Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What did you use to kill your first deer?

Day before Thanksgiving 1956. Four pointer dressed 156lb,with
6.5 x 257 Arisaka.

Got my first deer with a customized Korean war trophy rifle that had been restocked, bolt bent and rechambered to .308. It originally belonged to a cousin who brought it back from his paid trip to Korea and had all the work done. The deer was a button buck that snuck up behind me while I was sitting on the ground leaned back against a tree. Thought it was a squirrel that had been pestering me for the past hour and turned around and we were nose to nose about 18" apart. I slowly turned back around and waited until his head was behind a small tree about 6-8ft away and raised up the rifle and got him.

Day before Thanksgiving 1956. Four pointer dressed 156lb,with
6.5 x 257 Arisaka.

Model 94 in 32 special. Same one my dad used for his and my mom used for her one and only.

Brother has it now.

I got my first deer with a Ruger M77 (tang) 270 Win. Still have that gun.

H&R single barrel 410, slug, aimed behind shoulder, hit it in the neck, pop drop, fall of 1971, 8 years old. where in hell did that near 53 years go? ; ]

That can't be right
I've been reading and have been told all my
life about how ineffective that a .410 shotgun
was.
Same for a 30/30. I've been getting sideways
looks everytime I've killed something with one

Dec 1988 with 00 buckshot in a Mossberg 500 12ga.

1986 i killed a small 8 point with my tc 50 caliber muzzleloader built from a kit and still have both the deer mounted, and the rifle

My first compound bow was a Ben Pearson 50#. This was back in the late 70s. Back then we could use Anectine pods. As kids, we could walk into the local pharmacy and buy the stuff.

LOL, yep, have heard and received same looks, quick story, i rattled up a buck for a bud, he swore he shot it dead in the chest and was dogging his scoped lever 30-30, i had loaded 170gr partitions for him at 2240 fps, great load, we followed blood till it petered out, old man that owns that place showed me a pic of a buck that next spring on the minerals with left shoulder hide healed up from a bullet skimming by, like you cut it with a knife.

Never told my bud about the pic, but did go home and immediately mark calendar for September to contact him for a rifle zero prior to season opener, yep, you guessed it, his rifle was over a foot right at 100 yards, i got him zeroed and ready, last check he was still using that setup.

Marlin 1893 30-30.
Grandpa bought it from some "Russian trappers", according to family lore.
As the youngest of 10, Dad wound up with it.
I was almost 12 years old.

Marlin 336 30-30, Weaver K4, 150gr corelokt. Trans Pecos mule deer in Texas, 1971.

Killed my first with a break open 410 single shot and a slug, Winchester I believe. Shot a spike about 20 yards and broke its neck. I was 6.

My Dad's 300 Savage. Factory ammo. Iron sights. I am unsure of the year but I was VERY young when Dad got me started. I would guess it was about 1961 or 1962

I too am shocked by the amount of folks first deer that were killed with a shotgun. I really had no idea.

I killed my first deer, a 5 point buck, 35 years ago. I used my dad’s Winchester pre 64 Model 70 in 243 with 100 grain Remingtons.

He gave it to me as a Christmas gift this year. It was kind of emotional and pretty fantastic.

Rem 710 30-06. It's long gone and I don't miss it.

Where I'm from kids back then usually only had two guns to learn to hunt with, a .22 and a shotgun. Unless you were rich Deer Rifles were for grown ups so you learned to hunt deer with shotgun slugs. My first was on Thanksgiving Day 1978, with a beat-to-hell-and-back 12 gauge Wards-Western pump, and a Remington green hull pumpkin ball slug. A doe that somebody else had gut shot and didn't follow up. Was headed back to the house for Thanksgiving dinner when Dad and I jumped it up. Started tracking it in the snow and found it laying down again. Mom was mad we were late for dinner messing with getting that deer out.

A Remington 7400 carbine 1990. Was home on leave from the Army.

Used a Sears Model 53 in 30-06 with handloaded 150 grain Sierra game king over 52 gr of 4064