Thanks everyone! It feels good to get my first deer ever and get that monkey off my back!

I was hunting on the groundlate yesterday, a spike and a doe came walking past at about 30 yards. The doe spotted me and took off, the spike started running, but stopped broadside in my shooting lane and I took the shot with my Hawkens 50 cal percussion.

I gave Lefty26 a call for advice, thengave it about 15 minutes beforestarting to track,started getting dark. Ilost the blood trail after about 20 yards,did a search of the area but saw nothing.

Lefty met me out there this morning, and after checking for a couple of minutes,yells to me that he found the deer. It had jumped/fallen off a 20 foot cliff and was laying at the bottom. The coyotes had tore up the hind quarters a bit, but for the most part the deer was intact. It was a spike with one antler that looks like it was broken off early in the season. Dressed weight was 94 pounds.

Thanks to everyone on the board who answered my stupid questions over the last few years as well as my hunting buddies who I met on the forums.

-Rick C.