I started hunting in 2002. It was late season in VA, almost in it's final days if I recall. I was sitting in a ladder stand I set up overlooking a patch of thorny bushes and mountain laurel near a creek. It was freezing and getting dark but I had a little extra light from a nearly full moon so I stayed out a little longer than usual. After awhile I saw and heard nothing so decided to get out of the stand. I walked a few feet and thought, I might as well wait five more minutes, so I sat on a nearby fallen tree.
I was sitting there sort of chilling when all of a sudden I heard some rustling up the hill from me. I turned around and there was this deer walking at a steady pace behind me. I thought it would see me because I was pretty much in the open but it gave no sign of stopping or running in fear so I let it get close. It came within 20 yards and I put the crosshairs on it's sweet spot and fired.
It leaped into the air and ran right past me and into the thickets. I heard it run a bit and then this huge crash. Being an inexperienced hunter at the time, I didn't know if I got it or not. I searched for a sign or body, but couldn't find anything. It was getting dark so I went home a bit disappointed. Before bed, my wife told me to go out early in the morning and look again because it was going to be absolutely freezing that night and if the deer did go down, the cold should take care of it. So at 7am I went out and looked again. To my surprise, I found a leaf with a nice pool of blood collected in it. I expanded my search and finally, in the worst thorns and thicket you can imagine, was my deer.
It was a medium sized spike. I couldn't believe the first deer I ever shot was a buck of sorts. Seven years and several more deer later, I am still hooked.