Texas Heart Shot?


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The post about head on shots reminded me of something my dad told me years ago...

My father once described to me, a reverse head on shot...what he called a "Texas Heart shot": Where a hunter spooks a deer in open country and then attempts to shoot at the tail end of the fleeing deer in hopes of penetrating from bum to boiler room. My dad was mentioning it only to tell me to never take that kind of shot, and I never intend too. Just curious how many of you have heard the term or know someone who had tried it?

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Guest tyshe17

Re: Texas Heart Shot?

it is a deadly shot...although most of the time it is done with the deer facing away from you looking back. I have never shot one this way but I hope DrewG reads this. He can tell you of the blood trail on a doe he shot wiht a ML this way 2 weeks ago. A lot of the time it explodes the spine and the deer drops right there...if not you go all the way through and deer usually goes less than 100 yds. I would say it is a shot worth taking if you are confident you can hit it and dont mind the messy gutting job.

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

I did it......unintentionally.

Doe was quartered hard away, and she turned as I released the arrow and "Bullseye"............killed just as dead as a lungshot, but she went a wee bit further.

The guy where I reported her didn't believe me, and was going to call the warden because there was no arrow holes (cut that pucker button out while gutting her), so I held up the arrow and told him to smell it..........he reported her.

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

Haven't heard the term and would never intentionally try it but I did have it happen once accidently.

Happened with the ole shotgun. Partner and I were walking towards the cabin when deer came running. I picked out a big doe and fired just as she spotted me and turned. I was horrified as I saw her white behind turn to red! To say the least, she didn't go far. I expected a nasty field dressing job but it wasn't bad because the bullet stayed high near the spine.

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

As tyshe17 said, I have taken this shot and would do it again (only with a gun). It is a very deadly shot in my opinion.

The story he is talking about is….

I was hunting opening morning of our muzzleloader season here in TN. I had just had a very rough week of school and traveled quite some time to get to my hunting location. Needless to say I was a touch on the tired side. I was snuggled up next to a tree when my eyelids got a little heavy. I awoke to a crunching over to my right, I opened my eyes and there was a huge doe walking right towards me. The deer continued to walk right at me. She stopped about 6 feet in front of me. She finally spotted me. She blew and ran about 20 yards and turned to look back presenting a text book “Texas heart shot”. I shot and when the smoke cleared I could see her stumbling off. I commenced to tracking her after a bit and I have never in my life seen a blood trail like this one. I am 6’2” tall and there was blood at eye level to me on leaves that she ran under. I never broke stride on this trail. The deer ran about 60 yards and piled up. Not the best hunting story ever but I did wind up with a meat on my table. So from my personal experience it is a deadly shot.

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

I have seen it done on a doe. She went straight down. She was standing still and my buddy said he could not hold still on her neck so right about there...bam the deer went down stiff legged. It is a very effective kill shot but it is a very messy gutting job afterwards.

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

I have seen it all too many times, i used to shotgun hunt in some state ground in southern iowa and there was SOO many people it was unreal, people were just out there to take any deer out there, any way they could and i seen some of the worst and dumbest shots you have ever heard of!!!! I think their motto was "you can't get one if you don't shoot!" so they would shoot at any sign of brown hair, it was crazy, i heard of quite a few guys who got almost shot and a couple who were in stands and i heard their stand get shot!!!!!! Wouldn't that scare you!!!!!!!!!

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Re: Texas Heart Shot?

My first deer when I was 14 was shot like that. Here is the story:

I was suffering from bells palsy on the left side of my face and couldn't close my left eye to see through the scope. My dad had tagged out on a doe the day before so he put on a one man drive through a thicket below our house in PA. About 14 deer came busting out and I started to unload on them I kept missing. I was using my dad's 270 and only had five shots. The last doe that came out went a different direction from the others which turned out to be running away from me. I took my last shot with my eyes closed. As soon as I fired I opened my eyes and saw the deer do a front flip kick once and died. I started to yell I got one so loud that my mom heard me from the house. Once we got to the doe I had to my surprise killed a little button buck. He had skided on the frozen ground twenty feet.

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