Deer. How Close Have you Been?

I have been inside of 5 feet [Doe Deer], and within 10 feet [Young Bull Moose]
The doe was not legal, the Moose was.
He also was delicious, lol
Eagleye.
 
I have taken four deer at less than 5 yards, three with muzzleloader and one with centerfire rifle, all were while I was stalking or still hunting, but only 2 of them were that close due to my "skill", the other 2 almost ran into me while moving away from something else.
 
Almost stepped on this little one.......

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Three years ago the dogs were on a chase and leading three does (as I found out later) right to me. One of the does broke form the pack with a hound on her heals (3 feet behind her). She ran right at me and right beside me within 3 inches, I could have jumped on her. I instead elected to fire a shot as she passed me (as I was stunned that she was running right at me, would have made more sense to fire at her as she was coming to me f:P:2:) and proceeded to shoot clean over her back from point blank range.

The boys were not happy with me that day.
 
During moose season last year i twice walked up to less then 10 feet from a doe. I suspect it was the same deer both times. Once im pretty sure I could have touched her with the barrel of the gun had I stretched out with it.

Whist deer hunting, ive been probably 10m away.
 
Out of only two deer sightings in my short hunting career, the closest was ~10 feet. Unfortunately, I didn't have the rifle pointed anywhere near it and it saw me every time I moved.

I was almost on target when it walked behind some thicker bush.

I was 20 feet away from the first deer I've seen while hunting. I spooked it from it's bed while crashing through a mess of dogwood. I could make out the flag and hear the scream as it ran away, but I could barely move through the dogwood, let alone get the gun on it.

Third year's the charm?
 
have been as close as 10ft. One year out with the bow, I had two young deer doe and a nub buck come running to me as I was calling and kinda crawling towards them.. It almost look like they wanted to play with me. They stopped about 8 to 10 feet and just looked at me, then the momma doe come over to see what was going on.. All this in open green field in late December. My son has had a couple bucks get within 15 to 20 feet of him while he was sitting.
 
Just this morning my 4 1/2 year old and I snuck within 4 - 5 yards of a blacktail doe he was talking/kicking rocks and anything else the little bugger could think of to do...
 
I've had them sniff and paw at my camo tent/blind on several occasions, and have shot them as little as 8 or 10 feet away.
 
Today I just about shot a doe at 10 yards but I hesitated because I saw it was with other deer. I couldn't tell if they were fawns or just deer friends, so I decided to stalk a bit until I could make sure.

Of course I lost them, then got lost in the dark. The sound of water falling from the trees made it very hard to listen for them, you'd basically hear a big dump 'over there' and think it was a stick breaking. I found a trail that got me back on the logging road and about 2km from the truck. I only had to wander in the woods at night for about 45 minutes, but I just hate that 'lost' feeling when you get turned around.

The absolute worst is walking in the rain, at night, lost, with the finger on the trigger because you keep seeing silhouttes that look like cougars :(

Not like you can even hit anything without being able to see your irons anyway, but oh well. I guess I won't go alone or I'll bring my GPS next time lol
 
Does kicking up a buck at youre feet count?.

Ive shot at deer that were close with the bow and gun.. but the closest you get are with the ones that wait till the last second before being stepped on, hoping you walk by them.

They taste the best.:D
 
Shot this blacktail buck last Wednesday he was appr 35 yards away if you know anything about getting close to a good blacktail buck out of the rut in the thick bush they inhabit 35 yards is close...

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had a fawn go between my legs and his twin hit me in the hip a couple years ago while I was checking my trail cam in long grass in a swamp. They could smell me but didnt know where I was, they took the trail, of course I was standing right in the middle.


shot my first two bucks a day apart in the exact same spot. I was sitting about 5 yards from an apple trees, the buck would come to the apple tree to make a scrape, I shot both of them with my shotgun at about 5 yards while they were broadside looking the other way. Both dropped like a sack of potatoes.
 
When these stories of "how close have you shot a deer before" come up my uncle always tells the story of how he put a stalk on a buck that was drinking from a lake. Said he snuck up behind the buck and booted him square in the balls while he was drinking, causing him to choke and fall over and pass out for just long enough for him to pull out his knife and slit the throat.


Its pretty funny the way he tells it, almost makes ya want to believe it, but he's so full of s**t his eyes are brown.
 
I'm kind of new to stump sitting, but I still hunted for more than 45 years, and my closest approach happened one morning when I was buck hunting in a little evergreen park with small evergreens in an old burn grassy knoll.

There was old snow on the ground that had melted showing some brown patches. There was a light ground fog due to a misting rain and warm temperatures. I was using an irregular zig zag approach, and stepping around an evergreen to hide my silhouette I went to put my foot down on one of these brown patches, it got up and ran away. :confused:

Unfortunately it was a doe, but I'd guess my foot was only a few inches from her side.
 
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