Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Closes deer shot

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.