Distance of Deer shots.

[7magWoodsman]

Just wondering...I have actually killed deer at all distances so I fall in an even mixture of all distances.

and yes I have shot a deer from so close I smelled it, and yes deer hair can be caught on fire from a muzzle blast  :wet:

[Redhawk1]

I have taken 80% of my deer under 40 yards. I have on occasion had shot out to 150 to 160 yards. But I do most of my hunting in the woods and short shots are the norm. Bow hunting has always been under 30 yards.  

[High Brass]

I'd say with a rifle that 65-70 yards is probably the overall average of my gun kills.  All were inside 200 yards, all but two were inside 100.

[7magWoodsman]

If it was not for family/friend(we practiced a lot and was never irresponsible) competition in my teenage years I would fall in the less than 200 yard range also, but when I was younger we actually "hunted" for the longest shot possible which was upwards of 500 yards and believe me sometimes its harder to find a spot with that available distance in my area than it is to actually make the shot, but we did it a lot, in the last 5-10 years my life the farthest shot was a little over 300 with a lot of shots less than 50 but overall in my liftetime I have shot as many deer at long distances as I have short and medium. I say the bulk of my shots for the rest of my life will be between 25-200(in my area) If I go out west to hunt my old teenage past time may come into play and also to my advantage......I dont know how many times we told each other "I saw a nice buck this morning but it was only about 250 yards.", my Dad used to get ill at us and say stuff like"yall are the hard headest bunch of hoodlems..." but when it was all said and done he would be the one braggin' on us the most :-)

I am sorry about not stating but I meant rifle shots if I added up my bow and muzzle-loading kills too it would be mostly close kills or perhaps a more comfortable medium...

[High Brass]

7mag,

  I know what you mean on finding a long shot.  I haven't looked for them, since I don't ever care to take a shot that far if I can avoid it.  300 yards is my cut off and that's under ideal conditions.  I hunt in eastern NC and central WV.  Down here its either dog hair thick or large cutovers and crop fields.  I don't hunt the fields as I hunt public or military lands and neither have them.  I have hunted power line right of ways and cutovers but have never taken a shot very far.  In WV, about 200 yards is the farthest you could see to take a shot in most cases where I hunt and that't even pushing it.  I say that each year up there, the guys at camp take there deer within 100 yards 99% of the time.

[jhm]

Here on the place we have tower stands and can actually ( watch ) the deer come in on some of the stands from as far away as 1000 yds, and no we havent taken any shots at that distance but my grandson likes to watch them with his binoc, and tell his dad what they are.    JIM

[High Brass]

If I add bow, then it'd change.  I have only shot one deer over thirty yards with  a bow and it got stolen :evil:

[SLAVAGE]

all deer were 60-80 yards last years was 130 longest shot i ever tock at an animal
closest
lol 2 feet with a 44
looked  like clint eastwood drew the ruger out of the cowboy holster an did a hip shot an pop it went down right ther lol

[7magWoodsman]

If I add bow, then it'd change.  I have only shot one deer over thirty yards with  a bow and it got stolen :evil:

This reminds me of a time when I was 14 (I remember my age exactly cause its the year I got the old Bear Black Bear for my b-day), I shot a NICE buck with a bow right at dark, I waited a good 10 min after the shot and then retrieved my flashlight(a minimag) from my pack. I climbed out of the tree and turned the light on"pop" the bulb went out, gotta a spare in the caop right? nope forgot to put one back in a year ago, I walked back home(about a mile or two) me and my Dad returned and followed my perfectly shot deer's blood trail about 50 yards to a big ol gutpile :eek:    :evil:   The only thing we could think of is someone was close and heard it fall...they only had about  2-3 hours to gut it and drag it out...and yes we followed the drag marks all the way to the creek, which the trespassers had crossed... we tracked them all the way to a gravel road, after that we put the word out and to no avail never found out who took my deer :?

SLAVAGE    :-D

[flintlock]

Bet you haven't forgotten to carry a spare flashlight since!!!!  flintlock

[7magWoodsman]

Bet you haven't forgotten to carry a spare flashlight since!!!!  flintlock

You got that right. :lol:
actually I carry a mini-mag(I always make sure I have an extra bulb in cap too) a micro-mag(also always make sure I have a good bulb in cap) and a Brinkman LED, which I have only been using since last year, but I absolutely love it. also carry two AAs and one AAA, just in case.

[Chuck White]

The furthest I've shot one is somewhere just shy of 300 yards!

On average, I'd guess my shots center around 75 yards, without counting bow season, then I limit myself to 20 yards!  The closest was around 6-10 feet, I know it singed about a 6-8 inch circle of hair on his rib cage when the 7mm Rem Mag went off!

[ratherbefishin]

I've killed well over 50 bucks and the majority were within 40 -50 yards, the farthest maybe 200[ across a  loggingslash] and the closest 2[ I stepped up on a rock and he had been lying down the other side of it]