Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Your closest big game gun shot?

A small racked, large bodied 6 pt buck close enough he stepped over the barrel as I sat on the ground. The barrel was about even with his rear leg when I fired.

I shot a black bear with a pistol close enough that I singed the hair on the bear. I'm guessing range was about arm's length.

Bull elk 6 yards with muzzleloader.

40 yds, 7mm08, 140 AB

So close I had to find the backbone and shoulder then bring the crosshair down the lungs. The scope was set on 1.5 power.

Deer@ 10 feet with my smooth bore shotgun and a rifled slug. Found a fresh rub line and put a pine board in the crotch of a tree above it the next morning. Thought my feet were going to rub its back as it walked by.

Had a miss fire with a muzzle loader @ 3-5 feet on a mule deer. That walked up on me while I stood on the trail he was walking on.

I've shot numerous whitetail deer at less than 20 feet (rifles and muzzleloaders), a brown bear at under 30 feet, and a bull moose at a couple of paces. The deer were pretty mundane hunts, simply shot them directly under the treestand. The bear and moose were somewhat more exciting...

After hunting with archery equipment exclusively for more than 20 years, I killed a mule deer last year with a rifle at less than 30 yards. Would have been a chip shot with a bow. Old habits and all that.

By size alone, so far Johnny, you are the winner. Dandy MD!

Approximately 1 yard on a bedded doe with a 50 caliber muzzleloader.

Mule deer in my profile pic 38 yards 300 Weatherby
Bull elk 150 yards .35 Whelen

A whitetail at probably 30-35yds with a 62TSX in a 223AI. Performance with high impact speed like that looked like a typical .277/7mm hunting round.

About 30 feet on a cow elk and finally got to use my RugerSRH in .454 Casull.

10 yards on a buck in Ohio with a 444 Marlin. He came running down a trail behind on the side a steep drainage. I couldnt get turned around to the right because of the tree I was leaning against so I thought I lost him. Once He got to bottom he turned and ran right under me and stopped for just long enough for me to get the crosshairs on him. He ran about 35 yards and then fell over backwards.

In that same woods in Ohio I have killed over 20 deer within 20 yards. I always say its hand to hand combat.

The closest was a black bear at nine yards that was walking past me to get to the bait. If her sniffer worked at all she had to have known I was there, but just didn't care. I shot her with a Marlin 1895.

I was following a buddy sneaking through some heavy pines on a windy day. He stepped around a pine tree and there was a rag horn bull elk with his head down feeding no more than 3 feet away. My friend literally had to lean back to get a full draw on his bow. That bull never knew what hit him.

Bull elk - 42 paces with a 25-06 and 120 gr partitions
Whitetail - bow - 1 yard on a bedded doe I snuck up on. Rifle >1 yard on a doe. Powder burn on the hide.
Mule Deer - 75 yards with the same 25-06 and a Speer 120 gr.

Dunno turkeys qualify but a friend once called some in close to his blind. A young gobbler looked into the blind and saw nothing. When he turned his head my buddy poked him in the side with his shotgun. He said he'd never witnessed a gobbler get hysterical until that moment.

Shot a nice buck about 10’ away. I was in a stand trying to take a nap. I kept hearing a noise outside, he was eating on a Bush. I shot a real nice Bobcat about 15 feet away. I think he would have walked right up to me.

2 seasons ago, I went right through the season, into the closing weekend !

It was brutally cold, -35*C + wind chill. I got into the ground blind, 15 minutes before shooting light & fought to get the propane heater lit for 20 minutes.

I could get the pilot light lit, but not the main flamey thing ! Was thinking, I was going to have to head home, as I was freezing!

As you can imagine, all this was making considerable noise.

After the heater went out, for the umpdeanth time, I caught movement, 20 yards away in a brush pile.

Damned deer was bedded there the whole time. 117gr SST from my 25-06, centre of face.

My hands were so cold, I grabbed my knife, approached my Doe, turned her over to split belly to gut & warm up my hands, only to be confronted with a hand full of "junk" !

Had already dropped it's antlers. Luckily I had both tags. Shot my "real" doe, the next morning.