Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the closest shot you ever took on big game?

We used to have a few of us close friends together for elk hunting on my buddies ranch. He always got a dozen or 2 depredation permits so if we didn’t connect during the general elk season we’d come back and take a few with the depredation permits. It was a damage hunt… when the elk would tear his hay barns apart we’d come over and haze them after harvesting a few and hope they’d stay away, they didn’t. We started a game where the goal of the game was to touch an elk. Usually we were lucky to be as close as 10’ but once in awhile we’d get a winner. The year I won was after a harsh eastern Washington winter with ice storms that took countless trees down and the ranch was a rutted mess. I was tucked into an old rotten lodge pole pine with buckbrush all around it. I sat there calling softly listening to the bulls return the conversation as they searched for their girlfriend. Several large bulls were moving in my direction so I stayed still. As the last bull sauntered on by I reached out and touched his left rear ham and said something like “I win”. I startled that bull which in turn startled me but I was one of the very few “winners” of that game. My good buddy was the ranch manager and he passed away shortly after that hunt and my other buddy that was an integral part of my hunting and fishing circle died a couple years later….both had cancer and died in their 50’s. 2 great conservative, God-fearing men that never met a stranger and were always happy to help anyone.

When I was young I pulled the trigger on a 7 mag that was 2-3 inches from the nose of a button buck. He stretched his head out to explore the muzzle…..bad idea

3 feet. Hip shot on a doe that came blasting by me after the initial shot.

Ruger .22 auto mark 2....3 inches behind the ol does right ear. She just walked past as I was leaning against a big redoak, taking a leak... My rifle was propped against other side of tree. Worked fine!

When I was a young kid after I got off the school bus,changed out of my school clothes and put on my camo,grabbed my rifle and pedaled my bicycle down to some woods about a mile away that belonged to a farmer I worked for sometimes.By the time I climbed up that big live oak tree I made a stand in,I only had about 45 minutes until dark.I had a couple of small pieces of cloth hanging on some branches that I juiced up with buck lure.I sat there and had not seen anything and it was starting to get dark.I was debating about getting down and going home,but something in my mind said wait just a couple more minutes.About a minute later a five point buck popped out of the brush fifteen yards away,walking straight to me.I was afraid to move be cause he was so close.He walked up to the trunk of the tree I was sitting in ten feet up.He smelled the tree trunk where I climbed up,snorted,ran ten yards and stopped.I couldn't shoot him right handed like I normally shoot,I shot him left handed right in the neck and he dropped right there.I quickly gutted him and drug him about two hundred yards to the edge of the woods.By then it was dark,I didn't have a flashlight and I remember loosing the buck a couple of times looking for the best trail out of the woods,but I managed to find him each time.After I got the buck to the edge of the woods,I got my bike and went to the farmers house and he drove his pickup down to get my buck and take me home.Talk about a happy kid.I was on cloud nine for sure.

I was in Alaska hunting black bear. It was a Spring hunt, lots of fun. I spotted a nice bear; I made a stock on him within 10 yards that's when I let him have a dose of 338, he was down and out.

I missed the herd bull, roosevelt elk, bowhunting. 8'. He didn't follow the rest of the herd going by in front of me single file at 15 yards, he came up directly behind the tree I was leaning against. He had his head down in the huckleberry bushes when I simultaneously pivoted around the tree and drew my bow. He threw his head up, his eyes were like saucers and he was "Oh schit mother f'r wtf is that thing it's gunna kill me omg wth" as he swung as fast as he could away from me. I knew if I wouldn't have a chest shot so I let go at his neck and zipped right under because he was moving so damn fast.

I’ve shot several with buckshot running in front of dogs at less than 10ft.

Got out of my stand once in IL after watching a BIG buck run a couple of does in a group of 11 does in the back of a field. Stalked to within 60 yards and got a little luck when he ran one past me. I stuck him at less than 10 yards…. 7 1/2 yr old buck that weighed 286 lbs. luck is good

a couple of whitetails straight down with a bow.
1 muzzleloader shot through the top of the skull on small buck.

Standing in front of a large pine tree watching a doe with a six pointer running right at me. Took safety off the 7600 .35 Whelen and pulled the trigger from the hip. If I extended my arms the barrel would have touched the buck

Whitetail at about 12 feet. Right under the stand.

Killed deer within 10 yards with rifle,ML, and recurve bow. I have poked my gun barrel out at deer on deer drives to make them swerve when blocking because I thought they might run into me. Deer I didn't want to shoot.

16 feet, "yearling " moose, .338WM 275 gr. Speer GrandSlam.

Sow grizzly, 9 feet, binoculars. Lacks penetration. Saved the Canon Rebel for backup.

Minus 1/2 inch. Brown bear…

About 10 feet, nice 8 point

Plumdog: Black Bear, shot to the head at 4 feet - as it came growling out of its den.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

About a foot away, with Dan Wesson 357 magnum. 3 point blacktail stuck in a barbed wire fence.

Years ago it would have been under a foot but only the primer went off on the old muzzle loader. The doe came unglued and all I could do was laugh.

I’d say 10’ or less? We were on a ranch to shoot some feral pigs. Sow Walked out of some brush, turned her head side ways and I put a 30/06 180gr corelokt under her ear. My surprise there was no exit hole.

Deers, elks, so what. Wait til you shoot a skunk between your feet.