Will post here too.

I think its a personal choice, and should be based on your skill.

The one guy I was talking about before that is now dead was an army marksman, a WWII guy and shot a 25-06
and only shot deer in the neck for 20 or more years. If he pulled the trigger it went down.

I have seen a lot of crippled deer from bad body shots.
Legs either gone or mamed, with deer limping around.

My 90yo dad has about 80 years of hunting experience and he even saw a buck that had no front legs and had to either scoot around or get up on his back legs. Probably more deer are lost to gut shots where ether it was just a bad shot or the bullet hit a twigs or whatnot and gut shots are nasty.

At any rate no matter what, you should know your gun, ammo, surroundings and capabilities as any good hunter does.

We hunt in 4x4 box stands and have thick rubber pipe insulation on the bottom of the openings. They are set up at just the right height to shoot off of, so its almost like a rest. If a deer is broadside and moderately still and about 100 yards or under I will take a neck shot, but I would not try one off hand or if the circumstances were not ideal like too long distance, quartering away etc.

Hogs to date I shoot in the body, but my cousin goes into the woods with a 22LR and shoots them in the ear.
I call him nuts, but he can really shoot a 22LR.

As far as deer hunting dead is dead if its a clean humane shot but I like it when they just tip over DRT from a neck shot.

To me a deer neck for a target does not seem that small.

I was watching a documentary on inuits in greenland where they were shooting seals with a 17 HMR from a pretty good distance.
Shot them just behind the eye to keep them from going back in the hole. Dropped them DRT.
It was an interesting show, but these guys could really shoot from what I saw on the show.