Shortest Shot!
General Topic
7 yards for me. Whitetail, Fedora recurve 45#
8 yards, spot and stalk Mule Deer
Bull elk trotting toward me. His front hoof was 3 steps when I shot him with a one-piece longbow my partner made.
Have shot quite a few elk between 7-10 yards, passed a couple up I could've poked with an arrow still on the string.
Bobcat....8 feet straight down from a low tree stand.
3 feet. Was still hunting on a trail during whitetail rut. Looked up and here came a little basket rack/huge body buck trotting straight to me, nose right on the ground. I knelt, drew back and released into his brisket. Basically all reaction as this happened in seconds; didn’t think about it until seconds later, then realised if I hadn’t shot he’d have run over me. Obviously a hot doe had him distracted. He did a backward summersault, crashed off thru the willows and expired in about 30 yards in the creek channel. Had a heck of a time loading in the pickup. Still the biggest body deer I ever shot (and fattest as this was the second year of CRP in our part of eastern Mt.)
Shortest was on a deer drive. Was nestled into a blow down against the root wad. Buck stopped, looked around and came slinking right in there with me. Recurve with wood arrow. Not sure the arrow was completely off the string when the Snuffer went into the base of his neck. Things just exploded. He made it about 25 yards. Can still remember how big his eyes got
Shot this antelope at 9 yards
8 yards, my first bull 20+ Years ago...frontal shot.
Unfortunately I had already filled my tag. 14 yards is my closest elk.
Several white tails less than 5 yards. To close. I like 15-25 yards compound or stick bow.
Shot my moose at 7yds, and two elk at 8yds. However, the closest was an antelope years ago out of a blind. The arrow barely had room to clear the bow...less than 2yds.
12 steps not sure of measured distance velvet mule deer. My wife who’s honestly probably better than me at stalking game shot a mule deer buck at less than a foot with her muzzleloader! It was bedded next to a giant boulder in a meadow, she snuck in behind the boulder stuck the barrel to the back of his neck and pulled the trigger!
If we’re counting Whitetail from treestands, then 3 steps from the base of the tree.
Whitetail at 3 yards on the ground. I did shoot a whitetail 1 yard from the base of the tree I was 20’ up in. Arrow drove down through the heart. My one and only heart shot I have to my name.
I actually practice the very close downward shot a lot. With a 5 pin site and top pin is set for 30 yards my 60 yard pin is the one to use for that shot.
9 yards on the ground. Wide open except for some round bales. He came to a bleat and doe decoy in mid-December. I was tucked between two bales and killed him as he walked passed the gap I was tucked into. It was muzzleloader season so had to have orange on.
Probably 7 feet my first deer in 1985 straight under the tree I was standing in no stand and no clue.
About 3 feet, on a doe who was smelling my footsteps next to my little ladder stand.
A few whitetail sniffing the tree I was in. Almost got a shot on a cow I could touch with my bow. Was on my knees using the bow and side quiver for cover. Was in the wide open.
Mangy coyote at 3 feet in my barn. But I cheated and used a 30.06.
The first deer I killed with a trad bow I was standing on a limb in a wild pear tree roughly 10-12 feet off of the ground & shot a big doe almost straight down so ÷ - 3 yards
A bear at 8 yards, standing in a creek with salmon banging into our legs.
Pronghorn at 6. Couple Bear at 8.
Shiras Moose bull at about 2 arrow lengths. Spotted him coming down the 2-track logging road I was walking, so I backed into the thick brush alongside the road and came to full draw. Drilled him as he passed by on my side of the road.
“ Was on my knees using the bow and side quiver for cover. Was in the wide open.”
I did that as a fork bull wandered in to about... I told myself about 7 at the time, but it was probably less.
Except I was standing up and had nothing to hide behind but my recurve, but I managed to get an arrow on the string and get the bow to vertical in front of me.
The bull stopped when he got close enough to hear my bowstring thrumming every time my pulse slam into my bow-hand, and close enough for me to hear the snot-bubbles pop.
Any time you find yourself standing there looking UP at an animal you want to kill with a sharp stick, it kind of re-sets the power dynamic...
And one time I had a covey of doe mulies blow up right under my feet; maybe 2 yards off the cow-path I was on. That was way back when I kept an arrow nocked at pretty much All Times and I did get the shot off, leading it perfectly... but I obeyed a last-instant impulse to let her go and shot right under.
The bull, I waited him out, passing on the frontal, then led him perfectly as he turned 90 degrees downhill and walked right past me, only to scrape the outermost of one blade across a dead lodgepole, which - with an alumalog - made a helluva clang, and between him ducking and the shaft deflecting upward, he got away without a scratch.
I think I was even luckier than he was, because I’m pretty sure that was the first year we had a 4-point minimum in that unit.... I read the whole book every year, now.... ;)
Reposting my comments from “Long Bombs”:
I shot a P&Y Alaskan moose at less than a yard, nearly straight up into the chest as he came by going to the caller. I was crouched in the river pressed to the bank at full draw when he walked the trail right along the bank after demolishing a willow bush a minute earlier. I literally could have reached out and grabbed his front foot but swung the bow up and shot him instead.
I had to lean back once in a corn field to shoot a doe in the next corn-row. The broadhead was in her before the nock left the string.
I've shot a couple just inside 10yds... my wife shot one at 3. Great tracking as the arrow went in top of on side lung and out just to the side of the sternum. I'd rather a little more angle, but in that situation it worked for her.
Took one 8 pointer with my recurve years back at 0 yards. Straight down from 15 feet, just nicked the spine and down into the heart. Went about 40 yards.
Turkey 1 1/2 yards, WT 2 yards, fox 3 yards, Alaskan Brown Bear between 3 - 10 yards, many various animals at around 10 yards
My first buck ever was also my closest - 8 yard frontal, on the ground, with no blind. I was shooting a Browning Black Knight compound @ 45 lbs, with Easton game getter 2018’s and 100 grain Kolpin Twister broadheads. Near Skunk Hill, Wisconsin, circa 1987.
Decoyed lope at about 10 yards. My first frontal.
Probably a hog at 4/5 yards from a home made blind. I had to raise up on my chair as high as possible to keep the arrow in the window.
14 yards on a whitetail deer in Ohio out of a treestand over a mineral lick with a bunch of corn and oats and other stuff stuck to the block, and 6' on an elk 3 years ago. I called him in with a nervous grunt and let me tell ya, he came a runnin!
Broadside bull moose with a longbow and wood arrow. 4 feet from bow to bull.
Also, black bear in his bed at 5 yards after a long stalk. Caribou at 7 yards bedded after a stalk. Bull moose at 6 yards while I was kneeling.
First archery turkey. 3 yards from my Double Bull blind. Shot a whitetail buck at 5 yards from the ground. The exit was higher than entrance.
I sure hope nobody ever sends that Dill feller out to get me....
Come to think of it, I did once take a shot at negative yardage (as measured from the edge of the platform on my stand).
It was a fat ‘coon that was literally underneath me at the time. And my stand was a climber with a shooting rail which I had positioned just below hip-level - about crotch height, really - so it was as high/safe as possible without interfering with the ability to bend properly for a good shot.
But since my arms reach lower than that, I just extended my bow hand below and inside of the rail, leaned hard into it, and canted 90°... No biggie. Except that the rail got in between my bowstring and the riser, which I did not notice in the moment.
Then at the shot, the bowstring scrubbed down the front of my person, briefly pinning a portion of my anatomy against the shooting rail as it blew past.
I about saw stars...
In the foolishness of youth, I shot my mouth off at someone I thought was just past arms length.
Guessed wrong by about a foot :(
Whitetail doe, 2 yards on the ground with a Red Wing Hunter recurve and a cedar shaft. She came down a trail and just before she got a shooting lane, she turned off the trail and came right at me. Fortunately the wind was in my face and at 2 yards she stopped and starting licking her left rib cage. I was on her right side. She never knew I was there. Weird thing is I watched her cross a field with the arrow in her. As she hit the woodline, I could still see the arrow in her. She hit the ground 10 yards into the woods, and I never found the arrow.
This coyote was trying to bite me along with three others in a dogwood thicket. Could have touched him with my arrow when I drilled him. Pretty sure I was the first human they ever encountered. One followed me a mile and a half back to the truck barking. Made the hair stick though my shorts while in the thicket when one got behind me.
P&Y deer & P&Y caribou (and some other critters Large and small thru the years) .... 30 inches! ..... but I'd rather shoot them 12 to 18 yards! Archery is a 'close ordeal' and it does take some skill and know how to get the job done close up!
2 and 1/2 feet. I literally ducked his right side antler as he came around the tree.
Antelope on a dead run at 5 feet. He was chasing a doe and I was hiding in a hedgerow. My best mulie at 10 feet.
Polar bear.....7 yards. Woodland Caribou …..7 yards. Coues deer.....7 yards
Wild Hog at 1', would have kicked him if I hadn't heard him snoring as I was sneaking along a pig trail trying to figure out how to shoot some other pigs 15 yards away. Wasn't looking down at all. It was pretty exciting and I will NEVER do that again, lol
5 yards. Screemn in my face
Flip...good nickname and nice bull!
I shot a buck and a doe this year at 8yds. Both were my closest shots.
Last years Bull was 8 yards screaming in my face before I released an arrow.
My closest shot at a bull elk was about 6 feet but I missed. However, I did manage to bury my broadhead in a quakie. He came straight in and I went for the full frontal sweet spot as he stood motionlessly staring at me at full draw.1 think that I had him already pictured on my wall as I cleanly released through the fork made by 2 quaking aspen growing between me and the bull. Somehow the arrow was deflected in those close quarters and went harmlessly into an aspen next to him. Not my best moment and hard to forget.
Took this public land desert mulie at just over 10 yds. recently.
I've got to up my game. My closest is a columbian blacktail at 14 yards and a pair of javelina at 16 yards.
Oryx35 what about using a javelina hat? hehe
Comes in hunter safe red!
Closest shot off the ground was a big hog off the ground at 3 yards. A bit hairy but luckily it went the other way. Much adrenaline!
Lee
3 yds. with wife cell phone videoing over my shoulder.
I shot a nice 9pt NT from a ladder stand that was 6ft high and he was smelling the second rung of the later. I had drawn when he was 10 yards out but he just kept coming. He was on the path I had cut to the stand and liked what he smelled. He was grunting the whole way. Shawn
About 30 years ago, I was along a game trail in the mountains and shot a small mulie buck almost directly underneath me. It was so long ago I was actually in my old Baker climber.
4 Steps in 2013 Buddy took some time to help and called this satellite bull into my lap. Had to yell to get him to stop.
2nd smallest bull I ever shot but perhaps the most memorable.
9 yards for archery.
I once missed a turkey at 3 yards with a shotgun. Shot right over the top of him. It all worked out as I called him back about 30 min later and killed him at 30 yards.
6 yards from a ground blind
3 paces on a Javelina with my recurve.
Elk-8 yards. Other- Multiple deer at 5-6 yards.
Elk-8 yards. Other- Multiple deer at 5-6 yards.
Pic doesn't show on my other post for some reason
6 yards from a ground blind in RSA
Pretty sure Scoot wins this one.. Wow!
Pretty sure Scoot wins this one.. Wow!
My closest shot was on this black bear.
My closest shot was on this black bear.
I shot a black bear as it walked by and I actually had to lean back to keep the arrow from impeding his progress. Probably about 2 feet.
I also shot a brown bear, facing me at less than 3 yards. I would never take a head on shot at a brown bear but when they stand there looking at you about 8 feet away, eventually something has to give.
Did I mention, I really love hunting bears.
six point whitetail at 6 feet
I set up 10 yards outside the edge of a reed choked river bottom/swamp in west Illinois,, oct 31 ,my best kill day, i was rattling like hell, had been getting good responses, a little 6 pt runsout of the reeds, posts up,i waved at him, he ran,15 seconds later,all i see is arack popping up above the reeds coming into me on the same trail as the youngn,he was cookin,rack up...gone. rack up ..gone, i knew as fast as he was coming i drew immediately.. he shot out of the reed wall into the open forest @ about 28 mph, STRAIGHT AT ME..he got to 5ft,realized i was bad... he cut to his left so sharp he looked like a super bike racer leaning into the turn. I had it on him solid,,i hit back of course. He headed into...hell,.. 2 days. Tracking,,i actually threw clothes away at the end of tracking...i just cannot explain how bad that place was,,,no recovery, he made it,im sure, he made me have more respect...thanks Headhunter, Mr. Kovar,,good spot
I was less than 10 feet away from these. Could have jumped on their backs.
I was waiting for the biggest ram under the rock I was on to come out.
I snapped the pic with a cell phone. I waited a few hours and then a thunder storm came in and the wind swirled and I never got a shot. So while it was never a shot it should have been. Fun being that close to true wild sheep
Tree stand 12Ft up, deer 7 yards away. He walked right under me, had to wait until he got out a bit :)
3 yards in this WY Shiras moose. Wasn't sure who was going to get who.
3 yards as he walked past me.
TMBB
Shot a young coyote at about 2 yards. I was down in a shallow creek bed and saw him across the pasture. Lip squeaked and he came on the run. I squatted down and drew my bow back. He made the mistake of peeking over the edge right where I was pointed at.
Not me but witnessed a story for the ages. My uncle Lee (rest in peace) and i were hunting a powerline right of way. We were on opposite side of the clearing (archery). He stopped behind a tree to take a leak. I was about to do the same but jumped up a couple doe. They ran right to his tree. The 2nd in line stopped right in front of him. i saw her jump and pull a Wile E Coyote (running in the air). She ran to where i couldnt see her. I trotted over to congratulate him but he was rolling on the ground laughing. I asked him.what happened. He said, "A hundred things went through my mind at that moment and all i came up with was......kick her". So, he kicked her in the ass. He said her eyes got as big as silver dollers and she tried to fly away. GOD i miss him.
Both of my Q/L caribou, one at 5 yards and one at 7 yards. Fortunate that I got to experience that hunt and the migration before all the hunts were cancelled. To see hundreds and hundreds of animals in that setting every day for a week was something that I will never forget.
This guy was 8 feet from me...I was sitting on the ground, back against a log, turkey calling.
No Season on them in California...so the only "shot" was a cell phone pic !
That would be pretty cool...as long as he doesn't crouch down and start wiggling his but...
the 6 point on top of my wagon in front of my shop/lanes in 1966 at 10 feet on the ground & pearson recurve
This one I took with my Static Recurve at 12 yards on the ground .I was behind a root ball of a downed tree and some burlap with limbs and material to help hide me .I stayed seated in my Huntmore 360 swivel chair as I slowly raised my bow arm ,drew my recurve and released a 2016 Easton Legacy with a Delta at the front. I hunt a lot using what is on the ground when I can.
Same buck when I received him back from taxidermist .
I was sitting in some short pines and had a deer stop about 6 inches from my broadhead at full draw. I then started thinking about the arrow would still be on my string when it would be trying to drive into the deer. I could of extended my finger off of the handle and about touched it. I never took the shot but what was funny was after I let down she stuck her head into the pines and we were face to face for about 10 seconds till she whipped around and ran off about 20 feet. Two minutes before she walked up I had a skunk sitting under my chair for about 30 seconds. I was loaded with adrenaline after that hunt.
