmanNick]

For whitetail deer, I always preferred a neck shot when possible. The neck roast is very tough and if you break the neck with your shot, they drop like a rock.

A Winchester Model 94 in .30-30 with a Weaver 4x scope was more than adequate out to 125 yards for many years.