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

Cow elk with a muzzle loader from about 5 steps.

Straight down from my tree stand. Literally at the base of my tree that I had climbed 50 feet up. Entrance was between the shoulders and exit on bottom. After I shot it appeared he was still standing looking down at him. Then I realized his legs had simply folded up and had gone straight down and never twitched. After climbing down had to hop over his body to dismount my stand.

Have shot numerous deer that were 5 yards or less from the base of my tree but i was far higher in the tree than they were from the base. Closest I've killed one from the ground was about 8-10 yards.

Guy from hunting camp arrived after dark cos he had to work late. Wanted us to see what he killed on the trip to camp. We followed him to his truck and trailer and lo and behold a nice 6 point buck was standing, tho wobbly on the trailer beside his Big Red. We surrounded the trailer and the fight was on. Two grabbed him by the rack and were slung off. Two more heftier ones replaced them and the wrestling match was on. I had a large Case folder and was the designated throat cutter. It took a while to do the deed and in the melee one had his finger cut to the bone and had to go to the ER 30 miles away. Us, the Big Red, the trailer were bloody making a trip to the car wash necessary. Seems 2 ladies ahead of the guy hit the 6 point, he aided them and thru the deer on his trailer thinking it had been killed. Memberable kill at very close range. We talked about it for years.

22 Steps, Cougar!!!

Whitetails within 10 feet.

First buck I ever shot, I was 11 or 12 and out squirrel hunting alone.
I was sitting behind a big log and he was running straight at me, shot him in the neck as he jumped the log, maybe 3 feet from the end of the barrel of my 20ga Ithaca single shot.

The paper wadding from the low brass #8 was in his neck, he was a little forked horn Whitetail.

About 3 1/2 feet.

Big doe coming at a fast walk, straight at the tree I was standing behind. Using a 55# Bear Grizzly and a cedar arrow with a Hilbre broadhead. I drew and side-stepped from behind the tree. She slammed on the brakes with an "OH CRAP !!" look in her eyes. Arrow was AT MOST 1 foot off the bow when it hit her.

Mine was a small whitetail buck at maybe 10 yards, tops. Closest me or any of my buddies had ever got one. But the following year one of my buddies outdid me. He was sitting in heavy wooded cover on the edge of his field handgun hunting. Just before dark a big 10 point comes walking down the edge of the woods. He held his 6" Colt Python in both hands with arms outstretched from the bushes, waited until the buck came by and dropped the hammer and put a 180 gr. Hornady XTP on it just as the front shoulder went by. He said there was less than a foot between the muzzle and the deer. He had a full shoulder mount done and the taxidermist backed up his story with his questions about how the hide got powder burned so bad.

I have taken two whitetail does, one at 10 yards, one at 625 yards.

Came to post this.
When stalking cornfields with a handgun.



That's close enough!

Doe 8ft. Straight down, doe at 10ft bow also 10 ft on the ground. Coyote 10ft. Coming to my turkey call.

On different species...

"Yearling" moose, at about 15 yards, head on. Steep uphill angle and his head was stretched high reaching for browse. .338 275 Grand Slam took him just under the jaw, nearly decapitating him and almost flipping him on his back.

I took my first Dall ram at about the same range.

Once flicked the butt of a Mule deer forkie with my fishing rod as he came sneaking by me, wondering where I had disappeared to. That resulted in McManus's "FBLP" on the deer's part. When he bounced off a tree, he changed direction, failed to clear a brush patch, picked himself off the ground, changed direction, and last I saw of him he was about 18 inches high and 20 feet long. He might still be running. 40 years ago, and I still laugh when I think of it. I'm counting it!

Oops- I forgot the black bear. We had spotted it while caribou hunting in the Kenai Mountains, and no caribou in sight, so I tried to get my son on it.

We got over there and no bear. I left him on stand against a big rock while I eased down slope to see if I could find the bear, which I figured had worked it's way down some, over the contour of the slope. He was still tight there, laying down in a 2' deep depression, about 10' long, 4 foot wide, covered in blueberry bushes. I found him when he stuck his head up about 15 feet from me.

No hesitation on my part! Right between the eyes.

A Co mule deer buck at about 10 yards.

About 6 ft on a Shiras moose with my recurve bow.

Cape Buffalo at 11 paces.

2 does?

What's rong with doe meat? Some years I've taken 9 or 6.

A 4 point whitetail at 15 feet. He was walking straight at me and never knew I was there. I was hoping he would turn to get a better shot angle. He just kept coming, so I put a 12ga slug right in the center of his chest. Needless to say, DRT.

when lion hunting in Botswana back in the 70's I had a huge black maned wounded lion charge out of the brush and pounce on me. At the same instant he enveloped my entire head in his mouth, I stretched my arm as far as I could back and stuck my middle finger right up his ass. Amazingly the lion let go of my head momentarily giving me a split second to draw my 10mm glock and shoot him right under the throat and into his brain. The guides still talk about that hunt around the campfires to this day.

Just curious if your timeline is correct. I thought the 10mm was introduced in the 80s.

I bet your finger stunk for days.

About twenty feet on a four point whitetail. I was squirrel hunting, stopped to eat lunch in a clearing, propped up against a stump in the sun and went to sleep. Woke up and there it was.

Just curious if your timeline is correct. I thought the 10mm was introduced in the 80s.



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