I Know This Is LRH... But What Is The Shortest Distance You Have Taken A Live Target?

About 18" from the end of my Remington 870 slug gun. I decided to hide in this thick hedge row along a well traveled deer path. A large group of does ran up on my left side and stopped opposite me, three or four feet away. I literally poked the barrel out of the brush, pointed at the largest doe's shoulder and fired from the hip. The deer actually had powder burns.
No need to fire (10) shot groups @ 100 if you can hunt them that close 🤣
 
I live up in the Ozark Mountains and there are trees everywhere here, therefore we get extremely few shots past 100 yds on deer, but that also means that deer can come right up on you in no time without you even realizing it.

My shortest shot that I have ever taken a whitetail deer is about 5 feet! Yep, 1.666 yds with a crossbow. What is your shortest shot?

View attachment 569619 This isn't the doe I shot at 5ft, but it shows how close they get.
I shot a wild hog sow swimming across Trinity Bay with a 20 ga. load of #4 steel shot during teal season...probably 12 inches from my barrel to her earhole. Young pig, good eatin, hard to haul over the gunnel!
 
Back when my son and I were playing tournament paintball, it was common to "bunker" an opposing player and shoot them at 1'-4' away. I actually bunkered a guy that turned and moved toward me as I started shooting. My barrel actually touched his chest as I stacked 3 .68cal paintballs on him. At 300fps a paintball leaves a pretty good welt anyway, but anytime you got shot inside of 10ft it was prett ugly the next day.
 
Back when my son and I were playing tournament paintball, it was common to "bunker" an opposing player and shoot them at 1'-4' away. I actually bunkered a guy that turned and moved toward me as I started shooting. My barrel actually touched his chest as I stacked 3 .68cal paintballs on him. At 300fps a paintball leaves a pretty good welt anyway, but anytime you got shot inside of 10ft it was prett ugly the next day.
I have done that before playing with my High School students. It made for good conversation the next week at school when all these big tough boys came back with round bruises all over them.
 
Last season was my closest. We were pushing uphill and we were close to the ridge. Guy on my right yells deer at me. I had my 350 Legend raised as it came over the ridge straight at me. About 5 feet from me and closing it had dirt behind it and had just veered to my left side. I poped inside it's left shoulder and turned the heart to vapor exiting just behind it's right shoulder. It dropped about 10 feet or a little more behind us.
 
Mine was probably 25 years ago. I was sneak/still hunting my way along the edge of a field that usually had deer on it in the morning and evening. I sat down along a trail leading to the field with my back against a big pine tree with the wind in my face. A short time later, a mature 8-point started grazing and browsing his way along the trail. I was hunting with a TC Contender chambered in .35 Remington with a fixed 2.5 power scope. I let the buck get within about 10 feet before I cocked the hammer. He continued to feed down the trail and I eventually pulled the trigger at a distance of about 2 feet. He dropped in his tracks and never had a clue I was there. Powder burn distance, and quite a memorable hunt.

Last fall, my adult son and I were hunting in the Black Hills and we were both sitting on downed tree trunks, about 20' apart. A young 8-point fed his way over to my son and got within 6' of him before he felt something wasn't quite right. Of COURSE, I had left my phone in the truck as I was in the perfect position to have recorded the encounter, but it was still a very cool moment to share with my son. The deer never did quite figure out what was going on and eventually calmed down and fed his way over the nearest ridge, none the wiser.
 
Bow hunting black bear near Cotton, MN with my pals back in the 60's, I watched a big old cinnamon boar chase two idiot young mothers and their kids out of a berry patch two days in a row.
I decided to cure the problem and loaded my old Ithaca 12GA double barrel shotgun and went after him.
I had only one slug so I made some cut loads using some of my shotshells and loaded the gun with one slug and one cut load.
The old boar and I almost bumped into each other in the brushy berry patch. He rose up on his hind legs at the distance of maybe 30 feet. I didn't want to shoot him that close but he had other ideas. He rushed at me and it looked like he was just going to run close to me but run past.
But I knew that trick. They run close by and step in on you. As he was stepping in on me at about 6 feet distance, I pulled the trigger on him.
The shot took the bear square in the side of the neck but didn't knock him over. His speed carried him a few feet past me and then he plowed up.
I discovered I had shot him with the cut load instead of the slug. It didn't go clear through the neck but did blow up three neck bones and severed the spinal chord. He flopped like a headless chicken for a while and flattened a good share of brush. He looked like a man flopping.
That old boar is now a rug.
We ate that old boar and I ground most of the meat for chili.
Back then, we hunted bear in MN on non resident small game licenses for the sum of $35.00 per license.
 
Last edited:
That old boar is now a rug.
We ate that old boar and I ground most of the meat for chili.
Back then, we hunted bear in MN on non resident small game licenses for the sum of $35.00 per license.
What a story sir! Wow, we use cut loads here in Arkansas, but that's because we grew up poor... and they work ;)
Amazing story, amazing rug, and I love me some bear chili.

Clay Newcomb from the Bear Grease Podcast and MeatEater lives a few miles from me, and I'm sure he would love that story.
 
I forgot about my first quail. I grew up in Iowa, far enough north I'd never seen a quail. Having moved to Nebraska, I was hunting with some friends. We were hunting pheasants around a lot of water, and I had my permit for waterfowl, so I had put in 3" 12 gauge shells, loaded with #3 steel shot, using my modified choke. I figured if a Pheasant flew up I'd just let him fly a bit before pulling the trigger, and if ducks or geese flew over, I'd be ready. I took a step and birds flew up all around me. I knew they were quail and in the excitement of the moment, I forgot the shells I was using. My friends said the bird was no more than 10 feet in front of me when I shot. I know I saw two things fall. We found the wad, the head, and a wing. All else was pretty much vaporized. I was disappointed that I didn't get to eat my first quail. I've always been very quick on the trigger and swung fast. Old age has finally slowed me a little.
 
Top