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

[Stonegod]

Just curious to hear about your first kill, when,how and how long did it take you before you tagged your first deer? Was it a doe or buck? What did you use, bow, gun, crossbow,how old were you? ect. Also if your first wasn't a buck, how long did it take to get your first buck? This should be some fun reading!!! I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have!! Thanks guys.....If you do enjoy them... Then.....PLEASE!!! TAKE THE TIME TO TELL YOUR STORY FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY......CAN'T BECAUSE YOUR NOT A MEMBER?????..........THEN JOIN THE SITE!!!!!!!! 50 stories would be nice before the end of the season!!!!!!!

[mrbb]

first year I hunted, had a uncle that said he knew how to hunt, after 2 weeks with him, going where he wanted.
he gave in and took me where I wanted to go,
first morning, at first light I killed my first deer, a small doe, at 100 yards with 1 sjhot from a 30-06, it was cold, had 2 ft of snow on the ground, almost couldn't drive in snow was so deep!
never forget that hunt! even thought it was like 25+ yrs ago!

first bow kill was a spike buck, at 30 yards, hunting by myself the next year!
the whole hunt was self taught, I found the area, had a 2 mile walk to the treestand I built!
it was a poor hit, gut shot!
so I tracked it some, then was going to look for help
as I was walking out I ran into a local guy I knew out for a drive in the woods
he was a great hunter and tracker, a retired guide from maine, and a ex vietnam vet( AKA crazy guy!, still is!)
he told me he would find me my deer no matter where i hit it!

we tracked it a mile or 2, found it still alive, I shot it a second time, and a done deal!!

we were now a good 4 miles from where I needed to get it, on the wrong side of a steep mountain!
thank god he had a truck, as I would have been dragging that deer for days!( too young to drive, and no atv's back then either!)
this guy dragged my deer to the road, we got his truck, and loaded it up, and he took it to his house ,and he butchered, freezer wrapped it for me!
then gave me a ride home!
He was a god sent, I would never have found that deer had it not have been for him!
he is still till today the best tracker I ever meet/ know
have that deers head on my wall, and its a trophy in my eyes!!

and with that my bow hunting illness began!
hope I never find the cure!

[RUT NUT]

I was first introduced to hunting by my old ladies step dad and step brother. At the time they both owned bows and bowhunted....but weren't that serious about it. They live for gun season! Big group of guys doing drive after drive after drive! I didn't know anything about hunting at the time so agreed to get my license and tag and go along. Of course I was never put on stand that year due to being new. Instead I was an all time driver. It was on the 6th day of gun season that I shot my first deer. I was a driver sent down a hollow that was dang near straight up and straight down! The driver off to my right was also walking down a hollow about 75 yards away. He must have jumped the deer because it came from my right. I looked over....pulled the gun up....rested my sight....and squeezed the trigger. BOOM! She took off running right in front of me and piled up 40 yards to my left! I was told no matter if you shoot a deer or not....you are to finish the drive. I finished the drive fist pumping and screaming under my breath! I was so excited! Once we got done with the drive and all gathered up....I told them that I was the one who shot and that I saw where she ended up so there was no need to track her. A couple guys went with me to help me with my first ever gut job. What an experience! They had me covering my face with blood and everything! I looked like a dagon umpa lumpa! Lol! Then the jokes began about how small this deer was I shot. I didn't care....it was my first deer and no one was going to burst my bubble! I have to admit....I could have put this deer in a back pack! Lol! Never forget that!
My first year bowhunting came the following year. After shooting the old ladies step brothers bow all spring....I decided to by one of my own. His bow being about 5 inches to long in draw length for me and a black and blue 4arm sure played a big part in me buying my own bow! Lol! It was an old PSE that had to weigh about 10 pounds! I got it sighted in and hunted all year without killing a deer. I missed a bunch of deer that year....but I was HOOKED! Gun season came around and I decided to go....but all I could do is think about bowhunting. I would catch myself looking at trees that I would put a stand in....looking for bedding areas and everything else you would do in scouting an area to bowhunt. I just wasn't interested! Hearing lead fly over my head a couple times sure didn't help either! I ended up taking another doe that year during gun season....but it would be my last deer taken with a gun. I WAS A BOWHUNTER! Next spring came along and I had landed a good job and decided to save money to by me a brand new bow. I bought a ROSS....the bow I still shoot as I write this. I do have to say....I thought me missing deer the year before had something to do with the old bow I was shooting....but I know now that it had nothing to do with it....but after shooting my new bow all spring dang near every day....when season arrived I felt confident walking into the woods. I had a rough start to the season with very little deer sightings and no opportunities to shoot. It all came together on October 11th that year when I took my first archery deer....and it was a BUCK! Made a drag line....flipped the can a couple times and grunted a couple times. I could hear the deer coming before I even got the grunt tube off my lips! He came to a fence....stuck his nose up in the air....smelled the estrus....jumped the fence and began my way with his nose to the ground. He came to 15 yards in front of me where I had hung the wick I drug. I drew back and smoked him! It was the best feeling I have ever had! I heard him crash and knew he was done but I was going to need help dragging this deer out. I went to the old ladies step brothers house opened the door and yelled for him. He said....WHAT!?....I'm poopin! I said....I just shot a buck! I heard the toilet flush as soon as I said that. I don't think he even wiped his a$$! Lol! We jumped in the truck and recovered my first bow kill! I now call him stinky! Lol!

[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.