What's the CLOSEST you've ever shot a deer?

10 paces, two different times.....

Once, I was on the ground watching over a bean field with a 600 x 800 field of fire...... scope set on 9x, rifle on sticks in front of me and heard a noise in the trees behind me. I turned to see a 4x4 whitetail coming up a trail...... I had to wait until he paused behind a tree to get turned around and get the gun up. All I could see was hair at first...... found his front leg and went up before touching the trigger........ I found that when a .277 Winchester Silvertip hits a rib at 3100 f/sec it comes apart pretty violently....... the deer went 100 yards before collapsing in a creek........ wound was wide enough to put my fist in, but only 3" deep...... I stopped using Silvertips after that.....

The second one was when I was trying to push deer down the same creek to my nephew..... a button buck got a little confused and did not understand the program...... he tried running back my way...... right by me...... I led him a bit far as he leaped fallen tree. The 150 gr Sierra hit him just behind the eye and he spun around 270 degrees and slammed into a tree sideways.....
 
About 5 yards with a .30-30 and hollowpoints. First day of season, 8" spikes, I had been in the woods 10 minutes at most. Ruined my hunt but put venison in the freezer.
 
My guess would be about 6 feet. I was 12 years old, and huning with a NEF 12ga singlebarrel gun. I spooked the doe behind a gallberry bush in the swamp and I manged to raise my gun at the same time she stood and I put the load directly into her chest. She was facing me and in less than a second fell back into her tracks.

I've never made such a close shot since! Funny thing, that was also my first ever deer as well.
 
deer

I'll tell you the closest I've ever missed a deer. Tree stand, already evening and quite dark. Huge buck comes out, essentially under the tree. May be 15-25 feet away. I could see him clearly in the scope. The 30-06 went off practically in his ear. So startled he fell down. In a heart beat he was up and gone! No blood, no hair, searched for hours. All I could ever figure was that, even though I could see him clearly in the scope. The cross hairs must have been off his chest. No way to miss - but I did. I really don't know how.
 
last year about mid november id say i was hunting in the cascades out of and i shot a 8point buck at 10yds on a dead run straight towords me. i shot him on top of a ridge infront of me through both lungs and he decided to come down the hill right for me i threw up my 270 and fired broke his back at 10yds and he droped right at my feet. that was the easiest deer id ever had to track:)

this was my first deer i might add, i was alone as my dad stood about 500yds away watching the whole thing threw the spotting scope
 
what a thrill for your dad to see - Bowtekhunter
my closest shot was also 10 yards came up a slight rise walking out of thick pines and bumped into a buck walking in. Hello! sometimes it does come down to luck.
I still remember finding him in the scope even tho I had those raised open sight mounts on my gun. That deer made me take them off. get your head down on the stock in a consistent fashion and don't have your magnification set too high when you're walking.
 
The closest I aver shot a deer was at... well pretty much close to point blank range. Of course that was just to finish it off to end its suffering. I dropped it with my 1st shot but it was immobilized on the gound but not dead. It was horribly scared and probably in a lot of pain when I approached but it could not get up (not for lack of trying). I popped one right in the brain. I actually felt sorry for the deer as I approached it. It did not have to suffer long though.
 
Pretty darn close

Did not shoot the deer but one summer we started putting corn down in the wood along a running trail on our property. My wife would go down and 3 or 4 deer would watch her from maybe 50 feet. They got so tame that when she walked down and rattled the plastic bag they would come running. Close as they would come was maybe 5 /6 feet. We tried to get em closer but they would just stamp their feet. One was a little braver than the others. She had a fawn into the spring and it got pretty tame too. Don't guess we done em any favors because they would be easy pickens for hunters
 
In the 70's I was an Army recruiter in my home state of Maine. Light snow, and a 3 day stalk. This was a smart and wily buck right up until the moment of truth. One shot at 6 or 7 yds. He stepped out from the brush and behind a large tree. Bang, one shot from a Frank Pachmyr tuned Colt Govt model Mk IV series 70 with a hot load 200gr H&G 68 swc with 308 trimmed brass.Two jumps, and it died in it's tracks. Very large and heavy. I was more surprised than he was.
 
I shot a button at around 15yds. It was quartering toward me as it came up the hill in front of me. I hit it just behind the left shoulder, it ran maybe 50 yds and dropped. When we skinned it, we found the slug between the hide and the meat at the right rear hip...the slug still had the wadding attached to it.
 
not sure if this counts...

I was driving home from work one night and hit a 6 pointer with my chevy. I stopped to check on it and the truck was a little dinged up but ok and the deer was laying in the ditch twitching and unable to walk/move/etc. I shot it with my 1911 from about 3 feet away. I felt bad for it so I had to put it out of its misery.
 
Needless to say, the boys never let me forget having lost one of the greatest bucks we've ever seen on the North Shores of Superior. I still have no words to this day how it was conceivably possible for me to miss from that range.
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I did a similar one once. Late season drive, doe season open. The huntmaster had declared that if you had killed a deer not to shoot does to give the ones who hadn't a better chance. I hadn't killed a deer that year, but the fellow beside me on the next stand had. GREAT!

Sure enough the dogs jumped and headed toward John. He stepped back into the path and singled me "Coming to you." I gave him the "OK" sign and got ready.

Sure enough a big doe broke the woods about 10-12 yards from me. The Remington 1100 came up, the bead found the shoulder and I fired. The deer shifted gears and kept running.

I stood there with my mouth open. Never thought about the other two shells in the gun. I MISSED?!?!?! How in the world.

John called to me.."Didgagether?" *&%$#*#&^ NO! I said. WHAT? YOU MISSED?

I walked over to where the deer was when I shot. There in the side of a little hickory tree, just as pretty as you could have placed them was a pattern of 000 buckshot that you could have covered with a coffee cup. Every pellet accounted for.

They cut my shirttail twice for that one I think. :o:o
 
I have shot 2 that were within 10 yards (from the ground). The first ran by me on a drive. The second was also pushed. Two doe walking up the hill right towards me. The trail they were on crossed under my feet. They were walking and looking back toward the pushers thinking they were a safe distance away. I couldn't wait for her to turn broadside, too close. She was about 15 feet away, hit her with a slug out of a 12 gauge square in the chest.
 
7 yards , I could smell him , he was on the other side of a tree I was next to . I never got the old .358 to my shoulder . Things happened real quick.;)
 
Closest, on the ground, would have been 15 yards with a scoped Ruger SuperRedhawk in .44 mag. I was about 40 yards into the woods on a long, sloping hillside at the edge of a large field. Buck came running across the field and into the woods. Came to a walk when he hit the treeline, and walked right up on me. When he got 40 yards in, about 15 yards up hill from me he stopped dead in his tracks and looked farther up the hill (i.e., looking away from me). Put the 240 grain pill right through his right shoulder and he dropped on the spot.
 
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