Hi Dave and welcome to the JustNorth forums.
While we await Trout Whisper's return from the deep woods, maybe I can shed some light on your question.
How big a target is the heart/lung area of common male big game animals? That is a good thing to know if you are a hunter. The heart and lung area, that should be your target, is irregularly shaped in three dimensions, of course, but for hunting purposes can be expressed as a circle within which you must be able to put your bullet to insure a clean kill on an animal standing more or less broadside to your shooting position.
For example, an average whitetail deer weighing about 125 pounds, viewed broadside, has a heart/lung area generally estimated gives you a circle of around 10" in diameter at which to shoot. If you can keep your bullet in a 10" diameter circle from a shooting field position and you aim just behind the foreleg and about 1/2 of the way up from his brisket (or 1/2 of the way down from the top of his back), which basically marks the center of his heart/lung area, your bullet should find the animal's vitals.
As mentioned, the average Whitetail buck gives you about a 10" diameter target. According to Chuck Hawks, that deer measures perhaps 17" deep through the chest, measured from the top of his back to his brisket. Here are some top of back to bottom of brisket estimates for other common North American game animals taken from various sources, but primarily from Jack O'Connor's book The Hunting Rifle:
- Small deer = 14"-15"
- Medium size deer = 17"-18"
- Large deer = 18"-20"
Given those external body measurements, here are some estimated "vital area circle" diameters that roughly correspond to the approximate (heart/lung) target area:
- Small deer = 8.5"-9"
- Medium size deer = 10"-11"
- Large deer = 11"-12"
Good Luck,
Buck Anderson
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