Whats your shortest kill to date?

[BigWoods]

Whitetail buck at well under 10yds. The buck ran out in front of me into a tilled corn field hot on a doe and disappeared over a rise. I hurried up with the hill as cover and hit my grunt call with him about 60yds out. He stuck his head up and marched straight toward me. When I let the arrow fly all 3 pins were neatly in it's chest. I was one happy 19 year old at the time.

 

[Spiral Horn]

All Archery:

Took my best-ever Whitetail by aggressive wheeze and grunt calling. Shot him at less than 5 yards away as he was intent on finding and whooping someone’s butt.

Took my best ever Muley at 8 yards. Spotted him along the seam between a corn and sugar beet field, but he’d disappeared during the stalk. Virtually stepped on him as he was bedded in a small depression. He jumped up and made the fatal mistake of turning around.

Kalahari Springbok (spot & stalk) = 3 yards. They just had the biggest rainstorm in 100 years when I arrived in the desert. Blinds were useless but the normally hard, crusty and dusty ground was now moist and silent.

 

[MattB]

The closest was a trotting javelina that was basically on the other side of the bush I was hiding behind - just a few yards.

The most memorable close shot was a black bear at 8 yards coming to a call. She popped her head over a rise at 13 yards, saw my top cam roll over as I drew, and came at full speed. She was probably only 125#, but regardless that was quite a moment.

 

[marktole]

Turkey at 3 yards that put on quite a drumming and strutting show for me at 5 yards before he came a little closer and turned so I could draw and shoot.

Shot a nice mule deer a few weeks ago at 3 yards as it was bedded in cut milo. To be fair though, I had already given it one arrow, but hit him back. He had a belly ache from hell and wasn’t too keen on moving from his bed. Although, he did not know I was there until I arrowed him.

 

[bdg848]

My closest kill is a rabbit nearly under my foot that was REALLY banking on being hidden but my funniest close encounter was while I was a young teen squirrel hunting. I sat with my back against a small tree about six inches in diameter. I heard something behind me and looked over my shoulder and saw a whitetail doe milling around. She made her way to my spot and bed down with her back leaning against the exact same tree I was leaning on but the opposite side. I sat there for a few seconds until I couldn't stand it any longer and I jumped up and said BOO! Her reaction was pretty funny.

 

[Wvroach]

With my car, next closest 10 feet whitetail 7pt a few years back. Had a doe almost sniff me in late muzzleloader.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Kodiak brown bear at about 10 yards.


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[cuttiebrownbow]

On ground my closest has been around 15 yards. Don’t know the exact distance because I never had a chance to range - I just knew it was close.


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[Tony Trietch]

Hunting deer with decoys in the prairie states has provided a bunch of point blank shots for me. The deer will just stare at the decoy you as you draw the bow.
Arrowed a buck a few years ago that was less than three feet. Killed a doe this fall that was lass than that, she was almost touching the decoy with her nose.
This guy was 5-6 yards

Lots of bucks arrowed less than 10 yards


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[Blockcaver]

Buddy called a P&Y North slope of Brook’s Range bull moose right past me. I was standing in the river wearing hip boots alongside a shoulder high bank. The bull was tearing the heck out of willows as he kept walking the river bank trail toward us. Caller was 20 yards behind me. I could have reached out and grabbed the moose’s front hoof as he walked past. I’d hunkered down by the river bank and drawn the bow as he approached. When his head went past I raised up and shot him almost vertically up into the chest. He was turning his head to see what was below him as I shot, but it was too late for him.

Because of the upward angle the Zwickey only got one lung and he went about 250 yards and died in a mucky swamp. We gutted him that night and spent all the next day working on him and packing meat to the river. We could not drag him out of the mucky water until we’d whittled him down to the head and neck, plus cape.

Shot distance was about the length of my arrow as it had barely come off the string when it entered the moose chest from below. Angle corrected yardage was probably 0.3 yards. Exciting!

 

[danarnold]

Under 10’ frontal while we were eating lunch sitting on a trail 30 yards from a wallow, I thought he would go to the wallow bit turned toward us and kept coming, I drew when he was broadside @20 yards but didn’t have a clear shot

 

[Beendare]

It knocked me down and I triggered the release when it hit me.

So instead of the arrow shooting out of the bow... since it had nowhere to go the bow pushed you back- awesome!

 

[Beendare]

Some great stories, you guys didnt disappoint.

I thought there would be more Javelina stories as those are notorious for getting right under your feet. Just last year a buddy and I hiked up on to a hillside we saw a pack of 25. We got there and nuthin.

We jumped up on boulders about 10’ apart to see better, still nothing.

Not 30 seconds go by and one moves 10’ from us ..... then another about 6’ away....Dang those things have to be the best camouflaged animals on the planet.

 

[JustJustin]

I smacked a fly on my head a few times....

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[Sanchez]

Twice, when bugling elk with steady downhill thermals a raghorn bull comes in walking down the same trail I had been walking up and am now standing in at full draw. Because I am blocking the trail, the bulls stop at about 3 feet in front of me giving me an almost point blank frontal shot.

Another time on my first archery elk kill I was walking an undrivable sidehill road in the middle of a sunny warm day. I had a herd of maybe 20 moo cows in front of me walking down the road, spooking a little when I got close. I glanced down the slope and saw velvet spikes of a bedded elk sticking out of the grass facing downhill at maybe 6 or 8 yards. I raised my bow and while drawing I realized there was a bedded cow elk between me and the spike which I shot at maybe three yards.

 

[TheGDog]

2017, first time at bat with a bow for deer. I called with a Grunt on the Primos Uproar and Holy sh*t!... after a bit I hear and notice the tops his antlers working his way up a gullie my sit spot overlooks.

While in the gullie... he passes behind this massive oak, which I use as my queue to drawback... but then... he goes and takes his sweet-@$$ time coming out of the gullie... and my shoulder isn't the greatest since it ripped before and had to have artho on it. Once out of the gullie enough stops at 25yds.

Me being a n00b with bow at the time, and it being a close distance, and the excitedness of the situation, and my shoulder was killin' me.... I put the 20yd pin on him and let one go.

Musta went just under him. So ya know.. had to play the freeze game. Eventually he lowers his head back down. So I nock another. So then.. like a dummy.. and also probably from being amped up by the situation I'm like, "Ok, must need to do the 30yd pin then." let one go. Whooshes over his back... sails across the bend in the gullie and impales itself into a dead tree trunk over on the other side.

I freeze of course. He quickly gets a bad read on the situation and decides he needs to bounce up outta there. He starts to go back the direction he came-in from. There are 2 openings I could potentially put a shot on him at so when he goes behind that massive oak, I rise to my feet (3D leafy head to toe) and was able to take a few step and was beginning to reach for a 3rd arrow.... when oddly... he decides that he wants to investigate what the heck it was that might have been spitting arrows at him. So mid-retreat he decides to abruptly turn in on one of those two openings! Oh shoot! So now I'm standing there... playing the freeze-game as I like to call it... face-to-face... at 7yds...with this nice 3x3 the first 3x3 I'd ever gotten to see in the wild since I began in 2014, which was an awesome specimen for D15 zone. And I can't... do.. anything. Moments later he turns around as if to head back to the gullie, but then just as quickly, turns and looks over his shoulder, now with his butt pointing at me, so I have no shot! Me still playing the freeze-game.

As I'm watching him... his tail is intermittently twitch-twitching, so I'm like damn it... he's gettin' antsy... he's about to jet. Now being in this different spot and closer, he no doubt was starting to get a whiff of my scent. So then he decides to take off. So there I am looking at him intensely to see if he's wounded, since I didn't yet know what had happened with that first shot.

So of course... after be bounced outta there I'm like silently cursing up a storm and clenching my fist in anger.


Thankfully... the next morning... after I blew on the grunt again with another quick soft little "Hey is anybody there?" kinda call... a younger 2x1 comes clumsily busting out of the nearby chaparral... pretty much at damn near the same place the first shot happened at y'day. Well... I had mentally reviewed in the tent that night what I did wrong... and that 25yds means you damn well better hold between the 20 and 30yd pins at an imaginary mid-point halfway between 'em.

So this "Sporky" is heading toward that same tree at 25yds. So I'm like "YES!". So I wait, and the moment his eyes are behind that tree I draw back. ARGH!!! Wouldn't you know it... that's when he decides to stop and remain obscured by that tree browsing on the ground right there. So again... had to wait what was a problematically long time for me. My shoulder was burning and shaking man. And I had to patiently wait a little more for him to advance a little more past that tree because there were some tall grasses between us and I wanted more of his body exposed to me before I let it go.

And then the weirdest thing... so now enough of his body is showing that I figure I should be good to go... so I let it fly... and there's this patch of sun-light between where I am in the shadows and where he is in the shadow of that tree... so I saw the fletching of the arrow mid flight when it passed thru that sunlight... and it looked good, like it should be in his body....

But then? WTF!? He just stood there! And I'm all over here bewildered and in disbelief because this time I know damn well for sure I held at that correct halfway between point with the pins. For a good number of seconds he didn't move... and then finally, it was like he's all "Oh crap.. Oh crap... I think I need to get out of here!!" as he slowly starts to pick up the pace and begin trotting over to the gullie. Meanwhile I'm over here in total disbelief... as I start to get up off my stool and rise to my feet and reach for the next arrow.. totally in disbelief that I "didn't hit him?". As he dips out of sight momentarily into the gullie, I nock up the next arrow. He pops up on the other side and loops around a tree on that sides bank.. loops around to the other side of the tree, to then look back to see what the hell just "bit him". So since he's looking back this way.. I play the freeze-game again standing there frozen in the full 3D leafy suit, with an arrow knocked, waiting for him to possibly turn around so I can draw back.

So then after a bit of a pause and me not moving, he decides he needs to go.. so he turns around now facing away from me and starts off with a stot.. which he quickly lowers back down to a trot, right about the time he passes thru a patch of sunlight, where I can see in glorious vibrant color the blood stain where the arrow exited his opposite butt-cheek/hip area. To which I'm like "YES!!!!!!" inside and my feeling of disbelief turns into total elation as I watch intently as he then trots away and crosses back over that gullie again at another spot where it looks like he just went into some thick stuff.

OMG it was Torture! waiting those 30 minutes to give him time to kick the bucket!

So then I set out to follow his trail. There were drips of blood. Not all that much. And once I got over to where he crossed that gullie again, I spent a minute trying to think about where he'd likely have gone in order to pick direction to check in where the trail line he'd followed just kinda stops at the thick stuff and some cut-down deadfall. It was such a joy when I elected to crackle and snap thru the deadfall, to then see him a little ways up down on his side and down for the count! Felt like such a bad-ass that day since I managed to make it happen with a bow! Was a little bit bummed at how I'd messed up of that freakin' Gorgeous 3x3 the day before, especially since the Sporky was a good bit smaller in size. But then I rationalized with myself that at least he won't be as heavy as that one in 2016.


Also same spot... Bobcat at 18yds. And the year before, was calling in February. And after 45min of holding the rifle at the ready since FOV was very narrow.... I rose to my feet from my tripod stool... and saw the tufts of a Bobcats ears and the tip of his nose sticking out from behind a low rabbit bush. He'd gotten down on all fours to check out the Mojo decoy like 7yds in front of him. He was to my extreme 90 degree right at like 8yds. Me again in full leafy. Tried to slowly do the 3 steps and turn to try to make the shot happen, pausing whenever I saw him move... but eventually he smelled me after I'd stood up and he looked dead at me. Played the freeze-game. Tried to turn more each time he'd look away and move a couple feet, but then he'd just as quickly look back so I'd have to freeze again. Then... crafty lil ba$tard he was.. there was a taller bush.. he then made sure while retreating to keep that bush in-between he and I. As he was nearing the thick chaparral.. he had to leap over some rabbit brush several times.. I tried my best to time the leap and let a .17HMR go, but no dice that time.

 

[TCUHunter34]

Arrowed an antelope at 9 yards

I’ve seen the results of your shooting. Multiply that by 10 and I’m sure you’d still hit the same spot!

 

[JPD350]

There's a price to pay for close kills!

On a muzzle loader antelope hunt I flagged a Doe and she started coming in so moved about 20 yds and I laid down thinking I would get a perfect 20 yd shot but to my surprise I saw legs out of the corner of my eye as she walked around the end of the barrel and when the front legs past the barrel I lifted the gun and shot it point blank through the bottom side of the ribs and the bullet came out through the opposite side back strap. I had an old style loader with a brass butt plate, I thought I broke my collar bone and shoulder! the antelope went up in the air and slammed down on its side right in front of me, I just rolled around in the grass grabbing my shoulder in agony, it hurt sooo bad!

I was sitting way low next to this big log calling in this turkey and I had the gun just sitting on top of my knee. So this turkey decides to come in sideways to me and the log I was behind, as soon as the turkey came around the end of the log the end of my barrel was about 3 to 6 inches from its head, he turned his head and stared right down the barrel and I pulled the trigger, he rolled about 10 ft away but the pump of the gun was positioned perfectly on my kneecap.........yep I thought I broke my kneecap, I rolled around in the dirt cryin then too!

I've had lots of close bow kills but they didn't hurt.

 

[TheGDog]

There's a price to pay for close kills!

On a muzzle loader antelope hunt I flagged a Doe and she started coming in so moved about 20 yds and I laid down thinking I would get a perfect 20 yd shot but to my surprise I saw legs out of the corner of my eye as she walked around the end of the barrel and when the front legs past the barrel I lifted the gun and shot it point blank through the bottom side of the ribs and the bullet came out through the opposite side back strap. I had an old style loader with a brass butt plate, I thought I broke my collar bone and shoulder! the antelope went up in the air and slammed down on its side right in front of me, I just rolled around in the grass grabbing my shoulder in agony, it hurt sooo bad!

I was sitting way low next to this big log calling in this turkey, I had the gun just sitting on top of my knee. So this turkey decides to come in sideways to me and the log I was behind, as soon as the turkey came around the end of the log the end of my barrel was about 3 to 6 inches from its head, he turned his head and stared right down the barrel and I pulled the trigger, he rolled about 10 ft away but the pump of the gun was positioned perfectly on my kneecap.........yep I thought I broke my kneecap, I rolled around in the dirt cryin then too!

I've had lots of close bow kills but they didn't hurt.

Oh man... reading your muzzleloader story.. I could soo feel you on that, since my collarbone on the shooting side has a custom-bend to it from a gnarly break before! If I'm shooting prone, I have to tap-out after 40 shots of .308 because the contact patch of the butt of the stock is upon about a Quarter-sized section of my collar bone!

 

[Ross]

4.5 yds