My dad started my hunting for small game as soon as I could pull the hammer back. It wasn' t until I was 16 that I tried for a deer. My fist deer was a spike that came running up a trail I was watching. It was UGLY!!! I had a small window to shoot through and I ended up shooting 5 times!!! Believe it or not, the spike just stood there for the first 2 shots. The third hit him in his jaw and took out the main artery. I ran up and saw it was still alive, felt bad and tried to put it out of his misery. I jerked when I pulled the trigger and shot one of the spikes off. The fifth and final finished the job.
Being 16 I was just happy I got a deer. Within a few days the adrenaline wore off and I realized how awful that was. I didn' t deer hunt again until I was 25. Since then I have harvested 4 deer on 4 shots. I have forgiven myself for what I did and do not consider it part of my mature hunting past. Kind of a " when I was a child" sort of thing.