Closest rifle shot on game?

1. Deer six feet: Laying on my back with my head against a stump and my Winchester 30-30 across my chest with the butt end from left to right, a doe stepped up beside me feeding on acorns not 8 feet from where I lay and she took one more step closer to me before I shot. I opened my eyes slowly when I heard a limb on the ground break and low and behold a doe was standing right there almost on top of me. I lifted my 30-30 slowly with a 150gr round in the chamber and pulled the trigger as I almost touched the doe with the muzzle and she dropped right there. What a moment that was. My brother said, "Mike, you are the luckiest hunter I have ever known." Yes, I have had a lot of luck hunting. :mrgreen:

2. Shot a Hog coming straight towards me at 25yds 180gr Partition 30-06.

3. Shot a Lion and hit it at about 20yds 30-06 180gr Protected point Partition.

4. Buck out of tree stand 10yds 165gr HPBT 30-06 .
 
Here is the picture of the bull I shot under 10 yards. Sorry, No pictures of the close bucks. They were in my younger years well before I even thought of carrying a camera.

I shot this bull with a 200 grain AccuBond out of one of my .300 Win Mag's.
 

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Grundy53":12xsfo7d said:
Here is the picture of the bull I shot under 10 yards. Sorry, No pictures of the close bucks. They were in my younger years well before I even thought of carrying a camera.

I shot this bull with a 200 grain AccuBond out of one of my .300 Win Mag's.

AWESOME! Very nice bull! Looks like you must've hammered him!
 
Not counting finishing off shots on wounded game the closest shot that sticks out in my mind on deer with a rifle was maybe 10 feet with my model 1874 Sharps 45-70 with a 418 gr from my mix Lyman flat nose slug pushed by 70 grs FFg. White tail doe came up right beside the shooting house I was in on the side of an old logging road. The house floor is only 8 feet off the ground. With open sights I aimed 1/3 the way down the shoulder from the top of her back and touched the set trigger. BOOOOM, and when the smoke cleared the doe was on the ground dead as a hammer.
 
The closest shot I ever made was 15', shot a buck with my bow between my feet and I was 15' above him.
Closest with a rifle was a buck again from a tree stand, he was maybe 25' away from me when the 280 Rem spoke. On the ground, shot another buck that was 10 yds away.

JD338
 
I've had a few..... 200lb feral pig in Ca. at 3" from the muzzle of my .308 BLR. Had to make the shot one handed because I was on hands and knees crawling on a pig trail covered over with brush. I don't ever want to do that again! Next closest was 7' with my bow on a spike elk in Idaho. I'd called him in and he came right in to the boulder I was behind. When he cleared the boulder he was just beyond arm reach....It was an easy pack because I was only 250yds from my quad when he answered my first call(pre wolf days). Last year I was hunting the Weneha unit in NE OR; a friend and I had split a herd of elk trying to get at the herd bull and when we bugled and cow called we had a spike and a calf come running so fast that they almost ran over us. They stopped directly between us so my buddy couldn't shoot the spike. The spike had stopped right next to me, maybe 15" away from me. He stood there for almost 30 seconds and all my friend and I could do was grin at each other. Finally the spike reached out to smell me and I patted him on the nose. He did a straight up/vertical jump and jumped over me and I'm 6' tall. That was fun!
Then there was the western OR Black tail spike that I stepped on in heavy brush; he went straight away from me and was porpoising through the brush just like a dolphin in the water. I shot him in the neck 3" below his skull at about 40'. I was using that same old trusty BLR in .308 with 1.5x5 Bushnell scope. I miss that rifle!

Scott
 
25 yrds. on a muley buck. 270, 150 PT doing 2950. The Partition worked perfectly. Small hole in. Small hole out. Dead right there.
 
I have had more instances of "game not shot, at extremely close range. For instance: a spooked cow elk that stepped on my foot as I sat on a rock next to the game trail. Also a Bull elk that sniffed my boot in Wyoming and could not decide what I was for a minute while sniffing, finally he did a 180 and ambled off.
 
I've made a couple under 10yd shots on whitetails in the South- big oak timber from a stand.

I shot a couple of grouse here in AK at a few feet and a caribou at 80 yds.
 
A 270-lb black bear at 11 yards, over bait, with a .30-06 and 180 PT. Through and through. He wheeled into the shot and collapsed. It occurred to me about then that if that bullet could transverse 3 feet of arrogant black bear at that range and still come out the other side, the 200 grain ABs on my shelf at home were likely to stay there for some time.

Also, I took a whitetail doe at what was probably not more than 5 yards with my muzzleloader. Every step she took closer, my heart beat faster and my mouth watered. :)
 
I shot a doe with my bow at about 20 feet one time. I was sitting on the edge of a cut corn field and she come out to feed. With a rifle, I would guess 5 yards as a doe ran by me during a deer drive. (I was a stander on that drive)
 
Closest kill was on a WT buck in Wyoming who I pee'ed on (I did not see him). When he jumped, I fast drew a 9mm Browning Highpower and shot him between the ears running at about 8 feet. I have killed wild hogs with dogs and a Ruger Single Six (.22 Magum) at one foot by grabbing a dog and shooting the pig under him.

With a rifle: I would guess at about 35 yards with a Marlin 336, .35 Rem.
 
25 yds with a 300 Sav, Whitetail had his nose to the ground trailing a doe and never saw me.
 
My closest shot was between 11-14 feet on a cow Elk. Amazing what the .338RUM will do at that distance. I was sitting with my back against a tree and she came down a small hill to my right. I was partially hidden by brush and was able to turn enough to shoulder my rifle and shoot. I really wasn't totally balanced and the recoil was something else.
 
Deer, 25 or 30 feet.
Elk, 10 or 20 feet.
Coyote, 10 feet.
Have chosen not to shoot a couple of bears under 10 yards.
Chose not to shoot a mountain lion at 8 yards.
Chose not to shoot a fox at 12".
Still hunting sometimes lets them get "really" close.
 
Spike elk at 20 yards and closing with a 260 AB out of a 375R.

Wounded bear at 15' with a 280 AI and a 120 BT (I now own a 45-70 for these occasions)

I actually had to turn my bow so a cow elk didn't run herself down the arrow on her way by. She knocked it off the rest and her calf stepped on my on their way to find their lost cow girlfriend (ME).
 
It has to be a Colorado muley, a fork-horn, at about 15 feet! A 130 gr. (.270) Nosler PT landed just above his right eye, as he approached my hidden location at full gallop :grin: !
 
About 4-5 yards on my first turkey. I actually had him closer, but wanted to confirm it was a jake, so had to see the side profile. And, of course, had to move without him seeing me so he had to turn away.

For big game, the closest I remember is 31 yards on a cow elk. It got spoked by our guide (that was our intent), ran up a draw and for some reason turned instead of exiting the draw. It turned right at me and stopped, so I shot.
 
What about misses at close range? Had a hunting partner with a .303 Lee Enfield who tried to shoot a ruffed grouse off the end of his barrel. He missed three times (the bird was deaf after the first shot, but hung around to see what the big flash was all about). My friend became utterly disgusted with himself and laid his rifle down, the bird obliging him by watching the strange procedure. My partner then pulled a skinning knife and threw it at the bird. The grouse shook its head and calmly walked away. Needless to say, I never depended on him again to bring home meat for the camp.
 
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