Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Right up the annulus...

Out in S. Dakota I made my first ever Texas Heart Shot. I hadn't intended it that way. The spooked group was heading up the other side of the wash, and slowing, and I had to wait for the buck to give me more than his wagging arse. When one of Elmer's "raking shots" opened up, I shot. I guess enough can happen in the third of a second it took my bullet (140-gr Ballistic Tip, 7-08) to cover 275 yards. He went DRT (down right there), both hind legs splayed uselessly behind. He wasn't gonna travel no mo!
I'd read about the shot, and how it'll drop an animal and afford the chance for a finishing shot. It sure worked that way for me. I don't anticipate making a practice of doing such a thing, but it's comforting to have it in my experience and confirmed.

It works for me.

Bob Hagel wrote, "Take the available shot."

I've taken a couple of Texas Heart shots. Both times resulted in hitting the gut and therefore spreading lots of paunch throughout the internal cavity and therefore onto the meat. I lost some meat as a result. I hate that.

KC

I did it ONCE, but never again. I screwed around for 3 hours trying to kill her.

mac -
Glad it worked out for you & the buck.

I've never shot a deer in the butt--intentionally. Once I had a bullet deflected into the hip of a buck deer. Man, it was a 'clustermuck' of a rodeo trailing , jumping, tailing till we finally got in the mercy shot.
(don't know how to spell coodegrass-grin)

Jerry

I use the gutless method, so the messiness stayed hidden within the cavity. That bullet, as far as I know, didn't exit. There was a dribble of yuck coming out the butt; I can only imagine the gross inside.

No trailing on this one; his pelvis and one femoral head were ruined.
My first coup de grace (add your own circumflex above the 'a') was also at 275 yards after waiting for his hunching around to give me a good broadside shot. It was a perfect crossing passthrough that holed both scapulae and both backstraps-- too high to hit vitals. So now he had four busted legs! No trailing on this one!
I had to finish him at close range with a shot to the neck.

Mac -

I'm with ya on the gutless cleaning.
Really wish I had known about it YEARS before. I learned that from someone here on this forum. The guy I believe was from Kansas ??

All it took was ONE time and I love it.

Jerry


edit: I read & re read before posting last night but didn't notice the lack of spelling. I'm resting today.

Congrats on the buck!

Thanks. It's not nearly my biggest, but I think it's good for the area.

Gutless rules! I've been doing it for quite a few years, now. Even if I'm able to drive up to the animal, I'll do the gutless thing right there at the tailgate.

I've used it a time or two. My most recent was a cow moose at 75 yards who refused to give me any other shot. I hit with a 400 grain Hawk from my 400 Whelen. Broke the pelvis and one hip socket. Never found the bullet but the meat damage was less than a large coffee cup full. It must of hit the femoral artery as she was unable to even trash when I got to her right after the shot. I did finish her with the 44 Special to the head but it probably wasn't necessary.

Gutless is the only way to go, especially when you are by your self with a moose.

Uh, yeah.

I've only taken one going away shot that I can recall, and it turned out to be one of the most freakish experiences I've ever had deer hunting.

The deer was running away from me, and it jumped over a log at the same moment I pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the groin area just past the back legs. As the bullet went forward it split the skin and abdominal muscle, and exited when it reached the sternum. When the deer's feet hit the ground on the far side of the log the entire contents of the paunch fell out on the ground. The deer made about 3 more hops before it dropped.

So I killed and field dressed the deer with one shot.

Shot my first mule deer as he was going away. He made it about 40yds downhill before piling up. With the right bullet I have no problem with taking that shot.

Not much meat inside the internal cavity? Tenderloins and ribs mostly.

I've seen double shoulder shots throw away a lot more meat....

But now the rear end shot can sure waste some hindquarter in the process just depending.

My theory on this, and i"m not at all picking on you or any others specifically, but you address the waste, is that if I"m hunting where for whatever reason harvest is highly desired, then I"ll hunt with a large enough gun for almost any distance or angle on the shot while running mostly barnes bullets. Then if I have to, I can with the least amount of damage and the most penetration. For whatever reason I can deal with loss of meat etc.... the less the better of course. But there are animals we shoot at times not only for the meat obviously.

OTOH if I"m doing what we call meat hunting, I usually take a bit smaller gun, and up until we started training a great trailing dog, any meat animal was head shot to loose no meat.

Any shot can be fatal, and any shot can be a mess up for LOTS of reasons, not just for the "famous TX shot"

I have used them before to stop wounded animals... and I'd do it again.

And I tend to carry a big enough stick that if the animal of a lifetime walks out at 400 yards walking away from me, head down, its going to get ventilated.

Another thing that always kind of bothered me, is that if you ask a guy thats saying this is a bad shot if they would shoot the animal in the chest if it was facing them, I've never had one say no. Its the SAME shot. Exactly the same. Unless you are using a 22lr or other pretty tame round... its just in reverse...

Never done gutless on a moose and have done one all by myself. Didn't think that pulling the guts out was a big chore, but I'll have to remember that, but it would be a PITA to get the ribs or trim the ribs with gutless? No?

Wish I'd been there to see that.

It was a strange experience. I stepped over the log, and there was a fresh, steaming gut pile. All the organs were intact just like you would see from a normal field dressing. It took me a bit to piece together what had happened. The deer's abdomen looked just like it had been opened with a gut hook.

For me, it's not that gutting is a chore. It's that dragging and lifting into a vehicle is a chore. And then hanging and skinning are chores. And then disposing of bones is a chore. And since I'd quarter the hanging deer anyway, to butcher it, why not just quarter it in the field and skip all the rest?
And not that I mind in the least blood and guts all over myself (as my buddies would all quickly confirm), gutless is less messy; more so (less so?) when those guts have been bulletized.
Almost all of my animals require packing out, often by only my small self, so I need them in pieces.

No difficulty getting ribs or intercostal meat (I don't bother on deer). The cage normally gets partially skinned during gutless and is easily fully so, and the saw used to remove the antlers can hack out each side's ribs while the carcass is on its side. If the tenderloins are removed, the slit behind the last rib made for that entry also relieve the pressure inside, so the guts won't be pressing against the ribs and the saw or stripping knife won't so easily puncture them.

I remember a buddy shooting a buck up the butt as it ran away with a 180gr CoreLokt from a 30-06. He said the processor gave him a hard time later, saying he "ruined nearly every damn piece of meat on the deer". Must have been a lot of bone busting......