[TheMrNotSoFamous]

I've always wanted to make it out west for some big game hunting where the ranges can be extended. Where I live and hunt here in FL, the woods are extremely thick yearound and ranges are pretty short unless your hunting powerlines or a field clearing of some sort. Three seasons ago I made my farthest deer kill at 57yds.(measured with a tape measure) using a handgun of all things. I've taken deer with a bow, crossbow(1st one this year), muzzleloader, rifles, shotguns(using slugs, haven't had much luck with buckshot), and handguns. My closest deer kills were both 5 steps(done twice-same spot but different years). Most of my hunting is from ground hunting in blinds I quickly make while in the woods. I've been hunting deer for almost 35yrs.. How far are your closest and farthest deer hunting kills?

 

[terry_p]

Longest 150 yards on a buck I shot from a elevated box blind in North Carolina. He was walking toward me and I had my M77 in 270 rested with a load that groups 3/4" (I shot a lot of rounds thru it prior to the hunt, checked it when I got to NC and was completely confident in it) and I shot him thru the neck and took out the spinal cord. Down he went. Closest was an 8 pointer that followed a scent trail I had dragged and he walked under my tree stand (in NH) and turned broadside. A 12 ga Saboted Slug thru the lungs and he ran 50 yards and piled up. I don't think he was 10 yards away and my biggest worry was he would hear the safety click off.

 

[FeralCatKillr]

Well I'm fairly far west. But I guess I'm not west enough to appreciate shots over 300 yards. My longest was probably 200-ish.

Anytime I hear people bragging about 400 or more yards I stop being impressed and start being either skeptical of their distance-measuring ability, or unimpressed in their hunting and stalking skills. If I wanted to test my super-long range shooting skills only, to the exclusion of my hunting skills, I would start shooting at paper targets instead of deer.

Like Jeff Cooper said: If you can get steadier, get steadier. If you can get closer, get closer.

 

[BearBio]

Western deer (Mulies):
Closest: 10 yards (Muzzleloader)
Farthest: 460 Yards (measured with a rangefinder)= 300 lb Wyoming Buck (4x4 by western count, 10 pointer by Eastern Count), across wide open sagebrush. One shot kill, 300 Win mag.

When Jeff Cooper hunted, there were a lot more shots available each season (Now you are likely to get one, even on a meat deer), a lot less hunters, I'm sure someone of his fame had no problem getting on to prime hunting areas.

Also, the one time I met Col. Cooper, he seemed awfully full of himself.

 

[CWPhelps]

I rifle hunt in the combination of farming areas and pine woods of North Central Wisconsin. I'm a farm boy and I know the tract I was hunting was a square 40 acres. There was a fence that went down the middle of it. I was on the east property line and the doe walking along that fence that went straight down the middle of the property. A square 40 acres is 440 yards to a side. Pretty confident that I shot this doe at just under 220 yards.

My shortest shot was in Illinois with my shotgun loaded with deer slugs. A 4 pointer came up from behind me and stopped about 10 feet from the tree my stand was in. Got him in the back of his head. Didn't waste any meat on that one.

I now have a range finder and I try to range some landmarks around my stand before I will have to shoot a deer. Most of my shots are between 75 to 150 yards in Wisconsin. In Illinois hunting thicker bottoms and farm field edges the deer seem to be either a quarter of a mile away, which is out of range for the shotgun I am required to use, or they are within 75 yards, which is within my shotgun range.

 

[JEBar]

pistol --- longest 40+ yards w/ Redhawk 44 mag --- shortest 10' above ground in a ladder stand, deer 4' from the stand's steps

black powder --- longest 40 +/- yards w/ 50 cal round ball out of a TC Hawken --- shortest 20 yards

shotgun --- 25+ yards w/ 00 Buck out of a 12 ga Remington 11-87

rifle --- 250+ yards w/ 300 WBY Mag while hunting from a Texas type tower overlooking a 640+ acre soybean field .... shortest 25 yards Browning BLR 308

 

[osprey]

My closest deer was measured at 10 feet away. I was hidden some brush near a known deer trail when the buck came by. One .270 Winchester round at the base of the neck, and down he went.

The furthest was a 200 yard shot I took only to prove I could do it. I got lucky that the deer stood there like a statue while I readied myself for the shot.

Usually, I try to get in closer to the animal before I take the shot.

One time, I actually smacked a 4 x 4 Rocky Mountain Elk in the rump on a rather large bet by my hunting buddies daring me to see if I could get that close. I have never seen an elk go from zero to scared sh*tless so fast, and will never do that again. Thank god he ran away and didn't gore me. And that was a heck of a lot of beer money I won!

 

[Alan in GA]

Average range....

I thought back and averaged about 60 deer kills with pistol, rifle, and bow kills-36 yards in central Georgia.
Longest were 165 and 185 yards in a gas line right of way with a 250 Savage Ackley Improved Ruger 77 Mark II and another Ruger 77 Mark II in 308 Win.
Closest was probably 15-20 yards - an 8pt Buck that walked by my ground stand at 10 FEET. I let him walk away to 23 yards where he stopped to eat under a crabapple tree, took with bow/arrow.

 

[BlueMountain]

Shortest-about 7 yds. with a .308 rifle-deer
Longest-325 yds. with a .22-250 rifle-woodchuck
Longest handgun-65 yds.-deer

 

[Homeguard]

I hunt mostly public land in Kentucky and Tennessee. Most of it is rough and thick. My longest shot was about 80 yards with my M77 in 30.06. My shortest shots were all inside 5 yards with rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader and bow. Most were from a Treelounge treestand but I've killed several from the ground.

 

[Highhawk1948]

25 yards and 100 yards

 

[shootbrownelk]

Pistol....shortest around 25 yds. longest around 75. Ruger SRH .454 Casull

Rifle....shortest around 50 yds. Longest around 250yds. Winchester mod. 70 in 30.06

That's on deer, you didn't ask about elk or antelope...whole different game.

 

[ScottMn]

Longest was just last week in Wyoming on a mule deer. It was a ranged 468 yds. The shortest was around 75yds. Both shots were made with a 308 Ruger American. My son has taken one at 340yds with his 30-06 American. We put in a fair amount of time sighting in and testing ammo and I have to say that I'm very happy with both guns.

 

[MeagerHair]

Shortest was when I was 14 in doe season. Walking back over the hill to join up with a group after driving out a patch of woods and flushed a deer right at my feet. It was like bird shooting with a rifle. Caught her between the shoulders into the back of the head with a .243.

Long was again in doe season at ~370 yards across open field with about a 15 degree up slope shot for me. I was knelling braced from my knee and she was running along a diversion ditch so I had allot of time. I put X on her nose. Paced her with X on her nose pulled out to lead on her nose and squeezed the trigger when I felt it. Caught her right at the top of the shoulder and neck. I was using a .270 with bronze points and it put her in a crashing slide.

 

[gqucool]

Closest 10 yds farest roughly 500 yds, it varies out here in Utah, I never had the options of hunting from a blind. Most shots taken either oft hand standing or sitting with my rifle rested on my knee.

 

[twodog max]

The closest shot was a buck that stepped over my legs. The muzzle could not have been a foot from his chest. I have shot quite a few deer at 2-300 yards. Hunting whitetails there usually is not a lot of need for a rangefinder so I do not carry one. My longest ever shot was an antelope doe in 2013 at a laser ranged 503 yards. I had a solid rest from prone and lots of time. Used a 270 Winchester

 

[Red Dirt Dave]

Closest was a big old whitetail doe on a well-used trail through a brush field with a .54 caliber flintlock at six feet from the end of the barrel.

Longest was an ancient whitetail buck in an alfalfa field at no more than sixty yards with an old sporterized A303 Springfield 3006.

Both fell as though the earth had been jerked from beneath them.

Ninety percent of the deer I have taken have been in "the thick" and well under fifty yards.

All my shots in Colorado and Wyoming have been between one hundred and two hundred yards.

I still practice shooting out to three hundred yards. Just in case.

 

[Varminterror]

I've never taken a shot that I haven't been confident that I WOULD deliver the killing impact on target.

I've killed a few under 10ft with bows and revolvers, and one that short with a rifle - it was farther down to the base of the tree than out from the base to where he crashed, even after he took 2 jumps.

I've killed deer with revolvers over 125yrds, longest to date is 147, shot from a support. Longest rifle on deer was 682 lasered, 694 steps (kinda down a gully and back up). Coyotes have been further. Bunch of deer over 300yrds, few over a handful between 400 and 682. Longest with a bow to date was a lasered 78yrds, a couple others over 70.

I really don't care about haters that just want to hate. 100ft is too long of a shot for some people's skill, 1,000yrds is NOT too far for others.

 

[paulkalman]

my closest shot, just a couple of feet from the tree stand I was sitting in, about 10 feet up. he was browsing eating Pecans (Sardis GA) had to figure out the best shot without messing up too much meat. (I had a Remington 788 .44 mag at the time) . Longest shot out west, about 320 yards with my son in laws 7mm rem mag.

 

[TheMrNotSoFamous]

Quite a variety of answers amongst us RF members. I guess it sure depends on where you hunt. Some of the answers are pretty long shots indeed. I don't think my current skill set would let me shoot out quite so far with eyes on the downside of 50+yrs.. Sure is fun to think about anyways. Good luck to everyone this season.