Thank you to this forum and it’s members. 1st deer down.

[pd]

Good job, Mr. Hunter!

That must have been really difficult for the buck to pedal, with a bungee over his leg!

[Rainier10]

Great first deer and thanks for posting. This is exactly what this forum is for.

[cem3434]

Great first deer and thanks for posting. This is exactly what this forum is for.

  Always enjoy seeing others successful hunts and putting food on the table. As my ol' man use to say, you can't eat the horns.

[Dan-o]

Congratulations!

[ShaneTyTrey]

Awesome, congrats and welcome to the club!

[Smokepole]

That is a dandy buck, and will be a tasty one.  Congratulations!

Good deer buggy rig.  You ride biggyback with that setup?   

[NOCK NOCK]

That is a dandy buck, and will be a tasty one.  Congratulations!

Good deer buggy rig.  You ride biggyback with that setup?   

That would be a funny sight, 

Congrats on a nice buck

[boneaddict]

Congratulations!   I remember every detail of the hunt of my first buck.  That was 1983.   Savor those steaks. 

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nicely done, whitetail meat is the best.👍

[Hilltop123]

It's not the size of the headgear, that makes us take the journey. It's what we learn on that journey, that's important. Congrats. So will you expound on what you learned in your two seasons, that helped you harvest your first buck? There is a lot of new and first time hunters on here that just may learn something. Your turn to help others and pass along tid bits.

[hawks33]

I'll echo a lot of the sentiments here, you'll never forget this. Enjoy and congratulations on your hard work paying off!

[Angry Perch]

I remember every detail of my first deer, and boy did I learn a lot. That buck is a shooter every day of the season for me, and for the great majority of hunters.
If you need any advice/ help processing it, you're in the right place for that as well.

Congratulations!

P.S. No more apologetic success posts! You have every right to be incredibly proud of yourself.

[Blacktail Sniper]

Nice job, congrats!!

[Oldguy]

Congratulations! Please elaborate regarding how you managed to transport your trophy back to your vehicle. That looks more difficult than the shooting part.

[mcrawfordaf]

Thanks all! I'm very satisfied with my harvest and cant wait for next season already.

It's not the size of the headgear, that makes us take the journey. It's what we learn on that journey, that's important. Congrats. So will you expound on what you learned in your two seasons, that helped you harvest your first buck? There is a lot of new and first time hunters on here that just may learn something. Your turn to help others and pass along tid bits.

I guess the main thing would be the importance of scouting and ensuring that there are deer where you intend to hunt. Last season I did nothing but e-scouting and using harvest statistics for GMUs to pick my location. This year I combined the "e-scouting" with boots on the ground. I spent a lot of time biking into non-motorized areas and glassing. I also finally purchased a trail cam for this season which is a great confidence booster in knowing there are deer where you plan to hunt. I also learned through the forum that these bucks really do go nocturnal come October and your chances are vastly improved by hunting first and last light with the most conviction. Last year I was timid about hunting until last light.

Congratulations! Please elaborate regarding how you managed to transport your trophy back to your vehicle. That looks more difficult than the shooting part.

It definitely was the harder part!    After gutting him I first tried to mount him onto my bike as the bike stood against a tree. This did NOT work as intended. So I opted to mount him as best as I could to my bike while they were both laying on the ground. Once he was secure enough I lifted him and the bike came along. Then came the fun part - walking him down 3 miles to the gate, in the dark, where I've had cougar on cam. Thankfully nothing challenged me for the kill and we made it down. During the mounting his front leg knocked my rear brake cable out of the lever and for how hard it was to finally get him up right on the bike I didn't want to fuss with trying to fix it. So I only had the use of my front brake to maintain control over him while going down hill. It was all well worth the effort though.

I did have him on cam in velvet a couple times as well. My initial target buck was one a bit higher in the family tree, but to be honest I'm glad I didn't get him for my 1st. It would've been all down hill from there