Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shortest shot on a deer?

Used to do a lot of hunting out climbing stands and lock ons in really thick cutovers. Shot a handful of bucks basically directly under me. Harder shot than I expected.

Like LSU a bunch directly under the stand right in the back of the noodle.

Closest shot ever was on a turkey. Had my back against a massive hemlock and he came in from behind that tree. The tree was so wide I was sitting and twisted 180* left and my barrel was just at the edge of the tree. Shot was no more than 6” and hit him like a roll of nickels.

About 5 feet and coming, on the ground.......

Recurve bow and a Hilbre head on a cedar shaft. Got about 6 or 7 inches of penetration into the base of the neck and had a 60-70 yard recovery.

The "OH $HIT !!!" look on that deer's face when I stepped from behind a tree at full draw was priceless.

I have a Hilbre broadhead that I inherited from my dad. He only bow hunted one season in 1961. Not sure what happened to any other broadheads.

Assuming we are not talking about a "finishing" shot
About 25'. I got out of the pick up, loaded the rifle and walked about 25 yards. A doe jumped up (doe season) and started trotting away. I punched the lungs with a 30 Newton 180 gr

And to update...shot 2 with my 6.5x55 this fall and the longest shot was maybe 35 yards lol

contact to the back of the head on a 4x5 whitetail. first shot him at 40 yards. he was dead but didn't read the memo. disappeared into some short cedars and busted out on the trail i was standing on. stepped back off the trail and shoved the muzzle against his head as he went past.
should have let him keep running. ended up hauling him out of a couple acres of blow down. had i not shot the second time he would have cleared them .

15 feet straight down ,he came up on my blind side and was under the stand 30/06 150power point right between the shoulder blades

Years ago, about 20 feet in the brisket. 358 win with the only factory ammo I could find, silvertip. The rifle was a BLR that I sold. I still look for it and a 600 Mohawk.

About 10 yards with a .50 flintlock

A six pointer in the north Maine woods at twelve steps with my 30-06 Encore. I was sitting on a boulder, looking like a pumpkin, just before the end of legal shooting time. I could hear him so I knew he must be close. I lost my hearing on the right side years earlier so I can't tell the direction of sound. After lots of slow head turning, I spotted him at about 25 yards walking right toward me. He went behind a clump of small maples; when he stepped out, I was ready.

Shot one at probably 15' with a shotgun and buckshot. Shot him with the second shot, missed him with the first one.

18 steps for me. Shotgun hunting back in 1990. I was standing motionless with a scoped 870 slug gun in the offhand position for so long that my arms were sore the next day. Buck and doe together with the doe bleating just like a "doe in heat" call. At first I had a blown down tree in the way of a clear shot, then they got into the clear and the doe was in the way and although I had a doe tag, I wanted that buck! Every time they moved I still had the doe between me & the buck. I was standing in blaze orange, in the open, and my only advantage was being downwind of them. Can't believe how long I stood there like a statue, as I lost track of time, but it was an eternity. Finally the doe moved enough to give me a clear shot at the buck, which ran off like he wasn't even hit as soon as I fired. Stood there in disbelief for a moment and then found he had gone less than 50 yards. The buck got a 12 ga. Winchester Foster slug through his heart. Except I had been aiming higher than that. Then I realized how far below the scopes line of sight the bore of that gun was. He was close enough that the slug hadn't even risen to the line of sight yet. One of my buddies beat that distance the following year with a 180 gr. XTP out of his .357 Magnum, a stainless 6" Colt Python when he got a nice buck literally at less than one foot. Sitting on the edge of his woods just at the end of legal hunting time, he was ready to head out when he spotted the buck in his field coming his way along the edge of the woods. He held the gun straight out in front of him in the opening in the brush where he was sitting and pulled the trigger when the buck's front shoulder got in front of the muzzle. He had a full shoulder mount done and the taxidermist was amazed at the powder burns on the hide.

I've shot several that were basically straight down from a tree stand, so less than 20' from muzzle to deer. Shot two with a bow at same distance.
I once shot two does at less than 5 yards from a short homemade ladder, about 20 seconds apart. They rolled, tumbled and flipped down the same path for about 20 yards and fell side by side. The 150 gr Solid Base made huge holes and they slung blood everywhere. It was gruesome. Blood dripping from the trees and vines..... like something from a movie.

I also shot a nice mature 8 point once, running straight at me while I was standing on the ground in the middle of his trail. I'm not sure to this day if I shouldered the rifle or shot from the hip, but when he landed, he was less than 10 ft from me......

3 feet with a bow.

My average on 65 bow kills is probably 30-35 yards.

My closest was my first bow kill, a Colorado mule deer doe at 8 steps. Man was she surprised when she stepped out from behind a spruce tree and I was standing there at full draw! I've shot multiple deer at around 10 yards with my bow.

Shot a doe in Maine at about 10 feet in thick hemlocks. One morning I was bow hunting and it started to rain pretty hard so I headed out. As I’m walking back I came over a rise and there was a spike feeding in a creek bottom about 5 feet away looking away from me. I grabbed a stick and poked him in the butt. He almost fell down trying to get out of there then stopped and looks back to see what happened. It didn’t feel so bad getting soaked after that!

8', I was still hunting near Hayward WI and came up on the edge of a bowl. I could see a buck coming my way across the bowl and settle down to wait. He came over the edge of the bowl and walked right past me, all I could see was brown in the scope, I just stuck out the rifle and shot.

I was in a tree stand and watched my adult son shoot a doe. She ran in a circle and came under my stand about ten feet below. Shot her with my 6" 629, 240 gr. Cast FP. I had to keep her from going into a deep creek ravine on my other side. There were others. RZ.