Do you remember your first deer and your first deer on your own?
 

I sure do. My first deer was when i was 11. I had hunted about 5 times with my dad and hadn't seen anything. It was the last day of the season and there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. We normally got down around 9am to go have breakfast with the other hunters but today we said we were staying from sunrise to sunset. It was going later into the morning around 10am and my concentration was starting to disappear. I started playing my gameboy that i snuck along and then my dad asked for a kit kat bar. I took it out and started singing the song he started laughing and i just happened to glance over to see 3 deer coming down the trail right at us. I grabbed my remington 870 and lined up a nice size doe. I squeezed the trigger and saw the deer flinch but didn't run. I shot again and it dropped. We walked over to it and it turns out the first shot broke its shoulder and the second was a double lung shot. I was so happy. Now fast forward 8 years and a 4 point sika deer and another whitetail doe. I am 19 now and this is the first season im hunting on my own (missed the last 3 years due to highschool sports). I went opening day saturday and didnt have any shots. I decided to go sunday and didnt see anything in the morning. I went into the woods and sat down on a log around 10am. About 15 min later some guy comes walking through the woods (private property) and asks if i saw a deer he shot run through here. I tell him no and then catch movement behind him...A small doe stood up about 15 yards from us, i raised my benelli nova, took aim and fired. I dropped the deer with a spine shot. I then proceeded to drag the deer out of the woods and gut my first deer on my own. It was a small yearling (about 50lbs dressed) but it was the first one i killed on my own and did all the work myself. Its safe to say that these are two memories i will never forget....(I did end up finding the guys deer that night he shot a big bodied four point in the back legs and blew its guts out, i cleaned it and drove over to the guys house to congratulate him on his kill, he was pretty surprised to see i dressed it for him and even brought him it).

Nice story. Your to be congratulated on your ethics. Your parents raised a good human being. Not all would field dress and deliver someone else s deer. To many times over the years I have heard of other people's deer being found by someone else and dragged off, never to be seen again by the real shooter. Congrats on shooting your first deer at 11. I was 25 when I shot my first deer, a spike. I have shot many deer sense but it never gets old. Only I have.

i shot my first deer in a blind with my dad when i was 14. the following year, at the age of 15, i shot my first deer by myself out of the same blind. this season, i was/am 16 and shot my first buck, along with my first archery kill. each of these kills were very proud moments.

I was 19 when I shot my first deer, a spike. I have shot many deer since but it never gets old. Only I have.

Thanks VT, I changed it to fit me, 48 years ago.

My Dad didn't hunt, so it wasn't until I was in college that I went on my first deer hunt, with one of my roommates. The only rifle that I had back then was a .22 rimfire, so he also loaned me a lever action .32 Spl. That hunt and all of my other deer (and elk, moose, antelope, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and bear) hunts have been on my own.

I only started to hunt when i was 28 but shot a buck the first year. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a wooden tree stand in a little patch of woods that deer go thru to get to a bedding area when I saw a line of deer heading my way. I was counting as they passed and when I was up to 7 does I said to myself well the last one is mine. I brought my Marlin 30/30 up and just as I was putting the crosshair on her I saw another deer just behind her. I'm glad I waited till that deer came thru it turned out to be a nice five pointer. I have been hunting 24 years this past season and have had lady luck on my side with only 2 years with no luck. I still hunt that same little patch of woods and this season opening day saw 7 deer total and 4 were bucks. Scored a nice seven pointer for the freezer. Still get a thrill when I bring one home just getting a little tougher to drag home.

Like it was yesterday,11 years old,hunting with an old
Jc Higgins 20 gauge bolt action shotgun that someone
Gave me to hunt with. I,d never shot the gun. Truth
Is, I was afraid to. Plus I only had a couple shells. I
Was teaching myself to hunt made a lot of mistakes
But never the same mistake twice.

Anyway I was walking thru a clear cut on my way
Home nearly dark, when three deer started
Running in a line about twenty-five yards away.
I aimed at the first deer fired and the third in
Line fell down. One pellet in the backbone---
It's always been clear to me I wasn't really
Hunting alone that day. I've never been prouder
Of any deer I've shot since than I was of that
Little button buck. 1963 seems like a long time
Ago---where does the time go.

My experiences are actually the same. I grew up in a subdivision with NO ONE in my family that hunted. I loved it from the first time I went squirrel hunting with a fish and wildlife funded hunt. When I got my license I was able to start branching off a little more. My second time deer hunting was with a friend on a guy’s property that he knew from work. He had limited out already and jumped at the opportunity to allow the two of us to get into the sport.
When we pulled in the land owner had a little kitten that for whatever reason attached itself to me immediately. The little guy followed me to my stand and sat at the bottom or the tree crying as loud as he could until about a half hour before light. We were so excited we had gotten into the stand probably a solid hour before light. After it stopped I thought good now I can get back to hunting, or waiting. I soon realized that the kitten was in the process of climbing up the tree to get to me! He made it to the stand and I picked up off the tree and put him in my hand warmer. When it started to get light I pulled him out and put him back on the tree and he climbed down and fell asleep at the bottom of the tree. After about 30 mins of shooting light I saw two deer coming down the path. The second one was a little fork horn. The land owner had told us if you see a buck feel free to take it. I raised the mossberg that I had borrowed from a friend and fired. The little buck stumbled ran from about 50 feet and then got tripped by a low hanging fence and never moved again. As soon as the deer hit the ground that kitten ran over and jumped on top of it and started licking the blood from the wound like a lion. I had no idea what to do from there because the land owner had left for church and I was 45 mins from home. I had to have a friend’s dad talk me through field dressing over speaker phone! I know this is really long but I love telling this story because I can still remember the excitement and addiction that took hold at that point!

shot my first deer when i was 13 a huge 10 pt. i have always hunted by myself.

I remember it like it was yesterday. 11 years old walking in the woods myself. Come up over the hill and see a deer eating in the grass. I put the stalk on and get a shot off and miss! The young deer runs a little bit then stops and I get another shot off.

Nov 15th 1965 for both.

:D Al