getting close to game

60m. I noticed three mule deer nestled in some low bushes in a saddle between two hills, upwind of me, about 300m. I'm sure they saw me, too, but I didn't stop to look at them or change my pace. Once I had got one of the hills between us, I worked around and came up over it, crosswind with the sun at my back. I was on my belly by the time I came over the crest and spent forty-five minutes getting closer. When one stood up I shot it, and then paced the distance from my firing point to the kill, and from my firing point to the crest. I had crawled about forty metres.

I have sat still and had them wander closer.
 
I like being close. I've been tempted to get a lever .30-30 just to force me to get closer. I've been 50 yards or less several times on game, sometimes closer than 50 feet, all situational.

Seems to be that the closer they are, the less prepared I am :)
 
I've shot a couple of black bears within about 15 yards.

Long ago, when I was a teenager, I foolishly walked up to a grizzly laying in the sun and got to within three paces of it - close enough to be able to watch it's nostrils expand and contract as it breathed. It was awake and watching me just as intently, and luckily, with the same non-hostile mindset. I consider myself lucky to have survived my own curiosity that day....
 
Was blackbear hunting and had a curious cow moose walk up to me as it couldn't figure me out. Stuck my rifle staight out at it. Was going to give it a poke in the nose, instead it smelled the end of the barrel turned and walked off.
 
Was sleeping in the tent one time and a cow moose started nuzzling me through the tent canvas. A bit lower and to the left and I would have married her....
 
I have walked up on moose within 20 yards. I have walked up on whitetail deer in the bush within 20 yards. that does not count being in a tree stand (or a ground stand) and having deer walk up closer than that.
 
i've shot deer, moose, and bear at under ten feet. It's a thrilling experience, and one that can get you flattened.
I've also walked up on deer that I didn't get a shot at that close.
I was "dogging" we had no dogs that year, so I was walking, making noise, and howling like a deer hound. A young doe stood up less than ten feet from me. I had not seen her in the gloom of the balsam fir swamp I was in.
In one bound she was over a big rock, and out of sight. I was so dumbfounded it took a sec to figure out what had just happened. By the time I got up on the rock, she was long gone.
Probably too small anyway, but the time I had to eyeball her was too short to be sure.
 
Closest for me would be about 10 yards, standing on the edge of a swampy clearing when a blacktail buck came out. Farthest was about 400ish yards, a few different mule deer(and every one of them with a 270!). One time totalled up all my big game animals, the average was about 150 yards if I remember right.
 
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