I honestly can not remember for sure. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of deer. But of course they were of deer that my father and grandfather brought home.

Being in the wild, I remember one time where my oldest brother and I were walking in a creek on a deer drive. Niether of us were hunting quite yet, but were always involved in deer drives. I was probably about 1st grade and my brother was in 7th or 8th grade.

We were in a dry but deep creek bed, when he decided that we should climb up the side of the bank. So he starts crawling up the side, and when he gets to the top, he looks back down at me and says "Big Buck". So I get really excited and try to climb up the steep creek bed, as fast as I can, but have trouble doing it. He reaches down, grabs my hand and pulls me up. As soon as I'm at the top, I see a mature buck and a doe, maybe 25-30 yards away at the most. Then they ran off.

Nowadays, I can close my eyes and see the whole image still so clear. It's an image that will stay with me forever.