How Old Were You When You Got Your First Deer

[gee-gaw]

I was 23 in 1983 and killed an 8PT with my Remington 700 30-06 and my reloads.
I've been hooked every since. I hunted in every season, archery, muzzleloader and rifle. Heck, if there had been an either sex with a ball bat season, I would have been out there with an Easton alum trying to flail ones head. I love it!!!
Wayne

[excess650]

My first year deer hunting was 1971, but I didn't take a buck until the following season. There were LOTS of deer in Pennsylvania in the 1970s, and the numbers have diminished ever since. I've since hunted in NY, Mo, Id, and Va for whitetails using rifle, revolver, slug gun, and muzzleloader. This season has turned out to be memorable as I took a buck in Va with my flintlock. The first morning in Pa I took the largest 8 pointer that I've ever seen.

[Bomberman]

Got my first deer, a three point, at age 13...my second year of hunting. I was sitting on a log with my Grandfather's Win. Model 94 .30-30 across my lap. I heard shooting close behind me and all of a sudden a deer appeared running full tilt from my left to my right. Distance was 25 yards. I caught a glimps of antlers and put the open sights on the deer's shoulder and fired. It kept running and I kept shooting. After the third shot, the deer fell, tried to get up and I put one more in the neck. I hurried over to it and it kicked again so I put one more in behind the ear. Later I found that all three shots that I fired hit within 1 inch of each other, taking out the lungs and heart...first shot would have killed it. I can remember that day like it was yesterday!

[Gee_Wizz01]

Iwas eight years old and killed my first deer on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1960. It was the first time I was allowed to "hunt". I had been hunting with my Dad and Mom since I was 6, but that year Dad took me to the local feed store and I got my own hunting license. I had to sit with my Dad, but I got to do the shooting. We had been out about and hour and a half and large spike buck came out at about 55 yds. My Dad told me he was mine and I shot him with my Dad's .257 Roberts. I hit the deer right behind the shoulder and he ran about 25 yds and dropped. My Dad went out and field dressed the deer as I watched. My Dad looked at me kind of startled and told me I was bleeding, I had a half moon scope hit around my eye. The stock of Dad's rifle was too long and I just put it under my arm, and I got whacked real good. I have been hunting ever since. Then for Christmas when I was 11 my parents gave my own rifle, a Savage 99 in .243 (which I still have).

G

[castblaster]

No deer yet, but the first time to use lead boolit on a coyote I was 42. It was a 308 with saeco 307 1400fps. Called with in 30yds


But a better story is my friend Pat from San Anglo tx. At 14 He reluctantly shot his first dear because Ted Nugent was whispering "shoot it shoot it!!!!" in his ear.

Pat says peer pressure it a !@$?!'j

Pats dad was an investor in a small coffee co. And the owners daughter was dating Ted at the time. (1980)


Matt Hooper

[OneBagNomad]

Another late arrival here. I grew up in a suburban home without guns and had fairly liberal parents, so I missed out on learning to hunt from Dad. Like many others, I bailed on the white-collar future laid out for me. I turned out to be a gun-nut, did some time in the military, and took my first deer at 27. Now Dad has come around and wants to go hunting with me. Different journey, same destination. Funny how that turned out.

[44 flattop]

14 years old with my old Winchester model 64 in 25-35 in 1973! Just the first of a few hundred deer, a few dozen elk and a couple bear.

44

[mnkyracer]

Mine came at 14. Had to leave the woods at 7:15 am opening morning to make the first day of b-ball practice. Shot a little 4 pt with a borrowed Marlin 336 in 30-30 as the alarm on my watch was going off. I could not shoot that gun on paper, but put that 150 gr core-lokt right thru its ticker. Hopefully, that gun will be in my possesion when my grandpa can't hunt anymore.

[ghh3rd]

58 yrs old (this year) when I almost got my first deer I tried many times over two years (new hunter) and finally had a clean 30 yd shot at a buck from the climbing stand with my Muzzle loader... and missed. I had told everyone I would be calm until after the shot, but guess what? I remember pulling instead of squeezing the trigger. Of course, it might have been a piece of pine bark that fell into my barrel and threw my shot off

[richhodg66]

I hunted small game and shot targets a lot as a kid, Dad wasn't a big hunter but was and is one of the most avid and knowlegeable gun enthusiasts I know.

So I was 30 when I killed my first one (I'm 45 now). In the years since I've killed 20 or so more with a large multitude of weaponry (there were a few years deployed when I didn't get to hunt, so it averages out to more than one a year), all but one with my own handloads, as well as getting my sons to kill six or eight also with my handloads. I really love deer hunting and this was the first year I did it with my own cast from something smaller than a .50 muzzle loader.

[peerlesscowboy]

12 y/o

[trickyasafox]

20 or 21- but didn't get my first buck till nearly 25 (he remains my only buck)

[rockrat]

Were not that many deer where I grew up. Could have had one many years earlier, but it was a forkhorn with one fork broken off, so didn't have the heart to shoot it. It was 10 ft from me, looking at me

Didn't kill one for another 10 years. Friend of mine had been hunting an area for a week, never got a shot. I went out with him and killed my first after 15 min. of walking thru the woods. Boy, was he PO'd I shot "his" deer. My first deer, my first pistol deer

[41 mag fan]

Killed my first one at age 11. Beautiful 10 pt buck. I'll remember that kill till I die. He came up with a doe, 30yrds out, the doe came and actually laid down with her back against the tree I was in. He stayed out but was prancing, he knew something was amiss, he kept lifting his legs high, but didn't know what he was nervous about.
Little H&R 20ga did it's job, he dropped right where he stood. But he kept trying to get up, so I put another slug in him. By then I was shaking so hard, it probably felt like an earthquake to the neighbors house 1/2mile away.
But he laid down on that 2nd shot to never move again.
Little did i know at the time, but the 1st shot took him in the neck and broke it, he was dying as he was trying to get up. The 2nd shot though....when I took aim and shot, I remember him picking his head up, but he had turned his head away from me, I guess that 2nd shot was high, because it hit his rack. But he laid down on that shot and never moved again. Now looking back, I probably killed him from the splitting headache!
I've had people that know how to score racks, say that in 1980, that buck would of made the books.
I could care less if it ever did, in my mind he was the world record.
Oh and the neighbors scale tipped him out at 225lbs.
Big buck for Il back then and even now.
He was tough as shoe leather, and gamey as you can get. But for an 11yr old, he was the best tasting meat on the planet.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i started hunting at 12 , but didn't get my first deer till 16 , after that i more than made up for not getting any my first 4 years , one year i got 5 other years one but most years i got one
i got 2 last year , didn't get one this year , i had meat left over and we got a pig this year so i let the little ones pass to get bigger for next year.

my first was a very nice 9 point buck , he hangs on the wall in my living room , as the year i shot it my dad had it mounted for me for both my birthday and Christmas the following year.
mounting was a lot less back then , but still mighty spendy

[Wrbjr]

Hope it's not too late but I'm going on my first hunt for deer next week. My nephew has a "sweet spot" all ready for us and is confident his ole uncle will get his first buck at 59 years of age. Marlin 336 and ole man ready to hunt finally. Now if I can just stay out of Gitmo...

[oldred]

The poll options don't go high enuff!

I was a mere stripling of 62 when an unfortunate Alberta Whitetail crossed my sights in 2005.

Actually, the lack of deer came from many decades of living in" non-deer country" and I'd killed many dozens of caribou, moose, and bear before that Alberta adventure.

That makes two of us! 62 here also but as the old saying goes "better late than never"!

[9.3X62AL]

I was 13 years old, and in my second year of deer hunting (1968). He was a forkhorn mulie, and I think the longest shot I've ever made on a deer (125 yards). A borrowed 30-30 Win 94 was the tool used, and I recall the place vividly--the smells of the buckbrush--and the tears in my Dad's eyes to this day.

[omgb]

I was 19. I still have that skin too! I took that one with a very crudely sporterized P17 Enfield. My last deer was at 30. I took that one with a Fox B using 11/4 z of #5 shot. When through both shoulders and stopped under the skin on the far side. Inbetween the first and the last deer were maybe 26-28 deer (about half of which were does) , an antelope, a bear and a mountain goat.

[RobS]

I was a freshman in High School, but I bow hunted and chucked arrows before I used a firearm on deer.