do you remeber?

[rick savage]

still remeber your first deer? i can remeber it like it was yesterday.that was over 35 years ago

[multibeard]

50 yards double lung shot with a 303 British. Nice pair of 10 inch spikes.

[Dale]

Mine was my first time ever deer hunting. The only suitable gun I had was a Yugo 8mm with, of course no scope. I was hunting with my brother who was 'showing me the ropes'. He had a scoped 25-06. It was getting late in the evening when a herd of does come out. It is getting dark enough where it is hard for me to get a bead on them with iron sights. I tell him to take the first shot and when his goes down I will take the best shot I can get. He shoots and misses, they run and I start firing and swinging. I got off three shots and the second one gets my first deer. Pure luck, but one I will never forget, and he wont either.

[LoneWolf]

I remember my first one with a gun, and with a bow!
I was so excited on my first one, I had to wait at least 15 minutes, before I trusted the knife in my shaky hands to gut it, or even cut out my kill tag

[Steverino]

My first deer was a doe taken on the last day of Wisconsin's gun season with a borrowed friends Marlin lever gun. That whole week of Thanksgiving was absolutely frigid-cold, snow. I remember how quiet it was in the darkness of morning (while thinking how crazy I was for leaving the warmth of the cabin) and hearing the echoes of gunshots as darkness gave way to morning.

After a week of seeing deer flying around at crazy speeds and long distances with little to no shot opportunities in the frigid cold, my stamina on stand had about reached it's apex when a small doe came sneaking down a trail behind me at about 60 yards. I didn't even think about it.

In one fluid motion, I pivoted around in my stand and put the sights behind her front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. She dropped on the spot as my shot echoed throughout the woods.

I quickly shimmied down the stand and cautiously approached the splayed doe and rubbed my hand across the back of her neck and thinking she was a little smaller than I would have liked yet I was elated. My older brother found me kneeling down with the last of my field dressing duties completed (a bit more bloodied than I ought to have been from sheer inexperience and exuberance I spose) and quickly read my mind and put me at immediate ease saying, "Congratulations Stevie! She'll eat just fine." He clasped my outstretched, bloodied hand.

Boy, I felt like I had just scaled a mountain and was surprised that for the first time that whole week, I was no longer cold!

[rick savage]

a couple of friends were over th other night talking about all the deer and hogs we have taken, every one remembers there first in detail, alot of other hunts we had to think about to recall where and when

[drummer]

Barring any type of head trauma, I'll never forget that morning as long as I live. When I'm nervous, upset, or inable to sleep, I can replay that hunt in my head and it relaxes me.

[rickjordan]

My first deer was a button buck shot at 220 yards with a .308- broke his backbone- I was with my Dad and the smile on his face and look of pride on his face was worth it- you would have thought the deer weighed 250 pounds- I remember everything about that hunt- even shooting the deer in the head to finish it off and my Dad saying, "next time- just shoot him in the neck, makes thing alot cleaner" and Dad telling me what to do to gut my deer out. My Dad is the best for always having time to take me hunting and fishing and I will do the same for my kids. No time is ever wasted when I am in the woods or on the water with him.

[deerhuntingirl]

Since my first on was only back in 2003, I do remember it vividly. It was rifle season's opening day. I had bowhunted for a month prior to the gun season and had not even spotted a deer. I was on a management area which allows women and youth to harvest does, so in my mind, if it was brown, it was down. My hubby put me in a good spot where he had hunted several times before and always saw deer. I climbed up about 25 feet, and hubby went on his merry way to his spot. I had not been in the tree 30 minutes when 3 does came out of the pines. I picked one out and squeezed the trigger, only to realize I had not chambered a shell! I tried to bolt in a shell as quietly as I could and I was successful. They didn't hear me. I aimed and shot and they took off. I didn't know if I hit her or not. I called hubby on the radio and he said, "Was that you that shot?" I said, "YES!" He said, "okay, I'm coming." He came back to my spot and helped me track her. She only ran about 40 yards. When we found her he said, "Damn! You nailed her!" I got the blood smeared on my face and took photos. It was just a doe, but it was my first deer.

[royinidaho]

rick,

I gotcha by 3 years but remember it quite well. I was 15. Missed the school bus cause it was snowing.

Took Dad's 06. I had no respect for my Mod 92 38-40. Went in the morning with a local adult fella. Was a bust.

Came back about noon and walked from the house. Had 11 cartridges. All I could find. Walked a long mile then swung back. Came through a special thicket and there was a bed with the droppings still melting down through the snow. That's when the heart rate came up, I guess.

I sneaked along the tracks and spotted a deer's rump sticking out from behind a large oak tree about 40 yards away. Couldn't see the front end.

I kneld down and put the sights (long before scopes @ our house) right where I figure the chest would be when it stepped out.

All I had to do was wait. the deer was to step out, I would see horns and pull the trigger.

It didn't work that way at all.

All of a sudden everything goes black. I mean totally black. The gun goes off. When the lights came back on there was nothing in sight.

I was a bit worried. What had happened. I ran up to the top of the knob but there was nothing to be seen.

I back tracked and saw sprinkles of blood between each jump. Well, I'd hit something. Buck or doe was the question.

After leaving the protection of the tree that deer ran 40 yards in the open. And I didn't see it?????

Also the shot hit the deer at the beginning of its second jump.

I hit the track. It went down the ridge never slowing. At the end of the ridge there was a small brushy plateau. There it was bedded down with its head turned to watch the back trail. And WOW, there were hornes. At least an 8 point.

I had enough sense to just kneel down and wait. The buck had other ideas. It jumped up. Bang - miss.

From there I went about another mile through the woods hot on the trail. He'd bed down. I'd get close. He'd jump and run. I'd shoot at the flag. I did that till I ran out of shells.

He was pretty warn down by then. He wouldn't cross the hwy and doubled back close enough for me to about touch him with the muzzle. That was my last shot.

It jumped a fence and layed down. I crossed the fence and walked up to him. Grabbed Dad's rifle by the muzzle and lifted it over my head. I was gonna wack him between the brow tines. Then I remembered the the stock was already cracked. Well better not do that. I'll never forget those glowing eyes.

So, I walked over to the Cherry Valley gas station/ice cream store. I knew the owner and knew that he hunted with an 06.

I told he I needed to borrow some shells. He asked, "Was that you coming down from Eau Claire?" I answered yes. He went in the back and came back with 3 boxes of 06 cartridges.

I remember having to hurry back as now the word was out and someone might 'steal' my buck. Kid's thinkin???

When the guys hanging around the station heard the finishing shot they came and helped me drag him out to the station.

THat deer was the talk of the area for a while. A nice 9 point and good sized too.

We stretched him out by the station and he stiffened up enough to stand on his own. We stood him up. It was a traffic stopper.

Wouldn't ya know, here comes Dad down the road in the truck w/a load of coal. I saw the deer and had to pull in. He saw me and couldn't figure what I was doing there. When the fellas convinced him it was my buck, the grin on his face was another thing I'll never forget.

BYW, I still get the "fever!" Hey, if it weren't for that and the good eatin' , I probably wouldn't hunt.......

[8X56MS]

never will forget that. My first was a doe, shot at almost point blank range with a single shot Savage 20 Ga and a foster slug. The deer had been wounded previously, and I walked up on her. I was only 10.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

deerhuntingirl, is no such thing as just a doe..you can be just as proud as if it were a 10 pt....when you don't get excited when you take doe, it is time to give up the hunt. I have been hunting for 43 years now and the doe I took last year was just as exciting to me as the first one. I get as excited when I take my daughters out each year.

As for my first one, my dad took me to the mountains where I had been tagging along with him for years...we walked back to our favorite cat rock seat and mid day I shot my first doe. I can still see my dad following up on the trail in the snow and hear him when he found it....I can still hear him after the 6 hour drag we had too....guess maybe he didn't figure on me getting one that far back...there were shortcuts we could have taken through the swamps but we stuck to the gameland roads because other than this one day, the wardens would ride past and pick up hunter/deer for the ride out.....

My second was just as exciting because after an all day hunt with dad/ uncles, we went home without seeing a deer..( not that many back in those days)....but as a kid and living my days in the woods, I knew where they were most of the time..so dad hit the couch and I said 'I'm going to go up Reynolds road and bring one back...he said go for it...and I did...I didn't get back till well after dark and he was very suprised....

my first archery deer was a buck I had been watching for awhile every morning..I was tucked deep in dark timber at a field edge, I watched 3 doe walk past but the 4th one had it's head glued to the ground and I knew it was my buck..being an overcast day and well after light the deer were only a silhouette to me against the sunlit field...I took the one with the beagle nose...the first thing I had to do after looking for blood trail was find a place to #2 so while looking around in the brush while hidden and doing my thing, I spotted a deer laying...I didn't know if it was mine or one that just didn't know I was there...and that is how I found my first archery deer....with my pants down...lol..

[wages]

Here's a little book that might bring back memories of when your old man first took you out to the deer woods, or when you first took your kids out. Careful though, buy this for your kid or grandkid and they'll make you read to them over and over!

http://www.myfirstdeerhunt.com/

[skeeter@ccia.com]

My kids have told me what they remember first was the sitting under an apple tree eating apples, picking nuts, berries along the way and watching things like the turkey walking on the limb in the bright orange sunrise...where we sit most of them time, the roost tree is right in line with the morning sun.....oh and the drag out of the deer...and the wishing Dad would shut up for a while, going to spook the game.

[gd357]

Like it was a week ago. Last day of shotgun season in Ohio 1992, had sat all week and not seen a single deer. We got together with some friends and put on several drives. On one i was a stander watching the corner of a field, and the edge of a thicket. heard some shooting, and then caught movement in the field. By the time I got the shotgun around, he was almost to the edge of the woods. Swung through the deer, and pulled the trigger. After the shot, couldn't see a thing - no movement, no deer. Walked over to see if I'd hit anything, and walked right past the deer. A button buck that had slid to a stop on the backside of a big stump. Never got an accurate distance, but somewhere around 60 or 70 yards, running with a smoothbore 16g pump and took out his heart. All luck, but I was pretty darn happy at the time. What made it even better was that my grandfather saw him drop (he could have shot it before I even saw it but let it go in hopes that I'd get a shot). I've killed my share of deer since then and plenty that were larger, but none have been quite as big.

gd