Tell us about your first buck

[alleyyooper]

I had been hunting a few years. Was given an Ivers Johnson 410 and a box of slugs to use those first years. For my birthday in 1964 I was given a used Winchester Model 94 30-30 by my folks. My birthday is after deer season so I did get to practice with it. My dad worked with a fellow who handloaded all the 30-30 brass I gave him for a whooping $2.00 a box of 20. Opening day of 1965 I had a court appointment after noon, so only had the morning to hunt. The morning didn't start out well dad forgot his gloves back at the house, we were late getting to the woods. He had forgot his shells too so I gave him some of mine. Walked in to the woods on the logging road after the tractor and trailer the neighbour drove back to the property behind ours. Soon I saw where 3 deer crossed the track so I started still hunting them. Soon I jumped them from their beds two does and a nice buck. I couldn't get a shot so waited a bit and started still hunting them again. I was about two miles off the main road when ahead of me shots rang out. I just knew that buck had ran into another hunter. As I was about to turn around and head for home here he came over a slight rise. I shot and hit him in the neck knocking him down. Up he jumped so I shot a popple tree in two with the second shot and on the third I put it in the boiler room.
I knew where I was so I dressed him out and dragged him to another logging road that came out of the woods a couple miles from the farm. I took him down that road a quarter of a mile and hit some power lines. I had went the wrong way. Turned around and got him to the road where I figured I would flag some one down to go have my mom come pick me up. Fellow stopped and put my deer on his trunk and took me to the house. Ya I did make it to court in time too.
I still own that 30-30 and still reload the same load as dads friend at work did so many years ago. I stopped hunting with it when my eyes got so bad I couldn't use the iron sights. HUMMMMMMMMMM maybe I should buy a peep sight. Sure have got a mes sof deer with it.

   Al

[stalker1]

My first deer was taken using a Remington pump in .270. My friend and I had been hunting lightly for a couple of days in between doing chores and harvesting corn when I remembered a story I had read about deer hiding in peculiar places once the season started. My friend needed to finish up some work in the barn and I was itching to go so I thought I would walk from the farmyard about 300 yards to a power pole in the middle of the field. My friend thought I was nuts. The corn had been picked and stalks disced so the ground was wide open except for about a 10 foot radius around that pole and pivot pump where the weeds and grass had grown tall. There was no other cover for a good 1/2 mile in any direction, but I went anyway and was glad I did because when I got to within about 50 yards a whitetail buck stood up and just stared at me long enough to let "the fever" pass and get my rifle up and take the shot. I hit him well with a 130gr. sp and he dropped where he stood. I went and made sure he was dead and then went right back to the barn and told my friend what just happened. He thought I had just shot into the ground to play a joke on him and would not come back with me to the deer. So I got the 3-wheeler with the garden trailer to go get it. He thought this was taking the joke as far as I could until he saw me struggling to get that 200lb.+ deer into the trailer by myself. He came running and couldn't believe what he saw. It was a nice 4X5 with a broken brow tine and gray around the nose to show his age, which turned out to be about 5 and 1/2 years old. That deer had probably been using that hiding spot for a few seasons to live that long. I'd shot a lot of game before and since then, and in some of the best places in the world but none compare to that deer or where he was when I got him.

The first is always the best!

[Graybeard]

The story of mine is in the Campfire Tales. Here's the link to it:

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/campfiretales/myfirstdeer.htm

[.308sniper]

First buck! 2 weeks ago , He walks out to my right at about 53 yards.  I look at hin for about 10 seconds and saw horns so I took a shot.  He dropped in his tracks. He was a spike.

[.308sniper]

He walked out at about at 50 yards and I shot he dropped. He was a spike. I think he is down a few posts on GOING HUNTING.

[greenjeans]

My first buck was only my second deer ever. One of those days people would tell you not to even go out. Misting rain with lots of wind. Came out into a food plot just before dusk. I kicked my backpack against the side of the tri-pod stand I was in I was so excited. Wind blowing so hard he didn't even look up at the noise. 40 yard shot with a Savage Model 10 in .270. Went about 15 yards before he went down. 6 point with a really strange rack, but I will never forget it.

[Rummer]

I took my first buck in1997.  It was a cold windy day and I hadn’t seen one deer all morning.  I was hunting with my buddy, near his folks place, and we went in for lunch. 

I thought going back out on this cold windy day would be a huge waste of time.  My buddy talked me into going back out, while he went to go take a nap.

I still hunted my way to the stand location I had decided to occupy for the evening.

On my way to this stand I run into a group of three deer.  I could see two and could tell that they were does.  The direction they ran was the direction I had planned to walk.  I didn’t want to push those deer, or any others that might be in front of my, so I took another route around the ridge to my evening stand location.

My stand location was in a poplar thicket that deer used as a travel corridor between two open areas.  I had always seen deer in here.  After a couple of hours of sitting I had seen nothing.

I was fully expecting deer to cross to my front when I heard a rustling behind me and to my left.  The rustling did not sound like wind.

I looked to my left and saw 3 deer crossing around 20 yard to my rear (I believe that these may have been the same 3 as earlier).  The first two were does, the 3d was obviously antlered.

Because of the large tree to my rear I had to spin to my right and take a quartering away shot at the buck after he passed me.  My crosshairs were just behind the trigger when the rifle cracked; and I saw the deer flinch, and then he disappeared into the brush.

I got a little nervous at this point.  I never had to blood trail a deer before.  I had only ever killed one before this buck and she collapsed at the shot.  I thought at the time that any deer I shot with a .308 or .30-06 would just keel over dead.

I had absolutely nothing to be nervous about.  I walked up to the last place I saw the deer and saw red all over the ground.  I followed the easy to see blood trail about 20 yards to my buck.

He was a small bodied, young deer.  His rack was low and wide, with 3 points on each side and no brow tines.  He didn’t seem so small bodied after I dressed him and started dragging him back to my buddies place.

Rummer

[Buckskin]

I shot my first buck in 1985 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  I was sitting on a log that crossed a deer runway one morning and heard some shooting West of me, about 2 minutes later I heard a deer running.  Looked up and a little 6pt was bearing down on me. I shot it 20 feet from me and it landed dead 10 feet from me.  I think it would have run right into me.  No time for buck fever, I had to defend myself.

[K.K]

I had harvested about 18 does before I killed my first buck.  I was hunting in Pa at my in-laws and a few of us had been sitting all morning, with nothing moving.  My brother in law decided that he was going to walk back to the house.  When he started walking, he jumped a buck and he headed right in front of me!  I missed him three times before I finally put him down with a shot to the shoulder with my .450 Marlin.  He was beautiful with the sunlight glinting off of his antlers and bounding through the woods.  As it turns out, he was a 9 pointer!  This was before the antler restricitons in Pa, so he was a true monster in those parts.  Here I was thinking that my first buck would be a spike or something, and that would have been fine, but I was truly fortunate to take a near trophy-sized buck for my first one!  He will always have a place of honor on our wall.

[870 expressmag]

i got my first buck nov 16th...2006      sitting in the same blind i have for many years (i am only 24...but i been hunting this blind since i was 12)   raining cats and dogs...don;t even know why dad and i went out.....was glassing the flats of high weeds and grass between my dads blind and mine....theres about 500yds between us per my range finder....all of a sudden i spotted a buck standing very still in the weeds.....barely swiveling his head...he must have been there all night because we never seen him come in that morning...musta been laying there and just stood up.....i ranged him at 163yds....i hunt in southern michigan which is shotgun only....this is quite a long shot...but i am confident because i know exactly where my guns hits...i LOVE to shoot all year long....i nestled the crosshairs of my remington 870 with the fully rifled barrel...loaded with remington 3" copper solids...and turned the bushnell trophy 1.75x5 scope all the way to 5..held about 2 inches over his back..right in the crease where the neck meets the back...and squeezed...he disappeared...we watched to see if he ran out of the flats..never did....dropped him right where he stood..the bullet dropped about 4 inches and hit him right square at the neck/shoulder joint...small 7 point...8th point was broken off and rubbed smooth..he was waiting for a doe to come in heat..she jumped up as i went to get the buck.....i was so excited...i worked so hard over the past ten years to get a buck and i finally did it..i cried..not a ton but i did....and no i am not a sissy!   dad congratulated me and we dragged it out....2 days later i dropped a running 10 point thats now at the taxidermist!!!      pictures of both deer...10 point  180# dressed

7 point..first buck...163yds...110# dressed

[alleyyooper]

Great stories guys. That first buck will be remembered a lot longer than most that come after that.
Although all of then will be rememberd when hunters gather and start talking about past hunts.

  Al