first shot at a deer
 

ok guys...just outa curiousity...what happend with your FIRST ever shot at a deer with a BOW?? i made this a poll so we could keep it short and keep IDs hidden if you dont wanna admit a miss or wound in public..if youd like fill in the details...your age...number of years with a bow before that..buck/doe..how far..etc...whatever...should be a good interesting poll.

not to be critical..but for this poll i guess ill consider anything NOT a heart or lung hit to be a wound. just cant think of a better way to put it..

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Remember it like it was yesterday. 10 years ago I had a doe walk by me at 15 yards.....Shot right over her back. What a bummer. Fast forward 7 years. I missed my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th within 20 minutes.....4 different deer, by the way. Finally connected on #6, and it was a a smoke job!

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Missed my first a couple weeks ago. Last friday, I redeemed myself and smoked a doe. Now I'm out for my first buck. Once you got that first one under your belt, you got all the confidence in the world.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

first deer was quartering toward me and smoked it double lung .I hit it a little higher than where i was aiming but she only went 25 yards before
dropping

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Put me down for a miss. Well heck, put me down for 3 misses in a couple weeks. I finally connected the last 10 minutes of my first season on a little crotchy. I then went on about a 10 year spree with only one miss. The first years were recurve hunting.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Took my first shot at a doe during my 3rd year bow hunting, smoked her good, but could not find her. I am not ashamed to say that I didnt really have any idea how to trail a wounded deer, (thought I did, but when it came right down to it, I was lost. But I have come a long way since then thanks to this place and the great guys and gals that come on here.) I did end up finding her, but it wasnt for a couple of weeks.[:@]

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first was a six point at 15 yards. I was so nervous that I jerked the shot and hit the liver. It was incapacitated but still breathing when I walked up on it. As I was reaching for my knife to finish it off, it expired on it's own.

I'm not real proud of that shot, but it was my first. I'm glad it was only 15 yards because at that short distance, even a bad shot still managed to hit a vital organ. Had it been 25 yards I probably would have hit the stomach and I might not have found it. That's why I like short shots - greater margin for error. Especially for newbies.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first shot was my first time out bowhunting, 2 years ago.I was sitting in the tree lounge, and it's too darn comfortable and I had dozed off. Next thing I knew, I heard a crunch, looked up and had a doe coming in. When I saw her, she was only about 10 yards or so, but by the time I got my bearings and grabbed my bow, she had made it to 15 or 20. I only had one opportunity to take the shot because she would have been out of my range after that... I didn't even know if I had hit her because I didn't get a passthru, she took my arrow with her. Couldn't find any blood anywhere, my husband finally found the blood trail about 70 yards away or so. It was a good one, bubbles in the blood, so I figure I musta hit a lung. We tracked forever, and ever, and EVER and never found her. :(

We went back the next day too, but still no blood, it had rained overnight though, and we tried to pick up where we marked last blood, but couldn't find anything. I ended up shooting my 7 point the next week (muzzleloader)and found the arrow about 10 yards from where we were gutting him out.

I figure she died somewhere, but unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere we were at. I am not ashamed, as I took it as a learning experience, as I do every hunt. The one thing I *am* ashamed of is that the draw length on my bow at the time was too long (figured this out afterward, thanks to the idiots at Gander Mtn. measuring wrong), I had shot just fine at the range, but I guess my nerves got the best of me that time. I have since learned to stay calm and think about everything BEFORE I do it, and I harvested a button buck one week into bow season last year.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Mine was last yr so I remember it yesterday. I had 5deer walk w/in me at 30yds but no shot.... they were just behind some cover. I heard one coming so readied myself again and it came out 5yds away, walking directly towards me. It walked right beneath my stand to the trail that I had blocked.... thinking that the deer would start using the trails that were about 10yds away. It just stood there, dumbfounded. I couldn't get on her and she heard me and blasted off..... I bleated and she came back. Posing 30yds away broadside........ I MISSED. My max range then became 20yds and I smacked the next one, same stand different day. This yr 2 shots 2 kills and I was busted by a nice buck so never got a shot. Set your own limitations and have fun.[8D]

RE: first shot at a deer
 

I smoked my first, a doe, walked 30 yards and fell over...made me think i knew it all, it was easy, boy have i been taught a lesson since!;)

RE: first shot at a deer
 

i hit the bullz eye everytime from 40 yards but iam 0 for 3 this year, im starting to like rilfe more [:o]

RE: first shot at a deer
 

wow guys...this is turning out to be a good poll. just kinda...puts it all intp perspective. shows the new archers not to get too discouraged and just how hard it can be to make a good solid hit...keep the results coming!

RE: first shot at a deer
 

I missed and missed again! It took me about three years of hunting before I finally got a deer. I took the doe at 8 yards double lung.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first shot at a deer was at a little six pointer. He was working a scrape with an overhanging branch. I cut off the overhanging branch. That was 1992 and many deer ago. By the way after more practice my second shot was thru both lungs of a big old doe.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Actually I forgot about my true first shot at a deer. I was 12 and grazed the back of a button buck. I took 20 years off before getting into bowhunting again 3 years ago.

Since starting 3 years ago I'm 5 for 5 (knock on wood).

RE: first shot at a deer
 

wow..never forget this sucker..first deer i ever shot at..nice 5X5 that walked 20 yards out from me..i made a really bad shot and still managed to find him the next day all piled up..

RE: first shot at a deer
 

right over the back of a 7 point

RE: first shot at a deer
 

bow huntings amazing, the shots ive missed were a 10 yard shot, a little branch about half an inch deflect my dubble lung shot on a nice buck, than i missed a 20 yard shot because i used to the wrong pin than a 40 yard shot due to another branch getting in the way.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Set up in a 17 ft. Ladder stand off the side of a logging road through my lease that the deer would walk down. Around 8:30 a.m. a spike walked from my right to left moving from behind me to in front and past me into a quartering away shot. I let the arrow fly with the deer at 27 yards. The arrow went in 2/3 back in the ribs and the deer jumped / kicked and bolted forward literally slamming into a pine tree and climbing it. He then flipped over backwarks in the air, jumped up and ran into another much smaller tree that had been bowed over by a skidder about 5 yards away. After hitting that tree he fell over dead. Distance traveled after the shot was about ten yards forward to one tree and about five yards to the next. I was shaking so bad afteer I shot, I had to sit down for a while to regain my composure before I fell out of my stand.

Then I got stupid.... I remember thinking ( in a funny way )"WOW, that wasn't so hard. What's all this blood trailing and tracking stuff about." I was relatively young, about 25,and stupid. I hit a great shot, that entered 2/3 back on the left side, and just barely exited in front of the shoulder on the right. I had a great damage path. The deer died within 15 seconds of the shot. He may not have died as much from my shot as he did from the way he slammed into the two trees, knocking himself silly.

But I remember it like it was yesterday, even-though it was about 16 years ago. I was shooting a PSE Polaris Express, and Easton 2213's. That was my first compound bow and my first bow deer. And the last time I did not have to worry about a blood trail....LOL

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first shot at a deer with a bow was at a yearling doe. Hit her in the butt. However, the broadhead sliced the femural artery and she didn't go far. It was total luck, but I would rather be lucky than good:D

Now, my first 4 shots at elk were all misses (some over, some under), and they are only about 3 times as big :)

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Smoked my first. It was a doe at 6 yards.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

I was 16. I bought a bow on a Wednesday, practiced Thursday and Friday. (never shot a bow before that) Went on my first bowhunt Saturday and smoked a 5 point at 5 yards. He fell over dead. didn't take one step.
Disclaimer....Don't try this at home. Become very proficient before taking shots at game. You owe the animal a humane kill. This was a rare occurance and I was lucky in all aspects.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Missed clean at 12 yards. Not sure where the arrow went because I didn't even remember letting it go! Found the arrow, no blood, no hair. Watched the doe eat in a corn field for the next 2 1/2 hours trying to figure out what the hell happened.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

I chose "wound/recovered. My first shot was at a spike @20yds. I spined him, finished him off with my Kershaw. I'd rather miss completely than spine another animal.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first shot was last September at a doe. Forgot to look where the arrow hit her. I heard the thwack and she hauled a$$ up the hill. Waited 30 minutes got my arrow and it was partially covered in blood, bone and white hair. Went to camp and waited 2 hours to start tracking. No blood at all down the path she ran and then we jumped her about 100 yds from where she was shot and her guts where hanging out of her side. Let her be for another 2 hours and she expired 2 feet from our ATV trail. I ended up a little high and nipped 1 lung, broke some ribs and liver. Huge exit hole was blocked by her insides therefore not much blood except where she bedded down.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

First day ever hunting with my bow and the biggestbuck I've ever seen in the woods stops dead on the scent trail I drug. Twenty feet from the bottom of my ladder stand in a clearing. I drew back, calmed myself, thaught about what everyone told me aboutaim low from a tree, placed my ten yard pin at the bottom of his armpit, hit the release, and thwack!!!! One Easton with a 100 grain Muzzy straight into the ground below him.Never saw that deer again. He probably laughs everytime I enter the woods.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Wow it was so long ago? Hmmm let me seehere if i can remember?Yup i sure do. It was a miss like no other my shot was 2ft over its back:DI think i missed 2 or 3 before tagging my first.
I could hit a 16 oz bottle top at 30yrds but i couldn`t hit a deer walking 15yrds from my tree:Dnerves[:'(]

RE: first shot at a deer
 

I was either 13 or 14 when I lobbed a 2117 Easton Treetrunk out of aFred Bear Whitetail Hunter (plastic roundwheels)at an unsuspecting doe my first year bowhunting. The shot was right at 20 yards and I hit her squarely in the paunch. The shot was initially online, but while the arrow was in flight, she took a full step forward, and it entered way back. That was when everybody used those Bear $1.29 cut-on-impact broadheads with the little bleeder blades. You guys who have played with the Bear Whitetail bows - you know how slow they were. Painfully slow.

Anyway, she went about 80 yards and lied down to die. I didn't know how long to wait, so I waited for my uncle to come out to get me (1/2 hr.). He was more concerned about getting out of the woods and to McDonald's for lunch, so we immediately rushed out there and bumped her out of the bed. He never did take me back there to look for her that night or the next day. "It was only a doe, and you made a bad shot." "She'll be fine." "Chalk it up to experience." That's the advice I got.

I'll chalk it up to something allright. Chalk it up to never hunting with you again, so I didn't. Saved up and the following year, I bought a PSE (the modelname escapes me)that was light years ahead of the Whitetail bow from a technological standpoint. By today's standards, that PSE was also molasses slow and behemoth, but back then, it was the apex of technology. Icapitalized onmy first shotthe following year, and all was well in the world.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

1st was an 8pt he was head on to me..I shot him in the neck catching the jugular vein. Spewing blood like a loose hose he went down in 20 yards.. I didn't know better, after a lifetime of rifle hunting. I thought it was a good shot. It worked out great but not a shot I'd readily take today, even though I'm a much better shot now!

RE: first shot at a deer
 

My first shot with my bow at a deer was when I was 15. I was walking to a small food plot way back in the woods. The road was sand and red clay. The wind was in my face and I had my climbing stand on my back. As I approached the food plot I noticed the back of a deer sticking over a little rise in the field. So I backed up eased my stand down and knocked an arrow. I slowly crept back to the field and the deer had moved closer I still couldnt see its head. That didnt matter at the time though. I guessed 25 yards, drew and let er rip. To my suprise the deer fell straight down. I closed the distance and noticed it was a spike. I was to busy doing my happy dance that I didnt notice the deer was still ALIVE! I put another arrow in him from 5 yds. and that was the end of it. The first arrow had penetrated his left shoulder blade and stuck in the opposite shoulder blade. Pinning his legs. I loaded him on the fourwheeler and called everybody I had in my phone book on the way home!!!

RE: first shot at a deer
 

Shot right over his back!.. (at 18 yards! :) )

RE: first shot at a deer
 

This is my first year of bow hunting. I shoot a 4 pointer the second weekned low in the lungs at about 30 yards. We found a lot of blood but lost it after about 100 yards because it was raining and it kept washing the blood trail away. We searched for over 3 hours in the dark but never found it.

RE: first shot at a deer
 

5 years ago, forgot my quiver at home so I used one of my brothers arrows ( I know completely stupid). Shot a doe right in the rear hip and broke her leg. We chased her for 4 miles on a bad leg until the other one broke and I had to walk up and didnt have the heart to cut her throat and put another one in her. By far the most traumatising hunt of my life. I swore I would never hunt again after that experience. Took the next year off and the year after that I decided to give it another try. Opening weekend I had a 16pt typical 200+ class walk right in front of me but never heard him coming cause I was playing my gameboy! I still managed to put the gamedown, grad my bow, draw back and miss a broadside shot from 10 yards and watch my first buck ever walk away totally unaware of what happened. Never saw him again and missed 4 other does that year. After that I decided I was going to totally commit to deer hunting. Bought a Bowtech Allegiance, practiced 5 days a week scouted months in advace and went 7 for 7 last year, all double lungers. It just goes to show that you have to totally commit to practicing and learning your bow and your self, but nothing can substitute for experience of being around deer on their turf. I still get excited every time I see a deer, but I dont get the uncontrollable shakes and the anxiety of thinking all I am going to do is miss or maim the deer. I only wish that big dog I missed 3 years ago would come by again! Sorry about the long post but I am just revved up about the season!

RE: first shot at a deer
 

A miss here

My dad was taping and we were in a draw only area. Got lucky enough to get drawn out and it was the last afternoon. We were getting ready to get out and looked and saw a nice 2 1/2 yr. old 8 point coming up the hill at 20 yards. I'm thinking yes here we go first deer I've ever seen in range and going right along the trail. It was to dark to get any good footage with the old cheap camera that we used to have. Well I shot and realized I misjudged where my shooting lane began. After hitting about 5 different limbs my arrow still somehow managed to just helplessly float only a few inches over his back.

I finally got one my 3rd year bowhunting.