HIGH SHOULDER!

Posted by Jared Niblett on Sep 25th 2025

HIGH SHOULDER!

High Shoulder Shots in Long-Range Hunting

The most common shot in long-range hunting is the high shoulder shot. Today I'm going to cover misconceptions, how it works, meat loss, and anatomy. Unfortunately, terminal ballistics, bullets, and anatomy are the biggest and most misunderstood parts of hunting. I'm going to break down everything for you and explain why we love the high shoulder shot.

Misconceptions

  • The animal only dropped because it was hit in the spine and you got lucky.

  • High shoulder shots aren't reliable, and you just got lucky if it drops.

  • Match bullets will blow up on the shoulder and not penetrate into the chest cavity.

  • Doing a high shoulder shot will ruin both shoulders and waste the meat.

How It Works

To understand this, we need to first dive into how the body works. Signals travel through the brain into the brain stem. The brain stem connects the brain to the spinal cord. Signals go from the brain, to the brain stem, to the spinal cord, and to the different bundles of nerves throughout the body. These bundles of nerves are what carry the signals from the spinal cord to the rest of the body.

There are 3 sets of these throughout the body:

  • The cervical plexus is located in the neck.

  • The brachial plexus is located in between the shoulder blades.

  • The lumbar plexus is located in the lower back.

They are connected to the spinal cord by what are called roots. These roots are connected to the spinal cord inside the vertebrae and go out where they connect to the different nerve bundles.

This is how the brain communicates with the body. So, every movement an animal makes is from the brain sending signals through this system. By damaging this system, it causes all signals from the brain to be instantly cut. You are shutting down the CNS (central nervous system) of the body. When done correctly, the animal is dead before it hits the ground. It's the fastest and most ethical kill you can get.

A high shoulder shot targets the brachial plexus, located between the shoulder blades. The vertebrae (spine) actually dips down in between the shoulders before entering the neck. You are aiming for the middle of the shoulder blade (scapula) to hit the brachial plexus. A perfect shot will hit the scapula, possibly a rib, the vertebrae, possibly another rib, and exit the other shoulder. The bullet doesn’t have to exit the body to work either. Even if you don’t hit the vertebrae, you can still destroy the brachial plexus with a large enough energy transfer.

Meat Loss

Now, I’ve heard some pretty crazy things about meat loss from shoulder shots. The truth is that there’s not a whole lot of meat on the scapula. It won’t damage all of the meat either, like some people seem to think. The only damage is a small area around the bullet hole itself.

I actually documented this as an example for people. I took multiple deer shoulders and removed all the meat to weigh them. I then took multiple deer shoulders that I had done high shoulder shots on to see what the actual meat loss was.

Each whitetail buck shoulder averaged ½ pound of meat on the scapula. The average meat loss from shooting the shoulders and trimming around the hole was 1–2 ounces. So, for both shoulders, out of the average 1 pound of meat, I only lost 1–2 ounces total. Lots of people claim that you are going to lose pounds of meat. I even had one guy claim a deer shoulder has 40 pounds of meat on it. These guys clearly have no experience butchering game. The reality is that you will lose very little meat doing high shoulder shots.

Shoulder Thickness

There is a lot of bad information out there about shoulder thickness. A lot of hunters think they are shooting dinosaurs with super thick bones. Bones are not solid either, as some people seem to think. Bones are hollow, and the inside is where you get bone marrow.

I actually took a whitetail deer, elk, and moose shoulder and drilled them to measure the thickness. These measurements are taken from the center of the scapula, exactly where you want to hit.

Depth of Penetration (DOP):

  • Whitetail deer – 0.154"

  • Rocky Mountain elk – 0.334"

  • Moose – 0.394"

Penetration Differences:

  • Whitetail vs. Elk – 0.180"

  • Whitetail vs. Moose – 0.240"

  • Elk vs. Moose – 0.060"

So, the difference between a whitetail deer and an elk is less than two-tenths of an inch. That's definitely a lot smaller than many people claim. I've been told elk shoulders are two inches thicker than deer shoulders. The truth is, there’s not a lot of difference. The bones are soft as well, and bullets have no problem blowing through them.

Even the rib thickness difference is minor. The difference between a whitetail deer and an elk rib is only about a tenth of an inch.

Conclusion

The high shoulder shot is one of the most reliable and fastest ways to kill an animal. There’s a reason why it’s the top choice for long-range hunters and professional cullers. The animal drops dead on the spot, resulting in quick recovery and no tracking required. It’s a larger and easier target to hit than the head or neck and provides forgiveness in shot placement.

If you're off one way, it hits the neck and the cervical plexus, shutting down the CNS just like a brachial plexus hit. If you're off the other way, you’ll hit the lungs, causing a traumatic pneumothorax (lung collapse), which still results in a quick death. If the transfer of hydraulic or hydrostatic shock is large enough, even a lung shot will hit the brachial plexus and drop the animal instantly.

Match bullets do extremely well in high shoulder shots. They blow through bone and deliver a massive energy transfer. Professional cullers and long-range hunters use match bullets and high shoulder shots for this exact reason.

People drastically overestimate the differences between animals and what it takes to kill them. The truth is, with a good bullet and good shot placement, it is not hard to drop animals dead on the spot consistently.

Jared Niblett
Long Range Hunting Group