This guy has spent a ton of time creating the perfect deer target and talks about where to shoot a deer. While I may not agree on 100% of everything he says, talk about a great video series to have a new hunter watch before you take them out. Such a great start compared to what a lot of us got growing up. This guy has put a ton of time in. As good a resource as is out there I'd say. Didn't watch every second, and the next video was pretty good as well. It's like BB's pics on steroids. While his shots essentially depend on the animal not dropping and he avoids some bones that I'm not worried about like the first rib, over all a very good video. I'll prob make new hunters watch this before I take them out.
So (because healthy lungs are more elastic than they need to be) the amount of space that they occupy is unrealistic - especially since the lungs sit over the dome of the diaphragm and while the do extend toward the rear, the cross-section is like cutting through the corner of a triangle, rather than along the side of a box.
So JMO... that target suggests that you can hit several inches farther back than is realistic. And if you like to use a really wide mechanical, you’d best pay close attention to that scapula...
I have shot several elk at the right elevation for a heart shot and ended up with a gut shot just a few inches behind the heart at the same elevation. Several inches higher and it would have been a double lung at the back of the lungs.
He also shows the liver hidden by the lungs?! Have had several deer and elk shot with broadside pass through shots that only had a hole through the liver on recovery.
Maybe fully inflated and expanded lungs on his model, but partially or fully deflated lungs take up much less space in the body cavity.
The diaphragm (relaxed) is dome-shaped; the liver sits right under the diaphragm, and the lungs extend (getting thinner and thinner) along the margin of the diaphragm, so it’s entirely possible to get both lungs and a great big bag o’ liver, too.
But that’d be just the fringe of the lungs.
Next time you hit a deer, pay attention to where the diaphragm attaches to the inside of the ribcage; that is the absolute farthest back that lungs can go, because the diaphragm at 100% max contraction can only approach being Flat, rather than Domed. But there’s no way in the world for the diaphragm to become concave.
