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

Several whitetail deer with a bow almost directly under my tree stand. Shot a large 8-point buck on a push drive about 38 years ago that nearly ran over me. Shot him twice and the second shot that dropped him was less than 5 yards.

5 yards on a whitetail buck. But a couple times I have had deer close enough to actually touch but didn't take a shot.

It is generally thick woods where we hunt. My longest shot was 70 yards down a hollow that was narrow but fairly open. This is a long shot in these woods.

In the Allegheny National Forest there is more old woods and shots can be longer but still a lot of bush in between.

That doesn't mean you can't set yourself up for a long shot on a power line, cut field, etc. But I prefer the bush.

MAGA!

Forkhorn mule deer maybe 15 feet from the Ponderosa pine 🌲 I was in. Standing on limbs as big as my body. Absolutely incredible Utah hunt for a 21 yo flatlander from Alabama. Groves Flame Hunter 50# Easton 2018 and Bear Razorhead. X through the heart.

Probably 20 yds , a good sized buck in northern MN, just south of International Falls.

It was 20 below that morning, but temp shot up in short order around noon, almost 50 degrees to about 30 degrees.

Sky was clear and the winds kicked up to like 60 mph. Was just standing there and this buck walked by, in a confused state
with all the wind. Never even looked at me.... I was headed back to our rally point with the family party.

30/06... bang/flop....probably was using a 220 grain RN. Used a lot of those in that time period... Early 1980s.

15 feet straight down several times. It's easier if they're more than 20 feet away from my tree though. Better shot angle and a bigger target.

Black bear in Manitoba, 6 paces w 45-70 govt.

40ft, whitetail doe I missed.

Kickapoo Caverns SP, drawn hunt. I had been standing quietly for a few hours on the other side of a big low juniper tree off of a dirt road downwind of a game trail about 25 yards to my left on my side of the road, Marlin 336 at port arms.

The doe walked out started moseying in my direction. Ever so slowly so she didn’t catch the motion I brung the rifle up. My mistake was, when I had her lined up on a clear line through the branches, I leaned forward to clear the branches and shot in one quick motion.

A kazillion years of deer evolution in reacting to sudden ambush; she was faster than I was.

las, you may be the ultimate winner on this topic! 👍 memtb

I shot a doe with my bow, straight down below my treestand.

For "not-too-bright" anyway.

I shot this Blacktail in '99 at about 6 yards in the creek bed behind where the pic was taken. The part that sucked was that my scope was turned up to 9X from when I first spotted him.



Years later I canoed a sow coming up the trail I was on while dove hunting. Was kind of surprised on the amount of damage from 1 1/8 ounces of 7 1/2s on her skull.

I killed 3 bull elk with my rifle that were all 5-10 yards! But I have never got one with my bow. YET!

Two at less than six feet. The first I was walking up a trail with a couple of kids who wanted to tag along. I literally stepped on the little deer and shot from the hip' The muzzle couldn't have been more than two or three feet from the deer when I shot.

Deer number two was shot in the same canyon a couple of years later. My buddy was workin the top of the ridge and kicked up a little spike that ran down toward me. Another shot literally from the hip. I had my buddy come down and told him he could have this ne if he wanted which he did. it was one of the hunts that was like a first for him out west as he was from NYC. He must have POed someone back there at the bank he worked for as they'd transferred him to Winnemucca Nevada. It was fun teaching him that there really were deer that lived out in the desert. He never quite got ovr the fact that they did.
PJ

Probably a bull elk at 10 yards with my whitetail II compound bow.

Buck, chasing a doe @ less than 10 paces.

That's about the toughest shot with a bow. Can't tell you how many times I've missed trying to do that.

About ten yards on a black bear. I was hunting, in the great state of Alaska.

15 yards. Cape Buffalo charging me head on. A 300 grain soft in the face turned the charge.

A caribou at 8 feet.

Less than 3 feet on a boar pig, through the forehead with a .30/06. I had wounded him (shot him in the arse as he was galloping away) and he had gone to ground in some low cover. I circled round to find him, crossing a small creek. As I moved in he leaped up and charged from only a few yards away. I didn't have time to aim, just shot him from the hip and jumped back as he crashed into the ground where I'd been standing. He certainly got my attention.

I shot another in similar circumstances in a lignum swamp one time. Lignum higher than my head, and so thick you could only see a few yards. The pigs were moving through "tunnels" through the stuff. It was very exciting, because you could hear them but could only see them at the last moment. This big pig had taken a load of SG (00) buckshot, but it had only served to rile him up. I could hear him grunting and squealing, clacking his tusks and crashing around just a few yards away, but I couldn't see him. Suddenly he charged in and I gave him another lot of SGs in the face from a couple of yards off the muzzle, which took the fight right out of him.