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While a shot that hits the brain in a head shot or the spinal cord in a neck shot will be devastatingly lethal, the trouble with both head and neck shots is that there is a whole lot of head and neck that is not brain or spine.
A deer's brain is about the size of a large walnut. Can you hit a walnut offhand at 100 yards? The spine is longer of course, but is not much bigger in diameter, and many people don't even understand where exactly it passes through the neck of a deer. They think it is just under the top of the neck line.
Any shot that doesn't incapacitate the brain or spinal cord of an animal is a wounding shot that will very seldom prove fatal of itself. Starvation, thirst, and infection will eventually make the animal weak enough to attract predators, but that may take days. If the animal is lucky, maybe some vital blood vessles will be severed enough for it to bleed to death in an hour or two, but gunshot wounds are often too "messy" to allow good bleeding in muscle tissue.
The first shot at unwounded non-dangerous big game should be at the largest lethal target. That is the heart and lung area of the chest.
Sorry to be so adamant about this, but I have seen several deer with non-lethal head and neck wounds during my hunting lifetime, and every time it was very sad indeed. One thing hunters must never do if we don't want the anti-hunters to gain any advantage is to allow unnecessary suffering.
Make the first shot a killing shot, even at the expense of a little meat.
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