Last year, I took this very healthy 12-point at 6:45am opening day. Can it get any better? Yep - this was my first deer ever!
I grew up near water and was into fishing as far back as I can remember. What little hunting I did was for squirrels. Where I'm living now, I have access to lots of private land in with large whitetail populations. Years ago, I tried my hand at woods hunting, but discovered that my color blindness gave the deer a real advantage. I spent lots of time over two seasons sitting in tree stands and never saw a deer.
Last year, I tried hunting the edge of some woods on my brother-in-law's property. I spent lots of time over the summer reacquainting myself with deer habits, habitats, patterns, food, etc. I picked up a Savage 110 30-06, sighted it in, did some practicing, then waited until season opened.
The night before, a cold front moved in and the temp really dropped. I knew what that meant, so I was in the stand at 5:30 the next morning. This guy stuck his head out of the woods early enough in the day that I didn't have to freeze in the stand all day. The shot went through both lungs and tore the heart in half. He walked about 20 feet and dropped. My daughter was in the stand with me. She shot her first 2 weeks later.
By the way, I'm really into this for the meat - I love the taste of venison (and the savings over beef!). You can see in the pictures that we had already dressed it before my daughter's boyfriend said, "You haven't even taken any pictures????"
I know this is a rough way to start out - it doesn't get much better than this! My freezer is clean and needing more meat. Can't wait to see what this season holds.