I was lucky enough to be sucesfull durring my first ever deer hunt. I didn't even own a gun so I borrowed my friends twelve gauge single shot. I didn't really know much about hunting other than what I had heard from friends at work. Opening morning of modern gun I walked into this thick wooded area behind where I used to work. It was so thick I could hardly walk through it. I got about 50 yards in and set down. Well about an hour later I hear something and then see orange. It was a kid carrying a shotgun so I dunked down and waited till he was close enough to see me when I spoke to him. It was private property so I asked him how he got in and he told me his father and him came in on boat. I decided that it was time for me to leave since there were other people walking around in there and it wasn't a very large patch of woods. On the way home I decided it was too early to go home so I went in on the other end of that property (probably 2 miles away). I walked into this field and didn't see anything so I walked about twenty yards into the tree line and walked parallel with the field. I started seeing a bunch of fresh rubs and then out of the corner of my eye something caught my attention. So I ran out into the field and there standing about 40 yards away was a small 6 point that I flushed out. I through the gun up and shot some 000 buck at him. I could tell it hit him and he took off running across the field with me after him. The field kind of had a high spot in the center and I wanted to see where he went on the other side. Well that was my first mistake. When I got over the crest he had already laid down but when he seen me he bolted. I spent the next three hours trying to find blood and just out of luck I finally found a small speck and then another and another. I had almost given up before that. I finally tracked him down about 200 yards away on a trail. He was laying down having problems breathing and I didn't really know what to do. I didn't really want to shoot him again and I didn't have the heart to cut his throat so I just left him and headed back to get my truck. When I got back he was dead. Then the fun part began. I didn't even know how to gut him. After calling a few people and getting a general idea I worked my way through it. When I got him home I didn't have a clue on how to process him either so like a dumbass I cut this deer up with a box knife. It was a pain in the ass but a definite learning experience. I started having them processed after that and then that got too expensive so now I just quarter them up and cut the backstraps off and be done with it. It's a whole lot cheaper.