What is the closest shot you've ever taken on a big game animal? Who closed the distance, you or the animal?

H. C.

My closest shot at a big game animal, was a cow elk at about ten feet. I was on one side of a heavily timbered knife ridge when a small herd of elk crossed over to my side. They were on me so fast that we were all startled. I was barely able to get off the shot.

My closest shot(You didn't say harvest did you ) was 1 row of corn away. I was in 1 row there was a row between us and the Doe was laying down in the 3rd row. I was still hunting in the standing corn(Great Fun !) when I spotted her. (Bowhunting, no range finder and very difficult to get distance point of reference) I still hunted to where I thought I could probobly take a shot, but no knocked down corn stalks to allow me to be at full draw and lean into her row. So I still hunted closer and closer, using my binocs to pick out the hair on her back. (Note: you read about guys using binocs to pick out an elephant at 10 yards, here I was doing it on a deer at 4 feet! 10x binocs overkill you ask ... brown is brown and nothing moving it all looks the same, and they work) Anyway I found her, an took the shot.... missed just over the top of her shoulder. She bolted upwind ... cme back to see what spooked her and when I saw her she was moving across the rows so I came to full draw down the row I was in and then she blew 2 feet to my right Again..... She came into the row I saw her and instead of continuing across the rows came up the row next to me. I could have joined King Baboon's spearing club as I could have patted her on the nose she was that close.
Oh well ... it was fun and a great experience !
My lessions learned, 1) Turn the bow horizontal and shoot through the body. 2) Knee down when the deer is moving cross rows in order to look through the base of the stalks incase they turn like mine did and travel towards you in the row next to you.

For those of you who bow hunt and have corn in your area, Don't hesitate to still hunt in the corn during the day. Wait for a light steady breeze, take binocs and start at the downwind edge and work across the rows\wind looking before you step into a row. When you get the the opposite edge move up 25 or so yards and do it back to your starting edge and continue.

Lots of fun and you never know what might be sleeping between the rows

Greg

Last fall I shot a 45" bull moose at 19 yards with a .300 Win mag. It would have come closer but I was worried about it getting too close for the 4X scope.

In 2000 I shot a moose at 25 yds only this one was trying to put distance between us.

They are big animals at those ranges.

A wounded Mule Deer at 20 feet. I closed the distance, and hip shot him. No, I didn't wound him, or keep him. E

A free roaming Bison in the Yukon Territories at about 40 feet. We spotted him on top of a mountain and hiked the back side of the ridge until we were just above him. I crawled over the ridge and as I stood up, so did he. Two shots into the boiler room and a third into the spine.

JohnTheGreek

I've shot many pigs at near point blank, partly by way of the type of hunting I enjoy in Australia; you find them bailed up in the midday heat under large lignum bushes in open country, so as you circle the bush, the pig will jet out from point blank range. I once arrowed a small boar from about 3 meters by just stnying still and letting him come to me. Another sleeping boar I took with the barrel of my .375H&H nearly touching him, as I crept up closer and closer trying to see if he had any tusks. When I saw teeth sticking out of his jaw I had the rifle outstretched in my arms about 50cm from his hindquarter. He never even twitched.
I have taken a few deer around the 5 meter mark, usually just by chance. I have also missed a big boar that came bursting out from some bushes not 1 meter from me, 5 shots from an autoloader and he was still safe...

I was guiding a bowhunter on a ranch here in Texas...we had spotted two nice Mulie bucks eating on the very edge of a sorghum field. It was irrigated so the sorghum was very tall and very thick. No way to walk through it.

Cotton on one side, sorghum on the other. We are running down one side of the field to see if we can shoot around the 'corner' of this sorghum. I am watching the ground for rattlesnakes when I damn near ran into a Mulie feeding with his head burried deep in the sorghum with his butt out in the cotton!

The wind was blowing the sorghum around and making quite a bit of noise so the deer didn't hear us. I could have stuck him with an arrow in my hand! But, the sorghum was so thick I could not see antlers. So, we just squatted there in the cotton until he pulled his head out. Sure 'nuff...it was a buck and no, he didn't stay around long to see what this thing was laying down by his feet. He took a few bounds into the cotton and stopped, maybe only 20 yards away now. The client drew and shot over me. (I told him to) The arrow flew at his chest only to be diverted by a single cotton bowl between us and him.

We measured the initial distance at 8 feet! I could have taken two steps and been on his back.

About ten feet. I was mule deer hunting in the Lincoln National Forest of New Mexico when I was about seventeen.

I was creeping through the trees when I heard rifle fire a few hundred yards ahead of me. I stepped behind a large pine to wait and see what happened, as well as to be sure I didn't get hit.

I started hearing a deer running towards me, then picked up flashes of him and his rack coming right at my position. I got set, hoping he'd come close. Suddenly he veered right at me. I stepped out and fired right into his chest. His front end collapsed and he flipped at my feet.

The next part I remember very vividly. I jacked the hull out, and caught it in the air, like normal, just as the buck scrambled to its feet. Bolt open, hull in hand, I dove back behind a tree, as I thought it was coming for me. It ran down the side of the mountain.

I couldn't believe it. I checked the ground, found bits of bone and blood, and started trailing him down the mountain. He looped back up the mountainside shortly, which I didn't expect of a wounded deer. About then a rifle went off and I stepped behind a tree and waited. Nothing more, so I moved uphill and out into a clearing.

A man and his son were standing by "my" deer. He made it very plain that it was now "his" deer.

Nothing like hunting on public land to keep your blood pumping.

In wet snow, I shot a buck, rising from his bed at 4 to 5 feet from the muzzle. Neither of us knew the other was there, although I was on his trail. Shot a cape buffalo bull @ <10 yards and his wife at 6 feet from the muzzle. Could have shot a spike elk that decided to take a nap not 15 feet to my left while posted above a hot game trail. Could have shot numerous bedded moose at 5 yards or less in Wyoming. I seemed to have a real knack for bumping into them while muledeer hunting.

Whitetail Deer, 9 feet, 12ga slug, running (deer, not me).

bull elephant at 12 yards. charging jack rabbit at 10 feet.

Grey Fox - Distance 2 feet. Weapon 45 ACP. Fox answered my varmint call and came close enough to shake hands. I didn't even aim, just put the muzzle almost against his body and squeezed trigger. WILD NIGHT! It was a hell of a surprise to Mr. Fox.

I came around a bend in the trail on a blackpowder elk hunt and nearly bumped into a big cow elk. Had an either sex tag, so she was just what I was looking for. I hit her in the shoulder with a 425 gr slug out of a .54 caliber rifle. I took less than 4 steps to the first blood and when I dressed her out she had a bunch of hair singed from the burning powder. Distance of maybe 4 ft. Almost thought about just taker her hostage.

Mac

Henry,
Back in the early 60s I went on a guided antelope and deer hunt in Wyoming. I was living in Texas at the time. The antelope hunt took place north of Casper. My first day was the last day of a hunter from Illinois. The guides called it a day about 2:30 pm, but I asked if I could stay out and hunt, and was given the ok. The Illinois hunter asked me if I'd mind taking him along since he'd been unsuccessful so we made it a duo. I can't remember his name, but I do remember that he was shooting a '06 with a 10x scope on it. We got him on a nice buck at about thirty yards. All he could see was hair. I told him to find the point where there was a tan to white color change, hold on the left end of it and shoot. It worked, and he had taken a 15 1/2" buck. Then we went after mine. we found a herd feeding next to a old, ready to blow down, shack. Not more than 30 yards from the shack was a eroded ditch. We walked down the ditch to a bush that we'd used as an exit point from the ditch and on hands and knees crawled to the shack. I went to the corner and had my rifle ready. I waited for the buck to be clear and shot as soon as he was. The range was later measured at 16 feet. At the shot, the other man started laughing his fool head off. It took me a couple of minutes to find out what he was laughing at. It seems that while I was intent on the buck, a doe had spotted me and was curious. She'd walked up behind me on my right to see just what I was. At the time I fired her nose was just about in my ear. At the shot, she snorted and went about ten feet into the air. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that she had blown snot all over the right side of my face. I guess she was getting even for the buck.

3 feet of unburied spear shaft separated me from a Russian boar when he charged right onto my spear. That was a spear shot. I sprained a knee dancing around with that pig, and at one point was within less than one foot of his hide while he was still on his feet with my spear in him

Now how about those that hogtie the pigs? That is a zero distance rope shot. Yee ha!

Oh, yeah, this was not a kill shot, but a warning shot at a range of inches. Once I had an eight foot Kodiak brown bear adolescent boar sniffing my tent within less than one foot of my face. The tent wall pressed in, to within inches of my face as I reached for my 340 Weatherby. I raised the gun and fired a shot through the tent flap and he hightailed it. Then I popped out of the tent in my polypropylene longjohns with a flash light and rifle. He stopped to look back before disappearing into THE TALL GRASS .. one moonless frosty night on the bank of Spiridon Lake near Spiridon Bay. After that my tentmate and I took turns sleeping and feeding a fire, four hour watches. My first Alaskan hunting adventure, after Sitka blacktails ... the bear was after deer too, in our meat cache nearby. Stupid bear! He might not have gotten to become a 12 footer!

8 point whitetail at 6 yards with the 300 RUM and 180 balistic tips at 3435 fps.what a mess.

Closest rifle shot was on an antelope with a 30-06 and 125gr. Nos. BT. = 42yds.
He was chasing his group of does around and never knew we were there. After 20-25mins. he worked his way to us. All I did was stand up from behind the sage and shoot. He didn't take a step, just fell over dead!
Closest with a bow was a 4X5 Bull elk with a 125gr. Thunderhead = 15yds. I was still hunting in the aspen trees and smelled the very distinct odor of elk. As I walked
through, I heard some footsteps off to my right and it totally startled me when a bull
was staring at me from 15yds. I drew and instinctivly released the arrow at the same time. He went 75yds and the rest is history as they say.
Elk country

LV Eric,

Did you ever figure out why the rabbit was chasing the elephant?

i've shot several deer at 15-20 feet, both sneaking on them, and them sneaking on me, but the closest was a woodchuck I shot once. I was having trouble keeping them out of my garden, and one day in frustration took my remington 22 and fired three fast shots down a chuck's hole. Well quick as a wink 'ol chuck came out to have a look see... guess what he saw...

1979,Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 mag, 250gr. flatnose copper jacket, 21gr. Hercules 2400.

+/- 50" I moved out of my hunting area for lunch and a smoke, fell asleep, a stick breaking woke me up, the buck was standing on the other side of my oak backrest. I shot him left handed, didn't even try to look thru the scope, just sighted down the top. The shot splattered blood all over me. He just rolled over kicking, didn't run at all.

While bowhunting had a nice buck at 5 yds that I missed, who the hell is thinking about your anchor when he's that close. Also had a bull moose a little closer but when it looked like his eyeball turned in its socket to see me all the strength just left my body. Thats what hunting from ground blinds will do to you. Treestands are nice but not as exciting as being face to face.

Three feet on a running doe.With a Ruger Black Hawk in 45 Colt.I say three feet because her left rear leg hit me in the shin when she fell.

I've shot several deer and one elk at less than 10 yards. The closest was a pissed off badger between my legs in self defense.

Probably 3-4 feet at wild pigs in cane grass or lignum.

Closest was my very first deer. We were "big bunny hunting" (driving/blocking) when the group jumped several does, one of which ran up the hill right at me. I just swung like I was shooting a shotgun at a teal and it dropped 20 paces away.

Longest was total luck. We were hunting in a region where the landowner didn't like the deer. I think his words were "shoot one 'til you get one you like." Anyway, it was very mild conditions so we weren't seeing much so when the opportunity to shoot at a doe across a wheat field came upon us we decided to give it a try. My buddy took a shot at one of the three and missed. After that they were running. I dropped one with my first shot while it was running full speed. 480 paces so I figure 450 yards.

I may have to gear up with a bow and try that hunting in the corn. Up in North Dakota I had a good friend who helped out on a farm. He used to talk about all of the deer that came spilling out of the field upon harvest. They'd work toward the center in a decreasing circle with the combine and when they got down to the very last little bit of standing corn the deer would finally spill out in great numbers. He used to say I should get a bow and just ride along on the combine. I probably should have...

Reed

A friend of mine, not a smart hunter, shot a boar
10 meters downhill, and missed it, hitting the ground just few centimeters in front of its snout. The boar jumped and went passing 50 centimeters from his legs. He killed it shooting istinctively, almost touching it with the muzzle. It was a nice boar of 70/80 Kgs.