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

[BowGuy2]

y first deer kill was a buck and was with a doe. i had hunted hard for 3 years straight ad didnt harvest a deer and think i only missed like 1 or 2 times. so i got into my stand befor daylight. i texted my cousin im in my stand he said yah me to. i texted him back like 30 min later right at day break and said i think your going to get one this morning not 5 min later i had shot and had my first deer first buck and first bow kill all in one he dropped 30 yards from my stand i was screaming and fist pumping i dont think i even climbed down my tree i think i jumped out hahah i had waited so long to take a deer and i got one and i had never been so happy. we loaded it up in my granpals truck he had just passed away 6 months befor and this was out first hunting trip with my grandpals truck and he was a huge hunter he has a 14 pointer from like 1986 hanging on his wall! we were ridding home got a tag on it and what not and when we always drive home we drive past my aunts work and the antlers were stickin up a little bit and he got stopped at the red light in front of her work and she looks out waves and looks in the bed of the truck and sees horns sticking up and says whos was it and i said mine and she got all excited she ended up leaving work early lol it was a great day in life for me.

[BowGuy2]

first deer kill was with a bow and it was a buck

[radicalxl]

I am sitting here reading the stories, and I seriously don't mean any disrespect by this, but it is very amusing to me so far. Here's why. The first question asking if your first deer was a buck or a doe. Back when I first started deer hunting the only thing you could legally shoot was a buck, and gun season was only 3 days long, and don't forget the fact there wasn't that many deer back then. The next thing that got me laughing was the texting on the day of the first kill. I keep trying to tell myself that I'm not that old, but you guy's keep proving to me that I am. LOL.
But anyway, the first deer I shot was a small 8 pt when I was a senior in high school (1973). I had started deer hunting probably when I was about 14, so it took me three years to get my first one. I had only ever seen a couple of bucks in the woods up untill this point, none of which were in range. As a matter of fact, a joke amoung hunters back then was not to look at the does too long or your mind would play tricks on you and put antlers on them. That's if you were lucky enough to even see a doe.
It kinda was a given back then that alot of kids took off from school on the first day of season. My uncle who was my hunting mentor couldn't get off of work that day so he told me to go ahead and use his old model 12 winchester 12 guage, no deer barrel, no scope, and the old cardboard shells from back then.
So off I go towards the gas line that went up through the edge of our property. Best place of all to sit against a tree and wait as we did back then. After a couple of hours I decided to walk up the gas line to the top of the hill. (I couldn't do that now.) There was a path that went across the top of the ridge, good spot, still is. I was only there a few minutes when I heard a couple of shots down over the hill. I stayed completely still, and soon I heard the crunching leaves getting louder and louder. I looked in that direction and I saw the buck and a doe running up the hill. I waited untill they got broadside on a dead run and led the buck like I had done on alot of rabbits. Didn't know enough to try and stop them back then, but the first shot knocked him down (pretty lucky). I had to walk up to him and put him out for good. And here is one thing I will never forget. I leaned the old model 12 against a tree, dressed the deer, probably not a good job, and drug him to the house, about a half a mile through the woods. My uncle took off early from work and was at his house when I drug it into the back yard. Man was that a great moment! The bad part came when I found out that he came home early to go out on an evening hunt and asked where his gun was. Yeah, you guessed it I left in the woods! No biggie, I was young then and just went back up and got it.

[Big_Holla]

Started deer hunting when I was 12 years old. In Michigan back then that was the soonest you could start and it had to be with a bow. I didn't get my first deer until I was 15 years old when I shot a button buck. The following year when I was 16 was when I shot my first antlered buck, a small 9 point, also with a bow.

[hortontoter]

My deer hunting career started on a whim. The first deer hunt I was ever on was on a Saturday in 1968. It was, I believe, the last day of the gun season. I hunted just outside of Newcomerstown with my one brother and a fella he worked with at Miracle Mart. I carried a single shot Winchester Model 37 in 28 gauge. We covered most of the earth that day, at least it felt that way at 5:00 PM when we quit. I did see some tracks, but never a deer. I only went that day because my brother bet me he would get his first deer before I did. Now, my brother was three years older than I was and I had seen him take his first, rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, quail and duck. My dad wouldn't let us use a shotgun until we were 16. I started hunting with an old Iver Johnson single shot .410 on Nov. 5 1967 my 16th birthday. Before Christmas I had killed my first rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, quail and duck. But, I had also killed my first woodcock and my older brother had never done that. So up came next years deer season and he was going to get one up on me by getting a deer before I did.

After the deer hunt in '68 I thought that deer hunting was a waste of time. Like Chris said, very few deer around anyways. Well I graduated high school in '69 and got a job in a sheet metal shop on my 18th birthday. I just happened to work on an assembly line right smack between to guys that were deer hunting fanatics. These two guys ended up buying the first two compound bows ever owned in Portage County. To make the story shorter all three of us got to be really good friends and I was invited to go on a hunt with them in 1974 for the PA rifle opener. I didn't even own a rifle. But, I accepted the invitation and bought a Savage 99 in .243. I went to PA and saw the first "live" buck of my life. God knows I was a greenhorn and had no idea what I was doing. The buck was about 200 yards away, which looked like a mile further than I had shot at anything in my life. I aimed about a foot over his back and fired. He never even flinched, wonder why. I walked to where he had been looking for a sign I had hit him, not even close.

Next spring rolls around and I sold the 99 and bought a brand Ruger 77V in .243 and topped it with a Redfield 6-18X scope. I had decided to become a groundhog hunter. I hunted every chance I got and learned a ton about trajectory and even started reloading. By fall I was consistently killing groundhogs up to 300 yards. That summer my one brother had married a girl that had relatives in WV. I went to WV with my brother one weekend to his wifes relatives place. Somehow the conversation turned to hunting and her one uncle said I could come down and hunt with his son in rifle season. I agreed to do just that.

I drove down on Sunday morning and checked my rifle to see things were ready for the next day. The Ruger was ready to go. The next morning was Nov. 24, 1975, a day I will always remember. A half hour before daylight I climbed a long steep hill to sit beside a huge ash tree that overlooked half of Preston County. I had found this spot a few weeks before on a scouting trip. I had leaned a piece of split rail fence against the tree to put a sandbag on to rest my rifle on. I was watching a long power line opening that offered me shots out to 500 yards.

It was a cold, crisp morning and I remember the sound of the humming of the powerlines overhead. As day broke everthing was covered in a heavy coating of frost. I had decided this would be an all day sit, simply because I had the best spot in the whole state, so why move. About 10 o'clock I heard a strange sound in the woods I had never heard before. It almost sounded like a person hitting a drum in a very slow steady beat. The sound was about every 2 seconds. I heard it and knew it was in front of me and to my right. I sat there thinking, what is that. Next thing I know a deer comes out of the timber to my right on to the power line. The deer rears up on its hind legs and comes down on its one good front leg making the drum sound I had heard. He had clearly been wounded that morning. I looked through the scope and clearly saw a four point rack. I judged the distance at 275 and flipped of the safety. I thought, a piece of cake. I have shot many ground hogs at that distance. I take the first shot and the buck just looks around. I couldn't believe I missed him. I bolted in the next round and missed him clean again. Now, being wounded this buck was traveling very slow and had to cross and 80 yard wide powerline. I bolted in the third round and told myself to pick a spot and squeeze. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The shot just felt right. I heard the 95 grain Nosler Partition bullet hit and the deer was out of sight when I could see through the scope after the recoil. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was down. I grabbed my pack and stated the walk towards where I assumed he was. Five minutes later and I had my hands on my first set of antlers. I was by far the happiest guy in the state of WV. This set of antlers hangs on my basement wall and I still get that silly grin every time I look at them.

To this day my older brother has yet to take his first deer. But, he hasn't hunted in over 30 years. I tell him all the time he ought to get back out, but he seems to have no interest.

[heelbilly]

My first one was a button buck that I killed with an old Sears and Roebuck 30/30. It was the first year dad and I were members of this hunting club in Green Swamp, NC. We had run dogs all day and were sitting around the skinning shack when a fella who was hunting the game lands drove up to us and asked if we had permission to shoot deer on this property. We said yes. He said there are 4 does standing in the cutdown on the corner. So dad and I got in the truck and drove slowly down the road towards the cutdown. We got within 100 yds of them, slipped out of the truck and both of us fired at the same time (two different deer). They both fell in their tracks. Getting them out of that muddy cutdown was almost as fun as pulling a double with my dad.....not. I was sinking up to my thighs in the muddy muck. I was 13 and I remember it like it was yesterday.

[4arms]

I had shot and killed just one deer prior to my new found love for bow hunting. My dad bought me a Coast to Coast model 267 for my 12th birthday (1988). It's basically an old Savage/Stevens model 77 pump action 20 smooth bore. No scope, just a single bead.

That same year, my dad and uncle were driving an area near our little farm. I heard a deer running toward me and saw it was a doe. She slowed down to a walk and kept looking behind her. I can still remember how hard my heart was pounding just to see a deer and have an opportunity about to unfold.

She was only 15-20 yards and turned broadside. I leaned against a tree to steady myself and the gun and let her have it. She ran like 10 feet and watched her run into a tree with blood splattering all over the woods. By the time Dad got to me, I had her gutted (easily 30-45 minutes later). No gloves to use at the time. Dad was proud enough to wipe a little on my face, then watched me drag it to the road by myself.

I'll never forget the smell of field dressing a deer. It was awful at the time. It would be 19 years before I got back into the woods and shoot my 2nd deer, my first buck (2007). Since then, that smell always takes me back to that day.

[Stonegod]

Thanks guys........ your stories are great and were/are a blast to read, especially for someone still waiting to write his "first" story! Hope you enjoyed this tread as much as I did/do and maybe there'll be a few more stories posted!!!! It's better than reading the stories in the hunting mags!!!!!

[ohiorut]

[jsyn]

worst hunter in the world to my first deer (all in the same day)

Hello all, this is my first year hunting, I got started because my wifes uncle and cousin both hunt, they kept bugging me to go and i never really had much interest in it, then I decided to give it a try, I shot my cousins ten point cross bow a couple of times and was hooked, I went out a got a wicked ridge crossbow at gander mountain and all of the needed items to hunt. I got hunting privledges for a land owner in huron county, and on Sept. 25 I went out and scouted the area, the land is 90 acres with a swamp covering about half. the rest of the area is very over grown with thick brush weeds and prickers, after scouting the area 3 times i found lots of rubs and scrapes and really started to get excited. On novemer 13 I decided to go out about 1:00 pm and see what was going on out there, I had a tree stand set up there from the week before, but I am afraid of heights and decided to go to another area to hunt and not use the stand since I was by myself. I found a nice open area with a clear opening leading to a corn field, i saw a nice shooting lane and found a tree 35 yards away to sit and wait. At around 3:00 pm, A six point buck snuck up on me to my left, he was about 15 feet from where i was sitting. I raised my crossbow and relized that My safety was still on, at this point, i am shaking with excitement (i didnt expect that) so I take my safety off and aim, I then realize that I never turned on my red dot scope, as i turn it on the young buck runs away. I am now a bit upset, thinking how nice it would be for my first deer to be a buck. I text my wife " I am the worst hunter in the whole world" and explain what happened. she said" aww honey it's ok you will get one". So now it is 3:30 and I just know that this buck is telling all of his friends that I am there and not to go over there. I think that maybe I should go and try another day, but I decided to stay since it will be dusk in an hour and a half, at 4:50 I can hear leaves rustling in the distance, I use my grunt call and the noise is getting closer and closer. this time I make sure the safety is off and scope is on, I already learned my lesson with that, ten minutes later the deer appears out of the trail I saw earlier and right into my shooting lane. I waste no time AIM AND FIRE!!!!!! I hit him in the right spot, he jumped up about 6 feet in the air and took off. Now from all the reading I have done I know I am not supposed to get up and look for him, so I called my wifes uncle and tell him I just shot a huge deer. he said to go back to my car and wait until he gets there. An hour and a half later he shows up, now it is pitch black out. I show him where I shot the deer and we looked for some blood, we didnt find any for about 10 minutes, then just a few drops every couple of feet. he siad this is not good, there should be more blood then this, we continue to follow the blood trail and 30 yards away we see my bolt, covered in bright red blood, he says this is a good sign, now I am really excited, we continue to follow the blood trail some more only seeing little blood spots, after 2 and a 1/2 hours we are ready to give up, then as we flash the light ahead we see the dear layong on the ground, as I am behind my wifes uncle standing on the last blood drop, he turns around and says "oh my god, that is huge" we get to the dear and see a beautiful 11 point 6 year old(or so) buck laying in the thickett. I assist in the field dressing and drag my first deer to the truck. that is my story for my first deer.
I will try to figure out how to post some pictures of my 11 pointer
thanks for reading.