Texas heart shot
noun · first attested 20th century
Hunters named the shot after a state, and nobody agrees which joke about the state was meant.
In hunting, a shot fired into the hindquarters of an animal that is facing away.
31.0000°N -100.0000°W · Q1439
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- DisputedCompeting explanations remain live.
- Attested
- 20th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Texas
- In English
Texas heart shot
The bullet enters at the rear and is meant to travel forward into the vitals. Hunters generally treat it as a poor choice, because it spoils meat and often wounds rather than kills. The origin of the Texas reference is not settled: one account traces it to south Texas outfitters of the 1970s and 1980s who wanted a polite way of telling clients where to aim, another reads it as a joke about a big state and a big target.