What is the closest shot you have ever taken on a wild deer?

Lakey

Well-Known Member
Hi All,

Many times I have heard tell of long shots taken at wild deer (ie in excess of 250 yds), however my question by way of contrast is

What is the shortest range shot you have ever taken at a truely wild deer?

Maybe add a brief account of the situation if time allows.........


Lakey
 
A 20 yard Roe doe, first time out stalking with a guide in Shropshire.
We had stalked round since daybreak and seen nothing, being 17 and keen for a shot this was a bit of a downer, then as we walked back to the vehicle a Roe doe dives out of the hedge and stands staring at us, at this the stalker says shoot it so I put 168grn Hornady match .308 round in its chest. I was absolutely chuffed to bits as you can imagine.

Now I laugh at the memory and wonder if I would do the same again... who knows...

Leon
 
i can beat 20 yards roe doe last winter 10 foot same thing just stood barking at me on the other side of a wall a daft yearling
 
Under 20 feet.. Staying over with Frankie and Malc on his Lease..

It rained at all angles, thunder and lightening and the hailstones were the size of golf balls..

But boy did we all have a laugh..

Terry
 
About 25 feet. Muntjac doe passed the high seat I was in. Was using a borrowed 260rem on a Barnard action, match grade barrel, Z6i 3-18x50, 140gr Partitions.

Talk about being over equipped, I could have shot it with a 4" 38 special or my 10 year old's 20lb curve bow.
 
At 10 and 20 yards, is it so close that one would aim dead on, or should one aim a little low, and if so, roughly how low? (I guess I am assuming a zero at 100 yards.)

(I feel I should know this, but better ask now than find out in the field!)
 
Mine was a fallow buck in thick cover that was trailing a load of wire from it's back left leg, taken at something like 20ft, certainly no more, and I had to neck shoot it. It took some time to calm myself down to take the shot, my heart was pounding fit to burst I was that excited. It got me my first patch of stalking.

My rifle would be shooting low at that range, but only about 1.5".

ft
 
A client wounded a Stag which made off into a small but thick patch of conifers, waited for it to appear at the other end
which it did not, it had left an easy to follow blood trail, so set off on hands and knees to follow thinking it was probably dead, I don't know why as the trees were so thick but thankfully I had taken the rifle with me, had only gone about 20 feet into the trees when he charged me head on, shot him point blank in the head, could not get out of his way nor lift the rifle to my shoulder just pushed the barrel to wards him and pulled the trigger, ended up with a 17 stone Stag lying on top of me
 
At 10 and 20 yards, is it so close that one would aim dead on, or should one aim a little low, and if so, roughly how low? (I guess I am assuming a zero at 100 yards.)

(I feel I should know this, but better ask now than find out in the field!)
No not low but high depending on the height your scope is mounted may be an inch or two.
Neil.
 
A client wounded a Stag which made off into a small but thick patch of conifers, waited for it to appear at the other end
which it did not, it had left an easy to follow blood trail, so set off on hands and knees to follow thinking it was probably dead, I don't know why as the trees were so thick but thankfully I had taken the rifle with me, had only gone about 20 feet into the trees when he charged me head on, shot him point blank in the head, could not get out of his way nor lift the rifle to my shoulder just pushed the barrel to wards him and pulled the trigger, ended up with a 17 stone Stag lying on top of me
Bloody Hell:eek: That would be a brown trouser moment,make no mistake.Bogtrotter, by the sound of things you did well to keep your composure and get the shot off before you were trampled!
 
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15m on a sika. Just sneaking round a corner of the plantation and it stepped out right in front of me and turned the other way, gave me enough time to get the gun up as it went broadside before noticing me, bof
 
A client wounded a Stag which made off into a small but thick patch of conifers, waited for it to appear at the other end
which it did not, it had left an easy to follow blood trail, so set off on hands and knees to follow thinking it was probably dead, I don't know why as the trees were so thick but thankfully I had taken the rifle with me, had only gone about 20 feet into the trees when he charged me head on, shot him point blank in the head, could not get out of his way nor lift the rifle to my shoulder just pushed the barrel to wards him and pulled the trigger, ended up with a 17 stone Stag lying on top of me

Similar as but mine was NOT wounded also it was a rutting Fallow Buck. Out with a Keeper after my First Rutting Fallow Buck. Hearing a Buck grunting an groaning we crawled into thick cover, what now said the Keeper!!!!!!!!! Well i read this an that an heard this an that???? He cracked my stick against a tree, i shook a branch on a bush an burped an attempted to sound like a Buck!!!!!!!!! The buck appeared to run head down at us, with the Keeper screaming shoot the B--atard i shot the Buck full in the chest an it collapsed inch's beside me. The said if that shooting rutting Fallow Buck's shove it i like my life to much
 
No not low but high depending on the height your scope is mounted may be an inch or two.
Neil.

Thanks, Dawnraider

Being new to this, I had assumed low because I know that if you are zeroed at 100yards and you shoot at 50yards you will have to shoot low, but was unsure about these ultra close ranges.

I know that for humane dispatch at point blank range you would have to be a couple of inches high to allow for the scope.

But, Flytie says about inch and a half low with his rifle.

So, it could be two inches up, as you say, or two inches down, as Flytie suggests. I could be four inches out at this short range.

Well, I am glad I asked. I will see if I can confirm it when I can get to a 25m zero range.

Regards

NF.
 
About 18 feet after crawling along a drainage ditch the Roe had changed direction started to graze there way back towards me , I was going in towards them, when I stuck my head up they were just through the fence ,got the high speed good news.

Had I waited they were going towards a field with horses in it which had spooked the Roe on several occasions before ,the job is to remove the deer, before the why's and wherefores start not to play at it .
 
About 15 feet. I had been pottering along and looking up rides on my FC bit and i spotted a flash of orange. Quick reverse and stalk in, it was on the reverse slope and the wind was perfect. I crawled in, got the rifle in the shoulder and slowly stood up enough to get muzzle clearance and bang, it was a scrawny buck and the force blew it off its feet and down the hill! Needless to say dead before it touched the ground. I was astonished i had managed to get that close.

I like the charging stag story - gets my vote for top story!
 
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Thanks for all the replies so far............ Keep em coming:D

my personal closest shot on a wide deer is about three inches:-|:D

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
rolleyes.gif
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
 
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Shot a few around the ten yd mark now the most memorable was a roe doe ,i'd disturbed a family group that were up on a wheat field up above my head height walking along a stone wall on a sloping grass field underneath it,they must have winded me i rekon and ran into the field i was in down the slope and through a hedge up into the next farmers field and stood there right in the middlle of his sheep.I had moved along to where they had crossed into the field i was in and just sat there watching them ,they then decided to run back to the hedge where they'd gone into the sheep field and i couldn't see them waited about 10 mins hoping they'd pop out and give a shot when all of sudden there they were running straight back up towards me they luckily realised something didn't look right and stopped about 10 yds off before trampling me to death took the young doe through the neck i've never seen a deers legs fold so fast.
Neil.
 
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@ Lakey

totally bizzare.

i was thinking you were going to say a panto horse or something :p

the closest i ever got to a live wild deer was when i was walking my dog in a nearby field when i noticed the roe with its head stuck in wire fencing.

as i approached it it was kicking frantically the nearer i got i became fully aware that a kick from this animal could take the skin of my shins or even break a leg.
without any sense or thought i was about to rugby tackle this deer when it finally broke free from the wire and jumped into the next field.
i did however get to touch it on its back.

mad i know
 
Thanks, Dawnraider

Being new to this, I had assumed low because I know that if you are zeroed at 100yards and you shoot at 50yards you will have to shoot low, but was unsure about these ultra close ranges.

I know that for humane dispatch at point blank range you would have to be a couple of inches high to allow for the scope.

But, Flytie says about inch and a half low with his rifle.

So, it could be two inches up, as you say, or two inches down, as Flytie suggests. I could be four inches out at this short range.

Well, I am glad I asked. I will see if I can confirm it when I can get to a 25m zero range.

Regards

NF.
NF i think Flytie meant if he aimed dead on bullet strike was going to be 1.5 inches low at 20 yds,as the bullet leaves your barrel it will be under your line of sight your cross hairs if you like and then rises to meet the line of sight at just say 100m then thats your zero ,on the way there any shorter distance the bullet is still rising so the strike will be lower than your point of aim the nearer the shot the lower its going to be,this will all depend on the size of you scope and how high its mounted relavent to the bore.
ATB Neil.
 
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