An analytic expression is proposed for the radiation of transient pulses by an ultrasonic shear wave transducer directly coupled to an elastic medium (Y‐cut crystal). The expression of the displacement vector is obtained by combination of the impulse‐response approach with the approximate integral formula for the transient radiation of elastic waves by an arbitrary transducer proposed by Lhémery [A. Lhémery, ‘‘A model for the transient ultrasonic field radiated by an arbitrary loading in a solid,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am.96, 3776–3786 (1994)].