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

I shot an 8 point whitetail with my bow at 12’. He ran 75 yards and died.

The first animal ever killed with the then brand new 40 Super cartridge was at about 4 feet.

I was laying prone behind some thick brush when the hog, following the trail, came around the other side and nearly ran into the muzzle of my pistol.

Tony Rumore
Tromix

3 yards on an 8 point whitetail with a bow

8 steps from my stand with a bow on a whitetail.

About 12 foot straight down underneath my loggy bayou with my clearwater xl.

About 10 feet from the muzzle. Taking a break, eating lunch right at the bank of the Chickahominy River, sitting on a log beside a cypress tree. I hear trotting in the water to my right. Set my food down, pick up my slug gun, and a doe comes out out past the cypress tree, stops and stands. Shot her, she plopped in the water, not more than about 30 yards from my truck. Easiest kill and haul-out I ever had.

I once shot a mule deer buck at less than 10 yards as he ran right toward me in the woods. And I shot a big boar pig at about 5 yards in the brush once.

about 88 yrds in Nov '11

360" late Utah bull Elk

Two shots from a 308 & 180 gr Swift boolits

Closest?….maybe 10-12 feet. In fact the average distance of the last 3 deer I’ve killed, 1 mulie and 2 Blacktails, is around 18-20 feet. All 3 were shot with my .308 using a 150TTSX and 2 168TSX. I recovered 1 of the 168TSX’s just under the hide on the rear hind quarter after traveling the full length of the deer and it was the perfect picture of expansion. None of the 3 deer took so much as a step, their legs just folded and they were done…DRT.

straight down from climbing tree stand quite a few times with bow and once with rifle thru the top of skull.

Necro thread, but I guess I'll add some of my own nonsense that doesn't address the original question, as per 'Fire tradition.


I was out hunting for the fourth day with a backpack and surplus tent on ole Billy Washington's chunk of land. Did pretty well with squirrels, but no deer by day four. I also slept like crap, and was exhausted. Ate good, but I just stayed awake through the night in the tent except for intermittent bouts of sleep. So I decided after a few more hours of stalking the land that I was going to take a break. I fell asleep under a tree, telling myself I was just going to take a rest upwind from a clear deer trail. I woke up with a young doe touching my nose with her nose in the late afternoon as the sun was going down.

I didn't kill it, but I don't know anyone else who was "nosed" by a doe during hunting season.

As to answer the original question, my closest kill was probably 30ish yards.

Shot a doe in the face at five yards, she was first in line, was on track to step on me. Killed a buck later that week at seven feet, he was walking right by. Surprised he didn’t have a burn spot at the entry wound. Never got a turkey that close, but killed a bunch at ten yards or so, none were past twenty.

Most of the deer I have killed have been at twenty yards or less, mostly a function of how I hunt. Been times I wondered why I even use a rifle, when I have a SBH .44 that would do just fine. Planning to do just that this year and see what happens.

VLB, Just saw your post, and had to laugh. I sat on a stump in the river bottom one morning, that sun hit me, and I nodded off. Woke up a bit later, heard something move. next to me. My eyes came open, and without raising my head, I could see multiple sets of deer legs. A group of does had moved up around me and were feeding as they moved. With three of them close enough to touch, the thought occurred to me that if I spooked them, I was liable to catch a kick in the head. So I let them move on a bit, and then shot one at ten feet or so.

Killed a doe 30ish years ago at 4 yards
Killed one over the weekend at about 7-8 yards.

Spike elk about 30 yards with 7 x 57 tang safety Ruger and 154 grain Hornady spire point. One shot, DRT.

An elk at about 10 yards…..but my closest wasn’t big game.

Many years ago when deer hunting in Louisiana, I was standing in some bushes for concealment, when I sensed something behind me. A fox was slipping up on me from behind, stunned and a little startled…..the shot was around 5 to 6 feet! A hit from a .308 Win. that close, left the hide unsalvageable! 😂 memtb

I was sitting on a bucket, watching a trail intersection when I smelled a deer. Then I felt his breath on my face. He had come up behind me. It was right in the rut and this spike was all sex-addled. We all been there. It was freezing rain and my arrow rest got messed up with ice so when the spike got about 20 feet in front of me I took a shot but the rest was all the way down and I missed by 3 feet. I could have cried. I got another arrow and the same thing happened. The deer wandered off and I think I did cry. Either that or some freezing rain on my face ran past my eyes. I then figured out the rest problem. Dang that sucked. I once had a squirrel tapping me on the face to figure out what I was. It was a tiny grey squirrel and I couldn't bring myself to shoot it. He didn't know what was sitting against his tree that morning.

Bayed up bear in a ground fight at 7 ft,Black tail buck at less than 10 feet,Archery Roosevelt elk at 6 yds.

About 10 feet on bull moose. 1st shot to shoulder (210 NP!) at @ 100 knocked him down, but blew up on the blade, peppering nearside lung with bb bone and lead. Never found the back part. No damage to far side lung. Haven't used that bullet since.

Walked up on "dead" moose, from the front. Don't do that! 2nd one sorta up the nose worked tho.

2nd closest was also on a wounded bull my partner had shot- probably 25 feet or so. Again it was down, but jumped up at my approach.

3rd closest was a "yearling" bull at 16 yards, frontal just under the chin with 275 gr .338 GS. flipped moose over, nearly decapitated it.

Way mo better than #1!

A friend was sitting on a ridge top rock on a caribou hunt, rifle resting on knees, when he saw a cow coming up ridge toward him. He never even moved the rifle, just triggered it from his knees when the cow walked by about 3 feet off the muzzle.

I bounced my binoculars off a sow griz at 3 steps. Does that count? (rifle was some yards away, still in the boat).

Lacked penetration....

Quite possibly the one I took a week ago Friday, 7.3 yards lasered, with my xbow, aka 22 feet. Just crushed him, and AFIK that arrow is still sailin’…….

About 10 feet straight under me, I was in a tree stand and the deer fell up against the tree I was in.