brushbuck28

A few years back I had a young 6pt walk up the same game trail I was on behind me.I couldn't turn to get in position for a shot so I watched him wander over the hardwood ridge and Icontinued to the top where I turned and waited to see if he had any friends. About 8 minutes later a doe came up the same trail. I watcher her get closer and closer. She would stop and browse ever few feet or so giving me time to ready my gun and get comfortable if a buck was with her. She got within 10feet or so of me and still didn't see or smell me. Then out of the corner of my eye here comes the 6pt! He was watching the doe. He even looked arround me to keep an eye on her! He got within 20-30yds.Slowly I put my scope on him all the while knowing I had more of a chance of getting busted by the doe who was pretty close to me at that point. Lucky for me he was not interested in my presence at all. It was a very close and very clean shot. The doe bounced arround and snorted alotand finally went over the hill. It was very exiting and very cool. Whatare your close encouterstories?

gmil6184

My coolest but probably most heartbreaking close encounter took place prob four or five years ago. I was bow hunting on this ridge and this nice 8 point, not huge but big for where we hunt, came strolling in and was walking right down the trail that crossed in front of my stand at 20 yards. He came behind a big tree and I went to full draw and he stopped behind it, with only his head exposed. He then proceeded to beat the living tar out of this little sapling. Well you can just imagine what this did to my nerves, I ended up drawing and letting it down two or three times before he finally offered me a shot. This is the heartbreaking part though, I ended up hitting him much farther back then I wanted and he took off leaving hardly any blood. Spent two days looking for him in vain, never did find him. I couldn't have been more sick to my stomach about the whole thing, and even to this day when I think about it i kick myself. It sure was cool to get to sit there and watch him make that rub though.

brushbuck28

Bummer! I've never had the opportunity to see one rubbing before but it's high on the list! I made a poor shot on an eight once too. I was shooting down a long hill and hit him high in the shoulder. I tracked him for a long ways (he was walking and dragging his leg) and I think hit fairly hard but another young hunter turned him into hamburger[:@]. I heard the shots and followed the trail to the end.He hit the poor thing everywhere. He was very exited .Worst case of buck fever I've seen. I was happy that it was down and glad for the kid to get it just a bummer it was not a clean kill. I kick myself for that one. I stayed with him and got him started tagging/ cleaning it til his party got there. I believe in first blood if it is a killing shot but this one was not( and it was pretty mangled too)[&:].

MdDave

i like it when the deer sniff my pull up rope an try chewing on it....had that happen twice so far....granuate they were young deer still neat to look STRAIGHT down on a deer

DoveshooterII

I seen an 8 point this morning behind the house, and it was a scrapin a young sapling, out of season, In fact it is the same deer i posted a question about earlier!

waiting_for_a_gift

I've had lotta kills inside 10 yards, both with gun and bow.

This year with gun, I was sitting down on a hump in a swamp, lead doe with trailers comes up on my right front. I was able to turn and get my gun up, plugged her at about 5 - 6 yards with my 30-30, she ran about 40 yards.

One time bowhunting from a tree, shot right down below my feet 10 - 12', right into the middle of a deer's back. It actually bolted about 40 yards.

One time gun hunting, sitting down in a blowdown, a deer came in front of a drive, jumped right over the blowdown I was sitting on, I shot it in mid-air, never even aimed, just pointed the muzzle at it's chest and fired. The deer was probably only about 18" from the muzzle of the rifle when I shot. I hit it in the heart, and it crashed about 75 yards down into a hole.

Pretty exciting stuff, I love it when they get close.

2Poppa

Years ago, while I was walking up a rather steep point, I rested, leaning myself and my bow against a wide oak tree. As I was catching my breath, I looked behind me and saw a rather large doe coming up the pointheaded for the tree I was resting on.

I used the tree to shield my presence. The doe kept getting closer and closer as I came to full draw, me on one side of the tree and her on the other.

I patiently waited for her head, neck and finally her shoulder to come around the tree when I s-q-u-e-e-z-e-d the release.

Dang!
I hadn't noticed the small 2 inch diameter, sapling growing beside the huge white oak. My aluminum arrow hit the tree and made like 90 degree angle out of the projectile. The startled deer snorted, and stared at my face for a brief second and tore back down the point to never be seen again ...

When the doe snorted, mucous flew into my face ... that's close!

waiting_for_a_gift

I am truly lmao at that one. I can just picture it. I can also feel the frustration. I have missed (or failed to get a shot) many times inside 10 yards. You're lucky you didn't get hurt.

Schultzy

I've had some close encounters with bear bow hunting. On 2 different occasions I've had bear put there paw on my portable tree stand. They both were about 6 inches away from my foot. Surprisingly I wasn't at all nervous. I got more worked up when they climbed down the tree and went to the bait and offered me a shot. 4 other times I've had them climb my tree and stop right below the stand and look and sniff at me about a foot or 2 away. Another time in Montana elk hunting I had a nice 6x6 bull thrashing the bush that I was hiding behind. He wasn't more then 10' away, that scared the heck out of me!! The funny thing was I never even got a shot off. He walked directly away from me.

jcsfootball

well this is a close encounter with another hunter..i was sittin in a stand about 50 yards away from our property line when a spike started walkin through the woods on the border line between my property and our neighbors property. he walked down about 100 yards before he started coming out from the treeline when all of a sudden *boom!!* i jumped so high i thought i would shoot through the roof of the treestand. our neighbors were hunting in their stand adjacent to our property line and they just happened to shoot the deer first. that scared me so bad!