What's the closest you've got to a deer then?

[Dawnraider]

Reading Bogtrooters story has reminder me of a close encounter i had in the summer where to get through a bit of cover either side of a steep ditch i went in feet first and slid down the bank on my ass only a few meters,as i was sliding down spotted a roe doe fast asleep on the other side stopped when i got to the ditch about 6 feet from her ,she woke up all bleary eyed got up really slowly and just looked at me for a few seconds before prancing off.
Neil.

 

[finnbear270]

Unintentionally close, rather than stalked in, I was backed in to a patch of bracken under an isolated poorly developed tree, with the intention of ambushing any deer at a crossing place through a large burn, as is always the case, you cannot see everything that you would like to overlook, so when later I heard the ground drumming, trying to establish where they were coming from, the daylight was suddenly reduced as a group of Red Hinds cleared the old strand of wire that was just over my head, when I had recovered my composure, I looked around to see very deep slots all around where my legs had been while I was stretched out, from where they had come from I know not, I think they may have been spooked from somewhere to my extreme left & they were not about to stop or slow down.

 

[Peter Eaton]

Stalking a group of Roe with my mate and as we were doing so walked right up to a fox asleep in the grass sunning itself, dont know who got the bigger shock , us or the fox....and yep you guess it it ran right through the deer and spooked them.

P

 

[stone]

Bogtrotter, that has to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard!!
Laughed my ass off!
You just know that a story like that has to be true as you just couldn't make something so bizzarre up! That would be priceless if you had that on film. Maybe you could do it again for us?!
MS

i hav to agree
years ago i was struggling trying to get into groups of reds but no joy
then it came to me as i watched a group of 4 ramblers brightly dressed in their regatta coats just amble by less than 40yards
so next day i went and purchased a cheap bright red jacket
best move ever...
4 days into a 6 day trip and things started to happen
the deer never knew what happened after that

 

[skippy1001]

The closest i have got to a wild deer is about 48 inches. a Roe doe with two fawns came over to investigate myslef and my rifle one evening. i was dressed in a rather fetching "goon suit" The fawns where cautious but very interested in me, they stayed arround (within about 10ft) for 45mins. One of the fawns came and sniffed / nudged the rifle barrel. I have to say it was a realy "majical" expierence, one that i will never forget. The Doe came down to about 3 feet away then took objection to my presence and escorted her kids off to the safety of some woodland a short distance away.

A great expierence.

 

[tikka_69]

I was stalking once on some Roe stood at a corner of a wood waiting with the rifle sat on the sticks.

I heard some rustling at the side of me and I kid you not a Roe doe walked out literally 5 yards to the side of me.

I kept dead still and she was looking straight at me and sniffing the air, knowing something wasnt quite right by not sure.

The two youngsters then came out in front of me too and they all proceeded to start grazing.

After a short while the doe move round and must have got wind side of me and she spun round on a nine pence barking like mad and off in the the wood, taking her young.

Was an awesome sight and one I will never forget, funny how moments like that stay with you ?

 

[foxhunter]

I was once stalking along the top of a steep bank when I noticed a bush being shaken vigorously. On closer observation I saw it was anice 6 point roebuck thrashing hell out of it , I shot him in the neck at 5 yards....

Called a doe in during the rut once whilst I was kneeling in standing barley she came to within touching distance before she bounded off when I revealed myself !

 

[Monkey Spanker]

Two close encounters in one evening!

I had two really close encounters with nature in one evening a couple of years ago!
Whilst stalking along the edge of Thetford Forest I spied two red stags heading roughly towards me (out of season). I was next to a small wire fence overgrown with grass so I laid down to watch them for a while. One was a youngster and the other was one of the biggest bodied beasts I have ever seen although his antlers were still in velvet. They got closer and closer and my heart started to race. I was then realised that I was laid in a deer trail and they were going to head straight for me! Exciting stuff I thought until the thought of a 500lb ish beast landing on me crossed my mind! I let them get really close - about 5m - and slowly rose to my knees. To my amazement, the big fella kept walking towards me! I was fully scrimmed up and I don't think he realised (or cared) what I was! He eventually stopped leaning over the fence at me as I moved my rifle to point at its chest in an attempt at self defence! I just remember looking up at quite a steep angle as he let out the deepest 'gut wrenching' roar at me. How I didn't **** my Musto's is beyond me! He then just snorted to his young buddy and they trotted off back into the forest!

I felt the need for a sit down after that and made my way to a wooden high seat about 50m away. I sat for a while (still all scrimmed up) and there was a brief almost silent flutter resulting in a little owl sat on my shooting rail staring straight at me! What followed seemed to last forever and still makes me chuckle thinking about it!
He obviously just wanted a staring contest which started out quite easy.
He then started to use a few tricks! Firstly he tried the 'extending the neck up and down method whilst holding my gaze. Nice try, but not so much as a blink from me! He then went straight for the 'rotate the head through almost 360 degrees sideways' method which had me almost convulsing but still not a blink from me. He finished off with a stupid open beaked owl face which sadly ended the game for me before I actually ****ed my Musto's!
As soon as I blinked he was gone - leaving me howling with laughter!
I can't remember if I shot anything or not that night, but quite frankly - who cares!
MS

 

[KevinF]

MS - Thank you for that. Hugely enjoyable. Have spent a few hours in local high seats watching tree creepers, but have never had such a close encounter as that.

 

[doghound]

Like many I have had numerous close encounters, but I think Barn Owls have it in for me.

Stalking Roe bucks one summer, my father and i were laying in a grass field watching a buck at last knockings when a barn owl came over the hedge. I said to Dad "lets see if he comes to a squeek". Well one squeel on the back of my hand and it came stright too us, thinking it would fly over we just lay there. However as it came overhead about 4 foot up it put feet out and dropped on my head. All I coud here was the old man laughing as i paniced and flailed my arms around.

The second time I was due to go fishing but forgot to change my flyline, so about 11pm i went out into the field to lay out the line put the backing on and rewind. In a bit of a dream with the reel clicking away, suddenly my hat was knocked of my head as if slapped, turning expecting to see someone all i cold see was a barn owl floating away at head height.

 

[KevinF]

... but I think Barn Owls have it in for me.

Reminds me of a pal. In his earlier life he was living on the coast of Sweden in a wooden long house. He'd reared an abandoned barn owlet and it lived entirely in the house, surviving well on the numerous house mice, and the occasional hand-fed treat. The mother-in-law came to visit, sporting a new purple-rinse hair do. She hadn't got more than a few yards inside the front door when the owl latched - very painfully for her - onto her scalp. It rapidly let go when she squealed, but her subsequent infection took several weeks and a course of very strong antibiotics to shift.

For those unaware, owls have hollow talons. Rotting flesh from daily kills builds up inside. It doesn't harm the owl, but it does fester into a fine spectrum of bacteria which is easily transferred...

 

[Double four]

I have stalked up to roe within a few yards in the past, and this morning i wanted to film some stags as the wind was favourable and it was drizzling quite a lot it took me an age to get where i wanted and got soaked trough to the skin plus blathered in mud.
I stalked the closest i have ever been to reds about 30yds the last 100 or so crawling, had to bark a them to get thier heads up for the camera and got some great clear footage. DF

 

[shotguntom]

crawled past a group of 12 red hinds on the other side of a hedge, one was about 3 yards away and didnt notice a thing

 

[trouble]

one winter afternoon i chased a tough old roe all over my plate before i eventualy got it on the end of a folk

 

[Muir]

Bow hunting in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in northern New Mexico I got into a group of mule deer in a thick aspen grove. I inched to within about 6 feet of a buck and a doe.~Muir

 

[geoshot]

1) Closest to a deer which I shot was 15yds on a CWD buck earlier this year. Saw him in a field and tried to stalk in on him, he went into a bit of cover in a hollow and I thought I had lost him. Kept stalking, kept quiet and slow and eventually spotted him again about 20yds or so in front of me. Got the rifle up and closed in a bit more. Shot him cos he should have run away.
2) Closest on a deer I didn't shoot, August 2005 I was after roe buck in Dorset. Saw a nice little 4-pointer standing broadside to me just out of a hedgeline about 50 or 60yds away. Got the rifle up on the sticks and the buck moved, I stood still for a bit, he turned again nice side on shot. Was about to slip of the safety and take the shot when I became aware of something in front of me, and I mean right in front of me, it was a young doe. She had stepped out of the hedge immediately at my feet and was having a damn good sniff of me from my boots to my b*lls. When she caught wind of my knapsack, or my unwashed troos she looked up at me, barked and bolted - the buck legged it too. I was laughing so hard I didn't mind tho.
3) Closest I got to a deer with someone else was when I took my girlfriend to watch deer. Left the rifle at home - or she wouldn't go - and went to a permission I used to hold in Dorset cos I reckoned we would see some deer. Briefed Lola to keep quiet move slow etc, basically stalk without a rifle, emphasing being quiet, slow movements and all that.
Went out first light etc, no luck, no deer in sight for the whole feckin morning in fact. Of course, the missus got all bored and fed up. I'm getting it in the neck cos me the big deer hunter has taken her to spot deer where there aren't any - that was plainly the only bit of the whole day she was enjoying up to that point.
Eventually I had enough, so it was head back to the car and go get some lunch. The two of us were walking along, not quietly now, Lola humming some music swinging a stick - basically doing everything opposite to stalking. We headed up an overgrown track for a short cut and after a few yards she literally fell over a young buck who had been chewing the cud, lying in bracken on the trail. He jumped up, Lola fell over and I put my imaginary rifle up. The buck just jumped up, looked all miffed and strutted off, he didn't run. And he had just been literally kicked up the arse and nearly crushed by a falling woman. i didn't realise that deer could look all offendee and indignant - but they can.
Of course I was immediately challenged about my earlier instructions to stay quiet and sneak up on the deer, herself demanded to know why I hadn't told her that deer lie down, why did I let her trip over the thing all sorts of boyfriend wrongdoings like that.
And now if I come home without a deer in the tray it's loads of mickey-taking about how she can just walk up on them and how useless I must be "all the gear and no idea" sort of thing - don't think I'll ever live that one down.

 

[Grouse Track]

I got to about a foot from an old dear last night, hard on stopped me from getting any closer to her!

 

[Paul at Fechan]

got up a tree once to call and ended up with a young buck right under me. Couldn't get a shot at it for the branches i was sitting on then it wanders of the wrong way behind, amazing

 

[Monkey Spanker]

got up a tree once to call and ended up with a young buck right under me. Couldn't get a shot at it for the branches i was sitting on then it wanders of the wrong way behind, amazing

Good job it didn't walk under 'Seanpauls' tree, it might have been hit with a large calibre tapered brown subsonic!
MS

 

[stone]

I once called in a roe buck
Ok it came in several times to the call but I refused to pull the trigger unless it kissed the end of the barrel
It came with in a metre so no shot taken
That was what I call a close encounter