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

I accidentally, wait, purposely snuck up on a mule deer during archery season after a nice rain when the ground was wet without being muddy. I happened to walk up 5 yards behind him without him ever noticing.

A few years ago A couple of us went to help someone look for a deer they shot. Driving out we jumped a herd and one of them wrapped its leg up in a fence running in front of the truck. I had already killed 2 that trip and got the bright idea that I would throw it back over the.fence and let it go. It was a small young deer and I am a large strong man. I grabbed both front legs and the little deer started kicking and jerking. I let go realizing I wasn't going to toss it over without getting hurt. The deer was alot stronger than me. I pulled out my pocket knife and cut it's throat. Lesson here is never grab a leg on a live deer.

My first deer was a young buck at 5 yards. 20 gauge 870 with buck shot in the neck. Since, I have touched a few I didn't want to shoot, with my gun muzzle. I find it easy to get close on windy days.

Dunno, never ranged them that close. I grew up pushing tree-rows, CRP, cattails, and on occasion with landowner permission standing corn @ sunflowers. Shot lots of deer well under 25yds. I'm sure a lot of people have shot a lot more deer a lot closer than I have.

I know I've never singed one w/powder like the ML cow elk mentioned earlier.

Real interesting thread going here. I got another tale about my team leader at work, back in the early 1990's. He was driving a tractor through a one lane pathway in his woods, hauling a small trailer full of firewood, when he spotted the top of a big rack on a bedded buck sticking up out of a brushy area not too far off to the side of the road. He just kept driving like he hadn't seen anything, and got home, fetched his slug gun and stalked back into the woods with the breeze in his favor. Said he couldn't get a clear shot from that direction until he still hunted close in, and he was able to shoot through the brush at less than 10 yards. I forgot where he said he hit it but it never got up. I recall seeing a picture and it was either a big 8 or 10 point rack that was also real high, which is probably how he managed to spot it while going by.

You just gotta talk sweet to them and give words of encouragement. They'll let you get them out.

Had not thought about it, but it just occurred to me....





A while back. I was sitting in a 4' x 4' box blind. It was early of a morning just a few minutes after first shooting light. We hunt over spin-cast feeders. At this location at that time I had a spin-cast feeder set up about 160 yds distance across a stream-bed and beyond some Cedars. Had a sight picture through an opening in the scrum.
Elevation/ eye height was +/- 15'.

For some reason I looked down and this buck was less than 10 yd. away, nibbling on forbes. I nailed him with this 35 Whelen.

Ya!

GWB

Not sure of the distance when I shot, but the buck brushed the toe of my boot when it came around from behind the rock I was sitting on.

I'd guess about 5 yards as it was foraging in eroded dry wash. I was close enough that I could hear his teeth grinding as he was foraging.

15 feet straight down.

5 yards on a whitetail feeding in food plot.

20 feet straight down with a bow and arrow.

20 yards, which here out west is close

I've had a few that have stuck their nose in through the curtains at Midway. In one case, back in 2017, a doe came up and stuck her head in, and then wandered out into the field. The buck that was trailing behind, followed directly. I could have touched him. By the time I got the gun up, he was 30 yards out. She was the second of two doe that learned to bring pesky bucks by my stands.

There were two at the Heartbreak Ridge stand that walked to within 5 yards of the stand and then ran at the stand when shot. Folks opined that I needed to train them to run to the back of the truck.

Howevever, the top entry in the log is 3 yards. I was sitting on a stump and took out this new-fangled deer call somebody had sent me and blew it. A herd of deer broke from the cedars just up the hill from me and came crashing down. There was a hoof print between mine at the stump when it was all over. I tried a shot at a 4-point buck downhill and about 20 yards out, but just as I loosed the round, I saw a patch of fur fill the scope. It was a doe. I'll guess she was 9 feet in front of the muzzle. It's odd, but I distinctly remember looking up and seeing the 180 grain bullet from my 30-06 pop out of her neck, having travelled the length of her body. She collapsed right there. The buck and the rest of the herd skedaddled.

during a winter snow storm very windy late December in a thick swamp , next too a unpicked corn field with a 8 inch knife i killed the deer . when i got home my uncle chewed me out i was 30 years old then said i could have got hurt, he was probably right now that i thing about that ?

Years ago, on our farm, I had a tree stand maybe 10 ft. up, right in a fence row. This particular morning I was using my Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle. A raghorn buck, I want to remember a 7 point acorn rack, was ambling along the fence row and walked right under my tree stand. With the long barreled flintlock and the height of the deer I calculate he was about 6 feet away. Shot him straight down between the shoulders. He dropped straight down and never moved.