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

On one of the doe days here I had decided to try out a 25-20 on a doe. I went out of my back door and was headed to a stand, but could hear the neighbor to the back of my place brush hogging. I thought the afternoon was going to be ruined, but then a yearling running away from the tractor headed right at me and stopped broadside at 20yrds. I had been outside for maybe 15 minutes.

Many times when hunting farmland in north MO I have been sitting in the morning darkness with a field full of deer just waiting for shooting light.

10-15min. Got into my hunting area, got out of the truck and glassed. Big doe coming across the field from the woods. Shot her at about 70 yds.

I drove 9 hours one day, stayed overnight, drove several more hours. Decided to take a look at the hunting area before the next day. Flopped on the ground and looked over a rim. The guide said "Holy crap, you don't see that <bang!> every day"!

Then I waited 5 more days for my partner to tag out.

I parked my truck a few years ago, got out, loaded up my rifle, took one last sip of coffee, left the truck on a trail to my spot. I never made it. Two minutes after leaving the truck my season was over. I had hunted several days that year, but that was my first morning hunt that year.

When I was a kid dad dropped me off at my stand a few mins later a buck came by and I popped it with a 30-06. Dad hadn't made it out of sight(he was behind me when I shot btw) when I shot dad just asked if I hit it and to point out where it was he walked up found blood and we found the deer 25yards away. Couldn't of took 10mins to get that one

One year in northern VA, I had my knife bloody less than three minutes after legal shooting time. Was watching my watch and the deer at the same time. Nice little 6 pt. Whitetail.

a few years ago i drove to one of my stands near my house. i hunted til 9.00 and the wind was rocking so i climbed down and drove back towards my house. half way there i was passing another small place that i a permit to hunt. there stood 2 does in a thick fence row about a 150yds from the road. i stopped and took a look with my bino's. while watching them i spotted movement behind them and a very nice 8pt stood up and walked right out in the field with them. i watched him for 2-3min before just deciding to get closer for a shot. i had no cover to get closer so i thought well if he's hung up with the does maybe he won't run so i just walked right out in the field towards them . they saw me right away and just stood there. i got a safe distance from the road and dropped him in his tracks with my triumph 50cal. this all took maybe 10min.right place at the right time i guess.

It depends on what you consider to be the 'start' of the hunt. Last year we were after some elk that we'd seen the night before. I dropped off my partner at one spot then drove on up the road a 1/4 mile. I could see the elk on a hillside in the snow but it was too dark to shoot. I couldn't shoot from the road anyway. I got out of the truck and sneaked 200 yds to some trees and got ready. I waited about 5 or 10 min until it was light enough to shoot and put down a cow.
So, if you consider the 'start' to be when I left the truck, maybe 15 min. If you consider the start to be shooting light, closer to 1 min.

3 days scouting, 20 minutes hunting antelope.

I always figured this guy was light for his stature or people were dramatically over-estimating weights. This archery buck was #7 in Oregon when entered but only weighed 107 carcass.

Tuesday November 8th, 1988. Total time from driveway to pulling trigger was probably 25 minutes but total actual hunting time was maybe 5 minutes. It was a hot afternoon for November in ND - as I was wearing just a t-shirt and my orange vest and really didn't expect to see anything until absolute last light because of it. I pulled off the county road and parked at the approach to a large pasture filled with cedar draws and clay bluffs. I had walked about 250 yds from the truck and was headed for the point of a bluff that jutted out above a bottom were several draws came together. This was to be my observation point for the afternoon. As I walked towards my spot I noticed movement in the first draw to my left so I immediately sat down and glassed the spot where I'd seen movement. Within a moment a decent 4x4 whitetail chased a doe part way up out of the draw and they both slammed on the brakes staring at me about 125 yds away in plain sight on a bald ridge. I swapped my binoculars for my .243 as both deer stared and tried to figure out what I was. Since the buck was just coming up the side of the draw when he stopped all I could see was his head and neck as he stared at me straight on. I put the crosshairs on his throat patch and squeezed the trigger on my trusty Weatherby. Both deer disappeared at the shot and I could hear movement going down the draw. I jumped up and ran out my point in time to see the doe high-tailing it away by herself. I made the short walk over the edge of the draw and there was the buck laying partway to the bottom on a little bench. As I walked up to the buck I from behind I poked his hip with the barrel to make sure he was done. When I grabbed the rack and rolled him over to field dress him I could see where my bullet shaved the hair off the side of his neck just below the chin line, grazed the very side of his neck (literally looked like the hair had been shaved away and that he'd been nicked by the razor - not 1/8 teaspoon of blood) and removed a little more neck fur before sailing on by. It took me a second to figure out I best shoot him again as at any time he's likely to jump up and stomp my a$$ into the dirt. I shucked in a shell and put a round into the heart area from 2 steps away. The buck never flinched at the shot so he was either already miraculously dead from a slight flesh wound or was out cold and never reacted at the shot. Either he'd moved his head just as I shot or I was left of my intended point of impact by about 3 inches - either way it was the last time I took a neck shot and I intend to keep it that way if possible.

As luck would have it I was able to drive my blazer down into an opening in the draw and only had to drag the buck about 25 yds. I loaded him up and was back in town hanging him barely an hour after I'd left. The reason I recall the exact date is that as soon as he was hanging I washed up and rode to the fire station with my parents and cast my vote as an 18 year old first timer for George Bush. There you have it - a long story about a very short hunt!

I don't recall the year, but it was in the 90's and Michigan was allowing 2 bucks of any size at the time.

The evening before opening day I got out of work and drove the 2.5 hours South to pick up my girlfriend so that we could head 1.5 hours back to the Northeast to hunt at her family cabin the next morning. When I got to her house she told me that she had decided not to hunt, but that I was welcome to go it alone, which I did. I mean, I'm not going to miss opening morning, right? Instead of heading right back out on the road, I decided to stay the night at her place and get up very early the next morning and drive to the cabin.

I arrived at the cabin about an hour before daylight, unlocked the cabin and took my gear in to sort it. I didn't even take time to start a fire in the woodstove. I got dressed, grabbed my .243 and hustled out to my spot.

It was still quite dim out when I was able to make out the silhouette of a deer walking by at about 25 yards. When I say it was dim, I mean it was still damn near dark. Something about the way the deer acted was unmistakably "buckish". For the next few minutes I tried to keep an eye on the deer, but kept losing him when he stopped moving. It was slowly getting lighter, but it was still dim enough that there was no color to be seen-only black and white. Shades of light and dark, if you will.

I had about given up on spotting that phantom deer again when I caught the movement of a distant silhouette. I brought up my rifle, which still wears the pre-Monarch 3-9x40 Nikon I looked through. A-ha! There he is. I had brought the gun up with the crosshairs nearly centered on the small buck. He had wandered almost straight away from me in the darkness and was now about 110 yards away. There was just the faintest bit of color creeping up in the woods when my shot rang out. I looked at my watch to check the time-7:05 AM and just barely legal shooting time.

I gave the buck a few minutes before walking out to confirm that he was dead from my 100 gr Partition through the shoulders. Since it was quite early, plenty cold and I had a tag for another buck, I decided to go back to my seat and hunt a while longer.

Since the pressure was off to fill the freezer, I pulled out a paper back book and poured a cup of coffee and relaxed. Exactly 1 hour later a flicker of movement caught my eye. A buck was cruising the edge of the pines, headed directly where my fallen buck lay. I watched with interest to see what his reaction would be if he saw his fallen fellow buck. When he got close to the downed buck he stretched his neck out and I could see the warm breath puffing from his nose as he sniffed.

At that moment I sent another Partition across those same 110 yards and dropped him. Another look at my watch showed that it was exactly 1 hour after I killed the first buck. 8:05 AM and my hunting season was over.

quite some time ago I got off of work early on a friday afternoon made the 2.5 hour drive up to camp. Went directly to the farm I wanted to hunt that afternoon. I got changed at the back of the truck , put my pack on and 3 shells in the gun. Took one step away from the truck off the road ,looked left , and killed an 8 pt at 15 yards in front of the truck in the ditch . Pulled the truck up to him loaded him up and back to camp I went . Needless to say I was the first one back and had to cook supper . That one committed suicide it really wasn't a hunt.

Last year left my house in the city for 2 hr drive during rifle. Sunrise near 7 AM and had mine by 7:10. Got back home and my wife thought I never left.

Eighteen years back rifle hunted my buddy's property for the 1st time up in the tree and took my 12 yr old son for his first time but he was too young to hunt, just watched. We both climbed into the tree making all kinds of noise, again about 7AM. I heard a twig snap down the hill, figuring it was a deer, and mouth grunted 3 or 4 times. 7:20 we were both climbing down to retrieve the buck who I shot directly under the stand.

-Ken

Sort of depends on what you call a "hunt" and (as someone else mentioned) exactly when the "hunting" part begins.

I remember one year when I went to my stand before daylight.....WAY before daylight as in at 4 AM....on opening morning. I'd checked the night before and sunrise was to be at exactly 6:31 and legal shooting began 30 minutes before sunrise.

At 5:50 I saw movement in front of me and a few minutes later caught the outline of antlers against a patch of white sand as the buck fed toward me. I remember holding my rifle on that buck while at the same time watching my wristwatch tick off the minutes. I'd like to say I would have not shot if the deer had stepped toward the thick brush a few minutes early.....but I'm glad I wasn't tested on that. As it was the second hand made that last "tick" to 6:01 and the rifle fired in the same instant.

Hunting time (if you count when I got to the stand) was two hours.....but time expired in the "legal" hunting season was less than a second. It was a VERY nice 8 point, by the way.

Fastest total time on an opening day "hunt" was one year when I couldn't get the day off from work. I got up at 6 AM and was debating calling in and quitting my job to go hunting anyway. I poured a cup of coffee and opened the back door. Standing in the back yard was a 130 class 8 point. I reach for the Ruger 44 carbine that hangs in the kitchen for just such opportunities and dropped him in less than 30 seconds. I didn't even bother to open the screen door.....just shot through it.

Now THAT was a fast hunt!

Well, if you are talking from the vehicle, it has to be my wife's bull moose back in '77. After a 12 mile boat trip, I pulled the boat over the first riffle of a stream coming into the Yukon above Galena, and parked it below the next one. We got out of our river-running clothes and into hunting gear. The plan was to hunt a mile and a half up one side, cross over and hunt back to the boat.

When we were 50 yards from the boat, a 2 or 3 year old bull came walking down to the stream about 70 yards ahead, got a drink, and when he turned back away from the water, the wife double lunged him with a .243. He walked about 50 feet to behind a screen of willows and tipped over. Pulled the boat up over the second riffle. Real short pack.

In 52 years of deer hunting I have had two 15 Minute deer hunts, the most recent being just last season. My BIL and I were participating in a State Park deer reduction hunt, got skunked the first day. The second day we were driving to a new spot that we had selected, the BIL remarked as we passed the site of the first day's hunt. I looked to the little pull off with two picnic tables and there stood a deer. We let the truck roll past the spot and I got out with the BIL's rifle as mine was still buried under a pile of gear. A 60yd shot and a bang flop and I had a button buck, we were back home drinking our second cup of coffee hardly an hour after leaving the house.

Walked out of the house 70 yards and climbed up into a ladder stand for about 10 minutes and couldn't stand the heat. Got down and got a drink from the well and sat down in the shade of a fig tree for 5 minutes. Shot a 185# , 8 point at 40 yards in the neck.
168 amax dropped him onto his feet.

About as long as yours, but you got the better buck.

Back in the late 70s. Personal turmoil at home, heart really wasn't into deer season, but went to deer camp anyway at the urging of my friends. They headed out predawn, I slept in on opening morning.

Big snow storm Sunday night into Monday morning, couldn't even get my truck all the way off the dirt road where I wanted to hunt, when I finally got with it.

Walked about 60 yards up into the woods with three rounds in my M94. Leaned up against a tree caught up in my personal problems, lit a Camel and at about the second puff, buncha doe out of some thick stuff coming right at me, 5 pointer bringing up the rear.

Instinct took over, spit out the cig and knocked him down with the first shot, polished him off down the hill a bit, maybe 50 feet from my truck. Elapsed time, 15 minutes tops. Near blizzard conditions at the time.

Funny part, had buck hanging back at camp when my friends came in for lunch and thought I'd never been out hunting that morning. Truck and tracks were covered with fresh snow again by then, but the buck out back on the meat pole told the tale.

Did have a year when a small buck appeared right next to my tree stand a few minutes into legal hunting time at dawn. So that was quick, but I'd been in the stand well before legal shooting time.

Only downside to gettin' one really early and quick, bird doggin' for others the rest of the week.

7-8 years ago, stepped out the door headed to a close stand for a quick morning hunt before work. Get about 20 yards from the house and hear deer strolling along about 100 yards away. Find nanny deer in my scope and it's over.