Thread: Up Close / How Close

I once spotted a stag feeding down the river bed towards us. He was in sunlight we were in shade, he kept moving along and when he stopped and put his head down, I would move closer. I ran out shade and cover at about 25 yards, so took the shot broadside into his shoulder, at such a close distance i wasnt sure of a head shot/neck shot. The 270 literally blew him off his legs.
Another time I saw a red hind from about 350 m away, feeding on a face above a creek. I got down into the creek bed and stalked in to where she was.
The chatter of the water masked any sound I was making
Looked up the 30 M or o that seperated us and thought.... I can get closer.
Her head was behind a bit of scrub as she fed. I climbed up the near vertical face hanging onto bits of cutty grass and the like, got to within 7 or 10 M and had another look ... GONE!!

I took a young Scottish lad bowhunting in the kaimais the other day. I managed to make him shoot a hind at 5 meters. It was the closest he has ever come to shoot at an animal. You would have seen the grin on his face!

Ive head shot quite a few game with a 22Lr which requires managing distance and angles. Not something you can admit to in certain crowds but its legitimate form of hunting if you do it right.

Two incidents spring to mind.

The first was a roe buck I spotted lying just inside a wood I was stalking along the edge of. There was a bramble bush between us that I could just see over. I raised my rifle slowly but had an 8x fixed power scope at the time and couldn’t get a sight picture. Ended up looking over the scope and dropped him with a neck shot.

The second was an out of season roe doe I spotted on a very windy morning. She was browsing through a large clearing into the wind
. I thought it would be fun to see how close Sam the lab and I could get to her. Stalking slowly in, we gradually caught up with her and got so close that I was able to tap her on the haunch with my sticks. She casually looked round and almost died of fright before running off. Sam was appalled with me for not shooting her, but it was fun.

I have got to within 3m of a hind, I was hunting a private block with a stag or spikers only policy.
Spotted it at about 10 and froze got the binos out and once I had figured it for a Hind it was then a case of how close can I get.
There was a tree directly between its eyes and me, a stream running in the background so I was only worried about scent and major noise.
Had time to get the phone out and get pics etc
And just quietly walked in on it, fantastic experience and made me want to try and stalk in more often

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I shot a Thar pretty much on the end of the barrel.

I spotted a mob of them feeding across a face close to last light.I scooted up a gut hoping to intersect them,when I got to where I thought they would be I thought I had blown it.I snuck around the right side of a bolder and there they were,all grazing in a row.I shot the first one point blank.
I have done a fair bit of Thar hunting since,but never been as lucky as that.