Closest hunting shot you've had.

[marshratTC]

Doe at four yards. She walked past me after staring through my  soul. As I drew back, I heard a snort and watched in horror as a nice 8 pt caught my movement and took off.

[sagebrush]

A mule deer buck (3x3) at three yards. I was crawling on the ground watching another deer. I turned around and there was a deer standing there. I shot from a very awkward position. He didn't go far. Gary

Whitetail doe two corn rows, I was about to shoot one that was about 18 yards from the corn field I was sitting in and a bigger one stepped into my shooting lane as I came to full draw, so I adjusted and shot the close one. It still ran about 100 yards before going down anyway.
Last year a yearling that was getting chased by two dogs ran right into me, knocking me backwards against an oak, it hurt a bit on both sides. I missed the dog on the run at about twenty-five yards and lost an arrow over it all.

[Shinken]

Huntin' ground grizzlies last Spring on the rolling plains of central Montana, I drilled a beeg juan with a head shot using a TALON head at less than 36" - only came to half-draw and shot from the hip....

Keep the wind in your face!

Shoot straight, Shinken

   

[Mudd]

Shinken I'd love to hear more about that story with all the details and in english...lol

God bless,Mudd

[Easykeeper]

I'm amazed by the stories of stalking and shooting deer in their beds.  What a rush that must be.  Awesome hunting skills.

[Mark Smeltzer]

I snuck up on a bear in the black berries at 6 yards he bleed out in about 15 seconds. I have been close enough to deer to touch them and a doe once I could hear her stomach grumbling...to close for a shot though.

Mark

[adeeden]

I have shot two deer from the ground at less than 5 yards.

The first was a young six pointer. I spotted him from the top off a ridge and he was about halfway down the side. It was raining pretty good and I was making a sneak on him when I slipped on the wet leaves and fell down about 30 yards from him. When I landed on my butt he spun in a circle (swapping ends) and also slipped and fell! He ended up getting his little rack tangled up betweem two small trees and I ran in and shot him just as he got himself utangled. He ended up having only one eye, and must have spun to see me when I fell. I'm not real proud of that one but that is the way it happened. I still hear jokes from my buddy about having to find a blind buck tangled in brush to fill a tag.....

The second one was a young doe. I was walking through an area that had been heavily logged the year before, that was nothing but tree tops and muliflora rose. It was terribly thick and I had stood up on an old log to try to walk over some of it. When I jumped up there I spotted her bedded just ahead of me facing away. I knocked an arrow and literally walked down the log (maybe 3 feet off the ground) until I could get a shot right at 10 feet or so. She never knew I was around!

I'm also proud to say I once missed a good buck from five yards or so while sitting in a brush blind, I'm still not sure how I managed that one.

[Widow's Son]

I missed an eight point that was 4 yards from the tree that I was in 25 feet from the ground. Shot just over him. Man was I frustrated.

[Shinken]

Yea Brother Mudd,

It was a life-threatenin' situation!  I thought for sure that the critter was gonna CHARGE me.  It was a totally instinctive shot...and I am so thankful for those highly effective Red Feather Archery TALON heads!

Keep the wind in your face!

Shoot straight, Shinken

   

[reddust]

I shot a 14 point 165" whitetail below me 15 feet below my stand.

[Steve Clandinin]

A Big Mulie buck at 5 feet,straight down.
Back in 84 my wife bought me a Chek-mate Goldenhawk Longbow,had a hard time getting use to it ,snuck up to a gopher shot him at 3 feet,funny thing is I missed him twice at the same distance!

[Red Beastmaster]

A charging groundhog at zero feet! I jumped up and I shot straight down with my Abbott longbow. I hit the ground running and didn't stop until I was well down the trail. Some might say I let out a scream but I don't recall much about that.

There was an arrow sticking straight up from between the shoulders of the viscious beast! Yessss!

[chanumpa]

A spike elk and a cow elk from 20 ft.2 consecutive years.Then didnt get another for 5 years,I think.

[Fletcher]

Lots of really neat short stories in this thread.  Close is so cool.

My first close one was a young buck.  I had just finished hanging a stand and was stumping my way to a spot for an afternoon sit.  I was pulling my arrow from the dirt when a bunch of deer came into the woods.  One of them turned and walked down the draw and stopped maybe 10 ft to my right, looking away.  Had to get a broadhead out and turn around to shoot him.  My first caribou walked by at 4 ft but I let him get by before shooting.  This guy was five steps from the tree; stand was about 7 ft up.

 

[Catskill Longbow]

I  was on the ground behind a blowdown rootball. Had a doe come straight at me within 4 yards.  I had a few saplings in the way so I decided to wait 2 more steps and she would be in the clear. At that point she turned and walked straight away for 30 yds. That's bowhunting!

Within 2 minutes a 6 point came down the same trail but angled off toward where she went. He then decided to walk back toward me to less than 20 yds, but at that point knew something was up.  I didn't shoot because I knew he would jump the string.

[Looper]

Whitetail Deer: six steps
Blacktail Deer: 10 steps
Hog: 10 steps
Rabbit: 3 steps
Squirrel: 3 steps
Ground hog: 2 steps
Carp: arm's length
Bullfrog: arm's length
Coyote: 16 steps
Ptarmigan: 5 steps
Blue Grouse: 15 yard shot (the grouse was about 75 feet up a big spruce tree and I was standing on the edge of a huge cliff, shooting straight out in front of me.)

[Thumper Dunker]

Gopher ten inches. Ground squirrel Three feet, called in jackrabbits and cottontails three feet. Called in coyote shot at about five feet died almost in my lap. Had does come up and sniff me. Nothig big .

[rdoggsilva]

A cow elk at 4 yards,from the ground, she never know I was there

[manitou1]

I messed up a shot on a stalk this past season on a 160" whitetail.  I was hunting on the ground and had the buck I had patterned walk into the treeline I was sitting in.  Instead of the normal route that he took back to his bedding area, he turned behind a brush pile... I relocated anticipating him coming out into the open trail about twenty yards away. As it turned out, he somehow negotiated through the brush piles and ended up looking "through" me at five yards.   I rushed the shot and hit a limb, grazing him. Drew blood, but he was fine afterwards.  The night before, I had him at about ten yards on the ground, but he needed to take about three more steps for me to make the shot. The wind had just shifted a couple of minutes earlier, as it does frequently just at sundown.  He winded me and turned and walked across an open field directly away from me.  It is hard to believe a deer of that caliber was making that many mistakes.  I saw him walk slowly across an open winter wheat field four days in a row during the rut. Not a care in the world.  Gun season opened, and I never had the opportunity to hunt him again.  I would be surprised if he is still around after the gun season.