I've some experience with mice hearts in RNALater. For me, the tissue was "rubberized". I think muscular nature of this tissue exaggerates this effect of RNALater. Was hard to extract protein with the 15, 18 and 21 gauge needle so i wouldn't recommend this as a method. However this method worked fine for RNA with good yield. I ended up using tissue homogenizer + RIPA buffer to get protein with good yields.