Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Do you remember your first deer............

I remember my first deer well. I was 15 years old, and shot him with a .222. The rifle was a Savage 340. The bullet was a 63-grain handload that my uncle made up.

Three bucks, a 5-pt, a 4-pt, and a spike, walked in to about 30 yards. I was standing by a tree and shot the 5-pt. in the neck. He fell down and started kicking.

When I went up to him, he had only one antler with 3 points on it. After he quit kicking I grabbed the antler to pick up his head, and it came off in my hand. While my dad and I gutted the deer, a kid from my class in school came up and started looking around for the other antler. He found it, and it was only a "Y".

I dragged the deer about a half mile down to my grandparents' house with the antlers in the pouch of my hooded sweatshirt. The rumor went around the valley that I had shot a doe.

Somewhere, maybe at my parents' house, there is a picture of me holding the antlers on the deer's head.

Steve

15 Years old sitting in a tripod stand neer a swamp a hunting partner walk back to camp early scared her to me and i couldn't get her to stop till she was just 20 yard away and i dropperd her where she stood with my 30-30 Marlin

Yea, good Ole South Carolina!

First deer was in the late 70's, I walked from the house to a large patch of timber before daylight. This was a favorite haunt of mine to hunt squirrels and I had seen a very nice buck just two weeks earlier. I lost my bearings a little so I found a tree to sit by until daylight. At daylight I continue until I came to a open hillside that had scattered dead timber that had been aerial sprayed sometime earlier. It was a heavy frost and I was having trouble keeping my glasses from fogging up. After about a 30-45 min wait, I saw a deer just below me about 125 yrds away. I readied the Marlin 336 30-30 and out walked a buck. I didn't look to see how big, I just leveled the 30-30 and started blasting. The buck took off and I lost sight of it in the dead and downed timber. It would then pop out again and I would shoot again. This continued until I had fired five times and the deer never reappeared again. I reloaded and waited 10-15 mins and walked down to where I had last seen it and it was laying at the bottom of a ditch. I was excited to say the least. It was a hat-racked 7-pt and I had hit it 3 or the 5 shots. I gutted it as best as I could remember with my Barlow pocket knife bought with birthday money. I was about a mile from home and about half way back to get help, I got the wild idea that someone was taking my buck, so I ran all the way back only to find it still safe. I piled a cord of wood and brush on it to hide it and went for help. Dad and I went back to get it and he laughed all day about all of the wood that I had piled on it. Those were such simple times. I am lucky to say that I have been present when two of my three kids have shot their first bucks. To witness the excitement and wonder in their eyes is amazing.

CK

I was 9 and shot it with a 222 ran about 10 yards and dropped I had a feeling of joy and sadness all at the same time. I still feel that way and if I ever lose that feeling I'll quit hunting. I stepped up in Caliber after that. Remington 600 in a 35 rem, and a Ruger 77 in a 25-06 and never looked back!

Ed

yeah, i kinda remember it!

After 5 years of hard hunting with never getting a shot at a Coues deer, my
dad and I decided to look into investing some money in some high quality
optics. We have hunted with a friend who owns a pair of Docter 15x60's and
every year he has gotten himself and his son a pair of decent bucks. Whenever
we hunt with him he always glasses up more deer in one day then we manage to
see through the whole hunt. This year my dad and I acquired a pair of our own
Docter 15x60's and a pair of 10x42 Swarovski's from a close family friend.
The opening weekend of the November deer hunt in the southern part of
Arizona was finally here! Camp included Mike, his son Westin, my dad and
myself. Westin and I were the only ones who had drawn tags for that hunt, (my
dad drew the December tag) and we were ready to go. My dad and I could not
hunt opening morning due to one of my last football games ever, but when we
finally got to camp; we were buried in good news. Mike had seen some
monsters. With his pair of Docter's, he had glassed up a buck that he thought
would go between 110-115. Mike and Westin had glassed this buck up bedding
down from about a mile away. By twilight, they had stalked to within 200
yards. Should be a chip shot on a good Coues right? Well buck fever began to
set in and my hunting partner, Westin shot high, right over his back.
Although I was disappointed to hear that he had missed a great buck, I was
excited to hear that there were some good bucks in the area and I thought I
had a good chance to get my first shot at a big buck.
My dad and I glassed our butts off that weekend but never could put
antlers on any of the deer we glassed up with our tripod mounted Docter's
although we were seeing a lot more deer then usual. Westin had missed three
times at different deer before the weekend was over but we all stayed
confident. On Sunday, my dad and I went out around this waterhole and never
saw a deer. This was frustrating to not see a deer on the last hunt of the
weekend.
The next Saturday, we were at it again. Westin and his dad decided to do
a "drive" per say. My dad and I stayed on a ridge over looking a big canyon
that they would be working. We watched as they went around a hill and sunk
into the bottom of the canyon. About five minutes later, my dad says "Casey I
found you a buck he's a good one, hurry and get on him." I look to find him
with the Swarovski's thinking that he was only a couple hundred yards away. I
hurriedly asked my dad where he was and he said over there, on top of that
ridge. I said "Dad the only ridge that I see is about 500 yards away." "He
says exactly, that's it get on him." By the time I got my gun on him, he was
just getting over the top. That was the first buck I had ever seen during a
deer hunt.
The next morning, we all decided to drive down to the flats and hunt from
there. We all walked around this hill to a peak with a good view of the
mesquite and cactus covered flats where it would be possible to get a shot
anywhere from 100 to 600 yards. My dad and my hunting partner both set up
their Docter's and started glassing each facing different directions. We sat
on that ridge for about an hour or two. All of a sudden, Mike, Westin's dad
says "I got one, and it's on the move but I can't tell what it is but it
looks like it might be a buck." We all pack up and move to a nearby ridge
where we can get a better look at this deer. When we get to the ridge, Mike
says "Everybody get down, I got it." We all sit down and my dad and Mike both
set up their tripods. Mike was giving my dad directions to where the deer
was, "Go to the cedar and go about 100 yards to the left." My dad went to the
cedar and said, " I see a buck!" I put my backpack on top of my dad's while
Mike ranged him in. By this time my adrenaline was already pumping hard. I
couldn't believe it, I was actually going to get a shot at a buck, and I had
broken the curse! Mike ranged the buck in at 340 yards, "Wait until he gets
to a clearing and take him. Ok there's your shot, take it" BOOM! My 30-06
rang out into the silence of the day. " You hit him, get him again BOOM!
BOOM! The big buck went down. We all watched where he went down as I reloaded
just in case. I was so excited, I could barely get the bullets in the
magazine. We waited about 20 minutes and sent Mike and Westin down to see if
he was deceased or just lying there. The plan was that they would go down and
to the left so that if he wasn't dead yet, they would kick him out to the
right where I could get some more shots off if need be. I was watching them
and the mesquite that my buck had gone down in the whole time. All of a
sudden, I hear Mike yell out " Shoot! Shoot!" I'm looking for movement and
cannot find any. Then, all of a sudden I see my buck running away, by this
time he is at about 400 yards and running as fast as a deer can with a whole
in one of it's front shoulders. The first two shots sailed high, then I
knocked him down but he got back up. The next shot knocked him down again.
That deer would not stay down. He got up one more time. My dad said to me
"You have time, finish him off." I put the crosshairs about 10 inches over
his back and put him down. I know it was a lot of shots but hey, I'm only 17
and I was excited.
Before I knew it I was running down the hill to see my first deer.
Everybody in camp was jealous of my buck because it was the only one taken.
When we took it to the taxidermist, he said that it scored 82 2/8 B/C. That's
not a huge buck, but it is one that I am awful proud of and I will never
forget. If it wasn't for my dads Docter's, we might have never seen the buck
and I would have not gotten a shot. Or Mike would have seen it first and
therefore Westin would have gotten the first shot.