Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Closes deer shot

Not sure about actual distance when I fired, but I had to move my leg out of the way as he ran past the rock I was sitting on!

a few steps, one with a muzzle loader was about 6' or so.

4', hip shot it with my 300saum as it tried to run by me. It didn't see me on the trail until it was almost right on me. One shot and it was steaks.

Killed what is probably my best buck at around 10 yards when it came up behind my climber. Thought it was my hunting partner stumbling around and was shocked to see the rack when I looked over my shoulder. Utilized the full potential of the .300 H&H Magnum...

5-7 yds with a .44 mag.

Vertical or horizontal distance? When I was a teenager, I shot one at about 10 or 12 feet with a .243. I thought it was a doe until it walked right under the tree stand and I could see between its ears that it was a little spike.

15 paces. Headshot a spike buck with a .280AI.

I don't really know the distance, but in the mid 1980's when I was hinting with a Hawken muzzleloader exclusively, I shot several that had powder burns on their skin. I remember one spike that was so close that I had to pull the rifle back to keep from touching his side with it.

17-18 steps.

I have shot two inside ten feet. I pushed one off me with a shotgun barrel but did not pull the trigger. In the last ten years several at close on 25 feet one a little less. With a bow, two at about fifteen feet. Last year, two with a muzzle loader at less than fifty feet.

Oddly, over the last ten years even with so many deer at point blank range I have still averaged over 100 yards without shooting even one past 300.

Over the years, chasing down wounded deer for people, I've finished off a lot of them inside 30 feet.

For about fifteen years I had a dog that had a knack for pointing deer and she was good at it. Walking past a dog on point expecting to flush a bird and having a deer come up under your feet is exciting to say the least. The ones that didn't hold point well way too often would about run me over getting away from the dog.

Post office closed?

sorry I couldn't help myself.

5 steps, about 10 feet

Routinely within 20 yrds. Even with a bow, I don't shoot unless they're within 25 yrds. Many times directly below me (with a gun), so however high my tree stand is. That shot is very difficult with a bow. I've got a couple of ladder stands that are only 15 to 18 feet high.

Have killed several over the years a 10-15 feet.

I once had 2 bucks trot down hill and stop anout 5 feet in front of me. We watched each other and I observed their breathing variations as they digested my scentless image because of the wind.

Finally, I said better go boys and their eyes doubled as they turned to continue the freedom that was never threatened.

Also colapsed exhaused on a red deer hunt once as a mate and I drank the cool air flowing into our faces at the ridge top. The grass was about 2 feet thick which provided comfort and unplanned cover as 4 red deer stags walked our trail in single file and nearly stepped on us.

Two does, two barrels from a side by side 12. 12 feet each. Only time I got an exit from 00 buck. Both neck shots. I was standing on 1 side of a rr track and they were 'pushed' up the other side.

5 feet in Kansas about 10 years ago when my uncle jumped a doe and she ran by me.

I was sitting in a tree line last year and a doe had ran behind me while sitting. I turned out of reaction and she let out a eeeeeeeeehhh sound. I fired the 06 out of reaction and hit her she stopped and was "hunched" up. I fired again at mere yards with trees and brush between her and I. She dropped. Closest deer to date.

I would say the closest other than that was around 10 yards or so. Sometimes wonder why I even own a rifle?

5 yards.

7yds with a rifle


4-5yds with a bow