Shortest range deer you've taken

Six feet, twice. First one I literally stepped that I guess thought he was well hidden. he was until I stepped on him. Stuck the rifle out like a handgun With the muzzle almost touching him. You cannot believe the destruction. The other one was while I was on a stand and my hunting partner spooked the deer which came running past me I guess the muzzle was about two feet from the deer when I shot. A nasty entrance hole and a nastier one coming out.
Paul B.
 
Fork horn county Forrest buck running right at me in the rain. He had to dodge to not run right over me. He dodged and I shot him at 3 feet, FROM THE HIP !!!. I was glad for the buck and getting out of the rain LOL.
 
During a hunt in Maryland, I was posted within my tree stand when a dandy buck walked directly under my position. I shot straight down with my crossbow. The bolt struck through the back and exited near the diaphram cutting major arteries. This buck wobbled away but collapsed within 25 feet of the shot. This was my closest kill for a big game animal.

Jack
 
Many years ago we flew our Super Cubs into a field about 1/2 between the river and the top of the Snake River canyon. It was the day before hunting season opened. There were a lot of deer standing around because they were driven there by hunters in boats on the river and trucks on the rim.

At sunset, we walked out in the field with a bucket of white paint and painted a BIG "X" on the largest buck. In the morning, we sipped a cup of coffee........shot the marked buck......loaded him into the PA-18 and were home before noon!!
 
One year was a driver. We were driving up a hog back to the main ridge. I had to go down into a little run and back up bank on other side , about 8’ deep. I had ahold of a sapling with one hand to help me up. Just as I got to top 3 deer were coming right at me. I fired as they were literally over my head. 12g slug took it right under chin. Deer knocked me back into run and it’s legs were whirling like a chicken with its head cut of. I judge range was about 16” when I fired. I had deer brains all over my face and glasses. It blew top of head clear off and popped its eyes out.
 
I went deer hunting in some thick woods. I knew the deer would be close, so I used some apple cover scent. I made the mistake of putting it on my camo jacket.

A doe and fawn came by. The fawn went looking for the tasty apple it could smell. It ended up so close to me that I could have killed it with my knife as it sniffed my jacket. Then it finally figured out that something was amiss, so it backed off a foot and started stomping and snorting. I figured I wasn't likely to see a buck with him raising the alarm so I stood up. He almost turned himself inside out trying to turn around and run.
 
I've killed two bucks that were standing within a foot of my ladder stands, the first one was with a crossbow at 15' minus the height of the deer the second was with a compound at 12' minus the deer height. Neither one ever seen me and died in seconds under 100yds.
You know your excited when you can hear your own heartbeat and it seems so loud your afraid it may give you away.
 
My closest was about 8-9 yards w/ the FOURTH arrow. Fourth stuck him in the big vein going down the hind leg. All shots were at the rear end of the critter.
 
About 15 yards in the hardwoods. I was just standing there in the hardwoods and a 100 lb doe came running by, about 10 yards away. I was kind-of surprised, but got a shot off with my .30-06 Rem 700 BDL, nailing it in the lungs as it went by.
 
Several decades ago my hunting buddy and I were hunting blacktail deer on Kodiak Island, I had my .300 Savage Contender handgun. After still hunting all morning, we stopped for lunch under a spruce tree. My buddy asked why don’t I try calling in a buck? So I bleated a couple times on a rabbit call and we waited about ten minutes. Nothing came in, so we started eating. I was half way through a sandwich when a small forkhorn walked up on us from around the tree - about ten feet away when we saw him. At first he didn’t know what we were, but when I grabbed the Contender he started to walk off. The scope was full of nothing but hair, and I broke his neck at under ten yards. We couldn’t believe it happened!




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Does hitting one with my truck count? Lol ............
Under the updated rules, yes it does.
LMAO.
If that's the case, 3 at 6 1/2 feet (distance from the grill to the steering wheel on my 96 F150) and one at about 12 inches - dumb doe rand into the quarter panel and drivers door and drivers side sliding door on a the family mini-van as I was cruising along at 65 ......
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I've never taken one at close range but I once took a nooby on his first hunt. He shot the deer at such close range, I think it had powder burns. He said it was about 25 feet but it could have been a little closer.

I told him the deer was depressed and suicidal and wanted to be shot...

Tony
 
I'm passing this on as second hand story..

Buddy of mine bow hunts elk in CO. Several years ago he was calling in a bull that was closing on him, so he was getting ready for his shot. He heard something behind him and turned around to find another bull just a few feet away.

I gather both elk and hunter left in different directions :)
 
This is kind of a fun one...

I "grew up" hunting deer with smooth-bore 12ga shooting foster slugs. Maximum range in most cases is well under 100 yards.

I have killed many more deer at short bow range (under 10 yards) than I have over 30.

A couple that really stand out...

I was young, probably 17 or 18, sitting on a stump on some state land near my uncle's house. I had no sooner sat down than I heard the unmistakable sound of multiple deer bounding through the woods. I turned to look and here come two... well, fawns really... literally right at me.
I swung my gun toward them and one turned away, the other made two more bounds and when it landed the second time I pulled the trigger. I'm not really sure where it went immediately, but it ended up dead about 20 yards off to my right.
It was so close there was deer hair floating in the air around me. When I stood up, I didn't even have to take a step to reach the rustled up spot it had landed when I shot. I'm not sure how it didn't hit the end of the barrel.

Second,
Bow hunting the edge of a field, there was only one good place to put a blind in the area I wanted to cover and no trees large enough for a stand. The blind ended up at the *very* edge of the brush, tucked under a scrub apple tree. I was rather expecting the deer, which I had watched many times previous, to come across the field from the North (I was on the South edge) and perhaps mingle close enough for a shot.
For the first time in all the times I had hunted there, a small buck came from the West, right along the brush.... and I mean practically rubbing along it. I didn't even see or hear him until he was literally in front of me. Honest to God, my first thought was whether or not the arrow would clear the rest before it hit him. It couldn't have been 3 feet.

There are many more short range type stories, but those two were memorable.
 
I've had two deer, years apart, sneak in behind me while i was standing behind the same tree, watching a hay field ..... heard a twig snap and turned my head to see a buck nosing along behind me ...... had to wait both times for the deer to go behind another tree to turn around and hammered them when their chest cleared the tree ..... range about 20 paces.
 
About ten feet, early on opening morning. Nice one just walked by. Heard him long before shooting. Let him just get by and raised the rifle. Hit in the spine, had to do a coup de grace.
 
Every time I see this post come up, I think about the deer I've killed through the years, close and far, but the one I think of most regarding the question here, is this one.

It happened over 15 years ago, and the deer I got that day was a very nice 4x4 mulie that I happened to walk up on, as I was wanting to glass an area from this little precipice I'd usually go to, to glass this certain area. I didn't even really sneak, nor tried to be particularly quiet as I came to the edge of the point to use my binos. As I reached my spot to glass, right below me, barely 10' away, bedded down, looking away from me, chewing its cud, was this nice mulie buck. I can still see his head bobbing a bit as he chewed contentedly. I had my 6mm Rem. that day, and it was slung over my shoulder when I chanced on the deer, so I slowly brought the rifle up to shoot, flicked off the safe, put the scope at the base of the skull (pretty much filled the scope view), and quickly squeezed off the shot. That deer didn't have a clue as to what happened, and was dead before his head hit the ground. Never moved from his bed. Maybe was the best/quickest kill I ever made on a critter. So, tagged and field dressed the buck, and went to town. The time of that hunt, from the time I left my vehicle was about 20 minutes, tops. I actually got to drive within less than 50 yds. from the kill site, besides.

I was working at our local meat plant that year skinning wild game for my friend who ran the place, and since it was a nice deer, I brought it in to show it off a bit. My boss buddy told me to leave it there, and he'd have it processed, so I did (I was skinning that night, so we'd visit on particulars about the deal). He also told me he wanted to send off the hide with some others he already had there to have tanned. It was a beautiful, nice big hide (with no holes...), and it came back really, really nice. Still have it, and used it a few weeks ago as part of our primitive camp at a rendezvous my wife went up to in MT.

As a close to the story here, my friend who owned the meat plant never charged me a dime to process that deer, and when the hide came back from the tanner, he gifted that to me, too. That deer season was a real treasured one for sure. And those who've seen the hide, remark as to what a nice one it is, and always look for a hole, which isn't there...so I tell them this story... Ha!
 
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