Thanks for all the replies so far............ Keep em coming
my personal closest shot on a wide deer is about three inches
Here is the story...............
One day I was hunting in the woods after roe does, and I spotted the rear end of a deer sticking out into the woodland ride in front , at about 40 metres away from me. I recognised it as a buck, and because bucks were out of season I knew he was off the menu, so thought I would have a bit of a game.....
The deer seemed to have its head down and hidden in a large clump of bracken, so I thought" I wonder how close I can get to him before he becomes aware of my presence and legs it?"
The wind was blowing a bit of a gale through the tree's, so I closed to about 20 metres fairly easily,At that range, I expected him to become aware of my presence and look up, but he remained motionless with his head hidden, so I continued on and got to about 10 metres away.......... I couldnt believe my luck/stalking skill
The buck was seemed totally pre-occupied with whatever was in the clump of bracken , and I carried on inching forwards until I got to about 3 metres away. I could clearly see the buck breathing, but apart from that he wasnt moving at all.???
Well I closed a bit more until I was right next to him,It was a totally surreal moment, being seemingly so near a wild deer, and yet the deer seemed totally unaware of me standing right next to it. I thought any minute now Jeremy Beadle is going to jump out and the deer will be a stuffed one, however I could clearly see that the deer was very much alive and breathing??? I thought maybe its got its head stuck, or maybe there was another deer (its mother??) in the clump.
Whatever the reason, I still thought I was dealing with a fit and healthy deer - despite the bizarre circumstances, so I got my stalking stick and gave him a sharp poke against his rear haunch.I thought This was bound to make him aware of me, and go dashing for cover, so imagine my suprise when he remained motionless.
By now I was thinking that this was the most bizarre experience I had ever had in over 20 years of deer stalking....... So I poked him harder which made his rear end totter from side to side, but still no reaction from the deer, I was stood right next to him (three feet away) at this point.Not believing my eyes I gave him one last massive shove in the haunch to make sure of things, however apart from another sideways totter still no reaction from the deer.....
Well 'enoughs enough' I thought, And the penny finally dropped and I realising that the animal must be in some sort of difficulty. At the end of the day I feel that ever deer stalkers has a duty to end suffering as quickly and humanely as possible, and as I obviously realised that this animal was clearly having some major difficulties, I thought a swift end was the most humane option under the circumstances. As I was so close, I just put my rifle barrel down pointing to his heart area and pulled the trigger from about 2 inches away.............
On taking the bullet, the young buck threw his head up and staggered 5 metres stood momentarily and then fell over. On examination of the carcass, no external damage or un-usual circumstances were visible,the animal was a bit small, but didnt seem too thin. However due to the extremely un-usual behavior exhibited by the animal,it would have been wrong to have put the animal into the food chain,so it was eventually buried in the wood..
I looked into the thick clump of bracken which the buck had been looking into for all that time and apart from being a bit hollow in the centre, there was nothing there, and no means by which the buck could have got his head stuck or trapped.
Sadly I didnt have the facilities for a full post mortem of the animal, so to this day it remains a bit of a puzzle as to what was wrong with that youngster. The deer was out of season, but being confronted with such an obviously ill deer, the animal was shot on humane grounds to prevent further suffering.
Lakey