Shortest range deer you've taken

T

TXAZ

New member
There are several threads on longest shot, but I'm curious for you guys that hunt quite a bit, what's the closest you've taken a (non-tame) deer?

Edited title to include all harvesting methods
 
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7 feet. I was sitting with my back against a tree on the ground and there was a old unusable road in front of me. Near end of light a deer tripped over my extended legs. When it was trying to figure out what happened I squeezed off a shot.
 
My closest deer kill was when I was a teenager. I shot one at about 9 feet.
My closest kill on an elk as about 12 feet.

My closest kill of all however was an antelope which I shot laying down on my side from behind a rock and my muzzle blast took a bunch of hair off it. Distance was about 12-14 inches. It was 8 years ago, and the rifle was a Ruger #1 in 9.3X74R.
 
Another instance I was sitting in a 6x6 box blind with a big open front window and a deer came around the back of the blind and stuck it's head and whole neck in the blind and stared at me. If I had a doe permit that would have been the closest.
 
I've shot a few directly underneath me while I was sitting in a tree and hunting with a handgun. One of them stopped walking directly underneath me and he must have smelled me. His nostrils started quivering and his eyes got real wide. About that time I touched off my .357mag and it was game over. It was probably five or six feet. Some were a couple of feet further but not much. My stands are only about ten feet up and the other ones were either under the stand or right next to it.
 
Closest for me was a white tail buck about a decade ago. I was walking back from my spot when I noticed him moving inside the tree line about 10 yards away. I considered not shooting him, because of the distance and I was carrying my 300 win mag with 150 grain soft points. I decided to chance ruining some meat and neatly tucked the bullet between two ribs. The bullet missed the rib bones and penetrated through the heart. The bullet exited the brisket between the shoulders. I ended up with no blood shot meat... Just lucky I guess
 
Under my stand with a Flint lock. It was kind if dark, so I had to remove the insert from the peep sight. I was worried the primer would not stay in the pan as the rifle was pointed straight down.
So 5 feet? maybe less.
David
 
About 10 yards. I've had them closer, but were either does and not legal at the time or I was unable to get off the shot.
 
I killed one from a tree stand in NY at like 20-25 yards. Think that’s my closest deer. Killed coyotes and fox and bobcats closer
 
I took one with a bow from about 10'.
An older fawn (without spots) kept playing around my makeshift blind for about the last three time I sat in this place. It must have liked the smell coming from my Thermacell. But it all of a sudden jumped up & ran into the woods. I didn't think much of it but then the fawn comes walking out with a good sized doe following it. It came up to smell the Thermacell & I let it fly. Good eating!
 
Please excuse my dumb question, but if the shot is more than a few feet, do you use the scope (with a rifle) assuming you don't have open sights that you can co-witness? How do you compensate for the parallax error? Do you just point shoot at that distance since the scope probably wouldn't even be in focus at that distance? Thanks for entertaining a non-hunter.
 
You just use the scope the same as always. If you're using it right, with both eyes open, it isn't hard to see the crosshair with the eye looking through the scope and the target with the other eye. The target will be out of focus through the scope, but not with the other eye, and the only thing you're seeing through the scope is the crosshair which will be in focus.

It is easier with scopes on the lower magnifications such as 1-3X, but not impossible even with more magnification.
 
just a few yards from my tree stand. I'd JUST gotten in and stopped shuffling around in the dark. I mean climbed the ladder and sat down. Looked up and there were 2 deer looking up at me mere feet away silhouetted in the dark. Shot the largest one and it dropped like a sack of sand. The wad from my shotgun shell was laying in front of it.

Funny part was I walked 1/4 mile to get my BIL to show him how to gut a deer. When we turned the corner of the woods the other doe had returned and was sniffing its fallen comrade. Told my BIL to take it and he'd forgotten to chamber a round. By the time he figured out how on his borrowed shotgun the doe had fled.

Edir - like carjunkie I've finished one off standing directly over it
 
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Does finishing off a wounded deer count? If it does then my closest kill on a deer would be about 10 inches. I held onto the back leg pulling the wounded deer out from under a downed tree. Stretched out my arm and fired a single round into the chest to end it.

If that doesn't count then the closest shot I've ever killed a deer was 17 yards with a 6.8SPC.
 
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