Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Closest Shot

ountless pigs at like right next to them....while there asleep in the turkey nest at home..........with everything from .22 to 460wby

Kudu at about 35-40 feet, max.

using a cooperate cow for cover, I once shot a doe antelope at about 6 feet with a .270 .....

pigs with a knife.

Sitting in an umbrella blind one year, I ended up shooting a forkhorn that came from a fight and decided to charge me. Shot him at about 20 yards and he stopped sliding at about 15 yards. He might have swerved at the last moment, but he was coming straight on very fast and with attitude. I decided I'd rather eat him than wrestle him.

Followed that up 5 minutes later with shooting a 5x5 at 10 yards that followed the forkhorn to kick his butt some more. Those two deer had way too much testosterone going that day. Had my scope at 4x, all I could see at 10 yards was fur.

I was standing on a rock leaning against a Page wire fence. A deer ran down along the other side of the fence. I was using a shotgun loaded with slugs and the deer was at about 5 feet. No sighting, just pointed the barrel.

Another time I called a turkey in to about 5 yards before I took off the top of his head.

Jim

Bobcat at about 6ft with a 45 colt. Called it in and lost sight of it at about 50 yards. 10 minutes later it slowly peeked it's head around the root system of a fallen tree I was sitting next to. We briefly made eye contact.

My closest bow kill was 4 yards on a whitetail.

We spotted this guy from a ways away, marked him, and went down after him. Between the time we spotted him and we got down on him, he had bedded down in that little hole just behind where I am in this picture.....a 270 degree U-shaped area. To the left of the picture, the area just dropped off sharply. We thought we had lost him. I was just on the other side of that short bush on the right when he jumped up and twirled to run. I snap shot him in the neck and he dropped on the spot maybe 10 feet from where he stood up.

My personal closest shot was about 15 ft. whitetail hunting in Pa, as a young man. I had a buddy once kill a doe by shooting off his hip as it ran down a trail towards him. He had a hoove mark on his thigh from that encounter.
A buddy of mine killed a whitetail doe from a pit blind while goose hunting. It was eating the corn stalks on top of the blind and he was literally sitting under the deer.

Coyote at eight feet, whitetail doe at seven yards and several whitetail does at 10-20 yards. The numbers of big game shot under 100 yards way exceed the number shot over 100, despite living in open country most of my adult life.

Have shot several boar with muzzle touching, coyotes within 10 feet, and a cow elk in the chest arms length to her nose.

About 6". When I was much younger, and stupider , I put the sneak on a boar that was rooting in some palmettos. Managed to get close enough to put my 9mm about 6" from his ear. Fair sized pig, about 120lb.

My closest was about -2" (minus). I had a fox come into a stand and tried to attack me. I fought him valiantly as I didn't want rabies shots! When he deep-throated my rifle barrel I pulled the trigger. That 300 Wby went off and it was raining fox chunks.

Made a stalk on a javalina one time and when he came into my view at 10 yards he was sound asleep! I walked to about 6' and shot it with my muzzleloader. I watched it for a minute to make sure it was still breathing before I shot!

Nyala in South Africa, North Cape Province, at 27 yards. The bush was so thick we stalked to within 27 yards and one shot with my 300WSM. One and done. MTG

Small whitetail buck at just over 40 feet. He didn't know what hit him and ran uphill and expired not 15 feet from my from where I was setting.

My first ram was taken at about 50 feet, a yearling bull moose at 16 steps, a Colorado mule deer at about 30 feet.

Once did NOT take the shot on a black bear trying to come into the remote tent cabin while I was cooking supper. There was a 4' plywood half door between us. Range would have been about 8 inches, muzzle to muzzle. "He"? changed his mind after a little aggressive cussing and moves on my part.... but pulled that crap on someone else a few days and miles away and did not survive that one.

Dennis, I think you win based on actual distance! Grin. It would have been fun to see an exploding fox.

I have stalked and killed two deer that were within 5 yards. One whitetail and one mule deer. Also killed another two whitetais that ran straight at me and were shot at muzzle touching range. One would have collided with me as it was falling if I hadn't jumped out of the way.

Angus heifer with the muzzle against her neck.

A good friend found this heifer minutes after she had calved and suffered uterine prolapse. It was cold February day, and there was lots of snow. She had picked a protected area along a ditch with trees and brush to deliver her baby.

My friend was distraught as he had a cow that really needed attention, but he was due to attend his fathers funeral in less than two hours. I assured him I could handle her myself and to not worry about the cow. He needed to be with his family.

I had to park on the gravel road, scale the barb wire fence and wade through waist high snow drift to get to where she was. She was not happy to see me, and made it plain she was going to thump on me if I came close enough. After several minutes of playing peek-a-boo with her in the brush, I gave up on being able to rope her. Gotta resort to tranquilizer drugs.

Back to the truck to retrieve the 32 ga. Special Cap-Chur dart rifle. Loaded some xylazine in a dart and climbed back over the fence to try and get a dart in her without getting killed.

Spent quite a while trying to get a broadside shot at her neck within the 30 yd range of the dart rifle. Finally I stepped (snow 8-12 inches deep) out in the open to try and get a clear shot at her. Here she came!

It was about 40 yards uphill to the road fence and I made a break for it. She was gaining on me rapidly, especially when i got bogged down in the waist deep snow drift along the fence. I wasn't going to make it to the fence before she caught me. I turned to meet her charge.

The snow drift slowed her down and she stumbled just as she reached me. I reached out and put the muzzle of the rifle on her neck and fired as she flopped her head trying to get her feet under her. At that point she just stopped and stared at me, both of us panting from exertion. We stayed like that for maybe three minutes.

The drugs hadn't had time to work, but she seemed to lose interest in me and turned to go back to her calf. After a few minutes, she laid down and I was able to tie her up and fix her prolapse. I IV'ed the reversal agent and beat it to the truck. Friend told me later she did OK and was taking care of her calf.

And that's my story of my "closest" shot!

Gerry - I've had several pretty close shots on mule deer and whitetail. Using a traditional muzzle loader, a handgun, and even my .25-06 Remington. Maybe 4 or 5 under 40 yards?

Guy