So this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, why aren't frontal shots more of a thing ? Especially with archery?

Reason in asking is because alot of what I'm reading about have to do with busting though ribs scapulas ect to get to the good bits that...well keep the deer alive. At the same time I see a lot of videos when the deer will come in straight on looking at you and you'll have someone holding till they turn broadside.... And the more I thought about it seemed weird because arrows kill, on a large part though blood loss and hitting vitals . Well from the front you have the jugular and carotid just there then you have a window right to the heart and lungs. I mean seems to me EVEN IF you don't clip /hit everything perfectly and IF it doesnt go in to hit the heat and lungs ...just getting your arrow in there is gonna cause some crazy havock, but as the thing is running off that arrow and broad head is just in there just jumping around knocking all round like a blender.



Apparently it's becoming more acceptable with elk guys and just about eveyone of of these I se e their pouring blood like a fountain... Mabye just posting the best ? Idk



Question is ..why is it such a weird thing when it comes to regular deer ? Seems it's about a sin to even think of it. Guess I can see some problems with deer jumping the sting , or shooting from and elevated position and you get some weird off shots but other then that

In archery you won't get much of a blood trail to follow 2nd The critter probably won't be standing straight on so your angled shot mite just graze the vitals
Rifle I doubt anything good would come from putting a high velocity bullet from stem to stern on a critter talking about meat salvage

When I first started bow hunting Chuck Adam had a book out called something like " Bow Hunting North American Deer" I believe. Anyway in that book he had the proper shot placement for every angle possible. Some angles and shot placements came with stipulations about what conditions these shot were ethical. Shooting from an elevated stand would make the frontal shot a little tricky also the rib cage is narrowing down as it comes forward both side to side and bottom to top. You shot a bit outside that opening into the chest from a frontal shot there's a chance the ribs are going defect the arrow outwards. Lack of a blood trail is another possibility with that shot. Not saying it should never be taken just a few cons to that shot.
I don't like the idea of counting on an arrow "bouncing" around in an animal running off doing fatal damage. It just doesn't seen to work that way like one would think and u don't know where that broadhead is going to be in the animal after the shot. The broadhead itself may not be in a vital area. Seems like a novice way to think about how a broadhead is going to kill an animal to me.

I did it once. I will never do it again.

Popped a few straight on. Firearm no problem, dead center heart lungs, left right take out the front running gear, high throat and still in the boiler room. Angle to you, running gear and boiler room. In back of it all you got liver to bleed out. Downside, you're putting the bullet to the max test with potential to hit bone or maximum penetration but if it up to it you also got the rear running gear in line.

All in all I like shooting them down the middle.

Bow, I see a thread the needle situation to avoid left right bone and a complete pass through with blood trail might be more like hide the arrow in the gut. Undoubtedly a fatal location if not a bleeder.

BTW the above is assuming a same level frontal shot as all but of few of mine were shot from the ground.

That white patch on a deer neck
is an excellent target. Put a broad head or any rifle from a 222 up and 99.9% animal won’t take 3 steps. Google the video of young kid shooting a Bull elk straight on. Then tell me it’s not a good shot placement. Might be your link but I can’t see them.

Remember on a deer the kill zone is about the size of a basket ball. That doesn’t expand or decrease if the animal turns. You just need to aim for the area thinking we’re it is in relation to the animals angle. Main reason for broadside shot is it is easier for hunter to imagine that kill area

Never took a frontal shot with a bow. With a rifle I wait for them to look at me. Then shoot the center of the throat. White patch is to big. Put a bullet in the center of the throat you hit the spine. Fall immediately. Have to be a great bow shot but I see no reason an arrow would not do the same thing.

Google Elk 101, frontal shots. It's possible, but everything needs to work perfect.

Risky shot with a bow. Free not shoulders and brisket can deflect arrow if it doesn’t hit dead center and at the right height.

With a good archery set up, meaning a mid to heavy arrow. A good sharp broadhead. From the ground inside 20 to 25 yards. If you’re proficient with your set up it will work extremely well. Just a little above the hair swirl on the brisket. You will get all the vitals, also a good chance of getting the main arteries in the neck. If you have to track, the blood trail will be easy. My experience is you won’t need one, will watch it go down. But it’s just like everything else. You have to be able to put an arrow or bullet where you are wanting it to go. Left, right, too low then you get exactly what it would be with a broadside shot. Something less than a good hit. To each his own, but if it’s with the distance I stated. I will not pass it up in hopes of a better shot.

Mechanical broadhead or fixed on the arrow? Personally i wouldn’t take a frontal shot with a mechanical broadhead. I shoot a 60# longbow, and within right conditions a frontal neck shot into that white patch from 15 yds or less would work, but I use fixed 3 blade MA-3’s, Pearson switchblades, Bear razorheads, or zwickey deltas

The two frontal neck shots on deer that I took were under 40 yds and with a 444 marlin….instant lights out.

Good shot with a rifle, with a bow/... well I'm pretty sure everyone has seen that video of the kid shooting one with a bow and the blood coming out like a garden hose and it dropping right there. I've seen a Nevada guy do the same with identical results. But, guiding elk hunters I always tell them that is a 10 yard shot. There is a lot of bone and cartilage there on an elk that isn't there on a deer. Modern bows have a lot of power and at 10-15 yards they will likely penetrate that (with good broadheads, not mechanicals). But all that bone and cartilage is angled sharply and at much of any yardage it is liable to deflect that arrow and cause it to pass between the front should and the ribcage. That elk will likely die, but in a couple weeks, and you aren't going to retrieve it. There is about a softball sized target on a frontal shot on an elk without the bony armor protecting it that you need to picture where it lays under the hair and hide, and then thread an arrow through to get the spectacular results shown on video.

I once had a lady take a 60 yard frontal shot on an archery mule deer, she shot competition on the national level and smoked that buck right where she was supposed to. It was just like you see on video, looked like you took a garden hose of blood and waved it around, didn't make it ten feet. I've personally tracked several frontal shot archery elk, all shot at less than half that yardage. None of those resulted in a retrieved elk. With a rifle it is a good shot, I've killed several myself with that shot and had several clients do so also, with a bow not so much.

I shoot a fixed blade on both my compound and recurve. A QAD exodus for the compound and something long and sharp for the recurve. Just depends on what I find and want to try with it.

Broadhead kills by hemorrhage, bullet kills by shock

Better odds of getting more hemorrhaging on a broadside/slightly quartered away animal
Another factor is that a deer can move way faster than any modern bow can propel an arrow over 20yds, by the time the arrow arrives the target has moved

For 99% of bowhunters the ability to execute a frontal shot is not there

Anybody intentionally shooting at an animals neck with a bow has zero respect from me, don't care who they are

Only thing I would add is that a front shot in archery is front on and close. If your bow is not drawn there is a lot of movement face to face. If it is straight on it will probably turn soon to present a side shot opportunity. Also around here virtually everyone hunts out of a tree stand so a front shot with the angle is just not really ever a possibility.

I have shot around 10 with head on shots with a gun. All have been in the head. I shot one big doe facing me head on yes I shot her in the top of the head as well. Results as expected.


Both of the boys have shot a Few in the chest looking at them with good results one had the most incredible bloo trail I have ever seen and I even found a golf ball size chunk of liver in the trail
. In both cases the hearts were split in half long ways.


It's not a shot I will take with a bow and I have shot a lot of deer withna bow starting when I was 13. To big of risk of not finding them. If you don't get an exit.

I have had a the blinder working effect of fixed blade before and was impressed. But you never know where it will stop or if it will.

It's just not a bow shot I'm comfortable taking.

I've shot plenty and seen lots of others killed with frontal. You put a sharp broadhead there, its extremely lethal. .

Bow hunters want an exit hole for a blood trail.
With a frontal shot that's not happening.