I always hunted with my dad and still love to, but he didn't hunt this year, I will talk him into it next year for sure though. My first deer gun is a 30-30 Marlin that my dad picked up for me when I was 13. Bought it for $95. with coon hunting money. I had hunted with dad for years, tagging along and learning everything I needed to know. Deer hunting was hard then because there were so few deer and sitting and waiting for them was impractical bordering on impossible, so driving them out was the main method. Driving out and seeing one deer was a successful week of hunting for a large group of hunters. Only bucks were legal and taking one was rare. If a man in your group killed a buck the whole group were heroes. Skip forward 5 years and I was 18, deer were becoming more plentiful and a guy could brag about seeing more than one in a day and might take one every 2-3 years. I was with my dad and my 30-30. I had scent out, some kind of apple cover scent, and we were sitting on the ground waiting. My dad was trying to urge me to go but there was 10 minutes of legal shooting left and everything seemed right. Finally he said lets go and turned to get up and said BUCK! I turned to see a tail going out of sight down the hill and ran to follow and keep him in sight. I fired at that buck while running full speed myself and knew that when airborn between steps, which were long running steps downhill, I was very stable to aim and fire. Fourth shot put him down and I had my first 8point buck. My dad was amazed that I was so calm and handled the gun so well and safely under the conditions. It wasn't something I would reccommend anyone doing, but I had trained for it for years. I always liked moving and shooting on foot, from horseback, and vehicles and practiced hitting targets from all sorts of positions with rifles and pistols. If you've ever seen the show Impossible Shots, thats the way I shoot. Grew up loving exhibition shooting and learning to do all the tricks, especially shooting on the run, fast draw and accuracy. And though I was outwardly calm, I was very excited to have made such a shot and taken my first deer that way. Nowadays I look for perfect close shots at standing deer even though I can still instictively hit far away and fast moving targets. I'm not a kid anymore. But I did use that same 30-30 to very good effect on a doe last week, and even though the season was terrible weatherwise and I had to work every day, I found time to keep my streak alive. One or more deer every year since 1984. And I still may borrow a muzzleloader for the hunt starting in 12 days. So, my first rifle, killed my first and last deer, and many in between, even though I experimented for years to find the perfect rifle for me. I didn't always use the 30-30 but have loaned it to my dad and others who have killed deer with it too. And I still enjoy killing at least one deer with it every year, like this year when my daughter wanted to use my other main weapon, the AR-10, that she took her first buck with, 8 years ago. No problem at all. I still have my 30-30, 30 seasons later!