after all these years

[curdog]

do you still remember your first deer??

[greenjeans]

Hasn't been that long ago since I didn't start hunting until in my early 50's. She was a "Bambi" for sure and I shot her with a .375 Winchester at about 60 yards. Was hardly enough meat left to go pick up. It sure got me hooked, though. Just love being out there.

[NONYA]

Do I...12 years old,Rem mdl 7 243win,big blue suburban,first day of hunting season,me,Dad,Mom,sisters and G&G in thier truck,pulled up on "Deer Gully" and took him with one shot over jack fence,several members of our family have taken thier first deer in this same gully at the same age.

[Redhawk1]

Sure do, It was a spike buck at 105 yards off a fence post in North Dakota. I use using a 30-06 and it was real cold and we walked 2 miles from the truck. It was a long drag back to the truck, good thing there was snow on the ground. That was many moons ago.  

[DavOh]

Man do I. There's a picture up in the hallway of me with my first.

I was 9. Was sitting on a stand with my mom. An old 2 person blind in a huge oak flat. Still my favorite place to sit, but that old blind was built in the 50's and has long since cratered. Even at this point blind was leaning and the door was stuck in the dirt about half open.

Mom had shot a knarly 5 pointer a few hours earlier. We gutted it and drug it up next to the blind to wait for my dad. Wasn't long before some does came into view. Watched em for a while and I finally got the nerve to take one shortly before dark. Picked one out that looked just as big or bigger than the others. quarting towards me to the left I aimed just right of the dark stripe down her neck. Bullet found its mark and she dropped right there. About 85 yds. Old Mossberg 800a .243win did the trick. We walked up to the deer to find that it was a LARGE button buck. My mom and I watched those deer for 45 minutes or more and could never tell that she was a he.

Sorry for the longo tello but I love telling that story.

As a side note, my wife hopes to get her first next november with that same rifle.

[Graybeard]

Yup and the story is in the GBO Campfire Tales. Here it is again:


My First White Tail Deer
I still remember my first white tail deer kill-but then I guess we all do don't we? The year was 1976 and the place was the Choccolocco Wildlife Management Area (CWMA). I had been hunting deer but not very seriously for several years prior to taking my first. We usually only went 3 or 4 times a year and spent the rest of our hunting time chasing squirrels and doves mostly with an occasional hunt for quail and rabbit tossed in for variety. The we consists of Lewis McCary my distant cousin and Dennis Doss. The three of us hunted together regularly in those days.
On this particular fall day the three of us were in Dennis' old white ford van and we parked as far back as we could drive it on a side road without a number or name off of Rd. 500. We each had our favorite areas that we went to from this jumping off point. I was using my brand new Baker climbing stand for the first time in the woods. For those who aren't old enough or for some other reason aren't familiar with the Baker it was an abomination. It consisted of a sheet of plywood about 18" wide by maybe 30" long with a aluminum "V" bar at the back to hopefully grab and hold the tree. It didn't do that real well except on soft barked trees such as pines. There was no top to it-just the bottom. To climb you wrapped your arms around the tree and pulled the stand up with your legs which required you to spread them wide enough to get them around the tree. Not an easy task for a short leg rascal such as myself.

I went down into the hollow I had scouted and picked me out a hardwood (read slick barked) tree to climb as there were no pines available. I started my ascent-several times actually as I kept slipping back down. I finally made it up to about 10'-12' by some miracle and put my full weight on the stand to set it into place of the tree. Me and the stand dropped at least 3' before I could stop the descent. I hugged the tree with all my strength and got it stopped and locked into position but I had lost a lot of side from my chest in the process. Fun City!

So I sit and wait for a buck-does not legal-to come along. Numerous does and fawns make there way by me but I wait for a buck. The cold morning turns into a nice warm mid-day and still I wait. About noon time I hear a deer coming down the ridge from my right front-closer and closer it comes with me thinking it is just another doe. But wait-I see the sun glare off of something on its head! Yes it is a buck only a small spike but still a buck-my first BUCK? It comes closer and closer until it stops about 10 yards away and to my right still. Why did I let it get so close? Who knows-buck fever will do until a better excuse comes along. I am now in a predicament. It is standing to my right and I am right handed and still haven't brought the gun to my shoulder. It suddenly sees me and runs straight in front of my stand no more than 10 yards away. I raise my shotgun-the same Remington 1100 skeet gun I had used to shoot my first 100 straight earlier that same year. I fire as it is straight in front of my stand and it runs on without showing any sign of being hit. I fire again as it runs away at a distance of maybe 30 yards and yet again as it is about 75 yards away and running straight away from me. At the third shot the buck crumples and lands with his head facing back toward me.

My first deer-a buck-is on the ground only 75 yards away. Am I excited? Well I almost stepped off that platform onto the ground in my excitement but caught myself just in time. I climbed down as fast as I could and rushed to claim my prize. Another hunter had heard the shot and walked up while I was getting ready to field dress it. He said he heard the shot and thought it might be his hunting buddy. He congratulated me and went back to hunting. I finished the field dressing chores and dragged the buck back to the van to await the return of Lewis and Dennis. I hid the deer so they couldn't see it when they walked up. I asked them where were their deer and they said they hadn't seen any. They then asked where MINE was. So  I showed it to them. You can bet I was one proud hunter that day and it is still just as clear to me today as if it was only yesterday.

GB

[victorcharlie]

Do I remember?  It was a big deal back then as there wern't very many deer killed around these parts.   I hunted several years previously and hadn't seen a deer.....In those days the paper still published hunting pictures in the sports section.  I've still got the clipping.  I sold the old 1895 spanish mauser in 7x57mm not to long after that......I wish I had kept it.

Mine was a 3 pointer....not a trophy by todays standard for sure but any deer was a trophy then.....I had the little fellow mounted....I still have the mount.  That deer was the first of many, but the only one I ever had mounted.  It hangs in my living room and is and has been a part of my living room for over 30 years.  The wife never really has liked it, but knows it's useless to argue about it.........

Do I remember?  You bet ya.....

[High Brass]

5pt. November 1991.  Savage M110 243 w/ 100gr. handload

[tscott]

It was November 22, 1963. I had spent the school day thinking about playing center in the first basketball game of the season. Early in the afternoon the report over the PA system told of Kennedy being shot, and being rushed to the hospital. Soon the death notice came. The game cancelled, I went home and got my Dad's 7x64 Brennekke Mauser, that he had brought back from WWII, and walked out back, and up Bald Rock
Mtn. Soon a nice 6pt walked walked right up to me. When I got home My buck cheered up my folks, who although not Kennedy fans, were grieving for the man and the Presidency.

[WylieKy]

I guess I was a late bloomer.  I killed my first at 14.  I was in a huge walnut tree over looking a convergence of 3 trails and a creek crossing. The tree was so big, the straps on the stand wouldn't fit until almost 15ft. up.  The doe did not come off of a trail, she came up bleating out of the brush behind me, and stood to my extreme right getting ready to turn up hill.  Because of the size of the tree, I could not make the shot conventionally, so I switched to left hand and shot her straigt through the heart.  I sprinted the 2 miles back to my Grandfathers house to get him, then drug him all the way to the deer then drug it the 2 miles back to the house.  Barely felt it, but I had bleeding blisters when I took my boots off that night.  Come to find out, her fawn was hit by a car about a half mile down the creek, that is why she was all over, bleating.

[rockbilly]

Yes, it was 1949-1950, I was at my grandfathers place in Ms.  I was using his gun, a single shot 12 gauge long tom, I don't remember the brand name, but it kicked like a young mule.  I was in the brush on the edge of a field, three deer moved into the opening, I seen horns on one so I pulled the hammer back and waited until they were almost in my lap before I shot.  When the smoke cleared, I had a eight point on the ground, and a doe injuried. I went back to the house and got my grandfather, he hitched up a mule and we after them.  He had to shoot the doe again to kill it, afterwards he gutted them, we loaded them on the mule and took them to the barn to finish butchering.

My grandfather would not hunt with the grandkids, but he encouraged us to go.  He always provided the gun, either the old 12 gauge or a single shot .22, and always rationed the ammo.  He had 16 grandsons, when more than two were there, we hunted in shifts. :wink:

[rickyp]

I sure do it was 7 months after my dad passed away. I was sitting 30' up a tree with a H&R topper ultra 12 ga sluger. the tree was on the edge of a field a small B.B. came out just before dark on the far side of the field. I decided to take the shot and hit the deer just where I was aming. go figure a 300 yard shot with a 12 ga slug. I guess my dad was watchig out for me

[marylandeer]

I'll never forget it. I don't remember the days date but it was December 1989. I was 15 years old. The weapon was a Remington 1100 shotgun with Remington sluggers. The shot was about ten yards on a spike buck.

[curdog]

it;s amazing that 35 years have past and i remember it like it was yesterday, an ugly 4 pointer, spike on one side 3 points on the other. 110 yards with a monkey ward 30-30. i have taken alot of deer and hogs since then but this is the one i remember.

[peakoftherut]

Nov 1979. I was 19 and had only hunted birds up to that point. Then I got an invite from a friend to hunt deer on his place. I showed up pretty cocky and told everyone that deer hunting looked easy and I wasn't going to shoot anything under 8 points. As luck would have it 5 minutes after leagal shooting began I got to shoot a 200lb 8 point that was following a doe.

I had fun teasing the guys that night, and continuing until the next year. When the next season started I expected to do pretty much the same thing. Little did I know I was starting the first year of a six year drought as far as deer were concerned.

I have learned a lot since 79, and have been hooked on deer hunting ever since that first lucky year. I guess that explains why I havn't missed an opening weekend since.

[RCL]

Pennsylvania, Dec. 2 1977, aprox. 4 p.m., sunny afternoon. Remingtom 760 .30-06, open sights, 180 grain round nose Speer bullet over a charge of IMR 4320, Winchester case. Six point with two does at about 50 yards.
Shaking like a leaf. :-D

[Cheesehead]

It was November 1969, first hour of the first day of my first season. Model 98 Mauser 8mm. Battle field souvenir collected by my Father in WW2.  Me, my Father, brother,uncles and eight cousins, most carried a Mausers of various types, fond memories.

[curdog]

no matter how many deer we take, we always remember the first    

[MGMorden]

Yep.  I was 9 years old (1990) and I got him dog driving.  I had my trusty single-shot 20ga NEF loaded up with a 3" #3 buckshot.  Daylight had just broke, and the dogs hadn't opened up yet.  I was standing about 50 yards from my father.  Heard a light crack and looked up.  There was a cow-horn buck standing not 20 yards away looking at me.  No dogs on his trail; it was still early enough that not all of the deer had bedded down yet.  After a split second of disbelief, I cocked the gun, shouldered, and fired.  The deer disappeard into the brush, but we went in and found him about 75 feet from where he was shot.  Caught him right behind the foreshoulder.  It was a good day .