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Got my first one when I was 15... Little spike that i took with my dad's Ruger No. 3 in .45-70. Ridiculously large caliber for such a young kid, I know but it was a light gun that I liked to carry. I didn't even feel or hear the shot because I was so focused. I double lung'ed him and he ran about 25-30 yards before he dropped... although in all the excitement, I couldn't find him! I'd left the scene of the crime to try to find my dad and by the time I got back, my uncle was sitting close by. Unbeknownst to him, he'd sat down about six feet away from my downed deer, and then had a heart attack when he looked down and saw it! HA! There were handshakes and backslaps all around and some fresh venison in camp that night.
To hell with the loss of my virginity, THAT was the day I became a man! :)
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I was pretty persistent that my pop haul me to the woods from as early as I can remember. He would leave to go hunting and I had been with him while I was still in diapers and he worked shifts.
When I hit 6 he hauled me out more or less to shut me up but I managed to get my first button buck using an M1 Carbine and about a 50yd shot. He wasn't much but it started the ball rolling. That Christmas I got a Win Model 70 in .243 which I still have to this day, and I went to town getting three a year till I was twelve. Nothing to really brag about they were only about 50 - 60 pound hill country deer and most of them were does or spikes. I remember the first on I got with forked horns and wanted it shoulder mounted, but it was simply a tiny 6 point that was barely 8" wide.
I got my first wall mount when I was 18 on the family farm with the same rifle, on the 5th shot. He had me so excited and he just kept running in circles chasing three does round and round. HE was quite a bit further than I had ever shot before but I wasn't about to let him get out of the wide open pasture with out sending something after him. I kept adjusting my hold and he kept moving out just enough that I shot right under his belly. I was looking through the scope and he still looked about the same distance to me. The fifth shot I said," Lord let this be the one" and I hit him on the run perfectly through the neck just in front of his shoulder, which dropped him like a rock. I was so excited I ran up to the house and told pop he had best have his check book cause I got one for the wall for sure. Even he was impressed.
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My first deer.
I was born & raised in northern PA. Whitetail country. Lot of deer up there when I was young. But . . . even though I started hunting when I was 12, I never got a clear shot until I was nimeteen. It was a doe, a very big doe . . . dressed out to just under 200 lbs . . . couldn't believe how big she was! Those mountain deer just don't get that big up there but this one did. The only shot I had was at her butt. I knew I had to take that .270 win. & put it right between the hind quarters and it would go straight through tearing up her innards without tearing up any meat. I did it and she dropped like a rock! My first deer after 7 years of deer hunting. I was ecstatic. My wife & young son ate a lot of deer burger that year.;-)
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First one at age 14 in 1981,really scarce back then.
My oldest son killed his at age 7 and youngest killed his at age 8.
The Youth Season is the greatest idea the Missouri Dept of Conservation ever came up with.
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Got a late start. Starred around 24, didn't get one till about 28 or 29. Been making up for it ever since.
Mark
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Bagged myself at least 2 deer a year since I started hunting them at 15.
Not big heads or anything, just young bucks and such for meat.
I'll never forget that day, seeing my first deer dead on the ground suddenly made me forget how heavy that pack and Browning BLR were, how tired my legs were and how cold my face was.
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I was 16. The first year I could legally hunt in the state I live in.
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I started out slow. When I was young, you had to draw for deer permits, and I was 17 before I drew one. On the night before opening day, I was in an accident, had a steering column drove into my sternum, and had various other cuts and such. I still have glass work out of my forehead occasionally. No hunting that season.
The next year, I also drew a tag, and was hunting with dad. He put me in a spot out in the timber,and told me to shoot whatever deer ran by.
It was minus 25, and I was cold in no time. And I had to pee. So, I leaned the shot gun up against the nearby tree, and dug through a half dozen layers of clothes to find the necessary equipment. Needless to say, by the time I had the operation underway, a real dandy buck ran by, and there I was with my cold shrunken tool in my hand. Dad showed up ten minutes later, and told me in no uncertain terms, you never put down your gun when hunting deer, a concept I have practiced until today.
I finally got my first deer the following year, with a Bedford County Pennsylvania rifle, with a ball I had cast myself. I have been a deer killing machine ever since.
The last hunt I had with dad, he killed a Boone and Crockett buck, and I have the antlers hanging here on the wall. Good bucks run in the family, my brother, a board member here Elawolf, held the state record in Iowa for muzzleloaders for around six years.
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waksupi. I use that fact to my advantage. It is a known conundrum that deer appear more often when having to relieve yourself. Just keep your other weapon handy and fire away. clothes dry and even wash in cases where number two is being performed.
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Yea I have learned that if you just want to see a deer,#1 is a safe bet.
IF you want to see the only B&C in the whole county THAT requires a #2.
Just like fishing if you want a bite,have off hand close to the rod when eating a sandwich.
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I started late in life having no faimly that hunts so I had to figure it out on my own, but I took one the first year I hunted them.
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I started hunting when I was 12 with dad and two big brothers we grow up in pennswoods so hunting season was a big deal week off school ,got my first deer when I was 12. 4 point with rem 788 308 still have. also got a turkey that year.we all still hunt to date
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I am 63 years old and have never been deer hunting. There are no deer here. I have killed about six caribou,the first when I was eleven. that,s somewhat like a deer, only bigger. Model 37 Winchester, 410 bore.
However, I have killed my share of moose, my first when I was 12. A model 37 Winchester shotgun with a slug. 410 bore.
I have since lost the 410, and now use more appropriate firearms.
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I was 14, it was the first year I could legally hunt here. I borrowed my Grandpa's Model 54 Winchester 30-06. I got a fawn on the last evening of the season. Grandpa is gone now but I still have that rifle and have filled all of my tags with it the last two seasons.
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Started at 16 but got my first at 22. A nice tasty lil forked horn at 40 yards w/a TC Hawken .50, 100gr black under two patched round balls.
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1985, bow & arrow, 14 years old. Blacktail doe. Hunted with bow only until 2010, when I shot my first buck with a rifle, just because I had never done it.
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1972, bow & arrow, 12 years old. Whitetail buck
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12 years old, 10/30/2004, had to wait for my twin brother to get his first since i lost the draw on that one! Legal age in Montana is 12 years old and we were counting the days let me tell ya! Born on the opening day of antelope season, dad left my ma for 10 days the week after she had us to go get his Beartooth bull elk, she told him he'd have sons for life but nobody draws a 445 bull tag twice! Had to love hunting being raised like that!
4x6 non typical whitetail, 100 yards with my mother's iron sighted 30/06, we were made to learn with iron sights and had to buy our own scopes when we decided we needed them a few years down the line.
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Another "relieving yourself" deer story.
Maine's hunting season for firearms runs four weeks and ends on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. About 10 years ago I had hunted all season and hadn't seen a single deer. The month had been warm and the deer just weren't moving. The night before the last day of the season, we got about 2 inches of snow and I was in the woods at daylight and soon found the tracks of a young buck and doe. I hadn't been on their trail 5 minutes when I jumped them out of their beds. They split up and I tracked the buck for about three hours through some pretty thick stuff and finally gave up the chase. By then it had warmed up and I was sweaty and had to pee. I set my rifle against a tree, (a Marlin 1895 with my Lee 405 grain cast boolit reloads... gotta mention that), took off my jacket and started to relieve myself when the buck came into view about 75 feet away. I just picked up the rifle and shot him, then finished what I was doing. It took me until the middle of the afternoon to drag him to a road where I could drive my truck to fetch him.
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I started at 8 years and killed my first when I was 12 in the 1973 season Shot it with a Remington 700BDL in 243 WIN I had purchased brand new myself in the summer before the 1973 deer season !
I had a Bushnell Scopechief IV 2.5-8x scope on top and used factory loaded Remington 100 grain CoreLokt ammo .
Shot a big old doe in the head at about 60 yards . Booom and dead right there !
On another note I never had the oppurtunity or killed a Black Bear until I was 49 years old in the 2010-2011 season and then I got my second bear this past 2011-2012 season . Both on Damage Control Permits at a friends peach orchard here in Virginia !