What the closest shot you have ever taken at a deer when hunting with as gun? I have heard many stories of deer being shot at 20 to 25 yards away

17yds. 357 Python.

7 yards with a gun. A few years later it was 10...same stand. Both bucks are mounted.

About 10 feet...

Then, I remembered after the "click" that I had cleared the chamber a few minutes earlier...

I got a pic of a forkhorn with powder burns somewhere.

A polaroid.

about 4 yards with a muzzleloader.

1st shot or finisher?
I've shot them off my dogs and finished a number that were 10-20ft away. 1st shots tend to be longer because we don't hunt from tree stands around here.

The closest I did shoot was 44 steps away IIRC.

Several times I could have shot straight down from my stand and brained one with a snub nose 38.

6 yards. I've shot quite a few at around 10 yards from a tree, and have shot at least one at 10 yards from the ground.

I missed one , Then killed him at 7-8 yards in front of hounds. A good race can get you pretty exited. He was running at me full tilt. When I missed him, he slammed on the brakes and looked behind him. Then I shot him in the neck with a load of 00. I guess when the first load went over him and hit brush behind him, he looked back to see what it was.

I also shot a deer out of a stand at about 7-8 yards, but I was 15' in the air, so that one was farther.

I killed one at 12 feet, another at about 17 feet.

The forked horn at 17 feet was shot out my dad's upstairs window with a .44 ... 225 grain speer 3/4 jacketed bullet if you care. I've shot several others within 30 feet of that window but that one was the closest.

The one at 12 feet was up in the woods. It had its nose down chasing a doe that went by me at less than 3 feet. I shot her "boyfriend" right down through the top of the skull with a Winchester 94 trapper ... also in .44. I have that rack at home. Small 4x4.

I'm not sure exactly what you're after with this info, but I guess it might interest you in this context that once I snuck up on medium forked horn buck that was lying down in its bed, facing away from me, and poked it in the ribs with my rifle barrel. That summabitch blew up and tried to run in 5 directions all at the same time. I cheated a little ... took my shoes off so the leaves didn't crunch.

These were all blacktails.

Tom

edit ... forgot one: I also shot a doe in the head ... probably about 4 feet from the muzzle.

I missed a 4 pointer a 1 ft. When the dog brought him down the same trail I was on and I had the step back or get run over buy got him the next shot when he jumped a log. Shot another one at around 8 feet that was charging me after doing battle with a big Walker hound named Jigs. He was so far into the rut U could smell him 50 feet always. I was lucky I held my water on that one.

I've killed two under 10 yds.

Whatever the width of a corn row is - and he was carrying the mail...

13 walking steps

I've killed more than I can count at under 25 yards some as close as 10. I use the same stands bow hunting that I do with a rifle.

About 5 yds. Somebody put some deer out up the hollow from me and she came around a small pine tree right in front of me. With a 6x scope on the 270, all I saw was brown in the scope but she didn't go far, just down a steep bank to the creek.

Dale

Killed my first deer at around 30 feet with a .30-30, and killed my closest at 12 feet with another .30-30 about 40 years later. Both were mule deer, which of course are never killed at anything less than several hundred yards.

3 or 4 big steps. He was bedded and had no clue he was there until I looked down and he was on a little bench below me.

Often wondered how that all happened since I was busting thru some thick stuff before I saw him.

4 yards with a bow and 6 yards with a 45 colt.

Not sure about actual distance when I fired, but I had to move my leg out of the way as he ran past the rock I was sitting on!

a few steps, one with a muzzle loader was about 6' or so.

4', hip shot it with my 300saum as it tried to run by me. It didn't see me on the trail until it was almost right on me. One shot and it was steaks.

Killed what is probably my best buck at around 10 yards when it came up behind my climber. Thought it was my hunting partner stumbling around and was shocked to see the rack when I looked over my shoulder. Utilized the full potential of the .300 H&H Magnum...

5-7 yds with a .44 mag.

Vertical or horizontal distance? When I was a teenager, I shot one at about 10 or 12 feet with a .243. I thought it was a doe until it walked right under the tree stand and I could see between its ears that it was a little spike.

15 paces. Headshot a spike buck with a .280AI.

I don't really know the distance, but in the mid 1980's when I was hinting with a Hawken muzzleloader exclusively, I shot several that had powder burns on their skin. I remember one spike that was so close that I had to pull the rifle back to keep from touching his side with it.

17-18 steps.

I have shot two inside ten feet. I pushed one off me with a shotgun barrel but did not pull the trigger. In the last ten years several at close on 25 feet one a little less. With a bow, two at about fifteen feet. Last year, two with a muzzle loader at less than fifty feet.

Oddly, over the last ten years even with so many deer at point blank range I have still averaged over 100 yards without shooting even one past 300.

Over the years, chasing down wounded deer for people, I've finished off a lot of them inside 30 feet.

For about fifteen years I had a dog that had a knack for pointing deer and she was good at it. Walking past a dog on point expecting to flush a bird and having a deer come up under your feet is exciting to say the least. The ones that didn't hold point well way too often would about run me over getting away from the dog.

Post office closed?

sorry I couldn't help myself.

5 steps, about 10 feet

Routinely within 20 yrds. Even with a bow, I don't shoot unless they're within 25 yrds. Many times directly below me (with a gun), so however high my tree stand is. That shot is very difficult with a bow. I've got a couple of ladder stands that are only 15 to 18 feet high.

Have killed several over the years a 10-15 feet.

I once had 2 bucks trot down hill and stop anout 5 feet in front of me. We watched each other and I observed their breathing variations as they digested my scentless image because of the wind.

Finally, I said better go boys and their eyes doubled as they turned to continue the freedom that was never threatened.

Also colapsed exhaused on a red deer hunt once as a mate and I drank the cool air flowing into our faces at the ridge top. The grass was about 2 feet thick which provided comfort and unplanned cover as 4 red deer stags walked our trail in single file and nearly stepped on us.

Two does, two barrels from a side by side 12. 12 feet each. Only time I got an exit from 00 buck. Both neck shots. I was standing on 1 side of a rr track and they were 'pushed' up the other side.

5 feet in Kansas about 10 years ago when my uncle jumped a doe and she ran by me.

I was sitting in a tree line last year and a doe had ran behind me while sitting. I turned out of reaction and she let out a eeeeeeeeehhh sound. I fired the 06 out of reaction and hit her she stopped and was "hunched" up. I fired again at mere yards with trees and brush between her and I. She dropped. Closest deer to date.

I would say the closest other than that was around 10 yards or so. Sometimes wonder why I even own a rifle?

5 yards.

7yds with a rifle


4-5yds with a bow

15 feet. It was just one of those days where the planets were alligned and everything went right. My brother shot a spike at our camp in Pa. at first light the first morning. I went over to check on him and ended up staying in his stand. About 45 minutes after he drug his out I shot another spike, sniffing his gutpile. Pa. a one and done state, so we broke camp and headed back to Ohio to hunt half a day back home. Matched up with my buddies at about 1:30. On stand by about 2:30. About 4:00 I'm standing on a logging road and here comes a buck trotting right at me. They said I shot him in self defense. 15 feet and the wad from the shotgun slug was stuck in it's skin. Man, are they tall when they rear up on their back legs like that.

Just remember that I killed one in the early 70s with my Bearcat .22. Probably 10-12 feet..

About 10 paces, headshot to a muley buck.

First day of PA Buck season when I was 13 my smart a$$ older brother stuck me in the limbs of a huge old pine tree, he figured that way I wouldn't wander off and ruin his first day hunting season. An hour later a small 6 pt stopped right below my stand and I was hunting with a old 20 gauge single shot shotgun with pumpkin balls. Total distance of the shot was about 10 or so feet, after the shot the little buck ran 10 yards and dropped

20-30 feet while snow tracking.

25 yards, I had put a 15 ft ladder stand together half up the hill on a creek bottom! He came walking under at 3 in the afternoon, Cold as a witches tit never stopped walking and grunting like a goat! Full rut and he had azz on his mind! I let him keep walking and turned and old 3x9 redfield TV scope down, model 100 winchester in 308, brainstemed him! Bang flop! I just sat there and said WTF just happened! I had set up on a scrape line trail! v best winpoor

Killed a doe that was within 20 feet. I'd be willing to bet that she was no more than 10 feet away.

12 gauge.

I shot my first deer out of a stand I had put up for bow hunting. It was on an old logging trail and the stand actually hung out over the closest rut. The deer came by in the same rut and I may have been hanging out over him. The distance of the shot was vertical not horizontal. Probably about ten feet, all of it down. I felt a little silly shooting him with a scope sighted rifle sighted in for 200 yards when I could have probably killed him with a brick.

Kneeling over a dead forkhorn in the midst of a grazed out pasture and I got this guy at a maximum of 10 yards. Scope on 3x and all I could see was fur.

Forkhorn was shot at under 20 yards as it was charging me. Weird year.

My closest was a little buck at a little less than 10 feet with a bow. I was in a low stand on the side of a tree, but behind a fairly thick bush. The deer walked up from a totally un expected direction and started browsing on the bush I was using as cover. It was a clear, broad side shot and I didn't screw it up.

I think my closest was about 15 yards with a rifle, 12 paces with a bow.
Cat

Less than 3 yards with OO buck, and 6 yards with a .300 H&H. 7 yards with a bow, all from the ground. My average is probably less than 50 yards, with just one exceeding 100.

Between 10-15 yards for me with a 44 mag. I once poked a little fork horn with my gun barrel but didn't shoot him. Another time fall turkey hunting I had to step sideways to avoid being run over by a small herd coming down a game trail at me.

T/C Hawkens 50 Cal - 10 to 12 feet from the end of the barrel broadside shot. Was sitting on the ground eating because of low sugar. Grabbed the Hawkens, cocked the hammer back, shouldered and aimed, pulled the trigger = smoke. Then he got to ride in the trunk of a 2007 Ford Focus.



Ken

So how much does a bullet drop at 10 feet coming out of an '06 anyways? Man, I'd hate to be sighted in too low for that long range shooting like that.......

I shot a spike buck while hunting from a stand at about 20 feet a few years ago.

Shot a little dink nubbin' buck one morning with an old hand built heavy azz 1/2 stock .54 cal plains style rifle. I was sitting on side of a hill by a patch of bunch grass watching big open area. Damn thing nearly ran over me running up the hill. Shot him at mebbe 15'. That .535 round ball went from stem to stern. And kept on going! Deer didn't.

Three feet, give or take a bit? Sitting under a tree looking at rifle. Really windy day, so never heard it coming. Looked up and there's a small buck out of some nearby brush, full tilt boogie coming right at me.

Squeezed one off when he came by, raised rifle a little, still in lap. Dead-on heart shot. Naturally I took full credit, no one at camp was havin' any of it. But I still had me a dead buck hanging.



Next closest was probably about 30 feet, with M629 Smitty. Prepared for running shot, as I'd seen it coming thru the woods and it just suddenly stopped dead for no reason, that far away.

Luck or no luck, sometimes stuff just happens.

I shot a three point blacktail that stuck his hed out of the ferns about ten feet away.

I missed one that was bedded under a root bole where I had been sitting smoking a cigarette. He wasn't more than three feet from me. He had held for about five minutes.

5 feet, with a shotgun.

My closest was 1999 on the Opener of Ohio Bow Season. I was behind a camo blind on the ground, a few feet from a fence line. Just after sunrise a small herd of doe came by walked between me and the fence. I nailed the last deer in the group with a brisket shot inside 5 yards while the lead doe was staring at me through the die-cut blind less than 3 feet away.

However, I have had some other pretty spectacularly close encounters. My biggest bucks have all been taken inside 20 yards from a treestand. I had a doe stick her head into my box blind in 2010. I did not shoot her, but I got her sister that walked by a minute later.

6-8 feet.

This happened either 50 or 51 years ago. a hunting companion and I were walking up a pretty steep logging road. There was brush on both sides of the road. I was walking on the left when all of a sudden, probably 20' up the hill,a 4 point buck(10 point eastern count) busted out of the brush and headed down hill towards me.

As he saw us, he moved off to my left side to miss me. As he went by, I cocked the 94 Winchester and swung from the hip and I do not know how the end of the barrel missed him. But I did shoot him in the neck and he slid down the hill. Pretty exciting. By the way, the buck was a cross between a black tail and white tail.

I've shot a couple at 3 steps with bow. Deer and pigs and a few javelina that close.

I shot a deer once with my MZ, he was walking a trail next to a fence, I saw him coming, slid up to the fence and with little cover went prone and stuck the muzzle through....he saw me... too late, not sure the distance, but no more than 2-3 feet.

Wife and I had a doe step over my barrel while we were prone... I could never get it up high enough while she was close to shoot her without her being alerted....

And to flip the coin, have a couple kills just past 800 on game and a rock at 915... shot the rock to check the wind.... went back to game, and it decided to walk off... and never stop again.

Likely not the closest and certainly not the fartherest, but its all fun.

9 Yards...

I hunt from a climber. I use a rope to pull my rifle up, and to gage my height. I have had many deer stop directly under me. That is a difficult shot to make...so I have waited for the deer take just a couple steps from the tree.

25' if you count the distance from where I am sitting...5' if you only count the distance from the tree.

Man...I am starting to really take a liking to those Savage lever actions. Yours looks to have a bit of nostalgia.

Right at 10 yards with a bow. Spike mule deer when I was a junior in high school.

On a related note, I called a coyote in one time and shot it off the hip as it was taking its last bound before landing on me. Maybe 3 feet. Shot low and gutted him.

Hope he didn't land on you after you gutted him!!

Didn't land on me, but don't know how, really. It all happened so fast I don't recall everything, but remember he did a 180 (seemingly in midair, but logically he probably hit the ground by my side and immediately turned around).

He then ran about 20 yards before before dying when his guts fell out.

I cleaned my shorts, then went over and found him.

7 yards with a 45 cal Sharps rifle using a 540 gr Creedmoor bullet over a HEFTY charge of 3FG black powder, rattled him up, even though he was only a small 7pt, it was still one of my most memorable hunts.

About 10 feet. First deer I ever killed.

Sitting in a tree stand about 10" high and this one walked right under me, I just pointed the rifle straight down and shot him between the shoulders, dropped in his tracks....

Stumpy ole deer if your tree stand was only 10" high.

3 yds. 12 ga Remington 870 w/sluggers.

Took my first deer , a 85# doe at 20 feet with a 243. Double lung and she ran 150 feet.

Maybe 15' from a ladder stand with a S&W 39 and 147 grain Black Talons.

I was hiding behind a dead log next to the Yellowstone River, when three doe mule deer ran at me. I shot one as it lept over the log (and me) at, I guess about 2 ft. BAR in .270 Win 130 gr Nos BT. Blew the blank out of her.

Bill

Bow range. Sometimes it works out that way...

For me it was about 20 yrs ago, it was running about 10ft away, shot it with a Colt 44mag pistol at the base of the neck . The deer did a flip head over heals. I guess the the momentum of the bullet and the deer, it was the darnedest thing i ever saw.

One each with the bow and the rifle in the 7-8 yd range.

I know it's getting close to deer season when Calhoun posts tht pic....which I NEVER get sick of. It's one of my favorite pics on the fire.

About 15' when a doe walked directly under my stand. 1 shot DRT.

Closest was around 3ft. Was still hunting the edge of an alder swamp on an old grown up logging trail. Thought I heard some noise ahead, so I took a knee and blew a couple of doe bleats. The noise increased in intensity for a couple of seconds. Then I blew a deep buck grunt. Before I could move, a nice 4x5 whitetail was running from the alders toward me at full speed. He stopped on the other side of the alder I was kneeling next to. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I quick swung my rifle and put a 7mm 150gr Partition through him as he spun to leave.

bow hunting out of ground blind, maybe seven feet.

1945 99EG in 300 Savage, gray with lots of honest wear and not even a great bore - good, but not great. But shoots close to MOA with 180gr Partitions all day long and is a killer. Better shooter could probably do MOA easily. Put the first 19 deer on the ground with a total of 19 shots, never a miss. I've got a lot of prettier 99's, but can't argue with how it produces.



Savage 99's are not only a seriously classy hunting rifle, but also a very effective hunting rifle.

10 feet straight down from climber on a skinny tree. .50 White Mountain Carbine.

Years ago I walked up to the edge of a washout in a ravine. A buck stood up and looked up at me. He was about six feet from the end of the barrel. I looked down the side of the barrel at the middle of his back. Did not waste time trying to find him in the scope at that distance. He slammed into the ground and never got up. I was surprised that I was able to get that close to him.

Closest shot for me was about 30 feet. Shot with an original M1861 Springfield (Bridesburg Contract musket built in 1862), .58 caliber Minié ball, 60grains FFFg- while hunting on the edge of the Antietam battlefield, fittingly enough. That ball tore an incredible wound channel through its chest, and sprayed what looked like a bucket of blood across the bushes behind the deer. Dead right there needless to say. Afterwards I found myself thinking "...and they used to shoot people with these things."

Real close, powder burns on the neck. A little spike buck came down the hill across from, I was sitting on a stump by a creek bed. He dropped down in the creek bed out of sight, and I thought, if he comes up on this side I'll shoot, if he comes up over there he gets a pass. While I was still processing the thought, he popped up over the edge of the bank right in front of me, don't remember looking through the scope, I might have just pointed and pulled. Hit him in the neck with the 250. I swore his eyes got as big as a cartoon critter, or it may have been my eyes, he was close, Joe.