Elk Shot Placement Firearm hunters and bowhunters have a responsibility to make quick kills and recover all game. Accurate shot placement is the key to a quick kill and game recovery. Necessary ingredients of good shot placement are knowledge of how a hunting arm kills game, shooting only within one's ability, and knowing the game animal's internal anatomy. The future of hunting and hunters' self-respect depends on the ability to efficiently harvest game. Shot placement is especially important to elk hunters because of the animal's great size and weight.
Elk are more than three times the size of deer.
An average cow elk weighs 500 pounds, while bulls average about 650 and occasionally exceed 1,000 pounds. Besides being heavier and larger than deer, elk have thicker skin, heavier bones and proportionately larger stomachs - all of which affect penetration and performance of arrows and bullets. Internal Anatomy of Elk Study the elk diagrams. A spot in the center of the lungs or slightly lower should be a bowhunter's target every time. Hunters using firearms have more choices than bowhunters.