Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shortest shot on a deer?

I shot a doe at . . . well, here's the thing. I'm not really sure how close. Opening Day, I'd gotten up to pay the rent on the coffee and realized there was a nice fat stump close by. I sat down. It was about 10 AM. I'd seen nothing, and somebody had sent me one of these new-fangled grunt calls to try. I took it out and gave it a blow. There was a line of cedars just to my right, uphill. Suddenly it erupted. Half-a-dozen deer swarmed out of the cedars and came down the hill straight at me. One was a 4-point buck. I brought my Rem 742 up and. . .

I saw a flash of brown in my scope just as I touched it off. It turned out a small doe had crossed in front of me just as I took the shot. The buck was about 20 yards out. I looked up and saw the bullet popping out from between the doe's shoulder blades in slow motion. She collapsed less than 10 yards from me. As I was collecting my gear I found a fresh deer track between my boot tracks where I'd been sitting on the stump.

I'd guess it was ~5 yards? Maybe a step closer, maybe a step farther. While still hunting going up the mountain just after daylight, I sat down on a rock to watch my backtrail down the mountain and eat a pack of crackers (blood sugar was dropping as I was easing up the mt). It was a cold, still morning...leaves were extremely loud. I'd sat down at the lower side of a patch of hill cane. To my right, left, and above I couldn't see but could see down the mountain well. As I started opening the crackers the plastic was really, really loud. I heard something to my right coming straight towards me and moving at a pretty good pace. I sat the crackers down, put a knee on the ground and turned so I could shoot to that side. He walked out of the cane with the hair on his neck standing up and he looked pissed. Probably 5 steps away, one shot and it was done.

4 or 5 yards with a long bow.

5 to 10 yards

Roughly 15 ft down from a stand with a bow

Probably not much farther in a heavy fog
the last morning of doe days with a shotgun

I'll take one of those rock-throwing-distance deer
over a dozen of the bob lee swagger way way
out there deer any day

It's funny, I've had more than a few come out from noise I made. As long as the wind is right, certain noises I believe only get their curiosity.

Was on the ground in the Corn in Ohio yrs ago as I put my good friend Jeff who's deceased in my favorite tree stand about 150 yards away and a small basket 8 point was walking towards me laterally as I was tucked just inside the corn off an oil lease rd. and everything was right with the wind etc............and about a 3 yard or maybe 8 foot shot nailed him with my bow. I was pleasantly shaking so hard I thought my Heart was gonna jump out of my chest! Had my Mid leg Indian Moccasins on that I call "sneakin slippers" and it's a memory I'll never forget. Bow hunting has really taught me patience in the woods.

HS 58

My very first buck, I was sitting on a board, in the crotch of an Oak tree that was right next to a fence...

Buck ran up beside the Oak tree, stopped at the fence and looked back behind him........

About 6-8 feet, 30-30..........

About 15 yards with a .444 marlin. [img]http://[img]https://i.postimg.cc/1gBMdM8D/IMG-1372.jpg[/img][/img]

I was stalking along a deer trail when something spooked an 8 pt over the next hill. He popped up over the hill loping along the same trail I was on toward me. I was standing between two trees with my rifle on him waiting for him to give me a side shot, but he never did. I finally shot him in the face to keep from getting run over. The bullet hit him under the left eye and when he hit the ground his head was about a foot from my boots. I don't think he ever realized I was there!

10 yards with a recurve bow in 1992. 15 yards with a shotgun in 2005ish.

Ron

Bought a 257 Weatherby mag to hunt a LONG field. Wouldn't you know a 10 pt came from behind me. Stood beside the ladder to my stand checking out the field. Had to let him go about 10 ft to be able get the gun on him. 257 Weatherby not ideal for such a short shot.

12 yards on a white tail, 11 yards on a mule deer.
Cat

Mid 90's I was in an old wooden treestand on a MN river bottom and this small buck came underneath me, not sure of the distance, maybe 8-10' from the muzzle tops. I was probably 16-17. Shot him through the heart with a round ball from my CVA hawken. He ran a semicircle in the field we were by and somersaulted when he hit the woods. I knew where he laid dead but I followed his tracks to see how long it took to find blood. 50 yards or so before I saw flecks and then larger drops. It was sprayed where he tumbled into the trees. Learned from that and switched to Conicals then moved up to saboted pistol bullets. With an arrow I've shot them directly below me as well. Rifle probably closest was 30'. With a pistol I've stalked to within 12' of a bedded doe and popped her.

About 10 yards out a tree stand with my muzzleloader.

I didn’t measure it. But it couldn’t have been more than 10-15 feet

8 feet. A nice 8 pt bedded under a tree. Let me walk right up to the tree. Shot him in his bed.

15 feet

friend of mine in PENN was still hunting several years ago and a 4 point took off at his feet from a brush pile probably 5 feet in front of him. He shot from the hip and killed it. At first he thought he had gut shot it, but the bullet stuck the deer in the back of the neck. I believe he was using a 30-30 WIN

Back in the 80's, I was hunting out of a strap on tree stand. It was only about six feet up the tree, I don't like heights. I was sitting. A buck walked directly under the stand. When the head and neck came out from under the stand, I pointed the rifle, like a handgun, down at base of the neck. The end of the barrel couldn't have been 4 feet from the deer. Just for the record, I had on a solid blaze orange coat and ball cap and gloves that were blaze on the top.
I've shot several at 10 or 15 feet when I was sitting on the ground.
Bfly