A Wheelie Guy Told Me He Could Shoot It In The Butt

[ron w]

Lots of folks have done lots of things that at the time worked, that don't mean they were the right or smart thing to do. The Texas heart shot has been talked about for a long time and I still do not understand why you would take that shot. I think it's part of that "I gotta get one mind set".

[Mike Vines]

I have heard the rear shot being called the "Texas Heart Shot".  I could never see myself taking it though.

[Chris Shelton]

Noone has awnsered your question about quartering towards!  There is a small 2.5-3 inch hole between the front shoulder and that big bone in the front.  And that is about it!  I would never take that shot, but I am just givin you the facts.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I had a deer jump the string that ended up with a bad shot almost like a poop shoot shot.  He was slightly quatered and grazing.  There was no sign that he was alert or jumpy, but when I shot, he jumped, and I ended up hitting about middle of the ham just under the spine.  That guy did not make it anywhere.  He fell almost instantly.  I had hit the big artery that runs under the spine.  There was a blood trail about 3' wide.  It worked, but in no way would i recommend it.  Just like the straight on or straight away shot, they will sometimes work, but why not wait a minute and take a good clean shot?

Accidents happen, but why make a bad shot on purpose?  If you have to question a shot, don't take it.  The guy bragging about a poop shoot shot sounds like he is just bragging about his equipment.  Maybe, he has shot there, but I think with any patience at all a fellow could let a deer turn broadside or let it walk before taking a shot like that.

[Terry Green]

We had a guy on here not long ago claiming with his 'aiming system' he could guarantee a femoral artery shot.....now get this, he lives in TX.

I wonder 2 things.....has he ever shot at a TX whitetail?.....if he has, where do you actually aim if you want to hit the femoral artery on a TX Deer?

[joevan125]

Years ago back while i was in college i had several thousand acrs i could hunt that was full of deer.

One morning i had a herd of deer under my tree and i took a shot at the one that was over my left shoulder. She was quartering away and when i shot i hit her right through her anus.

She ran 20yds and fell over dead and never made another move.

I have shot 2 deer like this after killing over 200 deer with a bow and both deer fell in sight.

I would never take this shot on purpose but both times it happened i had a short recovery.

There are so many things that can go wrong when shooting at live animals and thats just part of it. Heck i shot a nice 10 pointer in college that i thought was a double lunger at 10yds and we never did find that deer.

That was 20 years ago and for the life of me i still can't believe we lost such a great buck.

[RAU]

Neither of those shots should be taken. Things can go wrong on broadside 20 yard shots, i could never take a lower percentage shot like either of those. That said i bet a modern compound could definitely shoot legnthwise thru a deer if the hole in the pelvic bone was centered. Ted Nugent wrote about doing that exact thing 15+ years ago in "blood trails". Ted said it was a sure killer as long as you could center the brown eye. I personally think its just stupid.  If your off an inch and hit pelvic bone penetration will be stopped cold and now you've more than likely got a deer running around with an arrow sticking out of its A$#. Some may say Ted has done alot for hunters and sportsman........ maybe, but its my opinion that thats book sure hasnt done anything good for us.

[Shaun]

I have hit three deer in the ham and all were recovered. I have also read that the percentage for recovering ham hit deer is the same as for chest hit deer - 70%. I have never aimed for the back end of a deer, all my experience is with accidental hits there. I would never take a frontal shot but may take a back end shot someday on purpose. I make each call as it comes up, so far only broadside and quartering away shots taken but I can only guess at the future.

[Mudd]

In my younger days I made a shot on a very samll doe facing me... not a shot I'll ever take again. I know I killed the deer but I never recovered it I am ashamed to say.

I watched as the arrow flew true to it's mark into the lower portion of the white throat patch. The arrow totally penetrated the deer and she ran off leaving not one speck of blood. I searched every where I could for 3 days trying my best to recover a deer that was in my mind dead,

It was a stupid shot to take! It's wasn't only stupid for me but would be the same for anyone else.

I have learned how to make good decisions sometimes the hard way.. by making bad ones.
I hate it that it cost a deer its life to find it out.

That happened over 30 years ago and I remember it as if it were yesterday when I'm making arrow placement choices.

My true confessions!!!

God bless,Mudd

[varmint101]

I do believe he's messing with you.  You certainly could kill an animal that way, but I sure wouldn't.  A straight on shot I wouldn't do either.  You could aim for the neck I suppose, but if you miss there would be a lot of blood and no animal.

[Don Stokes]

Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine did a survey some years back, interviewing successful bowhunters about shot angles. Their study showed that the same number of deer were hit and recovered that were quartering toward the hunter as quartering away. Quartering toward, broadside, and quartering away were all equally good, based on their data.

Sometimes things don't come out the way logic or personal experience suggests they will.

[Bill Turner]

I live in Texas but would never take that shot(Texas Heart Shot). Actually passed on the 2nd. best buck I've ever seen with a bow in my hand that only presented me with a walking away shot at 10 yards. No way I could shoot an animal intentionally like that.Just not right. With that said, a good friend killed a deer(10 point)with his longbow a few years back with a deflected arrow. Severed the femoral artery and the deer bled out within minutes. Even though he killed the deer, he was not a happy hunter. Like Terry said "How do you aim for the femoral artery"? I'm not that good of a shot.

[Bowwild]

Lot's of good, consistent advice in this thread. I have intentionally, on one occassion shot a deer front on from an elevated stand. It was a 7-yard shot that I should have passed on (deer field dressed on state scales 265 pounds) but I got by with it. I feared the deer would wind me if I let him pass. I wouldn't do it again - too little margin for error.  I mis-hit a small deer in Missour many years ago. I didn't even realized where I hit the deer (perfect broadside shot) until I recovered it in about 40 yards (very short trail). I had shot the deer squarely in the hind quarter (duh?).  I was shocked 1). That I had missed so badly 2). That the deer was as dead as a heart shot so quickly.  It was very cold that December day and I was bundled up more than usual -- you and I both know the probable cause for my bad miss.

I always give the same advice. Even if you take only ethical broadside, or sligthly quartering away shots, if you hunt long enough, eventually one of these perfectly ethical shots will go bad and result in a very long or no recovery.  If you take risky shots (frontal,rear,running, quartering towards, etc.)'eventually' will come sooner and more often. I prefer not to feed the decomposers.

[Bowwild]

Another thing. One of my pet peeves (I find at 56 years of age my list of peeves is getting too long)is the "famuous" hunter/author that feels it necessary to "shake things up abit" and write controversial material.  I won't name the fellow but he loves to write about long shots, odd shot angles, etc.  I guess guys like these have to come up with different angles (no pun intended) to have an article they can sell.

By the way, regarding the deer lying down. I have never had an opportunity to shoot a deer lying down. It would seem to me that the shoulder and leg bones would be bunched up in front of the lung and heart area and make this a poor shot. I'd wait for the deer to stand before taking the shot. I wouldn't alert the deer to get it to stand though unless I could do so in an non-alarming way. I don't like shooting alert deer either -- enventually is waiting to rear its ugly head.

[Bowwild]

Sorry guys, another thing.  "Wheeline" guys haven't cornered the market on ill-advised ideas.  I'll never forget, in 1969 a veteran archer (I was 16) came in to camp with no arrows. When asked where they were he reported having shot all his arrows from a tree stand at at deer across a draw more than 90 yards away.  This fellow wasn't a 90-yard shot.  His excuse was that nothing dies unless arrows were in the air.  Even at 16 I knew to tune this fellow out from that point forward when it came to bowhunting advice!

[Northwest_Bowhunter]

Interviewing people about events that happened in the past (especially hunters and fishermen) will get you the most inaccurate data you can possibly aquire.  I know why hunting magazines and other sources do it, but people remember wrong, they enhance a good story, they lie.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't ask, just understand the data will be skewed.

[Zbearclaw]

A perfect "poop shoot" will drop the animal quick and ruin no meat.  Don't gut, go gutless and you are good to go.

Close shots a hard quartering to is the same as a quartering away shot, except you get guts after cutting the major organs we are trying to destroy, however that is a very close shot with zero margin for error.  Quartering to put in in front of the near side leg and that is a dead critter.

Most shy away from quartering to shots because most folks are accustomed to aiming behind the near leg, that is backwards for a quartering to shot.  Just like on a quartering away shot you aim for the armpit of the offside leg.  I have killed two pigs from the ground with hard quartering to shots out of two shots attempted, both collapsed where they were hit.  But those were lucky scenarios where I was well hidden and at full draw when the pigs came over a rise and within handshake distance.  I have probably passed on 50+ shots that didn't "feel right".

Coming straight in is almost an impossibly opportunity as the animal must have its head very high to tuck it under the chin, you must be laying on your back, or the critter coming over a rise.

If you have 100 encounters with animals within 10yards, maybe one will give a good clean opportunity for a frontal shot or poop shot, and even then should only be considered, let alone taken if you are beyond confident or your shot.

For most, including me 99% of the time, quartering away and broadside are the only shots to take...

Let me add that I am considering those types of shots as possibilities only rarely when on the ground level where the arrow's path is straight "stem to stern" thru the animal's body.  From a stand or elevated position further complicates the impossibility of the shot.

[Northwest_Bowhunter]

Originally posted by Zbearclaw:
A perfect "poop shoot" will drop the animal quick and ruin no meat.  Don't gut, go gutless and you are good to go.

I have heard and read that bursting the bladder and spilling urine on the meat will "taint" the flavor of the meat.  I am not sure what you mean by go gutless, but I am fairly new to all this.

[Zbearclaw]

You do not open the gut cavity, you basically skin the deer from the spine and remove all the meat without opening the gut.

Then when finished you can pull the tenderloins after all other meat is removed.  A poop shoot shot, in my humble opinion, is no more a risk to meat damage than a quartering away shot that also goes through the back of the gut on the way to the heart/lungs.

[T Lail]

just as with every thing in this world...if it sounds fishy, it usually smells fishy too.....don't do it......