Your first one - Tell us the story of your first deer!!

[redneckross]

12-4-03 gun season, franklin county.

i took a few days off work and stayed with my friends at school. hunted tuesday and wednesday in athens county and didnt see a dang thing. wednesday evening jon, another friend stoped by for a few beers and said he was wanting to know if i wanted to hunt his familys land in grove city. having been to his house and been on the land and seen all the pictures he has taken and some of the bucks he has taken i was excited to say the least.

4am thursday we loaded up in his "monty"carlo and headed to grove tucky.

breaking dawn found me about 200 yds behind his uncles house sitting against a giant cottonwood tree in a small drainage. he was sitting about 10 ft to my left where he had a view of an old access road. with 71 and 270 humming in the background we waited.

not long after daylight we heard a twig snap and then the loudest deer blow i have ever heard. 55 yds behind us there was a big doe up on the edge of a thicket on a hill side. we checked the wind and knew there was no way she was smelling us. so i rolled around the tree and got to my knees stedying the gun on the side of the tree. he wisperd and asked you want to shoot a doe this early??? i think he got my answer when he heard the saety click off. just as i rested my cheek on the stock he said wait. theres always a few bucks hanging around here mid day. so reluctantly i put the winchester 1300 back on safe. sat back down and we listened to that doe walk into the thicket and bed down.

it couldnt of been 5 min later he got my attention and motioned with his hand on his head and fingers in the air BUCK!!!!!! how far i wisperd. 50 yds. i got ready for the shot but had no idea where he was looking. i had no view of the deer untill he was on us. and when i say on us i mean 14 yds. jon was between the deer and me but off the side a little. he was in full view to jon for a minute or so and i wasnt shooting. well from my point of view i could only see his head and his rump. i had to wait. the deer seen us sitting there and kept looking us over but never showed any sign of fear. urban deer... i could see jon getting an itchy finger and was going to raise his gun the next time the deer looked away. just then the deer took 3 steps forward and gave me the shot. BOOM!!!!!!!!! the deer took off about 40 yds to where i could just see his head over the creek bank. i seen him do the death wobble and heard him fall in the leaves.

jon showed me the ins and outs of blood tracking. what the bright red and bubbles ment. and as he explained things to me i started getting excited. we found where my slug had slammed into a tree and there was hair and blood in the bark. once we walked up on the deer he showed me the trick of touching their eye to see if they are out. HE WAS OUT! i had just killed my first deer. a 2.5 year old 7 pt buck. i picked his head up and shouted all kinds of things i dont remember. then jon said wtf is that where his head was laying. i look down and theres a mink skull laying right under where my deers head had fallen. for those of you who have never seen a mink skull they are only slightly bigger than a quarter. he showed me how to gut then we dragged.

when we returned to school we hung him up and got drunk. really drunk. when i returned to school after working the fall qtr. i took the head and made a euro mount in the lab i was a tutor in.



wow. i cant believe i remembered all that as i started typing. now im looking up at that skull mount hanging on the wall and the mink skull sitting on top of it. good times and great memories.

now theres a golf course on that land and most of his grandmas land has been sold off to walmart and other developers. but... o grams is smart. she took that money and baught more land just down the way. ha ha.

[eubie]

Ok, Stonegod here it goes.
Jackson county gun season 1989, Sat to be exact the last day in those years. I was a senior in high school hunting with my cousin, he showed me allthe in and outs that first year. Well that morning got to his in-laws farm before dawn and he yold me where to go. I remember thinking first morning I ever hunted and he wants me to walk through the wood in the dark with a gun, Ok man whatever. Got avbout 50 yards doen a tractor path and jumped a grouse scared the living crap out of me. Decieded then and thare to what for it to get daylight. Day now I can walk again and see what is out here to get me. Found my spot and stood next to an osk tree. After a couple of hours got bored, the ADD kicken in, and walked across the field to look in other woods, saw nothing and went back to my tree. Not 5 min. later I hear him shoot and scared the crap mout of me again, second time so far that day. Well 10 mins or so later a hear something behind me and see a deer, then I see antlers. What do I do? I jump to the next tree, how that deer never saw me I will never know. Now the buck is walking to me and will pass me. When he was behind a tree I raised the 12 ga. single shot FIE and cocked the hammer. He stepped out and I pulled the trigger and saw him drop in his tracks. Shot him at 8 yards. Now what?
I hollered for Griff my cousin and he came running to me. I had no knife so he showed me how to gut. I still can hear him asking if I had a weak stomach before he started. My 8 point was the first deer I killed but the last time I ever got to hunt with Griff. I went to college and hunted other places and was never home again for gun season. We tried but schedules never matched up and Griff passed away in Aug of 2000 from a heat attack.

Man writing this makes it fell like yesterday, I can close my eyes and still see everything about that morning.

[Curran]

[bigcountry]

Well my first kill came to my when iw as 14 yrs old back in 2003..i still remember it like yesterday. It was tuesday nov. 19th, 2003.. I just woke up and realized i had over slept and was late for school. Went into my moms bedroom cuz i was gonna have her run me into town but when i opened the door she was sleeping, so i thought to myself " eh, ill just sneak out back...shell never know..hehehehe" well i hurried up but quietly got my bibs and jacket on and waited till got outside to put my boots on and as i walked out the door i grabbed my grandpas Remington 870 wingmaster and quietly shut the door. I started walkign down the 2 tracks to get to the woods and i looked down at my watch it was only 8:45.." OO yea perfect time to catch something sneaking from corn to our woods"..as i approach the woods on the edge of corn field.. i see these 3 does just 30 yrds into the woods right on path to enterance.. so i wait about 10 minutes and they didnt move a ft. Well there was a steady drizzle coming down and with the leaves being wet i figured i could get closer without them knowing.. so i did..i managed to get within 25yrds..so i pull up the ol 870 look down the scope picked the biggest one i seen that was broadside..and i dont even remember pulling, squeezing, or touching the trigger..the shot went off and it seems like i shot a million miles away everything froze..until i relaized what had happened...i just shot my first deer..:)..but when she took off i seen her drop in the tall weeds we had in front of woods...so im thnkin all right this one is in the freezer..take 3 steps and she jumps back up and runs..by this time im thinkin there is NO WAY i missed so i bleat and she slowed a lil bit and was broadside long enough for me to squeeze one off...and she dropped right there...take about 20 yrds up to her and she jumps up and runs another 40 yrds...( she is just running in a circle really) and i stalk up to where i last her and there she is around 40 yrds broadside and she looks like she is goin down so i pumped another one in her to make sure it was FOR SURE...well that was her last step..i was soo happy..i know it was unethical to shoot her that many time but i knew i hit her good the first shot and i was young.. well when i went up to her i looked down and ill be darned.. 3 round right in the lungs...so now i have to figure a story to tell mom why i didnt go to school..hahaha yea right..so i head up to the house just thinkin of stories to tell her..i mean everything was goin through my head..well everyone else skipped school...is was middel scholl skip day..ya cant just tell a boy he cant hunt...and the one i actually used was What would grandpa have done..think about that mom"..lol..but it was my first kill and it was during gun season up in southwest michigan...god i miss that place..lol

[Seeker Bp]

OK, here go;s ::: In 1988, I was driving home from a local establishment here in Town. While driving my 1978 CJ5 on my normal back road out of town a very mature doe decided to jump out in front of me and i ended up clipping her. Low and behold, not one for wasting grub, proceeded to load her into the front seat of my jeep upside down. Well to my suprise, about 400 yards from my home, she decides she is not dead, and a great tussle erupts in the front of this cj5. I manage to get into my ddriveway, and its just my luck that my pissed off wife is waiting for me on the front porch. Well to her dismay, The doe lost the fight in the front seat....And that Stonegod was my first deer kill... And, my wife never said a thing about stopping at the establishment that night. Needless to say, no more driving from establishments anymore...Its just not worth the cuts and bruises. Seeker

[spike]

Ok ,here's mine back in 1989 I got married and my new father-in-law decided that I was worthy enough to become one of his hunting buddies and decided to take me out during shotgun season on one of their "famous " drives ,he dropped me off at the corner of the woods as a stander and told me not to move until i could see the whites of his eyes when he was to come and get me after the drive was over.So as he got into the truck to drive away a decent 8 pointer came out of the woods not 20 feet from where I was standing stood there looking at me ,so the old 12ga.let out a bang and the buck fell over dead . So my whole hunt lasted less than 10 minutes and that's my story.

[firemedic0306]

My first deer was on halloween day, I was 16 yrs old, 3 years of hunting deer with no success. On the way home from school on the bus me and all of my friends were making plans to all meet up and go trick or treating. One stop away from my house a big buck ran infront of the bus right into the the small wood lot my parents owned which I was bowhunting. When I seen that buck my trick or treat plans changed. My friends were all pissed but I didnt care. I was so excited to get into the woods, i wore my school shoes becuase I was to excited to put my boots on. . I got dressed in my one piece camo suit that was 2x to big for me, got my stand and bow and got into the woods within about 5 min. of getting off the bus. Climbed up a tree on the edge of a soy bean field, and sat untill about 15 min. till dark and said scew it all my friends are having fun im getting down. Lowered my bow and as soon as it hit the ground I seen the buck from earlier about 50 yards from me heading right towardards me. Somehow got my bow up and a arrow nocked with out him seeing me. He was ten yards away I shot him right in the sweet spot watched him drop. Was so excited climbing down I got hung up on a knot onthe tree about 10 ft up and just jumped spraining my ankle. Skipped up to my house taking the short cut through the swamp ruining my shoes. It was a 130ish 8 point. My first deer.

[eastwoodhunter]

My first and only deer so far was a doe killed with a bolt action 12 gauge. It was my second year hunting, last year, on the last day of gun season. A friend let me borrow the gun the night before,and I decided last minute to go the next morning. The weather was perfect, 30 degrees with a light snow. I was hunting my grandmothers farm and right at daybreak I heard gunshots all around. This went on for about an hour and I thought "you gotta be kidding me, theres deer everywhere but right here?" Not long after that 3 doe came strolling along a creek bottom, and right away I knew one of them was going down! The doe dropped in her tracks and suprisingly enough one of the others came back and almost wouldn't leave. When that doe finnaly left I got down down and field dressed my deer and proceeded to drag it to the top of the hill I was hunting. Man was I exhausted after that! It was awesome though, and completely worth it. Now I am waiting for my first bow kill and first buck kill.

[bbowman41]

I apologize in advance for how long this is but I felt compelled to tell the whole story. On 11/19/2011 I went to the stand for a dawn til dusk hunt and I sat there all day. The Stand site is located on a south facing slope full of oak and hickory trees that funnels down into a natural field full of tall grasses and lined with a run off pond that follows a highwall. The pond is divided into sections due to beavers building dams. All in all this spot is a funnel point with a lot of deer traffic. It is the only spot for a 1/4 mile in both directions for the deer to decend down off the hill because of the high cliff and ponds that line the bottom. The wind was perfect and I thought for sure that day was going to be the day. I saw tons of activity but everything was in the field in front of me and nothing was traveling through my funnel. I must have seen 6 bucks and all of them were 75 yards and further. They all seemed to be heading to or coming from one corner of the field. I sat in my stand frustrated and texted my father at one point and told him I was going to make a mid-day move down to that corner of the field. He said I had better do it with enough time for things to settle down before they moved at dusk. The more I thought about it the more I leaned toward staying put. Because the spot I was in is a very high vantage point and I could atleast see the activity and try to submit to memory where they were moving and where they were coming from and at what times. I was in a screwed if I moved and screwed if I didn't position. Because if I moved and didn't see anything then I would wonder if there were something at my other spot, and if I didn't I wouldn't get a shot at all the activity in front of me. I decided to stay put and atleast I would be able to see if something would have moved up the trail where I was going to move. Sure enough at 5:00 pm I spotted a very nice 8 pointer moving up the trail literally 10 yards from the tree I was going to hang my stand. I tried making some grunts and tipping the can a few times. I got his attention but he wasn't curious enough to climb the hill after me. My hunt ended with me empty handed and walking the trail back home with lots of frustration but also I knew exactly where I was going the next morning and I was sitting all day again. I felt confident in moving to the new spot the next morning.

The First thing I did when I got home that night was look up the weather for the next morning. Sure enough it said 65% chance of rain with thunderstorms and it looked to be an all day occurrence. I jumped on here and read all I could about deer movement during the rain. After reading I had decided to hunt as long as it was not a down pour or thunderstorms. The morning came and sure enough it looked like rain but it was not currently raining. So I packed my stuff and headed to the stand. I had a perfect set up once again the wind was right and the position of my stand had natural shooting lanes to heavily traveled deer trails. I broke out my rangefinder and ranged some possible shots off and there I sat..... I saw absolutely no activity all day. The entire sit it looked like it was going to pour down rain at any moment, but it held off. I passed the hours by getting on my phone and seeing what you guys had to say and reading any pointers that pertained to my current hunt. Then it happened. The skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. I said to myself well great... So I got back on this site and there it was, the perfect thread to read "Does Rain effect RUT activity". So I read every post and kept myself occupied. I laughed out loud when I read Stonegod's post about dragging a couch to the woods just to be able to say it can be done. Just as I was finishing up reading I heard movement in front of me. A yearling and a doe moved in to feed on some honeysuckle about 20 yards in front of me. I sat there all day and the rain held off but I had seen nothing. As soon as the rain hit two deer moved in within 10 minutes of the rain starting. I watched them feed for 10-15 minutes or so when I was almost startled out of my stand. I doe came bent and hellbound running with a buck pacing step for step about 10 yards behind her. It scared the S@!% outta me. I watched them run in circles around my stand in literal 100 yard circles and at one point they ran right down the primary trail I was hunting and had previously ranged in at 17 yards. I grunted and tipped the can and absolutely nothing was going to interupt that chase. Once they were out of site I heard more movement and it was another buck hot on the trail. He was grunting and frantically sniffing the exact steps of the previous chase trying to catch up. I told myself this was my chance and I had just hoped he followed that same trail they did that went right past my stand. He was sniffing more than he was chasing so I thought I may be able to get him to stop long enough for a shot. Sure enough he followed the trail but I couldn't get him to stop by grunting, he crossed into my last shooting lane on that trail and he froze and bent over for a quick sniff, I had my pin set right on him and I let it fly. I made a clean shot and I watched the deer stumble about 50 yards from my stand. I got on the phone and called my dad and told him to come up and bring some lights we had a deer to find. I was worried about the rain but I knew my shot was good(I shot from such a high point that my arrow pentrated just behind the shoulder but it was high on one side and it exited the by the leg on the side in the pictures). I gave him a little time and climbed down and waited on my dad. My father does not hunt anymore but as a child he grew up on a farm and hunted with his grandfather. He told me since his grandfather had passed that he has never hunted since. When I saw how he reacted and helped my find my first deer I think I may have rekindle his love for the hunt. He never left my side all night as he helped to field dress, skin and hang the deer for aging. All in all it was an amazing hunt with a good clean kill that I got to enjoy with my father. I just wanted to thank all of you for being patient with my very amateur questions and helping me out as much as possible. This is a great community and I couldn't have got to this point without all of your help. This was my first deer ever. An 8 point buck shot with my compound bow at 17 yards, I know he is not huge and had room to grow for sure, but I'm happy. THANKS AGAIN!!Attachment 8003Attachment 8004

[tusc.hunter17]

My story is not gonna be glamourous, but here it is. My first deer was a doe shot at an ex's property during gun season when I was 18little years old. Bad thing is I started hunting at around age 14. Got my first bow at age ten and my dad made me pratice shooting instinctive with no sights and no release. Im now 29 and am still waiting to kill my first buck and my first bowkill. Boy that sounds like a sad story. Women kids and fast cars side tracked my hunting for years so maybe that's why im paying for it now. I've bow hunted hard this year with no luck I've had chances to shoot a deer with my bow this year but I was holding out for bigger deer. Maybe someday ill get mt first bow kill