Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What's your shortest hunt so far?

My all time fastest was last Friday. I left the truck at 7:20 AM, walked 300 yds, and shot a buck at 7:30. I've shot a lot of opening day deer before but never this fast. We didn't start walking until shooting light because we knew we could find deer close by.

His antlers were small but his body was very large. We estimate his live weight between 250 and 300lb. In the 2d pic, that knife is 9.5" long to give you an idea of the thickness of the hams. The carcase weight, head, hide, and legs off, was 125.

Back in '06, I parked the car at 6:35 and my son and I walked up to the flat, snuck through the pines and peered down into the little valley there...To my surprise there was an 18" wide 7-point making his way from the top field down to the laurel thicket to bed for the day.

He didn't make it. I texted my coworker at 6:56 to let him know that the day off was worth it.

My son was 11...did not have a license yet...And it was his first time hunting with me. I had been telling him how hard deer hunting is around here....How much time you have to put in. Heck, I had only killed 6 buck in 24 years...Only one on the first day.

That was the quickest I have ever killed a deer and my largest buck ever. He figured it was easy......

He's 20 now....Been out for a few seasons....He now KNOWS that his first experience in the woods was a fluke.

But he's a hunter.

Normally I like to hike a ways just to be in the woods. But year before last I was about five minutes from the road and saw a legal buck. I looked back at the road and then at the deer. That was the shortest hunt so far.

I left the house, walked the 300 yds to my tower stand, climbed up, immediately shot a deer out in the bean field, climbed back down and walked back to get the 4 wheeler to drag it to the house

Rock Chuck;
Thanks for the story of your short hunt and congratulations on the nice buck.

I suppose the shortest "hunt" that I've had wasn't really a hunt at all.

It was either the second or third day of season as I recall and I'd not been able to get out hunting because of my work schedule. I was heading into where I worked then - a BC Fruit Grower's Association test orchard - early as usual and spotted a 2x3 mulie on the hill going into work.

As the mulie was on crown land and I was early, I pulled the 94 from where it rode behind the seat of my Toyota pickup and shot it....

Now I did have to ask my boss for an hour off to drop it off at the meat processor - we didn't cut our own quite yet then - but that was it for mulie season that year for me.

Somewhere I've got a photo of me, the buck and the .30-30 and honestly I can barely recognize that young fellow in it......

The truck box looks familiar however - funny how that works isn't it?

Thanks for the thread sir, again congratulations on the nice buck and all the best to you folks this fall.

Dwayne

Sept 1st, a bud and I sit on a ridge, shooting light 6:37
7:15 shooting starts
7:16 3 elk are down and out
11:00am 3 elk quartered
1:15pm 3 elk are loaded on motorized vehicle

The shortest I've ever had

Walked 100 yards, smelled 'rut', blew the deer call 2 times and he came in at a run. He stopped at 25 yards, looking straight at me. I chambered a round and put into the nearest knuckle.

I got up on opening morning looked out the window and saw that it was snowing sideways. I decided to hunt a cornfield that hadn't been combined to get out of the wind. Took me about 20 minutes to get out to the corner with the heaviest trail on it. Probably another 15 for the doe to show up. Stuck a slug into her at the base of her neck. I think that was the first deer that I'd shot that hadn't spotted me.

I've had a few seasons that only lasted a few minutes after legal shooting time on opening day

Shot a spikeXfork buck 8 minutes or so into opening day of muzzleloader season one year. Loaded the guns at the truck and Dad and Sis walked across the culvert to the other side of the creek. It was light and the plan was a slow push of the creek with them on one side and me on the other about 1/4 mile down to where we would all sit together and watch a wheat field. Made it about 50 yards from the truck when I spotted a buck about 70yds ahead making a scrape. Pulled up my Missouri rifle, set the trigger and clobbered him with a roundball. He went straight down and never even kicked.

I had bought that rifle secondhand about a half hour before dark the night before. Gave the guy $50, loaded it and took a shot at sheet of plywood in the yard, the file adjustable sights shot to POA with 90gr of 2f so I was ready.

Baby Sister had never been in the field when me or Dad shot a deer before that and came running across the creek when I hollered that I had got him. We walked up on him together where she exclaimed, " WOW Bubba, he sure is little". Good memory hadn't thought of that frosty morning in a long time.

Shot a Mn buck about 8-9 minutes into the hunting season in 2010. That was it. I was tagged out. It was kind cool for about 5 minutes until it sunk in that I was finished for the year.

One of the shortest and best hunts I've had was last year when I helped a friend get her first deer ever. Got in the shoot house about 4PM. Within 10 minutes a 6pt walked out at about 300yds. Waited another 5 minutes or so for it to get to her 200yd limit and she dropped it with a perfect shot just behind the shoulder. We were taking pics before 4:30.

First season Colorado elk in 1995. Hiked a good ways up into large bowl in area 49 Colorado before sunrise. Glassed just as we were able to. Saw a herd of at least 100 elk flowing likes ants at timberline (~12,500') a long ways out. I dropped down into the timber and hiked to what looker like a decent vantage point at timber edge. I kneeled there for 15 minutes or so behind a small groups of trees when I started hearing load bugling coming very close and then dropping down behind me. Looked in front of me and here they came. Cow's, a couple of 5x5's and few spikes, more cows, 3x3's, etc., maybe 75 yards away and having no clue I was there. I waited a bit more and a decent little 6x6 showed up and the 210 gr Partition from my 338-06 thumped it behind the shoulder, he turned with a leap and died. A waited a couple of minutes and walked up to him. As I arrived I looked up at what was another level area that I could not see and there standing were at least 30 elk maybe 50 yards away looking down at me and their friend. Erie to say the least. Total time from legal shooting hour to critter in hand was maybe 30 minutes.

Shortest hunts? Lessee . . .


1991-- missed the IN bow opener due to heavy rain. Waited until afternoon and drove out to the farm. Got in my stand, sat from 4 PM until a little after 6. Arrowed a nice 8 point deer, got the farmer to load it in the truck with his backhoe and was to the processor and home by 9 PM. Season over.


1992 -- Exact same story up until I got into the stand. 15 minutes later, a 6 pointer came by. I wasn't ready for it, and could not get an arrow knocked in time. 2 minutes later a 10 pointer showed up. Again, back home by 9. Two seasons, tagged out with less than 4 hours hunting.


2003: I had less than 10 minutes waiting after the start of legal hunting when the biggest deer I'd ever had in my sights showed up. See:

The Savage Spoke.




2007: Same stand, same setup as 2003. This time the deer that showed up was huge!!!

The Savage Speaks Again

I've had a couple early first morning kills in the past in Pennsylvania. Maybe 7:15-7:30. One year, me and my brother both tagged out at camp in Pa. on the first morning, and I hustled back, broke camp, returned to Ohio and managed to have another buck lying on the ground by 4:30. The only time I've ever done that.

The buck in my avatar was taken about 30 seconds after getting out of the truck. We drove into the ranch on an old two track with intentions to park in some timber and hike down some trails to glass some pastures on the back side of the mountain. The buck blew out where we parked the truck and stopped to look back just as I got my gun out and loaded. Shot him in the neck and that was it. The day before I shot a 6x6 bull about 15mins after leaving the truck. We saw some tracks crossing the two track in fresh snow while driving in. After leaving the truck we decided to hike up to the crest of the saddle where the tracks led and there was a whole herd on the other side. Picked out the herd bull, ranged at 325, and let him have it. I'll probably never have a hunt go that easy again.

Took a fellow out last Sat. 6:40 AM is legal 6:55 you can see, buck in truck @ 7:14-Muddy

I think it was in 2002 opening day, walked to a spot I had picked out during scouting and waited for daylight, just about the the time you could see to shoot I heard brush break below me, then a good buck broke on a dead run straight away from me toward the timber on the opposite edge of a clearing. I chambered a round and put one in the back of his head. My hunting partners that day had not even made it to their spots yet when they heard the shots.

I had several where I never got out of the house / off the porch.

The first year I hunted with a handgun, I got up one morning and was eating a bowl of cereal and looking out the livingroom window when I saw two gray shapes looking a lot like a buck sniffing a doe. I put the cereal bowl down, grabbed the Redhawk, walked upstairs, opened a window, and when they came around the side of the house I stuck a 225 grain speer 3/4 jacketed .44 hollowpoint through him.

I've done a couple other from the same window but not quite that early in the morning.

If you're asking about the earliest in the season, noon opening day. It was 1997. I hadn't been able to hunt the year before because of a new job. So ... 2 years, 4 hours of hunting. Oops. It'd rained. I'd hiked a lot of miles. I saw a buck in an little clearing around an abandoned homestead back in the woods. Sat down, cranked up the scope, lined up ... and decided not to take the shot. It was a big forked horn and I wanted to hold out for a bigger buck. Then I realized my right ass cheek was burning funny ... I'd sat in a fresh pile of cow [bleep]. Figured since I was messy already I might as well do the deed so I flipped the safety off and pulled the trigger.

Millions of mulies have died because of that habit of stopping to look back. I've shot a bunch simply by getting ready to shoot then waiting 10 or 15 sec for it to stop and look.