How close

[gumbo333]

So sitting in a ground blind, how close has a deer ever gotten to you? Either sex. To start, I have had at least 2 bucks and 2 does within a yards of me. I was sitting in an old lawn chair with some old deadfall with green pine and cedar limbs stuck in them. I could have touched them with my rifle barrel. Plus 1 young spike that I reached thru and grabbed it's little antler. I have never used a scent cover on my cloths but do put out scent on cloth strips 50 yards away. And I always wear a face mask and gloves, covering all skin. All after I reached 50, 22 years ago.

[gumbo333]

Sorry,I messed up.

[ascast]

I had a young doe lick my coat once,

[slim1836]

Closest I've been is about 6 feet.

Slim

[rking22]

Spent about an hour one wet morning slipping within feet of a doe, could have touched her with the muzzle of the longrifle. Had one walk up to about 5 feet behind me a couple years ago, was sitting against an oak tree. No scent bloker or otherwise and probably not wearing cammo.Not certain but I rarely wear it, usually flannel ot wool shirt in earth tones and carhart canvas pants. Be still, keep downwind of them and close happens.
On the doe mentioned first, once I saw it was a doe, I decided to experiment. Pulled the cock back, no response from the doe. Pulled the set trigger " Click" , very metallic sound, she spun around and took off like a rocket! Some sounds are acceptable, some will send them scrambling. Have also found that an orange desiel tractor, engine running, is a decent way to stalk farm county deer :bigsmyl2:

[Dan Cash]

I have touched a deer while sitting against a log in some downed branches. Young doe. She backed up when my hand touched her nose but did not run.

[Winger Ed.]

I spilled some corn once just outside of my ground blind. A fawn came along and ate it for several minutes.
Standing up, and looking down out the window it was 3-4 inches away before it wandered off.
After that, I always left some just outside, but it never happened again.

[hc18flyer]

I had a fork look in my blind window this Fall. I should have taken him out of the gene pool! This past December my Grandson had a cap fail to fire on a percussion muzzleloader, 3 deer at 15 yards stayed put while we recalled and fired, I was surprised to say the least. hc18flyer

[hc18flyer]

Recapped not recalled, dang auto correct!

[Dpmsman]

I had a monster buck walk a couple of feet behind me. I was sitting on a line fence with my 44mag revolver in my lap and about 10min before shooting hours I hear a deer walking towards me off to my right. I couldn't tell what sex but it was heading right for me. The deer was walking in the field but when it got within 25yds it walked up on top of the line fence and I saw the rack in the sky wow! Biggest buck I have ever seen! I raised my revolver up, cocked the hammer and CLICK!!! The buck was staring rite at me so I froze. After a couple of seconds he started walking towards me again but was angling behind me. So I tried to swing to make a shot before he winded me but couldn't. He bolted out in front of me and stopped about 100 yards out. It was still pretty dark and I didn't want to risk wounding him so I let him trot off. 10 minutes later the same scenario except it was a smaller buck. This time I didn't cock the hammer till I was ready to fire.

[Johnch]

A few years back I had 2 deer trip ... over the rope holding a side of the ground blind out

But Still hunting about 10 years back , while Bow hunting I had a doe about 2" from my hand

I have shot several bucks ... all from the same pit blind at 3-25 feet as they got ready to cross the creek
Err it was a tile wash out about 4' deep almost at the edge of a creek , I just added a chunk of plywood on the bottom , used a poly chair to sit on and trimmed the brush to give me several shooting holes

Deer IMO for the most part get used to what is in a place after a while

I have box blinds that have been in the same place for years ...Dad has one he and I built in 1981 or 1982 ... deer ignore them
Don't make noise and the deer walk right up

John

[trails4u]

Not the closest I've ever been......but had a cool experience with my 16yo son this past season. Hunting over a bean field....so I had him positioned to see over the field, and I sat sideways to him, so I could see his 6oclock where there was a small sliver of green that I've killed deer in before. Sure enough, a little basket-rack 6pt stepped out behind him. I watched the young buck until he was about 8yds. off our position, then gave my son the 'eyebrows'. He sat dead still....took his time, and watched the little buck come into sight. I will NEVER forget the look in his eyes.....seeing a buck that close. For the record....we were not in a blind, just sitting against a fence corner. Unfortunately we didn't get the shot, as my buddy hunting the field behind us shot a doe about the time the little buck was coming into play, so he got spooky and left. But I don't care....it was an awesome moment with my kid I'll never forget....and I think he might be hooked. :P

[Static line]

close enough to have a doe in a herd of 7 to having her smell my breath as I was sleeping,so I'd say just a couple inches. Had a fox step on my leg once while leaning up against a tree too.

[GhostHawk]

A Technically I was not in a blind. I was crouched behind a deadfall and behind a big weedy bush that had grown up under it.

B The buck in question was well known to me. I knew him, he knew me, we had seen each other often.

C He jumped over the windfallen tree/bush. As he passed over my head I stuck my 20 ga pump up and put one in his boilerroom. I estimated at the time that he only cleared my barrel by 5 or 6 inches.

But my dad did one better. He was sitting on a bucket, had a young curious doe walk over when he was bow hunting. He actually reached out with his hand and touched her on the nose and said go away, I'm looking for your daddy.

My buck is on my wall, over 200 lbs, 10 points, tall ones.

You can get pretty close if you have patience.

[gumbo333]

These are really cool. I don't care if you were in a blind, a box, a pit, behind a bush or tree, just standing somewhere, or not hunting. I didn't word the original question properly. But certainly peoples experiences are ones they will always remember. I hope there are more.

[Thumbcocker]

Season before this past one I had a buck stop 10 feet from where I was sitting on a log in the open. My butt was about 18" off the ground. He walked out with the wind to his back and stood there licking his nose. I was able to pick up my revolver off the log, cock the hammer and shoot him. Felt kinda bad for him. guess he never listened to his momma about circling around to get the wind. Mrs. Thumbcocker had sat on that log a day or two before and had sprayed some deer "calming" spray on it and in the area. Don't know if that was a factor or not.

[popper]

About 6' elevated box, big doe walked right next to it. I leaned out the window to look at her and she just stood there, eventually walked off.

[mattw]

I was in a ground blind and had one stick it's head in and sniff me for about 4 minutes. I had to try something... in a very quite voice... I said boo! OMG it was so funny to see the reaction. One of the grandkids of my hunting buddy was about 14 and fell asleep in his blind on a very nice warm day. He awoke to a buck licking his face, when he moved the buck blew snot all over his face, ripped the blind trying to get away and the kid fell over in his chair, right out the back of the blind. Laughed my butt off from about 100 yards away! :)

[rking22]

Couple more that posts have reminded me.
In college I loved to rock climb and several of us would hike in and camp on Friday evening. It was a beautiful fall evening and I did not bother with a tarp, just rolled my (bright blue!) Sleeping bag out on the pine needles beside the fire. No one else had come in that night so the camp was quiet. I woke up the next morning to a doe and her fawn standing not 10 ft away! I layed there quiet and still for a good while, probably 15 minutes, watching them feed and goof off. No idea how long they would have stayed but my tonsils were floating! Wasn't hunting but an awesome experience to wake up to the sunrise with all nature's splendor.
Another was my best friend and I rabbit hunting in my pine thicket. Was the start of the rut and we had a monster buck run right up to us. He threw the brakes on at 10 feet or so, stared at us for a few seconds and almost ran over Sam when he took off. I think we were all equally supprised, I had my Redhawk on my hip and never even thought about it!
The last is WAY off topic, actually reverse. I was bow hunting in a friend's tree stand, several deer were 200+ yards out but coming in. I slowly twisted to be in a better position as they were feeding along. As I moved my bow, wood longbow with a 3arrow bow quiver, they snapped heads up looked directly at me and bolted back the way they came! I think my yellow shield fletching flashed in some broken sunlight, don't know but they spooked big time. My feeling is that a doe is more alert than a buck, on average, and having more than one set of eyes on you is trouble. A buck is just plain stoopid during the rut, kinda like I was in my "rut days" :bigsmyl2:

[waksupi]

I've killed a buck at around six feet, and have had elk step over my legs as they passed by. Too close to draw an arrow.

[MT Gianni]

Camouflaged, I had a doe and fawn at 4'. Elk at a scatter, get out of Dodge moment were 10 feet and on the run. I had no tag. I have had birds land on my shoulder on two occasions.

[Bazoo]

I was setting out on a log looking for squirrels when I heard some rustling leaves. It got louder till a young doe walked about 2 feet from me. I could have nudged her with my NEF 20 gauge's muzzle. That was real neat.

This fall, I was talking on the phone out in the yard one evening, letting the dogs do their business when out of nowhere a big ol doe jumps in front of me no more than 8 inches from my head. Turns out the dogs had spooked it and she tried to jump over me. I felt the wind off her.

[big bore 99]

I once was up in a tree blind bowhunting. Got there just at daybreak. I stayed up there about 4 hrs. I gave it up and hit the ground and a big buck jumped up out of the tall grass about 25 ft away and took off. There was a railroad track only about 50 yds away and had 3 freight trains go by in that time and never even spooked him.

[Rick Hodges]

I have sat in brushed in blinds while deer ate the brush....not a foot from me.

[Winger Ed.]

Didn't happen to me, but this thread remined me of a couple of stories:
On another forum there was a guy up in snow country that fed deer in his back yard.
After dark, they'd come in and eat. He started sitting outside on the patio to wait for them. After awhile they didn't spook and came in.
Then he'd move their feeder closer and closer to his patio, and they would still come on up to it.
It took about a year, but one night his wife got a picture of him hand feeding a 4 point while sitting on his patio.

Back in the 1960's a Aunt & Uncle who had a ranch down in the Texas Hill Country found a real small orphan fawn.
They kept it inside the house and bottle fed it until it was healthy enough to go back outside.
It stayed close to the house. It would come to you and get a piece of bread until it was a few months old, and then went back to the wild.

[GhostHawk]

Bigbore that train is no threat to a deer.

I was in a stand overlooking a partially picked corn field one nice oct afternoon.
Farm about 1/4 mile down the road on the other side. 3 does, 2 fawns out browsing some 50 yards from me.

Farm screen door slams, not an ear twitch. Car door opens, slams shut, nada. Motor starts, tires kick gravel, car takes the corner at speed and down the road it goes. Not a head raised.

Tractor starts up, nada.

2 squirrels under me snap a twig and I have 10 eyes and 10 ears radaring me, heads up, tails up. The squirrels went running up a tree, were spotted, identified. Slowly heads went back down.

Normal noises, no matter how strange they seem to us, but stuff that happens daily, weekly. The deer hear, spot, identify, understand it all. And promptly ignore it.

A strange sound in a direction a predator could be approaching from gets their full attention.

My funnest hunting experience was a blue jay who tried to land on my fiberglass arrow shaft when I was hid in a bush. He'd lock on, and slowly start to slip, tip, one way or the other. He tried at least 6 times before giving up. Same day I saw a rough grouse climbing in the same bush as me looking more like a parrot than a grouse.

Squirrel hunting I once had a young one run up the tree, climb onto my toe and give me a piece of his mind. What the heck is this dang boot doing here in the first place. I felt so sorry for the young fool I did not shoot him.

[brewer12345]

I have had them walk up to me as I stood there out in the open. If you don't move, have the wind and are in their path they will just keep coming. Usually when they get within 20 or 25 feet of me I start moving around because I know they are dumb and panicky. Not interested in being stepped on/trampled, gored, etc.

[yeahbub]

On a hunt that should have been planned better, I had snoozed off in a brushy spot where I could see deer when they came out of the trees 30 yards or so away. I had been sitting cross-legged, wrapped up in my sleeping bag with my 12 ga. across my knees, but I had sagged over to the left and woke up looking at the ground - and a hoof - within easy snatching distance. I heard some sniffing above my head and resisted the temptation to grab that leg (and with my luck, find out what kind of championship MMA fighting skills this deer had). After a few seconds or so he/she hurried away a few feet. I looked up and saw a half dozen other ones standing around, watching the bold one check out the odd "blob" on the ground. With several backward glances, they hurried off after that. I watched them go and called it good, determined to not stay up so late the night before the next time I went hunting.

Years ago, when I was squirrel hunting at the Lexington Wildlife Management Area in Oklahoma I was set up against a tree in the bottoms where there were decent stands of forest, waiting for daylight. In the dimness, I thought I spotted movement on the ground 15 or 20 yards out. I watched as a raccoon materialized, sniffing about and coming in my general direction. It was getting closer and started trundling along in a beeline toward me. I thought this thing will be in my lap in a few seconds, so I quietly said, "Hey!" No response. "Hey!", louder. Finally the raccoon took notice and about fell over in total surprise when it got a good look at me from 5 feet away. It looked at me for a long moment and started shambling off, but not in a panic. In a few seconds, it was meandering away, unconcerned, seemingly taking in stride our chance encounter. I was just glad it didn't turn into a close encounter of the unpleasant kind.

[Texas by God]

A friend of mind was in an elevated box blind and a hawk flew in the open window. Fecal matter of both species was expelled according to my friend.

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[NoZombies]

About the distance from my drivers seat to the front of the hood...

They come up to the kitchen window pretty regularly while eating the clover that grows in the yard though, and the kids love that.

[missionary5155]

Good afternoon
My closest buck was while I was out backpacking up a mountain in east California on a lonely flat. Was in my bag half awake in the early morning and knew I was not alone. Opened my eyes and slowly stuck my head out of the untied tent flap. Looking over and around the left front of the tent stood the buck looking down at me close enough I could smell his breath. I am not sure whose eyes were the widest at that moment. He jumped spun in the air and was 20 feet away in one instant. But he stopped and turned around just standing there watching me slowly crawl out the open front looking at him. Maybe he went and told all his buck buddies he just saw where humans come from ??

Next next closest buck was while my wife & I were kayaking the North Fork River. Just gliding along with the current I saw a deer at about 50 yards on the right (west) bank laying still. Being curious I turned my kayak slowly to nose up to it. At about 25 yards saw it was a big racked buck. At about 10 yards could see his head clearly with his right eye closed and breathing slow and even. At 5 yards I decided to let my kayak nudge into the bank and touch his rump with my paddle. When the bow very quietly pushed against the grassy bank Mr. Buck's right eye opened quickly and opened very wide. He quickly stood and leaped over me and kayak. I could have grabbed his belly fur or hind legs as he flew overhead.
He ended his short airial display in a true belly flop soaking my backside and kayak rear. I quickly back paddled, turned and escorted him across the channel with my wife not so close on his right side. Could have easily grabbed his antlers. About 6 feet from the approaching bank I stopped and let him honorably exit the water leaving us with one very well directed snort.

My closest deer while hunting was a young buck who came trotting along early one morning following a small dry creek where I was set up in a ground blind between a huge cottonwood and a small maple about 4 feet from the old giant. The creek was only two feet wide at the spot I choose. The young buck can trotting along the far edge headed what would have been up stream. As he got directly opposite of me he was maybe one foot from the muzzle of my caliber .58 Zouave musket. At firing the ball went through the chest but the blast set his fur on fire. Talk about a young buck running like his fur was on fire ! He ran to his right, up a bank, around a tree, back down the bank and kindly slid to a stop maybe 10 feet away.
Mike in Peru

[quilbilly]

I almost got stepped on once by an elk bull while sitting in a bush during mule deer season.

[Walks]

This isn't a Deer story.

Years & years back I was sitting back up against a tree, cocked .357 on top my knee. Full camo, I had rubbed Sage all over my skin & clothes. I had a call in my mouth and a squeaker in my left hand up against my thigh. I was trying to get this antsy coyote to come closer then 125yds. He was working in slowly. The only thing that was moving was my left thumb.

I felt something tug at my left sleeve, and then again.

I looked down and there was a FREAKING BOBCAT Tugging at my sleeve !!!!!!!

I froze & then the coyote moved into the Bobcats eyesight. Bobcat jumped over me, coyote froze and I nailed him at 75yds with a head shot.

One of the best Hunting Experiences of my life.

[RP]

When a doe blows its just like a person lots of spit with that gust of air.

[Thumbcocker]

Got pretty close to these little guys. They couldn't resist the shiny keys.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190130/b573ddb2f481ac24bf1c4e1edf8a71ad.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190130/86317b7d3aceb34957022c9df328a5fc.jpg

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[Messy bear]

Fun thread to read!
Last year I was hunting one of my favorite bowhunt spots during deer gun season. Following a trail into the wind, I noticed a small muley buck walking my way. I sat down sideways with one leg across the trail knee pulled up. Watched as he came expecting to see him blow up when he got close. Instead he just walked up and put his nose on my knee. Pulled his head back quickly and went around me on the trail downwind and never looked back. It's amazing how some of them are affected by the rut.

[rking22]

Be glad you didn't have a pocket full of " doe in heat" [smilie=w:

[Hickory]

Got pretty close to these little guys. They couldn't resist the shiny keys.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190130/b573ddb2f481ac24bf1c4e1edf8a71ad.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190130/86317b7d3aceb34957022c9df328a5fc.jpg

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If you have ever raised sweetcorn you soon find that these little rascals are not so cute.

[dragon813gt]

Had a young doe get close enough that I could have touched her if I wanted to. I was spring turkey hunting and was in the open sitting w/ my back against a small tree. She actually woke me up from a very restful nap.

[Mr_Sheesh]

A friend was camping one time in early summer, just ground cloth and sleeping bag as it was a nice night. About 4am she woke to feel a warm presence snuggled on top of her; Full moon so she could see that it was a skunk... She decided "Well, I might as well go back to sleep" and when she next woke up it was gone. That could have gone FAR worse! She has weird stuff happen to her, I saw someone who was splitting wood (with his back to a 10'x20' puddle so no one would be there accidentally) who she warned she was coming past behind him, he then proceeded to throw the double-bitted axe over his shoulder WAY early, right as she was behind him; I hadn't known that she could teleport but she vanished and re-appeared 20' away on the other side of that pool, from a walk on his side of it. (A few of us then proceeded to have a little safety chat with that guy, it's bad when you split someone's skull with an axe, unless it's the Zombopocalypse and they're a Zombie!) She did a good unprepared broad jump!

Shot a grouse one day here, part of the season .22LR is legal, so I'd head shoot them; No sooner did that grouse flop on the ground but a red blur grabbed it and ran. I hadn't seen that fox before then! Stealthy little beast.

[GhostHawk]

Ok I saved the best one for last on purpose.

Year was 1976, Scene, River woods, River had been channeled, cutting off oxbow loops. At the start and end of each oxbow was a aprox 15 yard strip of dirt with a culvert to let excess water drain. All grown up in trees since the channeling was done. It was bow season, and the boys were going to drive or push about 1.5 miles of woods on a nice sunday October afternoon.

I was told to go to the oxbow, find a place, sit tight until the drivers came through. Another guy came with me, parked his pickup out in bare field 50 yards from the woods.
He went right to the end of one oxbow. I went left to the start of the next.

Found a boxelder tree with a pretty good lean to it. I was able to lean back against the tree, almost sitting. Gave me a nice solid base, and I had good visibility in the direction the drivers would come from.

So I am leaning against my tree, cammo from head to tail. And I heard something coming, something making a lot of noise. So I'm all fired up then I see it. At first it looked like a horse, but the nose looked wrong. Then I saw this big wide set of horns and figured out it was a moose.

It was swinging along in this loping gait they have, not running hard, just drifting through the trees.

It starts to swing out to the open. Stops, sees the truck. Shakes his head. He does not like that truck.

At this point he is probably 50 yards away, to my right, at the edge of the trees. He snorts, ticked off about the truck, turns to the right and heads right at me.

Now my brain goes into overdrive. What if he just grinds me into this tree with those horns? Freeze time. So he is swinging through the tree's, weaving his big rack around this tree then that. And I realize he is going to pass close to me. TOOOOO close to me.

And I know he is already ticked off about the truck.

So he is coming on, and I can see it has green teeth. And that his left horn is going to take my hat off. So at the last posssible second, I scrunch my neck down half an inch.
His antler brushes my hat but does not knock it off. Meantime my eyes are burning details into my brain about his hair, the color, how it shines in the sun. How big his cojones are. My LORD what cojones he has.

And then he is past, and I am alive. And stuck, frozen, adrenaline shock I think. Still stuck some 10 minutes later when one of my friends walks up to me.

Hey bill, did you see the moose? I point down, finally manage to get out a word. Cojones, BIG.

He sees the moose tracks right in front of me.

Bill were you standing here when he went by?

I nodded violently yes.

I pointed to my hat, still sitting slightly askew on my head.
"Horn, ttt t touched hat."

Bill you telling me his horn touched your cap and moved it?

Yeeeeup.

You didn't dare move?

Nope, sc, sc, scared. Dunno what he'd do.

Finally my tongue loosened up, I told the whole story to the whole bunch.

You could tell, they'd of liked to call me a liar. But I was still leaned up against that tree, my tracks, and his showed plain. So there it was, less than 2 feet from my toes to his tracks. Kind of hard to disbelieve your eyes when the tracks are right there.

So that night I'm sleeping, and I am awakened by a strange noise. I raise up on one elbow and look. It is my dad, on his knees by the side of my bed. And he is holding up my underwear.

Dad? What's?

Go back to sleep, we'll talk about it in the morning.

Seems my hunting buddies had ran into my dad at the local bar. Sent him to check my shorts. Dad was plenty dang sheepish about it the next morning. But he wanted to hear the story from me. Just like it happened. Don't add nothing, don't leave nothing out.

Too close, too dang close by too many feet. But I can see see that long nose, the shiny hide, the big cajones swinging, and the horns, ever so lightly brushing my hat.

No I don't expect you to believe me. I'm not sure my hunting buddies did, and they saw the tracks. Pretty sure my dad did.

True story, told just the way it happened. Nothing added, nothing left out. If anything it is Understated, not adulterated or exaggerated blown up in any way. Believe or not, I care not. I know what I saw, and did, and what the moose did, and did not do. And why that moose did not see me I won't ever know.

I'm just happy as heck he chose not to grind me into the tree.

[Harter66]

I got in the exact right....wrong place once . A spooked herd of mulie does nearly trampled me in a quakey run . It was set up as a drive and I was set up as the shooter . I could hear them but no chance to get a line or pick one . Into sight about 50 ft away and out again . They made a turn about where I was standing 3 of 8 within arm's length . I don't know that they actually saw me as they settled into that La Pew cross country bounce about the time they stopped turning .

I've seen several rut bucks that were just oblivious to everything and not look up until they were 10' from a running truck ........of course I had a doe tag or an elk tag ......

[WRideout]

Once when I was duck hunting along the Sacramento River with some other guys, we decided to split up and move downstream some. I stayed put. The river was real high, and it had pushed all the critters into a slim margin of bushes and weeds before the plowed fields. A few minutes after the other duck hunters moved into their hiding spot, a very large buck burst out of the bushes and ran across an open field, about twenty yards away. He was fat and out of shape; his tongue hung out while he ran. I just stood and watched holding my twelve gauge loaded with high brass sixes. In that part of CA they are all blacktails, which is a subset of mule deer.

Wayne