Theres an awful lot of conversation these days about long range shooting on big game. I'd like to have folks share their closest gun kill distance. We all know bowhunters need to be close, so this thread is about gun hunters.

I took a black bear at 7 yards with an 8" Dan Wesson 44 magnum revolver. That was as cool as my previous close encounter of a white tail doe at 15 feet as she walked down a trail.

Let the stories begin...

25 yards.

0 yds - -> 12' straight down. 7mm RM

While still hunting hogs on the edge of a field a heard a sounder grunting and feeding towards me. I waited and gave one of them the good news at 5 paces.

I stalked last years mule deer buck and killed him at 15 paces.

Too slow to take a shot, but I had a doe mule deer jump over my legs. Could have reached out and grabbed belly fur.

Had another walk by me at fishing rod range.

Had a whole herd run by me. Stepped back because I thought the nearest one was going to run into me. She veered and missed by a yard or two. Was hunting elk and didn't have a deer tag.

2 feet - i was standing on a rock and the buck walked right alongside it - almost had to take a step back to shoot it!

I've shot a number of them at < 25 feet, but the closest was one I shoved away with a shotgun barrel and did not pull the trigger. Had a couple others just about as close.

Killed one at 15 steps and once had a small button buck that still had his spots walk up so close I smacked him over the end of the nose with my hand and shooed him off.

Less than 10 feet on a 3x3 Mulie buck with a 12 gauge 1 1/8 ounce load of 7 1/2 shot.

A few years ago I was pheasant hunting a few days after the opening of the general Montana deer season had opened, and this little buck jumped up in front of me, ran a few yards and fell down. I could see a bullet wound on his right hip and he could not use that leg. I switched to the full choke barrel of my Miroku O/U shotgun and slowly walked up to him. I walked to within about 10 feet of him and he started to try to get up again, so I put the load of 7 1/2 shot in the center of his forehead, and my deer season for that year ended before my first deer hunt.

Pig died between my feet late one afternoon. Shotgun slug fired pretty much straight down hit it between the shoulder blades. Guess it was askeerd and not giving much thought to direction because I'd capped a medium sized boar about 3 seconds prior. Got a lot of blood splatter on the jeans.

10 foot ladder stand end of barrel to deer 8 foot down 8 inch from the ladder

Mule deer about 30 yards.
Moose about 80 yards.
Antelope about 50 yards.

Whitetail from treestand about 20 to 25 feet. A spike elk....about 30 feet (walked-up on him asleep)! Failed to get a shot on a black bear (handgun) , at about 10 to 12 feet....had a thick conifer between she and I. Got her later at about 30 yards! memtb

Last fall I was on pvt property bordering BLM land watching/ waiting for a small group of mule deer, that included a nice 4x4 buck, in the neighboring pasture. I was set up perfectly by a tree waiting for them on a small rise overlooking the fence line where I had seen lots of tracks and scat. They were ~700yds away slowly making their way towards me when something spooked them and they of course moved away from me. As I watched, I saw them turn towards the neighboring BLM land. I hauled ass over there to head them off and was about 50yds on to the BLM land when I heard some movement in the trees in a draw in front of me. I immediately took a knee and didn't see anything. About 15sec later a doe and 2 youngins trotted out of the trees ~25yds away. They stopped, stared at me and the doe trotted back the way they came; the 2 youngins continued past me. I waited to see if anything else would come towards me before making my way to the edge of the draw where the doe retreated. I took a knee and as I peered down in to the draw I saw movement and antlers ~50yds away in the trees moving to my left up the draw. About 20sec later the buck trotted out of the trees from the draw and turned directly towards me. I immediately shouldered my .308, placed the cross-hairs on the chest and fired a 150gr Barnes TTSx; it dropped immediately about 25yds away. Unfortunately it wasn't the 4x4 I wanted, but everything happened so fast I just reacted. The TTSx penetrated all the way through the chest cavity and was lodged in the muscle film of the left hind quarter just inside the hide.

White tail doe about 20 feet with a 12 ga slug

Javalina, about 27 yards, 41 magnum pistol

15 yards.

Bull elk at less than 5 yards with a Ruger No. 1 in .338-06.

5 point Bull elk at 30 feet with a 350 Rem mag. So thick I could just barely see him at that distance.

Whitetail doe at about 5 yds. with the 270. She popped out of the brush at the edge of the field, I shot and she dove back into the brush where she died and got her revenge by rolling down the bank all the way to the creek bottom.

Dale

A small racked, large bodied 6 pt buck close enough he stepped over the barrel as I sat on the ground. The barrel was about even with his rear leg when I fired.

I shot a black bear with a pistol close enough that I singed the hair on the bear. I'm guessing range was about arm's length.

Bull elk 6 yards with muzzleloader.

40 yds, 7mm08, 140 AB

So close I had to find the backbone and shoulder then bring the crosshair down the lungs. The scope was set on 1.5 power.

Deer@ 10 feet with my smooth bore shotgun and a rifled slug. Found a fresh rub line and put a pine board in the crotch of a tree above it the next morning. Thought my feet were going to rub its back as it walked by.

Had a miss fire with a muzzle loader @ 3-5 feet on a mule deer. That walked up on me while I stood on the trail he was walking on.

I've shot numerous whitetail deer at less than 20 feet (rifles and muzzleloaders), a brown bear at under 30 feet, and a bull moose at a couple of paces. The deer were pretty mundane hunts, simply shot them directly under the treestand. The bear and moose were somewhat more exciting...

After hunting with archery equipment exclusively for more than 20 years, I killed a mule deer last year with a rifle at less than 30 yards. Would have been a chip shot with a bow. Old habits and all that.

By size alone, so far Johnny, you are the winner. Dandy MD!

Approximately 1 yard on a bedded doe with a 50 caliber muzzleloader.

Mule deer in my profile pic 38 yards 300 Weatherby
Bull elk 150 yards .35 Whelen

A whitetail at probably 30-35yds with a 62TSX in a 223AI. Performance with high impact speed like that looked like a typical .277/7mm hunting round.

About 30 feet on a cow elk and finally got to use my RugerSRH in .454 Casull.

10 yards on a buck in Ohio with a 444 Marlin. He came running down a trail behind on the side a steep drainage. I couldnt get turned around to the right because of the tree I was leaning against so I thought I lost him. Once He got to bottom he turned and ran right under me and stopped for just long enough for me to get the crosshairs on him. He ran about 35 yards and then fell over backwards.

In that same woods in Ohio I have killed over 20 deer within 20 yards. I always say its hand to hand combat.

The closest was a black bear at nine yards that was walking past me to get to the bait. If her sniffer worked at all she had to have known I was there, but just didn't care. I shot her with a Marlin 1895.

I was following a buddy sneaking through some heavy pines on a windy day. He stepped around a pine tree and there was a rag horn bull elk with his head down feeding no more than 3 feet away. My friend literally had to lean back to get a full draw on his bow. That bull never knew what hit him.

Bull elk - 42 paces with a 25-06 and 120 gr partitions
Whitetail - bow - 1 yard on a bedded doe I snuck up on. Rifle >1 yard on a doe. Powder burn on the hide.
Mule Deer - 75 yards with the same 25-06 and a Speer 120 gr.

Dunno turkeys qualify but a friend once called some in close to his blind. A young gobbler looked into the blind and saw nothing. When he turned his head my buddy poked him in the side with his shotgun. He said he'd never witnessed a gobbler get hysterical until that moment.

Shot a nice buck about 10’ away. I was in a stand trying to take a nap. I kept hearing a noise outside, he was eating on a Bush. I shot a real nice Bobcat about 15 feet away. I think he would have walked right up to me.

2 seasons ago, I went right through the season, into the closing weekend !

It was brutally cold, -35*C + wind chill. I got into the ground blind, 15 minutes before shooting light & fought to get the propane heater lit for 20 minutes.

I could get the pilot light lit, but not the main flamey thing ! Was thinking, I was going to have to head home, as I was freezing!

As you can imagine, all this was making considerable noise.

After the heater went out, for the umpdeanth time, I caught movement, 20 yards away in a brush pile.

Damned deer was bedded there the whole time. 117gr SST from my 25-06, centre of face.

My hands were so cold, I grabbed my knife, approached my Doe, turned her over to split belly to gut & warm up my hands, only to be confronted with a hand full of "junk" !

Had already dropped it's antlers. Luckily I had both tags. Shot my "real" doe, the next morning.

68 yards on a 4x4 Roosevelt elk, rifle hunting in the Cascade range in Oregon.

15 feet on a blacktail buck, hunting in a vineyard. He ate good.






P

The first buck i shot was about 3feet away. Shot him with a 12 ga. With buckshot the entrance hole was just that, a hole, when it came out you could cover the 9 holes with a coffee cup.

11 feet, 6 point bull, Arizona unit 5A

About 30 yards on a running sow, who was part of a sounder of a dozen or so hogs ( I always look for teats when I want to eat well). I lost track of her in the melee and started down the path the sounder took, looking for a blood trail. Not seeing any I back tracked and found her dead about ten yards from where she had been shot, one bullet through the heart from my 35 Whelen.

Of course, I acted as if it was an every day thing.

Spike Elk at 6 yards back in 97. He was sneaking away from some other hunters and ran into me instead in a thicket. I saw legs, so stepped off the trail and backed into a small pine tree for concealment. as he came in a little closer, I saw the headgear and shot him.
300win, 180 Partition into the base of the neck stopped him really quick. And no, I didn't recover the bullet.

Whitetail buck at 3 steps with a .54 cal muzzleloader. He was bedded in thick cover and I just happened to catch a glimpse of an antler beam. He just sat tight, waiting on me to walk on by.

I was on the edge of a clearcut in northern Wi and had a 6pt whitetail buck come in. I shot him at 5 or 6 yds with a 264 win mag/ 120 X bullet. It was mostly straight down.

I've gotten several blacktails at around 15 yards.


Okie John

I've shot several whitetails under 10 yards. When I was a kid I had an old Marlin 120 pump action 12 gauge - my one gun for everything; squirrel, pheasant, duck, goose, rabbit and deer.

We hunted a thick swamp behind the house and close encounters were the rule rather than the exception. Loaded with 00 Buck that 12 gauge was pretty deadly out to 20 yards.

A whitetail buck in NY with a slug was close enough to cause severe powder burns in the hair.

Sitka blacktails have let me get very close a number of times, but I do not remember shooting any much closer than 15-20 yards.

A caribou bull came past at no more than 10 yards in the middle of a big herd. I had to wait until he was at the top of a small knob at about 50 yards to keep from whacking a double.

A number of bears that came instead of leaving got pretty close.

2 or 3 inches. While in a tree stand one morning I heard some coyotes down in a river bottom, plus crows were making a ruckus. Went to investigate and came across a buck out on some ice with 7 coyotes harassing it. Shot three with my Savage 99 250-3000 before they got off the ice.

Walked up to the buck and could see he had split his pelvis. Put a 87 grain Speer Hot-Cor into his ear.

WELL...... if that counts roundoak THEN

I did the same with a deer hit by a vehicle only I used a 22 Mag.


Jerry

Whitetail...12 feet.

Yeah..if that counts I killed a leopard by putting a .38 special up to his temple...

I heard about that leopard hunt........dayummmm!!!!!

A cow elk at 30 yards with a scoped 30-06.

8 yards for both, a 7pt buck ran into a 45 cal Sharps rifle and a 540 gr Creedmoor bullet at the urging of my rattling horns, was standing in a large crevice at the bottom of a rock bench and hit a doe deer with my Longbow as she passed on the bench top, sweet kills, both.

don't remember my closest. I've had several at just a few yards. But my wife smacked this one at 7 feet last year. I had told her if you see one coming towards you, just let it keep coming. She did just that until it about ran into her barrel. .270(the best gun for a woman) to the white patch on the throat at 7 feet worked quite well.

-Jake

Boca --

Good lookin.......... wife !


Seriously -- a sincere compliment.


Jerry

She sure is, thank you

-Jake

My closest shot on a whitetail buck goes back to 1957. About 50 feet in a heavy Adirondack snow storm. 32 Special model 64 Winchester. Saw the outline of the Buck and a quick glimpse of the antlers. Pulled up the gun and sights were covered with snow. I'd shot that gun many a time and it fit me perfectly. I lowered it quickly and snapped to shoulder looking at mid section of the deer. Fired, dropped him.

30 feet. To this day it's my biggest buck. 227# field dressed MN swamp buck.

About 30' with a Savage 220 single bbl 16 ga with a slug and bead sight. DRT

As a young guy, I was hunting in the big jackpine/aspen woods of N MN. While sneaking along an old grown up logging trail that dipped between lowland aspen ground and small jackpine ridges, I could swear I heard a faint walking sound ahead of me. I took a knee next to a large willow clump and proceeded to blow a plaintive estrus bleat. Nothing. Dead quiet. Tried again. Now the walking sound seemed to speed up. I thought it sounded like it might be moving away so I blew a burpy sounding buck grunt... HOLY SH1T!! The woods to my front erupted in a blur of running buck and breaking branches as a big 4x5 whitetail buck ran straight at me from the end of a jackpine ridge. I raised my rifle and by the time I had a clear shot, he was standing 2-3' from the end of my barrel in front of the willow clump. I fired and shot him through the lungs while suffering from the worst case of buck fever I've ever had. At the shot he swung his head around in an attempt to gore me and fell dead a couple yards away. One I'll never forget!

"Moose about 80 yards." Friggin' close enough! Damn Moose are nuts.
Couple of times I wanted to shoot the horse I was sittin' on. That count?

Don't know if you would consider this "big game", but one of 10 in a trap consisting of hog panel. We rode up on ATV's, I had my 12 ga. defender pump out and ready. He cleared the hog panel. I nailed him in mid-air from say 8' to 10'

12 ga, 3'" , OO BUCK,

IIRC, 15 pellets, I count 14 holes




ya!


GWB

That 00 BUCK certainly did it's job.

-Jake

Whitetail buck at 6 yards with a 20 gauge 870.

Not big game, but, when I was just a kid.....while deer hunting, standing,in a cold, drizzling rain, I either heard (unlikely) or sensed something behind me. A Red Fox was less than 6 feet away, and slowly approaching me, at less than 6 feet a .308 Win. will make a Fox pelt.....unusable! memtb

Grizzly bear at 12-15 feet with nothing more than a 25-35...

I think we've got a winner

-Jake

That's only because the bear was GAININ on him. grin


Jerry

16 steps- 15 month old bull moose. Smallest one I ever killed, at that. That steep uphill frontal shot just under the chin with a .338 using 275 gr Speers might have been a bit of "overkill" on that one,,,,, Flipped him right over backwards, and nearly decapitated him when it hit his spine.

3 moose, same thing... I don't count those tho, either as close shots or moose taken.

Walking down a logging road and someone ran an old buck right up to me. He rounded a corner in the trail and jammed on the brakes as we saw each other. Distance was bout 20 feet. He was so close that the wad from the slug was hanging in his skin. The guys joked that I shot him out of self defense.

I've put down several with a duty pistol. I'm not counting those though.

-Jake

Whitetail buck about 20 feet. We had snow and real quiet with no breeze, I thought he was going to notice my gun slowly moving into position, or hear my heart thumping, but I got him.

I shot a young buck at less than 25 feet with a .358JDJ Contender. I shot him because he was stupid.

I was walking up a field that was filling in with saplings, walking to where I was going to hunt. I realized I needed to pee, so better to do it here than there. So I lay the gun on the ground and did my thing. I was starting to "zip up" when I heard something coming through the brush. I picked up the gun, he came into a little clear lane and I shot him with my pants still open.

8 steps, cow elk with my bow.

black bear at maybe 2-3 feet. standing over me after i fell over a log and broke my leg. he thought i was going to take the dead steer away from him and took exception to the notion.
41 mag 210g xtp just behind the jaw straight up. was the [bleep] getting him off me with one busted peg.
wife was kinda upset when i limped in covered in blood.

REALLY ?

whoadathunk?


Jerry

Fifteen yards, twice on elk.

20’ with a slug gun driving standing corn when I was 17. Had another deer skid to my feet on the same drive and stopped about 5’ away.

My closest kill on a deer was when I was 15, and I killed one on a bet with a home made spear fashioned from a closet pole cut to 4 feet, with a knife blade set into it as the tip. I didn't throw it, I thrust it. But even though I killed the little buck, I kinda got the C-rap kicked out of myself first. They can move their front feet a LOT faster then I could move my rear feet. My Dad, in his usual way of interjecting wisdom with wit said "you learn anything about guns today boy? I know you have one in that closet"! Mom bandaged my head up for me.

My closest elk was killed in Idaho with my 375H&H at about 10-12 feet shot from the hip. I was in the USMC at the time, home on leave.

My closest firearm kill was 7 years ago when I shot an antelope from behind a rock where I laid prone. I have to guess the muzzle was about 18 inches away. The blast blew off a cloud of hair. That was with my 9.3X74R Ruger #1. I do remember thrusting the muzzle out and squeezing the trigger and remembering the deer I killed when I was 15, and my dads words, all at the same time.

That Antelope died a LOT faster then the deer did. Dad was right.

Whitetail, about 8 ft., straight down outta my deer stand. 50 cal. Dixie Tennessee Mountain rifle. I swear there was powder burns on his back.

3 feet. On the other side of a bush. Just poked the barrel through and in one ear and out the other.

First doe I had killed in years!

I've shot several whitetails under 10 yards from a treestand, but one instance is etched in my mind. Had a herd of does come in one morning down a fire lane that ran basically under the ladder stand. Shot the first grown doe that stopped at less than 5 yards with a 30-06 and 150 grain Nosler Solid Base. She ran about 30 yard and fell, spewing blood out both sides. 45 seconds later another group of does came down the same trail, and I picked out the biggest and shot her also. (completely legal to kill 2) She proceeded to flip and somersault down the same path as the first and fell within a few feet. When I climbed down to retrieve my deer, the blood trail was the most gruesome and widespread I've ever seen. Looked like something from a cheesy horror movie. Blood was literally dripping from the trees along both sides of the path and was spread for 15 feet in both directions.

15 feet straight down from the tree stand. Done that quite a few times.

What kind of GUN is your bow ?

Jerry

Well, not big game, but I shot a badger in its spine as I was straddling it.

I hit a doe last year at about 15 or 20 feet with a 450 Bushmaster.

I sit on a big rock that's like chair height. I'm completely deaf on my right side and the doe snuck up on me.

Dan

Whitetail doe at 20 yards with a .44 Magnum Redhawk. 14 years ago.

Antelope, less than 20 yards. I'd like to take credit for being a sneaky SOB, but really he was just clueless, and came along while I was napping.

Not me - after moving to Arizona, my father decided he needed a flatter shooting rifle than his old .32 Rem, so he bought a .243. His first deer with it (still hunting, not sit and wait) was 14 feet away!

Snoring them in is an underrated technique.

Personally -Sow grizzly right off the muzzle, distance was inches not feet. Called a ton of moose well inside of 20 yards for hunters while guiding. Actually had a hunter break his hand this year when he grunted at a bull I was trying to call past him. The bull was coming straight on head down, the fellow grunted when the bull was at about 6 yards. The bull charged, the hunter ran....right into a tree and smashed his hand. Camera man got it all on film so some of you might see it next year.

Probably about 5 yards with a 30-30. I was still-hunting a patch of woods with a light snow and found several tracks intersecting, and stood there for a couple seconds contemplating sitting down there. About the time I made up my mind a deer walked right up over the edge of the ridge straight toward me and turned broadside, stopped to feed. Slowly raised my gun and *click*. At some point, the safety on my 30-30 had become engaged. I didn’t even think to turn it off because I never use it, I just use the hammer as the safety. Clicked it off, recocked the hammer, and tried again, second time being successful.

Hog at my feet. Shot initiated at ~10 feet at the initiation of the charge, bullet impact probably ~ 3' and he skidded to the tips of my boots. S&W Model 29 ...Loved every second of it.

Got a buck at about 13 steps away. He was so engrossed with that bleating doe that neither deer saw me standing there in the open frozen in place with the 870 slug gun shouldered. I played statue for at least 20 minutes because the doe was in the line of fire. I had a doe tag but I wanted that buck. One slug through the heart did it nicely once I had a clear shot. But the absolute closest was a coup de gras shot on a wounded buck from inches away with the 9mm German Luger my late uncle Marty liberated from Germany's V-2 rocket factory in 1945. He always thought it would make a nice finishing off at close range piece. After inheriting it I carried it afield in a soft case for 10 years before I had a chance to finish off a wounded deer with it. I'll never forget standing over that wounded deer with his Luger, looking up at the grey clouds above, and saying; "Thanks, Marty, I know you'd get a kick out of this"; and then putting two rounds in the back of the head / neck area from about 6 inches away. He would have loved it!

8-10 ft, directly below a stand. 12ga. Brenneke. Head shot....great idea until bone and brain hit your face.

3 yards with a 7mm RM. Saw a buck from the truck, jumped out of the truck and a different buck came running across right in front of me. Basically had to shoot looking over the top of the scope as all I could see was hair in the scope, nothing distinguishable on the lowest setting.

Hunting in Alaska, I was hunting black bear. I stalked to ten yards, when he turned at me and snarled. At this point, I thought, I think it's time to end this. My rifle came up the bear went down.
I really enjoyed myself on this hunt, thinking about doing it again.

Take care

Brown bear and a couple of moose at about 25-30 feet. I prefer about 40 yards on a bear and think 30' on a moose is about perfect, especially if they are not moving and I have a rest...…….

On two separate occasions, I've shot two does at well less ten feet. I was on the ground, stump sitting with a faded blaze orange cap and a blaze orange coat. No scent control and an open sighted 94 Winchester. So close I didn't really aim, just ever so slowly raise the rifle and bang.
Spent quite a few years hunting northern PA laurel thickets doing deer drives. We young guys in our fifties did the driving while the cardiac kids watched from stumps. We drivers seldom had shots as long as 50 feet.
I've really only killed three deer over 100 yards in 58 years of hunting.
Bfly

15' facing me and shot in the chest. Then I looked at my turret and said "why?"

416Rigby: The closest shot on Big Game I have made was an emergency situation with a 400 pound boar Black Bear coming out of a hole in the ground (den). The bear was big and brown and bellowing as it was climbing out of its den at mine and my guides feet.
Guide yells "its a Grizzly shoot him in the head"!
So we did.
I had NO idea that Bears sometimes dig straight down in the flat country of Alberta and excavate a den, to the side of that den entrance, below ground.
Anyway he was after me (us) and he died at my feet as I was reloading my pre-64 Model 70 in 30/06.
3 foot shot, maximum!
Guide also got off a shot with his Savage Model 99 in 300 Savage.
Nice pelt - but we were Hunting mostly for Moose.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

A badger is not big game but they’re mean. Which begs the question as to why you were straddling it? Only Badger I’d care to straddle would likely be a Wisconsin Badgers cheerleader.

Closest was a doe Whitetail at arms length. Sitting on an old maple stump that I brushed in along an old skidder trail. It was cold ( below zero) and I was contemplating an early lunch at the camp. I heard the snow crunching and couldn’t see her until she was chewing on the cedar brush of my blind. I couldn’t grab my rifle so I simply grabbed my 40 off my side and put on in her chest at about an arms length away. Stumbled and fell over dead.

About ten feet for a cow elk and twelve yards for a bull. Longest out of 20+ is 307 lasered.