I'm 20, grown up around hunting but only got around to getting my license this October, just in time for the November 14th rifle season here in VT.
My GF also decided to buy me a rifle as an early christmas gift, a Remington 7600 w/ synthetic stock, 18.5" barrel in 30-06. Pentax 3-9x. Was all set and legal and eager for my first deer season.
Opening day, headed before sunrise up the wooded mountainside I'd spent the last two years getting to know (hiked around with the gf's dad while he hunted the previous 2 seasons). Was worried about finding my spot in the dark, particularly because I was heading further up than normal and climbing some rocks to reach an area that I'd decided to gamble on. Made it just fine in about an hour with only 1 moment of disorientation.
Sat still till light on a rock, listening to the turkeys flopping around for a while, and then at about 7:10 heard the rustling leaves and looked up to see a buck coming along below me, a bit further down the steep bank I was sitting on. As I'd hoped he was trying to be smart and get around the the plateau below by coming along higher up. He came to about 40 yards from me, at which point I began to raise my gun. With the slight movement he stopped and looked right at me, facing me head on. I knew he'd be gone in a moment and so took the head-on shot at his upper chest/lower neck. He jumped straight up into the air and did a front flip, landed on his side, kicked once more, and then was still. The bullet (180grain 30-06 remington core-lokt) entered his lower neck, and with the angle at which I was shooting down at him traveled down through a lung, punched a hole in the rib cage as it exited the bottom chest. The way he died so quick with just one jump I think it must have broke his neck on the way through. Very little meat wrecked by the shot, which was surprising as from what I've heard from other hunters, 30-06 head on shots like that can be messy.
He was a 150lb eight pointer, above average for a Vermont deer. Couldn't believe I'd gotten my first deer on the first morning out of my first season - and that he was a nice one rather than a little 3 or 4 pointer.
to sum up my overly long post for anyone who got bored with it, I shot my first ever deer on opening day, an eight-point 150lb buck, at about 40yards with a remington 7600 carbine, 180grain 30-06 remington core-lokt, and a pentax 3-9x (set to 3x of course).