Your first deer?

[deerhunter94]

I shot my first deer when I was twelve over by Dixie.  There was about 45 minutes of shooting light left and we had just seen a doe about 300 yards away, which is a little bit out of range for my .30-30 so I crept closer until I was about 100 yards away, still a ways for open sights, but we couldn't get any closer without the deer seeing.  So I aimed and right when  I was about to pull the trigger a giant 4x4 jumped out about 30 yards away right in between me and my dad so neither of us could shoot it. But then it started running and right at the right moment I shot open sights with my .30-30 it didn't even flinch so  I assumed I had missed it, so I reloaded and brought up my gun for a second shot but it had already ran over the hill behind us.  As I ran after my dad, who had a view of that side of the hill called, "I think you got it!" Sure enough, there it was laying on the ground just over the top of the hill. 

[finnman]

I was a late bloomer as well! I did not harvest my first buck till I was 21!

I made it count though!
A fella out by Eatonville needed his ten acres surveyed, so my dad and brother, WAPITIHUNTER, went out and did the job on a Friday, after talking with the guy for a while, he says he is having deer problems! My dad speaks right up and says, it just so happens we will take care of that for you for no charge!!! The next day they go back and sure enough my dad drops a little 2x3 with his 'ol 7x57 Mauser, as they walk to the buck a different bigger buck jumps down the trail and my brother takes a quick snap shot at, just grazing the rump, sending some hair flying! After a look around, no blood, no buck........
The next day WAPITIHUNTER and me go back and look for the big buck, no doing, we decide to drop into the dark timber on the north property line and still hunt the salal thickets. 15 minutes into it I look up and see ANTLERS!!! Big ONES! The big 4x4 buck is just 15 feet away hiding in the salal! One quick shot to the neck with my .270 and he is down!
That was in 1991, since then I have been fortunate enough to harvest a deer every year, except 2007!
Till this day he is still the biggest Blacktail I have taken!

[Emptyhanded]

Hello. This is my first post and i really appreciate you letting me be a part of this forum. Anyways my first deer was 4 years ago when i was 13 yrs. old. I was hunting the Mt. Spokane unit with my grandpa in late buck and we had set up on a curve in the logging road we were on that over looked some thick underbrush in a draw and my grandpa wanted to try to calling for the first time. He got out his rattling antlers and grunt call and did a little of both and stopped and we sat and waited for about 5-10 minutes and i saw antler tips about 30 yards away and set up and i was watching a deer in the brush to what i thought was a 2 point and my grandpa said "take him in the neck". and i looked up with my scope and settled the cross-heirs on his neck and squeezed off a round from my .243. The deer dropped and i went down in the draw and found him and to my surprise it was a 5x5. That was a nice surprise! Haha. That was my first and only deer to date. I will post pictures as soon as i figure out how to.

[Bofire]

 :)It was 1957 I was 6, my Dad and brothers all got to go hunting deer, I didn't, I got to go pheasent hunting but not deer. So My Uncle Mack and Gramp Pete took me out walking along the RXR tracks by the home place.
As we walked along they were telling me stories, we saw a little Tow head buck at the bottom of the RXR grade about 25 yards.
Gramp Pete croutched down and put his arm around me in front of him. He held his old 25-20 winchester up for me and I aimed and pulled the trigger. Little deer went down, we walked up to him and Uncle Mack said, " Ya did real good boy, cept fer one thing, ya shoulda chased the little turd up the grade fore ya kilt im" I actually thought I did wrong and kinda tearred up over it.
When we got it back to the wood shed and hung him up my older brothers came in and had not seen a deer.
and Yup I gotta confess, I did not have a license or tag!!! That little bugger hung up on the wood shed wall with all the others until Gramp Pete died and Gram Bertha sold out.
Carl

[Pathfinder101]

I was 13.  My stepdad was a Spokane Indian, and without question the best hunter I have ever known.  He had been hunting opening weekend out of town, but took me out for my first hunt when he got home mid-week.  It was after school, and he figured we'd run up the mountain closest to town and look around for a good place to hang a treestand (always his preferred method of hunting).  We poked around up on Mingo Mountain (back when you could still set foot up there without trespassing) for about an hour.  It was getting towards dinner time, so we got back in the truck and started for home.  About halfway down the mountain I looked out my window and saw a set of antlers sticking out of the brush.  I started stammering, pointing, sputtering... basically, if you look up "buck fever" in the dictionary, that was me.
My dad got the point without me having to fully pronounce any word in the english language (luckily he spoke fluent buck fever), stopped the truck, and told me to load my rifle.  I was carrying a Model 94 Win. 30-30, which I actually managed to lever open on only my 3rd try.  Getting a cartridge in the chamber was another thing though.  I was shaking so badly, it must have taken me a full minute.  All the while this buck is lying bedded in the brush, not 30 feet from the truck.  In my defense, he was in fact a pretty big buck.
Of course, when I opened the truck door, he jumped up and ran off.  We watched him run through a stand of thick timber and into a small clearcut.  His tracks were pretty easy to follow until we got to the clearcut.  They were still logging the area, and they hadn't finished piling the slash to burn yet, so there was slash buldozed into piles everywhere.  After poking around for a bit it started getting dark, so we were headed back to the truck.  Man, was I butt-hurt!  I knew no one was going to believe me.  My first day of hunting in my life, 10 minutes from town, up a mountain that everyone and their brother hunted, and I had just missed my chance at the biggest whitetail buck I had ever seen in the flesh.
My dad was standing at the top of the clearcut, waiting for me.  I was at the bottom of it, about 100 yards from him.  Between us, at the east edge of the clearcut was a large, loosely buldozed slash pile.  I was walking back, doing my best impression of a kid that just dropped his ice cream cone, when I decided to climb up on one of the bigger logs in the brush pile.  Y'know, just to take one more look...  And I almost stepped on him.  God only knows why he hid in there, but he did. 
Didn't have time to get buck fever on this go-around.  He went bounding out of the slash pile to my right and I fired at the brown blur (we was about 15 feet from me).  He piled up face first on the opposite side of a log he was jumping over.
My dad walked up and inspected him.  Shot right behind the ear.  Let's just pretend that's where I was aiming...

The deer is hanging in my mom's living room in Kettle Falls.  Still the biggest whitetail I have ever shot.  I have never actually put a tape on him, but I figure him at about 130-something.  A testament to beginner's luck...
 

[Pathfinder101]

Regarding the above story.  This is the buck.

[Pathfinder101]

Gotta put my boy's first deer up here too.  This was Opening Day this year, northeast of Walla Walla.  He has been tagging along with me since he was 3, but his first year carrying his own tag.  This was the 3rd buck we spotted that morning (the other two were hell-bent for leather, tounges hanging out, with half the county blasting away).  He was with 8 does and a forkie.  Someone took a shot at him, and they headed into a draw we were watching (a known hidey-hole when the shooting starts).  We let them get in there and clam down, then made a 45 minute stalk, including a 200 yard belly crawl.  Shot him in his bed at 40 yards, using my shoulder as a rest.  No buck fever until he was dead on the ground.  Dad couldn't be prouder!!

[C-Money]

Good story Pathfinder101! Glad your kid got a buck!

[GUHunter]

I got my first deer on opening day this past season at age 23 in my third year of deer hunting. I grew up in a family of bird hunters and got into deer hunting with friends. Not much to talk about for the first two years of trying. On opening day of modern firearm season, we had permission to hunt some private property in Lincoln County. We had planned to take a vantage point on a small cliff overlooking some barley fields. As we made our way in, we spotted a giant muley buck but we were more than an hour till daylight. He doesn't seem overly concerned with us, so we made our way to our spot where we would still be able to see the area he was feeding when the sun came up. When the sun did rise, he was nowhere to be seen. 15 minutes after first light, I see a buck walking towards me along the dirt road we drove in on. I immediately knew it was a buck, but had to confirm 3-point. He looked right at me and stopped less than 60 yards away and I froze. He went back to what he was doing and i took aim and fired one shot from my Rem 721 in 30-06 that my grandpa gave me 3 years ago. He jumped and kicked at the shot but only went 20 yards or so before expiring. A young 3X2. I was hooked before I got my first deer, but it's still nice to get one now and then.

[huntergreg]

I had been hunting with my father since I was 8 years old. We always saw lots of animals but they were always running at full speed with no shot or way to far away. My father had been hunting for many years before I was born and he had the worst luck ever He didn't shoot his first deer until he was 53. I was with him when he shot his first deer. It was a doe. He got drawn for a doe tag in 336 unit. It was a fun day. When I turned 19 I got into archery. The first year out I missed a 3 point buck on opening day. Later in the day about 1 hour before dark we were heading back to the truck and we saw a spike elk at 45 yards and took the shot. It was a perfect hit double lung shot. He ran about 40 yards up this hill then rolled down to us. It was a cool experience to get you first animal with a bow. The very next year Me and my father were out hunting on opening day and I got my first buck a 2x3 at 50 yards.  He dropped in his tracks. I hit him a little high and broke his spine. The very next week was the opening for elk and again on opening day Sep. 8th. We were walking out through the woods and saw 2 cows together at 35 yards. I shot the closes one to us and it was a good hit. I couldnt believe it but she ran about 200 yards pumping out blood the whole time. It was an awesome second year of archery. From then on I have only hunted with archery equipment. I love it.  The pictures are in order My first deer my first elk and my second deer. My second deer I mounted my self. It turned out ok if you look at it from 8-10 feet away 

[whacker1]

Well - I just spent a couple of hours reading this whole thread.   Time to share.

I was a freshmen in highschool and I fished with my Dad a lot, but he didn't hunt.  All of my dad's brother's and my cousins hunted and it intrigued me, so I asked him one day if I could take hunter safety and learn how to hunt.  Well during that fall I went for a ride along with an older buddy during hunting season and he shot a 2 point buck not far from the road.  Well this really got me intrigued. 

Well Mom and Dad agreed, and I took hunter safety with another buddy from school that spring.  We were like oldest two kids in the hunter safety class. 

Anyway fast forward, sophmore year of high school.  I am going out hunting with my older buddy.  No luck on the weekends - I pushed some deer to them, but they were sleeping in the truck.  Anyway, while my buddy was out hunting on his own, his dad and I went out on the last wednesday of the general season about 15 miles from my parents house after school.  We had gone out a few times in the evening in an attempt to see if we could make soemthing happen.  He had already filled his tag, so he was just helping me out. 

we were road hunting, because he was disabled, and we got out to a landing of some reprod and we were walking the edges of the landing glassing for deer on the other side and he spotted a deer.  he told me it was a buck and got me ready.  Tore the limbs off a small jack fir and used it as a rest.  We were about 250 yards away and he told me to put the cross hairs on the top of his back and pull the trigger.  I shot - he yelled, and I was not even sure what to think.  He told me I got him and that he saw hair fly in the scope.  We drove around to the other side of the hill, and I asked "do we need to bring the gun down the hill with us?"  He said "no, i saw hair fly and watched him go down".  I was like cool.  We dove off this steep hill in the mud and went sliding down the hill.  We got to where he was standing, but very little blood, and a little bit of hair.  We followed a set of tracks a few steps and saw a skid going down through the mud.  Well we followed and found the deer about 100 yards below.  Still alive with a broken back and his antlers caught under a log, so he couldn't get away from us.   So my partners says, "where's your knife?'  I get it out, and he says, "Do you have another knife?".  To paint the picture, all i have is a folding blade knife - with out a lock.  2 1/2 blade.  Not the ideal choise.  So he says "stab it in the neck and try to puncture his wind pipe or artery."  So, I stab, and the blade collapses on my knuckles.  Well, as you can imagine this went on for some time 30 - 40 holes in his neck later, I finally got a good  couple of holes in his wind pipe and he expired. Not my favorite clean kill story.  So we hang the thing in a tree, and head home. 

My folks were at a meeting, so we head into his house and now my buddy is home and can't believe the story and the size of the buck.  This blacktail buck is a 4 x 3 with double eyeguards on the 4 point side and a single eye guard on the other.  But when measured by Boone & Crocket scores they actually score it as a 6 x 3, because it is only 7/8 of an inch on that 3 point side.  114 5/8 was the finally talley.  My uncle shot a regressed 2 point later in the season that was huge, so we used the cape from it for my buck and got it mounted.  Still sits in my living room next to my black bear and 2007 mule deer.

I was the talk of the school for the rest of the season - envy reared its ugly head for some, but most folks were congratulatory.  I'm addicted from that point on.  The intensity of the addiction grows each passing day. 

I shot my first elk during my senior year of high school - a cow on a special permit. 

Sorry this got so long.

[carpsniperg2]

i will keep it short and sweet single shot new england 243 150 yards spine shot across the canyon ine more to the neck and i had my first deer he was a 2x3 and i was 10

[Jamieb]

I was 15.

[buck wild]

I drew a doe tag last year (needs to be more of those) so i took the first one i saw and filled my tag as well as my first deer. This is my first buck (this years).

[huntnphool]

Nice stories everyone, keep them coming.