Your first deer???

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Reading Bone's storiesabout deer got me thinking...

I will never forget my first deer i was 15 years old and i was hunting with a gun for the first time, it was 1991. My best friend Scott was 16 and had hunted for a few years and i had been up with him and his family hunting before. I was totally green, nervous as all get out and couldn't believe someone would letme cary a gun. Well he drove us up on the hill (old battle ground unit any deer) We get to the yellow gate and walk a mile into a road closure area. Scott sits me down and walks away from me. 2 minutes go by and i see a deer, i didn't really see if it was a buck or doe, i just saw a deer. I yelled out SCOTT, no response, I yelled SCOTT again... And i hear, WHAT? I reply, i see a deer. I hear him yelling at me well shoot it then, I ad no clue what i was doing.
Nobody in my family hunted. So i said to myself ok, lets shoot this thing. 80 yards down the hill i shot a spike buck first day i had ever hunted. We get to the spike and it is still standing so scott shoots it. Little did we know we shot twin spikes 10 yards apart.
We drug those spikes a mile down te road and wore all the hair off the hide.
Thanks for bringing back old memories Bone...



This year is Cody's year, hopefully my son can connect on his first year, don't care if it is a doe or buck...

[PacificNWhunter]

Great story! Here is a thread started awhile back.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,498.0.html

[carpsniperg2]

great read i know of a few people that have had the same thing happen.

[boneaddict]

VERY COOL!  Thanks for sharing.  Those are the kind of stories that we all have in common, yet we all love to read and reminisce.  I know there are 5,000 more like it out there.  Add em to this, add em to the other or start a new thread.  We'd all love to hear them. 

[Fish4Fun]

I too enjoy the first deer stories, here is mine.

Since I had already killed a bull Elk when I was 9  I thought no problem on my first deer. WRONG!!!    It was 1974 and I was 14, with a couple of Elk under the belt. We were up near North Bend, about where I-90 goes through now. We had heard a couple of shots that morning and then found a dead cow elk,  and went and got the game warden. Took him back to the kill site and then helped pack out the meat since it was still good. As my Dad and the others stood around chatting I walked down the logging road and around the corner. Standing there on the bank is a nice little spike, HOT DANG a deer I am thinking.     Up comes the gun, got him in the sights and you guessed it the gun doesn't go off.    I look and the safety is still on,  (can you say buck fever) and yes the little buck is still standing there looking at me flounder around. Finally get my self together and BOOM the buck is down. Here comes everyone down the road, including the game warden to see what the shot was. He was one of the old game guys that took joy in seeing a young hunter get an animal. He watched as we dressed it and even helped get it in the truck, not once did he even ask to see a hunting license, the tag on the deer was enough. I guess since we had helped with the elk that morning he figured we must be law abiding hunters. That was 35 years, and probably 50+ deer, 12 bulls and 4 cows ago. You know I remember my first deer and first elk like it was just last week. You never forget your first kill   

[wabow]

For me it was more of a chore. We lived on a big Alabama farm in the late 60's and early 70's so as little kids we shot everthing that moved. One day the old man says "boy go down and get me one of those deer in the soy field". I complained but walked a mile or so out to the deer, got 20 yards from a doe and lobbed my 410 slug. Lucky for me she ran the right direction towards the barns and I only had to drag her a hundred yards or so. Alot has changed since our hillbilly days but it was a simple life that I still miss today.

Don

[mallard79]

Great memories!  Here is mine.

My family doesn't hunt so I didn't get into hunting until I was 21.  That is when a friend of my brother got me hooked.  He took me over to where he grew up hunting.  We hunted hard opening morning and met up on a ridge at around noon.  My brother and his friend decided to take a nap.  Needless to say there was no way I was gonna nap!  I decided I was still hunt my way to the bottom of a finger that ran down the side if this ridge.  It was extremely steep and was almost all shale so I thought I was making a TON of noise.  Anyway, i got nearly to the bottom and there was a 20' cliff I had to go around.  I side-hilled around this cliff and turned to head back toward the other side.  From the top of the cliff around the side was mostly solid rock so I was able to move quietly.  I made it about 20' toward the other side when I spotted movement close by. I turned my head very slowly to see what it was and try not to spook whatever it was.  I turn to see a wide 4x4 muley with eyeguards bedded down only 8 yards away!!  Talk about buck fever!!  I didn't know what to do.  Do I wait for it to stand up?  Do I shoot it where it is?  I didn't know anything except that I didn't want this trophy to get away.  I slowly raised my rifle and eased the safety off.  Now the problem was that I could only see hair through the scope!!  I traced the neckline down to where I figured the vitals should be and squeezed off a round.  He rolled down the hill once and tried to get up.  Now being able to see where I should aim I put him down for good.

I was in complete shock at what had just happened on opening day of my first deer hunt ever!

I later found out that the first round had hit his spine and probably would have been enough but I wasn't taking chances.  I know that I will be hard pressed to out do this trophy hunt for the rest of my life.  But I will always be able to enjoy the memory of that first hunt.

The funny thing was that my brother and his friend didn't even hear the shots because they had woke up from their nap and were riding their motorcycles down to camp when it happened.  I had to call them back up to help drag him out and they didn't beleive what I was telling them.  They even threatened bodily harm if I was lieing!  I still laugh at them for taking the nap that day!

[HuntingFanatic]

very nice mallard! Would take 5 or more of my first deer to get that much bone! I have posted it on one of the other threads....but Ill post the story here later again lol.

[bowhunterforever]

Awsome first buck mallard

[Pathfinder101]

Very cool buck.  Love those eyeguards.

[bigpaw 77]

My first deer was a spike by two in 94 i think, I got him in the methow on the loup loup, I was so nervous and had a instant tension headache. I was shaking bad. I thought it was a doe but my stepdad at the time said it was a buck, he told me to shoot it before he shot it, cause i was in shock and couldn't move. It was my 3rd year hunting and he was the first buck I had seen in those 3 years of hunting. I was a complete mess during this, to say I had buck fever is a understatement. Once we got into town I told everyone who would listen about how it all went down. It is nice to read these stories and it brings back good memories.

[7mmfan]

I shot my first buck in Wyoming when I was 13. It was the first day that I had ever packed a rifle into the field. My dad and I were side hilling this canyon about 20 minutes after first light and he went into the bottom to beat the brush for a while. I saw a cool looking rock formation up the hill so I walked up to check it out and about 50 yards behind it was a 4x3 buck! I pulled up the rifle but couldn't hold on him so I decided to try and lay down but the instant that I moved he took off running. I took one shot and he kept running so I took another at probably 80 yards and he tumbled end over end down the hill. I ran to the rocks and waved and yelled but dad was already running up the canyon. When I got to him he tried to get up and I had to put one more into the neck to finish him off. I did a lot of growing up that day. I learned what it was like to take a life (my first thought when I got to him was that that deer was running for his life and I took it from him) and also learned what its like to drag a deer up a 1000' hillside to the road!

[Aperson]

Was a horrible shot placement, and passed up a nice one, for a not so nice one....tis year WILL be different....better place to hunt too.

[Kowsrule30]

I was 12 hunting in the Mashel unit... Dad and I walked into some old growth on one of those trails marked out with the diamonds... We were in about 3 1/2 miles when we spotted him on a little hill bedded looking toward the cut..... Dad got the binos on him and saw he was a legal 2 point.... Dad's trying to coach me on the 35 yard shot when BOOM!!!!! I just threw the old 43 up (well it was new then)    and let him have it....    I got a lesson on using a rest when the chance is available...    But I'll never forget that feeling walking up on him making sure he was down.... Grabbing those antlers and seeing he was a nice 3x3 was unbelievable.... The look on Dad's face was an ear to ear smile.... We ate lunch.... Then I found out how hard it was to carry out a deer that 3 1/2 miles tied to a log over your shoulder....   

[Jeremy S]

Still haven't fired a shot I'm so jealous!

[SpokaneSlayer]

I shot my first deer this past November 30 minutes after getting into the stand for my first day of the late season.  21 yard shot with my bow on a 3 point whitetail with on small eyeguard.  Took me 5 years to get my first.

[machine]

Shot my first deer last October.Went out with my roommate and hiked past a washed out road were I had seen does.He took a low road around a clearcut and I went up the high side.We sat and glassed for over an hour without seeing anything.He got up and walked around the clear cut and I saw a doe run towads the timber then another.I glassed the area they came from and saw a third deer in the grass but couldn't see its head.I'm sitting about 200 yards away and my roommates about 25 yards from the third deer but doesn't see it.The roomate keeps walking and I set up my rifle over a stump and watch the deer through my scope for a few minutes.It turns its head and I see antlers Boom ran about 50 yards and laid down.Took us five hours to drag him back to the truck,we were worn out from the drag and took one day off then went out again and got my roomate his first kill ever a spike buck.

[zackmioli]

I believe I was 12 years old. I had been riding along with my grandfather for a few years up in in the old Champion area. But this was my first year going over to deer camp in the palouse with my dad, godfather, great uncle, cousin, family friend, etc. All in all I believe there were 7 of us in camp. We were staying at this farmers place hunting a couple different properties. After a couple days the farmer tells us there is a big doe that beds down in this one area every afternoon and to take me back there to try and get a shot. So of course EVERYONE goes up there, we spot her and I get set up with the 30-30 I'm using on a fence. She is bedded down about 75 yards out. Well in my nervous state I placed the barrell on the wire fence. Everyone is standing behind me, Uncle has the video camera out, my dad is telling me to calm down (YEAH RIGHT), and just focus on the deer. Well the deer is bedded down in the dirt clods so I can't even find the damn thing in my scope and I'm getting more and more nervous the longer it takes. Finally I see the thing, I put the crosshairs on it, BANG, dirt flys up about 10 feet in front of the deer. She gets up and trots about 40 yards, stops and looks back at us. "Shoot again" BANG, dirt flys up 10 feet in front of her again! She trots about 25 yards, stops and stares. "Shoot again, aim higher" I tell them I'm holding right on her, no one notices the barrell on the wire fence. I take another shot, way short again, she trots up to the top of this knoll, about 300 yards out. I am nearly in tears I'm so embarrassed because I knew I was a better shot than that. They tell me try 1 more shot, aim like 6 feet over her head. So I do, I put the crosshairs above her head and pulled the trigger. BANG! (you could hear the bullet traveling through the air for a couple seconds) and then THWACK! "HE HIT IT! OH MY GOD HE HIT IT!" Deer goes down, I hit her in the spine abouve her back hip. My dad and I went out there to put the kill shot in her but I was so worked up from the past 5 minutes I couldnt hold a gun to save my life so he walked up and put her down for me. We got a bunch of pictures, gutted her out, and threw her in the truck. I will definitely never forget that.

[machine]

First picture is my roomates spike,the second is my Buddy's girlfriends first deer.Both shot in 2009 with rifles.He has tagged 16 blacktail bucks in 17 seasons,not sure if he has anything to do with her success.

[drbones]

My first (and so far only) deer was a Texas whitetail, bagged in the first minutes of my first day hunting deer.  I could hear multiple bucks rattling in the scrub as I sat in the stand, and as soon as the sun came up, there was a doe under the feeder (this was TX, after all!).  I was debating whether to take her or hope for a buck when she turned her head and eight points looked back at me

I had to wait a few more minutes for shooting light...and then I had to put the rifle down and try again.   I was so excited I couldn't keep him in the scope.  A few deep breaths later and I put one right under/behind his left shoulder, dropping him in his tracks.  This wasn't really a "hunt" in any sense of the word, but it was still pretty exciting. 

That was in the Texas hill country, where whitetails are almost like raccoons.  It's a good bit harder since I've come back up here to the NW where you actually have to *hunt*.  Hoping for a blacktail this year, but I'm assuming I'll be eating my tag.  Still beats workin...