Do you remember your first deer?
05-28-2008, 12:29 PM
#11
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 341
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
I remember the first time i went deer hunting and i was only 5 years old! My dad let me miss a day on kindergarten 
to go deer hunting with him. We set up in a stand we call the "old man stand" because it is only 400 yards from the cabin. I remember hearing footsteps coming through the leaves but i couldnt see a deer anywhere. My dad kept telling me to look and finally i saw the thing, a little fork horn, which was only about 15 yards from the stand. He came in a little closer and bedded down right under the stand. I remember asking my dad if I could shoot it with my BB gun and he started laughing loud enough for the deer to jump up and walk off. That day was the day that started my passion for hunting, and a day i hope my dad or myself never forgets.
to go deer hunting with him. We set up in a stand we call the "old man stand" because it is only 400 yards from the cabin. I remember hearing footsteps coming through the leaves but i couldnt see a deer anywhere. My dad kept telling me to look and finally i saw the thing, a little fork horn, which was only about 15 yards from the stand. He came in a little closer and bedded down right under the stand. I remember asking my dad if I could shoot it with my BB gun and he started laughing loud enough for the deer to jump up and walk off. That day was the day that started my passion for hunting, and a day i hope my dad or myself never forgets.
05-29-2008, 09:17 PM
#12
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location:
Posts: 28
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
Thanks for the stories guys...someday soon i'd like to create another video with jim that captures more of those first moments that have endeared so many to hunting and the outdoors. Perhaps I could incorporate portions of your stories into this piece!
Keep the stories coming!
* And for those whom have had trouble getting the video to work - it's probably because you don't have quicktime on your computer or your internet connection is a weee bit too slow to deal with the file size. If either is the case, you can use the link below the video to "Revver" to watch the video in a flash player (like a youtube video) which should play just fine for you.
Keep the stories coming!
* And for those whom have had trouble getting the video to work - it's probably because you don't have quicktime on your computer or your internet connection is a weee bit too slow to deal with the file size. If either is the case, you can use the link below the video to "Revver" to watch the video in a flash player (like a youtube video) which should play just fine for you.
05-30-2008, 06:50 AM
#13
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: north florida
Posts: 1,277
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
I remember mine- I was 12 and i had my dad's old remington 1100 12 gauge that he had first hunted with too. My dad dropped me off at one stand and told me to fill two doe tags if i got a chance. Not an hour later two does came to the food plot 30 yds away and stood broadside for an easy shot. I rushed my first shot and one of the does bolted off back in the woods, but the other one ran towards me and i dropped that doe quickly when the buckshot hit its mark. The other doe stood off in the woods and blew for 5 minutes before finally walking off. We looked for awhile for a bloodtrail on the first doe i shot, but i must have just flat out missed her. It turned out that my first deer was a 60 lb yearling,[&:] but it sure looked bigger when it came out on the foodplot
05-30-2008, 06:56 AM
#14
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location:
Posts: 16
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
i was 12. it was my first season bow hunting and i was very unpracticed sitting in a ground blind. a big doe came to what turned out to be 37 yards. shot a bit high and dropped her right there. hit her in the spine, one of the worst shots ever with a bow. she was my first one and i will remember it forever.
05-30-2008, 09:19 AM
#15
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 169
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
It was 40 yrs. ago and I was hunting alone on the first day of PA's rifle season. There was a down right blizzard going on and I had just set down against the roots of a fallen tree trying not to freeze to death. The sun suddenly broke out, just for a second, and I looked up at it and when I looked back down there was a beautiful 8 point standing at the end of the tree I was settin on. I took aim with my .303 british and shot and the buck made 30 yds. before piling up. So no, I really can't remember that far back.
06-02-2008, 08:55 PM
#16
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 2,186
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
Long ... but indulge an "old" man if you will ...
My first deer was way before video cameras !!! It was the winter of 1963. I was barely 15. I had worked about 6 weeks of 12 hour days the summer before , 6 days a week burning piles of dried tree tops on a family friend's newly cleared pasture land ... @ $.25/hour. I had been with Dad when he went to Steinberg's in Baton Rouge and saw a 50# pull, Shakespeare Wonder Bow recurve. I had become a decent archer in the Boy Scouts and having read a book by featuring Fred Bear, spent about $45 of my savings on an fancy archery set-up, replacing my 40# pull $16 fiberglass Ben Pearson stick set that I had bought a year earlier at a local hardware store. I practiced countless hours shooting into hay bales so that I could earn an Archery Merit Badge ... and thought I was a good shot !!
For years, wile hunting squirrels with my only shot gun .. a Mossberg .410, I had seen deer tracks on several oak flats in a swamp near where I lived at the time. After football season ended, I started hunting these deer every Saturday morning. I actually got a 30 yard or so shot at a spike the second time out, but shot over the buck about 5'. I was shaking so badly it was a miracle the shot was that close. It took me seemed like forever to find my precious arrow. I only had 3 !! Cedar shafted with Herter's broad heads. I never saw any deer again that season.
I practiced a lot the next year and was a ton stonger, bigger and a really good shot by the fall. I had found great sign of deer feeding on acorns that fall and had built 3 ground blinds .... one on each of the 3 acorn flats within about 25 yards of the trails where the deer were coming onto the flats out of the swamp. I had killed many Nutria (which we ate by the way) from those blinds but had not seen any deer. It was not until near the end of the season that I lucked into a shot. It was a fork-horned 4 point walking knee deep in the swamp water with 3 does in tow. It was at about 18 yards. I hit it a tad back but mid-up on the body and passed through both lungs. I was too inexperienced to know to let the buck lay. So, for about 15 minutes I chased it though the swamp. Finally it gave out ... about when I did too.
I did not have a truck or ATV or anything other than my 28" Murray bicycle equipped with a "paper-boy basket". Took me hours to drag the deer out to the fence row where I had left the bike near the graveled road. I certainly I had not planned how to manage getting that much dead weight back to the house. I wound up dragging the deer back to the edge of the swamp and gutting it. I sloshed it as clean as swamp water can and dragged it back to the bike. I took the strings out of my worn out "Chucks" and used one to tie the front legs over the handle bars, placing the head and precious rack in the basket. I tied the back legs straddled across the rear "seat" ... then took my belt off and cinched the buck to the bike frame ... and proceeded to walk my trophy the 3 or so miles back home.
About a quarter mile into my trek, a family friend passed me in his hay truck ... backed up and after much gawking at the kid that had killed a buck with archery gear proceeded to haul me all over the east side of the parish to about every "jot-em-down" grocery in the area. Some hour or so later I arrived at home ... full of soda and junk food .... and no one was there to greet me. I was so let down. By then I truly had the big head.
Dad was a school teacher/coach and was working a Saturday job to help make ends meet. Mom had taken my younger brothers to the grocery. Mr. Babin strung the deer up to the swing set and skinned it out. He washed it off good and butchered it out for me. I wrapped it in freezer paper and kept the head out for dad to see. When he finally came home he was astounded to say the least.
What I cannot describe here is how I must have looked to all those who saw me before I cleaned up ... knee deep in mud, wet well above the waist and covered with deer blood !! But for a few weeks I was a local "celeb". Heck, my dad by then had been dog hunting deer in the swamps of SE Louisiana for over 10 years and never even got a shot. So, I was one up on the ol' man.
Now knowing there was nothing to this bow hunting deal, it took me only 13 more years to get another shot ... and I missed it to boot !
My first deer was way before video cameras !!! It was the winter of 1963. I was barely 15. I had worked about 6 weeks of 12 hour days the summer before , 6 days a week burning piles of dried tree tops on a family friend's newly cleared pasture land ... @ $.25/hour. I had been with Dad when he went to Steinberg's in Baton Rouge and saw a 50# pull, Shakespeare Wonder Bow recurve. I had become a decent archer in the Boy Scouts and having read a book by featuring Fred Bear, spent about $45 of my savings on an fancy archery set-up, replacing my 40# pull $16 fiberglass Ben Pearson stick set that I had bought a year earlier at a local hardware store. I practiced countless hours shooting into hay bales so that I could earn an Archery Merit Badge ... and thought I was a good shot !!
For years, wile hunting squirrels with my only shot gun .. a Mossberg .410, I had seen deer tracks on several oak flats in a swamp near where I lived at the time. After football season ended, I started hunting these deer every Saturday morning. I actually got a 30 yard or so shot at a spike the second time out, but shot over the buck about 5'. I was shaking so badly it was a miracle the shot was that close. It took me seemed like forever to find my precious arrow. I only had 3 !! Cedar shafted with Herter's broad heads. I never saw any deer again that season.
I practiced a lot the next year and was a ton stonger, bigger and a really good shot by the fall. I had found great sign of deer feeding on acorns that fall and had built 3 ground blinds .... one on each of the 3 acorn flats within about 25 yards of the trails where the deer were coming onto the flats out of the swamp. I had killed many Nutria (which we ate by the way) from those blinds but had not seen any deer. It was not until near the end of the season that I lucked into a shot. It was a fork-horned 4 point walking knee deep in the swamp water with 3 does in tow. It was at about 18 yards. I hit it a tad back but mid-up on the body and passed through both lungs. I was too inexperienced to know to let the buck lay. So, for about 15 minutes I chased it though the swamp. Finally it gave out ... about when I did too.
I did not have a truck or ATV or anything other than my 28" Murray bicycle equipped with a "paper-boy basket". Took me hours to drag the deer out to the fence row where I had left the bike near the graveled road. I certainly I had not planned how to manage getting that much dead weight back to the house. I wound up dragging the deer back to the edge of the swamp and gutting it. I sloshed it as clean as swamp water can and dragged it back to the bike. I took the strings out of my worn out "Chucks" and used one to tie the front legs over the handle bars, placing the head and precious rack in the basket. I tied the back legs straddled across the rear "seat" ... then took my belt off and cinched the buck to the bike frame ... and proceeded to walk my trophy the 3 or so miles back home.
About a quarter mile into my trek, a family friend passed me in his hay truck ... backed up and after much gawking at the kid that had killed a buck with archery gear proceeded to haul me all over the east side of the parish to about every "jot-em-down" grocery in the area. Some hour or so later I arrived at home ... full of soda and junk food .... and no one was there to greet me. I was so let down. By then I truly had the big head.
Dad was a school teacher/coach and was working a Saturday job to help make ends meet. Mom had taken my younger brothers to the grocery. Mr. Babin strung the deer up to the swing set and skinned it out. He washed it off good and butchered it out for me. I wrapped it in freezer paper and kept the head out for dad to see. When he finally came home he was astounded to say the least.
What I cannot describe here is how I must have looked to all those who saw me before I cleaned up ... knee deep in mud, wet well above the waist and covered with deer blood !! But for a few weeks I was a local "celeb". Heck, my dad by then had been dog hunting deer in the swamps of SE Louisiana for over 10 years and never even got a shot. So, I was one up on the ol' man.
Now knowing there was nothing to this bow hunting deal, it took me only 13 more years to get another shot ... and I missed it to boot !
06-06-2008, 10:53 AM
#17
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location:
Posts: 30
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
My first deer was a five pointer.I killed it in 1985 with a remington 11-48 12ga.That same year I killed my second buck with my dad's 10ga.Then therest of the deer,that where with my buck ran down to my grandpop andhe shotabuck.That was my grandpop's last deer.Back, then I did not know what it meant to have three generations of deer hunters in the woods.
06-06-2008, 11:13 AM
#18
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: On an Island in Vermont
Posts: 22,571
RE: Do you remember your first deer?
I was 15 years old and it was 1963. I had a brand new Remington 742 30-06 with a 2-7 Redfield scope. My father dropped me off on a known deer run up on the mountain and went down through a swamp to hunt a little spot he liked. The first hour I counted 22 deer but didn't see any antlers. The 23rd deer came up the trail and it had 3 points. Dropped it on the spot then my uncle climbed up to the spot and showed me/ helped me field dress the deer. I was the toast of the camp that night as we wolfed down fresh tenderloins.
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