If you’re new to hunting, the phrase “Texas heart shot” means shooting an animal that’s facing straight away from you. The words are almost always used as a firearm reference on deer and other big game, and I can find no consensus regarding the phrase’s origin.

The idea is a well-placed bullet impacting the base of a deer’s tail will travel forward, hopefully severing the animal’s spine, or perhaps traveling far enough forward to impact the heart/lung area. I won’t get into the ethics of a rifle hunter taking such a shot on big game; that’s a topic for another day. Of course, a Texas heart shot should never be attempted on big game with archery gear. That said, it is often recommended by bowhunting experts as an effective way to kill a strutting wild turkey, and I recently had the chance to try it myself. First a bit of background.

I was hiding in a Double Bull pop-up ground blind. The teepee-shaped model I was using on this hunt has since been discontinued. It was originally called the T2, then later reintroduced as the Shack Attack (also no longer made). Mine was built in the late 1990s. It’s a two-panel hub-style blind instead of the standard (and bigger) five-panel design. I mention this because my T2 has one large shoot-through mesh “picture window,” then four smaller porthole windows (no mesh). I set up my T2 so I could watch out the large picture window (in the direction I was most likely to see approaching turkeys), and shoot out one of the opened porthole windows. I kept the other portholes closed to ensure the interior of the blind would be black to hide my movements. 

As I said, the porthole windows are not big. In fact, they are narrow enough that I don’t feel comfortable shooting my usual 125-grain Magnus Bullhead broadhead, which is massive fixed-blade design for head/neck shots on wild turkeys. Instead, I was using a three-blade mechanical broadhead, which means I’d have to aim for a tom or jake’s heart/lung area. Like my T2 blind, the mechanical I used on this hunt has also been discontinued (I must be getting old!); the closest one available today is the 100-grain NAP SpitFire XXX with a 2-inch cutting diameter.

After one hour into my morning hunt, I was pouting; all I’d heard were two distant gobbles on the other side of a river, on land I don’t have permission to hunt. My chance of success wasn’t looking good. In fact, I was so sure my area was void of turkeys (zero gobbling at sunrise) that I hadn’t even tried calling — not once. As I ate an egg salad sandwich for breakfast in hopes of getting my body furnace cranking (weather: 36 degrees, drizzling, and northwest winds at 20 mph), I suddenly spotted three longbeards at 20 yards, racing each other through the field for my decoys.

I dropped my sandwich on the wet ground, and grabbed my compound (a discontinued 10-year-old Mathews Z7 SoloCam; see a pattern developing?). Looking down to slide my compound from a ground stake bow holder, I remember hearing sounds of wings punching my jake decoy.

I promise this will be the last discontinued gear item mentioned: For my decoy spread, I placed a Primos Jake Mobile strutter about two feet behind a Dave Smith Decoy (DSD) Mating Hen. Primos no longer makes the smaller Jake Mobile decoy; the company still offers the larger Primos Killer B. You can add real tail feathers to the fan holder of the Killer B, which is what I do with the Jake Mobile. It looks fantastic. 

As I pulled my bow to full-draw, I was confused by the scene out the small window. It was a blur of black bodies and tail fans. My two decoys were at only 6 yards, and I couldn’t tell what was what. Finally, one tom walked behind my jake decoy, and I could identify three live strutters; one to the left, one behind and one to the right of my fake jake.

The left tom was strutting and facing straight away. I aimed for the spot where all the tail feathers come together and released my arrow — a Texas heart shot.

My arrow didn’t penetrate far, and the tom immediately ran a few steps away, then took a hard right. I could watch him through the blind’s large mesh window. I grabbed another arrow because the tom didn’t look hurt badly. I remember thinking, Well that plan didn’t work out too well! 

The tom ran 15 yards, then slowed and dropped onto his belly, and a second later his head was on the ground. No moment.

Wait? What?!

He’s gonna get up in any second. I have to get out there! My mind was racing.

It took me a several seconds to open the ground blind’s zipper and run to the fallen tom. I stepped on his neck, sure to cause a flurry of wing beats. Nothing. Not a twitch.

Wait? What?!

The Texas heart shot, although it looked ineffective initially, caused the tom to expire in 2 seconds, maybe 3. I could hardly believe my eyes.

My arrow stayed in the bird, but it was easy to remove. Not a single blade from the large mechanical broadhead was bent. It was just all very strange.

Okay, as I stated in this article’s title — pros and cons. What was the con of this Texas heart shot?

Upon cleaning the bird that afternoon (I sat in a buddy’s ground blind until lunchtime), I didn’t realize my broadhead had passed through the bird’s backside and eventually stopped in the bird’s left half of breast. Unfortunately, the broadhead had pushed innards into the breast meat upon penetrating, or the innards leaked into the breast meat after I removed the arrow. Whatever the case, much of the meat in this half breast was ruined.

I still prefer head/neck shots on turkeys with a fixed-blade broadhead designed for the job. In addition to the Magnus Bullhead mentioned previously, I’ve heard good reports about the Turkey D-Cap from Solid Broadheads. These broadheads typically drop a tom or jake in his tracks, and the meat is always perfect.

The two photos below will help you picture the scene.