This brings up a more general point I have been pondering about "shoulder shots." John Taylor repeatedly talked about using shoulder shots on everything from dik dik to elephant as his favorite way to anchor an animal with the first shot. He said it would tend to blow bone splinters from the shoulder inward through the maze of great vessels leading out of the heart so that they would bleed out faster. Meanwhile, the broken shoulder would disallow meaningful locomotion from the spot. I believe it was also he who said that a heart shot animal could still run several hundred yards before collapsing. If this is valid, it doesn't give one much room for error since the shoulder joint and periarticular bone represents only a small area - perhaps the size of a small orange on an elk. A couple inches anteriorly and you have a clean miss. Check out the skeletal graphic on the link sited.
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