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.

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.

on sept. 27th of this year (va. youth day) my son and i parked the truck and started walking a old road to get to a power line. 3 minutes into the walk the 7mm-08 spoke and he had a nice 4 pointer on the ground!

Not an opening day story....but pretty quick. Late in the season (last weekend) and work had taken a lot of my time this year. Up until now I'd been pretty selective and passed up multiple bucks that were just a bit too small. The freezer was light and the season was ending. Told my brother before we left the house....this was not a "normal" hunt and the "targets" were "anything with hair on it".

Had one buck tag and 3 doe permits in my pocket, so I went to a stand where I'd seen lots of deer, but no "shooters" until that time.

Daylight found a small herd in the food plot....and the slaughter began. In less than a minute I had three does and a smallish 8 point on the ground.....maybe 30 minutes total time from when I got in the stand. My brother, at the same time and a different stand, put two does on the ground.

Back to the house in less than an hour with 6 deer for the freezer.