Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

What's your shortest shot?

Buckmaster

Senior Member
14,477
205
Portage
I had a mature at 4 yards beneath me a couple years ago.
I had a broadside straight down shot.
I spinned her and she fell over on the spot, let out a big "naaahhhh".
I watched 4-5 18" gushers of blood pump from my arrow lodged in her spine and that was the end.
I've never seen gushers of blood before. That was the first and last time.
She was alive for 6-8 seconds after arrow entry.
Pulling the arrow out of the spine and feeling every bone and muscle while removing it was the nastiest part.
 
i was on my knees on an outside corner of a fence line several years ago in the briars. a doe came by and i swear she was so close the arrow was in her befor it left the string
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,187
171
feet not yards here....i was counting vertabre as i picked a spot.
 

formerbowhunter1023

Now Posts as Jesse..
0
0
SE Ohio
8' straight down on a button buck. I hung low for the cover and he was sniffing the steps smelling the doe pee from my boots. I literally shot within 6" of my platform. It was funny because it knocked him down and the fletchings were still in him when the broadhead buried in the ground. When he fell over, it snapped in half. Talk about knock down power!
 

swantucky

The Crew
1,594
136
Swanton, Ohio
I had to stretch my safety belt to lean out far enough to kill a doe at the base of my tree. I remember thinking the "ethics police" would have my ass for that one.
 
4-5 feet

I was walking home from hunting the creek line behind my house
When I saw several deer in the neibors woods heading to the corn feild
I guessed they would exit the woods on 1 of several trails
So I kneeled down between a big oak tree and a bush right next to the first trail on the edge of the woods
But figured I could cover both #2 and #3 , as I was 90% sure they would use one of those

Nope , down #1 trail
I let 2 yearlings pass ( holding my breath ) and hit the release when Ma ma was in front of me
I remember looking at her , not my sights
So I am glad she was so close
Or I am sure I would have missed

John
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
39,048
274
On the ground.. I had just put on a 2 hour stalk through about 250 acres of 15yo pines. It was a misty freezing rain. I was close to the end of the trail and out of the pines. There was a long hollow to one side of the trail that was mature hardwoods. I stopped on top of that hollow and just looked down through the woods. I stood there about 5 min when i noticed movement. As I watched i could see a deer walking tiresome up the hill. One of those slow head bobbing walks.. Just bobbing along without a care in the world. Crap! I had already taken my face mask off. I looked slowly around for a tree to move to.. Nothing.. I was just standing in the open like a goof... Hell. Play like a tree. LOL.. The deer kept walking.. As it went behind a tree at 30 yards i drew.. I decided to see how close it could get as it was walking right at me. Closer and closer it walked by at 4 feet.. Wack... I liver shot it... LOL... It was so flustered I aimed and didn't follow through. I've shot carp further than that and never use sights. To this day I don't know why I aimed or didn't follow through. I found her about 125 yards away after I backed out for a couple hours.

Last year I passed a doe and a yearling at about 10 feet on the ground. I stalked up on them eating acorns over the edge of a ridge on a semi windy day. Kept trees between us and used a small dip to somewhat hide my lower half. It took about 30 min to close into shooting distance. After watching their every move she and the other one bedded in a small dip. I watched mom lick the the smaller one (who was big enough to shoot), groom and then get up to play a little.. They worked closer to me and the doe walked 10 feet to my left, and the young one not more than three feet to my right. They walked right around me. I didn't shoot. Just watched them walk off. Call me a softy but i couldn't plug them after watching them groom, play and eat for about 45 min..
 

badger

*Supporting Member*
I have shot a lot of stuff ten yards and under. This one here was the closest. I had shot the black one earlier at about ten yards and stayed put in my blind. I took her lungs away, you can't see the entry as she had just been hosed down and was a hairy gal. She ended up making it a hundred yards, them hogs are tough! After it had settled down I had another group of sows and piglets come in, this was about midnight. The largest of the group was pushing 160 or so. She also wasn't having any part of the first ones blood. Hogs know their own blood and it can be tough to get another shot if there's a bunch of fresh blood. She stayed just on the edge of my view and finally gave me a shot. Now keep in mind there's roughly 30-40 pigs in front of me under ten yards eye level as I'm tucked behind some cactus on my knees. As I start to draw on her, this spotted sow shows up to my right at maybe four yards. I finish drawing and get my pin on her. She is slightly quartered to me but I'm more than confident at the short distance. What happened next blew my mind. As the string was leaving my fingers she turned straight to me and caught a snuffer square between the eyes! Her legs folded and she dropped like a two foot butt! Once again there was an explosion of hogs getting the fugg out of there as she lay there twitching. I got up and finished her off, and drug her behind the blind. as I was dragging her I could hear hogs squealing to my right. I hurried up and got back in the cactus blind and got ready. I barely got an arrow knocked before the piglets showed up. When I say piglets I'm talking pigs old enough to fend for themselves. Well they didn't care much for the blood soaked corn and mama didn't either. As she came into view she was circling the corn doing a series of deep grunts. I've had them do it before and it is a warning thing to the young. I decided I was taking her and shot as she walked by and made my first miss of the night!

After that I had enough and went to trail the first pig and get the two of them to camp. Two out of three ain't bad!

 
While on the way out of the woods, a pair of does caught me on the ground with little or nothing to hide behind. I squatted down and attempted to keep a 10" wide tree between me and the approaching does. At about 12 feet the lead doe caught me swinging with her, as I aimed my bow, she stopped and I shot. :smiley_bril:

She went about 30 yards and flipped end over apple cart, as the other doe stood looking on and wondering what had just happened. The second doe was approx. 20 feet from me and shortly after the shot, she bolted up the hill.

I used one of the original Razorbak 5 broadheads and a 55# Bear Brown Bear bow. It was one of the early model split limb bows with eccentric wheels. Lightening fast...at nearly 190 f.p.s. :smiley_blink:

Good hunting, Bowhunter57