Shortest shot on a deer?

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gspn

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Over the years I've had a lot of really fun hunts. Some of the most fun are hunts where I got really close to deer...even if I didn't take a shot.

I shot a handful of deer with firearms at distances under 10 yards. And...believe it or not I once missed a deer entirely with my bow from 5 yards (arrow fell off the rest prior to the shot and went crazy to one side when I shot).

I've had deer walk past me so close when I was on the ground that I could've snatched hair off them.

What are your stories of close encounters? Whether you got a shot or not...lets hear it.
 
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Near point blank, couple feet - SxS 12ga coachgun 3" high velocity plated 00. Knocked her right off her feet onto her back. Basically DRT struggling for air from her now non-existent lungs. Fired the coach gun one handed off to the 4oclock after being surprised. All 12 pellets passed completely through.
 
About 10feet with an old single shot 12ga with no4 buckshot.

Knocked the deer down but it promptly sprang back up and ran off to the bottom of the holler to become my hardest to recover deer to date. Very difficult to track due to almost no blood trail.

I haven't used buckshot since.
 
my nearest shot was about 50 yards give or take. the closest I've gotten without taking a shot had to have been within 10 yards easily. I was hiding in a bramble patch and she just walked right out in front of me and starting to eat. there was another one crashing around in the brush on the other side of the clearing and I was hoping it was a buck but it never came into the open and the doe eventually left.

all of this is if you don't count the spike that rammed the passenger door of my truck last month.
 
I've had 2 shots with my muzzle loader in the last several years under ten feet. One was drt and the other ran 60 yards. Go figure.
 
About 10 feet with my bow. He was behind the tree right next to the one my stand was in. My farthest was about 10 yards on a doe
 
Under ten yards

Was sitting and waiting for a deer to come when all of a sudden I heard something sounding like thunder. Being winter time I didn't know what to make of it as it kept getting louder. Finally I started hearing twigs and branching breaking. Here comes roughly 30-40 deer running and jumping from the neighbors property darting every way they could. Trying to get one in the crosshairs was pointless so I sat and enjoyed the show. One was closer to me and went to run into a brush pile when it doubled back and ran straight at me. At about ten yards it happened to look up stop and stare at me. I lifted the gun up shot, and it only ran 25 yards before dropping.

Decent sized doe that made me happy to get.
 
1968.
First year at Ft. Carson Colorado in the Army.

All the locals said I needed a long range sight-in to shoot across a canyon.

So opening day, I had a Weaver K-6 on my 30-06.
Sighted in for 300 yards with 165 grain Sierra handloads.

And at first light?
A big buck walked by my blind on the side of a mountain, at no more then 5 yards.

So close I could see nothing but hair through the 6X scope.
I found his neck, split the difference 1/4 down from the top, and broke his spine with the shot.
And he fell DRT with his nose almost touching my black GI army boots.

Ever since then, I laugh at the folks who put 4-12X, and 6-16x scopes on deer rifles.

They would kill more deer with a 2X or 3X scope I betcha!!

rc
 
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I spent a few weekends on a reduction hunt on a buddies game managed property 15 years or so ago. After taking a dozen or so undesirables and donating the meat, my reward, apart from the hunting, was to take home a nice Axis doe.

This was a mature, large doe. The owner knew the blind it frequented. It was the kiddieblind, literally on top of a feeder for bow hunting or an 8 year olds first rifle shot.

The doe walked up and towards me no more than 10 minutes after I got to that blind. I think she must have been hand fed, coming right towards me. I stopped her with my .270 at 15 yards right between her pretty peepers. I was afraid she would crawl in a snuggle with me if I let her get any more close.

Sure was tender meat, and a pretty pelt.
 
rcmodel said:
And at first light?
A big buck walked by my blind on the side of a mountain, at no more then 5 yards.

So close I could see nothing but hair through the 6X scope.
rc
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Reminds me of all the times I got busted bow hunting. I'd get bored and start watching the other side of the field 300 yards away through my bino's and a deer would spook right underneath me as I fidgeted with my gear. You never expect them to be that close.
 
Close up deer

I've had does and fawns walk within 8 feet of me while hunting but closest shot so far is about 10 yards. Furthest was about 350 yards. Both dropped where they stood.
 
41magsnub said:
Contact distance with a .357. Never doing that again.
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Contact shots are discouraged. I put a wounded deer down with a shot behind the ear from a P3AT .380. Unfortunately, the pistol was too close at around a centimeter or so from the head thinking it would be alright as I am using an anemic cartridge - and the white shirt I was wearing along with my face and eyes were sprayed with blood and brain matter. I thought about stopping at a gas station to clean myself up, but didn't want to freak out the local patrons thinking I just massacred someone.
 
stressed said:
I thought about stopping at a gas station to clean myself up, but didn't want to freak out the local patrons thinking I just massacred someone.
Click to expand...

:D I would pay money to see that. That could be a scene in a movie.
 
You want to hear about the one I shot or the one I missed? O.K., I'll tell you both.

First, the one I missed. Had a brand spanking new 12ga. rifled bore. Sighted it in at 75 yards and called it good. Never bothered to check it at other distances. First light, opening morning. Deer walked right past me, about 20 feet or less away. Waited until it's head was behind a tree so it couldn't see me move, raised my shotgun, put the front post just behind the shoulder and squeezed. Big boom, deer ran off. No blood. Waited a while, walked in direction deer had gone. Nothing. Clean miss. Probably shot right under it, not having doped for close range.

Now the not so embarrassing one. Hunting on a farm with the owner. He asks how far I'm good to. I say 300. He says "No, really". I say, alright you're on to me. Maybe 400 with a rest and a stationary deer. He now officially thinks I'm an idiot, but has to put somebody on the "long" stand. Point of woods offering cover and open field for several hundred yards in three directions. Guess which direction the deer came from? Not one of those three. Walked in from behind me, passed fifteen yards to my left on its way to the field. I may stink with a shotgun, but i know how to shoot a rifle. .308 bullet smacked into the middle of the lungs, deer reared up like the Colt logo and landed on its back. Did the funky chicken for about two seconds and that was it.
 
I had a doe almost stick her head in my blind. She popped out of the brush around15yds and picked out my blind immediately but continued to walk in front of me never taking her eyes off me. I never had a chance to lift my bow so i just watched her walk by. I done know why but I really wanted to say BOO when she was looking at me in the front window
 
Near contact shot, execution style. It looked like the deer was leaning on the ground blind I was in. I could've taken it with an axe had I wanted to...
 
My first deer of my life opening day in Maine this year was at about 10 yards. I guess I was 'still hunting' quiet enough as he was stalking me more than I was stalking him. He came from behind my right side, I just happened to glance back over my right shoulder. His head was behind a tree that allowed me to get my gun up and into the shooting sticks to stop the shaking. 150gr soft point .308 through one rib, both lungs, another rib and the off shoulder blade before making a quarter to half dollar exit hole. He still ran 120-140yards through the thickest woods with not a drop of blood or track to follow.
 
4 yard with a .30 WCF to the head.

Had been tracking him most of the morning. When I caught up with him he didn't know whether he wanted to fight, f... or run. He took too much time deciding.
 
About 10 ft or so on several stalk hunts regarding whitetail deer.

I smacked a squirrel right out of a tree once, as he came right up to me raising all sorts of racket. :D
 
Not a hunting situation, but I've had to put down a couple of deer that were hit by cars but weren't dead. On two of them, I was lucky enough to have a 22 rifle with me. That was simple and non-messy. Same as putting down cattle, but with a much smaller skull. The only messy one was when I only had a shotgun and bird shot as we were returning from pheasant walking (if any roosters existed, it would be called pheasant hunting. But the don't, so we walked around and reminisced about the old days when they did exist) and it was way before I had a CFP and carried all the time.

We called the police and the dispatcher said that since no one was injured when hitting the deer, it would be about an hour before anyone could get there because of some other things going on keeping the Sheriff's deputies busy. The lady that hit the deer was absolutely losing it watching the deer keep trying to stand up on 3 broken legs and a broken back and probably a broken pelvis. She wanted us to call a deer ambulance to help it. Seriously. (insert bambulance joke here.) She was city-folk (as my grandpa would say), nice enough, but very naive in many ways. I asked a couple of other guys that had stopped if any of them had a rifle or handgun, which none of them did. I ended up pulling out my shotgun, loading one round, and shooting it at the base of the skull from behind. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. The lady that hit it wasn't happy about it.

She was so upset that she got into her car and tried to drive off, but it wasn't going anywhere. It was trying to run, but couldn't go anywhere and looked so sad. So I shot the car to put it out of it's misery. Then she was _really_ upset. :)

I had thought about slitting the deer's throat, but that may have been even more graphic. That's one of the reasons that I started carrying a 22 rifle pretty much everywhere before I got my CFP.

Matt
 
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