How Old Were You When You Got Your First Deer

[Arthur Lee]

I was 16 and used an old Marlin .44-40 carbine at 25yds.

[pls1911]

.22 magnum... dropped doe in her tracks.
Got disciplined when I got home... never did use that sweet number for deer again.

[chutesnreloads]

Started hunting deer when I was 7 or 8.Weren't many deer where we could hunt .Started shooting a real bow when I was 10 and worked up to a hunting bow.Got my 1st deer at 15 with an arrow.37 years later and I still have not made another shot at a deer with an arrow although have taken many deer.

[I'll Make Mine]

With luck, 53.

[Bigslug]

Happy to say it's time to revise my earlier post: finally scored yesterday, at the age of 41.

Though it was with copper solids - please don't crucify me!

[aa1911]

went 'hunting' with my dad since 8 years old. First legal year I could hunt, took my first buck and doe at 12 years old with a 7x30 waters (nosler ballistic tip) out of a T/C contender SS carbine. Continued to take 1-3 deer per year until I joined the Army at 18, then switched to black powder/Christmas season. Last year was the first year I got skunked, I'm 31 now. Hope to make up for it this season. Wish me luck!

[RMc]

I was 14 when I killed my first deer on a dog drive hunt. The spike buck was running full out through the shallow water and hanging vines of an Alabama swamp bottom. That buck went down from a staggered burst of 100 .30 caliber "rounds" (5 - short magnum #1 buckshot loads, 20 pellets per shell), at a range of 20-25 yards. The deer fell while the smoke was still curling from the barrel of my empty Winchester 1200. If memory serves correct, we counted over 80 buckshot holes from stem to stern. My buckshot patterns had broken up on vines and leafless winter underbrush.

[4719dave]

Thinking i was 14.... 49 now ...wow how time flies.Still remember like it was yesterday 180.lb doe one shot and she let out a blatttttttt scared the hell out of me lol. My hunting partner uncle bz .... RIP... boy i miss him ..we talk when im up in the tree ..... hunting ,stories ,and bs dont get any better ..now im in fl WIFES'''idea hateing life .

[Griz44mag]

Hitting the squeeze a little early Dave?

[vonzep]

Got sheep, prong horn and boar as a kid but no deer. Fixed that when I was in my 20's. Now my boy started off right at 7 with a 8 pt 155 lb buck. Decent for around here. Of course in his eyes its a monster buck. Kid had to "help" drag it out..

[gds]

I was 35. Last day of the season January 1st 2010. Had tried about 10 years before and missed one and could not get a shot at another. Gave up for a while tried a little that year, but had not seen anything. Good friend took me under his wing so to speak and helped me out. set me up on his family property. Got in the stand at 430 that morning and she walked out at around 10 am.

Savage Stevens 200 in .308 Winchester
Reload
Federal Nickel Case
44.4gr Reloader 15
150 gr Hornady Soft point.

[Tazman1602]

I am a city boy. Born, bred, and raised for the city. In 1974 I came to visit my mom who had moved about 25 miles south of the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan at the ripe old age of 16. Sure wish I had the answers I had back then. I just never left, it was like moving back in time 25 years then. Hell I'd never SEEN a deer up close.

I never could lay a bead on a buck. Matter of fact when I first moved here and the boys took me out hunting they did so because it was a form of entertainment for them. I thought you ought to leave the woods before dark because there weren't any street lights. You should have heard them laugh the first time I heard a buck snort-wheeze......I was headed for the ROAD. They asked where the hell was I going? That was a buck! I told them that was no deer, that was something EVIL and I was outta there! True story, those that are still alive tease me about it to this day.

Up until about 1983, I was 25 then, the tradition was to get blown out schnockered drunk the night before season then go out and attempt to hunt. Wife of 2 years at that time.....and still my wife, had bought me a brand new Ruger 44 mag carbine to hunt with and suggested that if I stayed home the night before season she'd make it worth my while.

BOY did she ever!

Strange thing occurred, I got up bright and early feeling full of piss and vinegar, got out in the woods on time, and had a nice four point down by 8:30am.

My wife became my hunting partner, she wanted a cabin to hunt out of because we ain't no spring chickens anymore so I built her one. Never did go back to hunting camp with boys again. They give me guff sometimes and I still look at them and reply "Eat your fbombing hearts out guys",............

Art

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[Idaho Mule]

I was 13, little button head mule deer killed on Fish Creek Pass above Lava Hot Springs, Idaho back when it was a gravel road, not a freeway. Got him with my old 303 Brit. that dad gave me, still got the gun but youngest son has now claimed it. JW

[Bert2368]

Well-

At age 20 on a subzero Wisconsin February night a big fat doe killed my first car, rust bucket '72 Ford Maverick. Called the sheriff, got a tag and went back for the venison... The old farmer next to where I whacked her was allready dragging her away behind his tractor. He dropped her and helped me load her into my folk's Dodge van, said "the last 3 got hit here this winter, nobody wanted!"

Took it to my place of employment at midnight and used an engine hoist to hold her up for gutting. Couldn't have done it outside. My younger brother and his girlfriend came along to help me, my dad had quit hunting long before either of us were old enough to go along but she'd been to deer camp a good deal.

At this point, things got a bit surreal. I was looking at the doe with a knife in my hand, trying to remember what I'd learned 8 years before in Hunter Safety class and the lessons from my 7th grade biology teacher Mr. Van Wormer who kindly cleaned and cut up his deer in front of his class every fall so us 12 year olds would know what was what if we got lucky the first year out. Different times-

Little bro's girlfriend grabbed that knife away from me and took apart that deer FAST. Little brother got right in there and tore the lungs and esophagus out, and they went at skinning it, cut the head off and threw it back in the van. All I got to do was wash down the floor and clean up. But they were acting... Odd. Big eyes, fixed stares, barely talking but working together without seeming to communicate. Little bro had NEVER done this before, and Mr. Van W. had retired before he hit 7th grade, he didn't do hunter safety either. I had no idea what was going on, but there was a hair raising vibe about them and they seemed VERY happy to be cutting on that animal.

Went home about 2:00 am with them and dropped them and the deer off. Looked at me with big grins and said "Could you tell we dropped acid 15 minutes before you came and asked us to help?"

I didn't try to kill a deer again for 28 years.

[Tazman1602]

OH GEE THANKS BERT FOR MAKING ME SPIT COFFEE ALL OVER MY BLASTED KEYBOARD!

I remember those days, must have been mid to late 70's right? I can also tell you what your brother and his girlfriend did after they dropped you off, that stuff would make you superman and superwoman......................................

Art

Well-

At age 20 on a subzero Wisconsin February night a big fat doe killed my first car, rust bucket '72 Ford Maverick. Called the sheriff, got a tag and went back for the venison... The old farmer next to where I whacked her was allready dragging her away behind his tractor. He dropped her and helped me load her into my folk's Dodge van, said "the last 3 got hit here this winter, nobody wanted!"

Took it to my place of employment at midnight and used an engine hoist to hold her up for gutting. Couldn't have done it outside. My younger brother and his girlfriend came along to help me, my dad had quit hunting long before either of us were old enough to go along but she'd been to deer camp a good deal.

At this point, things got a bit surreal. I was looking at the doe with a knife in my hand, trying to remember what I'd learned 8 years before in Hunter Safety class and the lessons from my 7th grade biology teacher Mr. Van Wormer who kindly cleaned and cut up his deer in front of his class every fall so us 12 year olds would know what was what if we got lucky the first year out. Different times-

Little bro's girlfriend grabbed that knife away from me and took apart that deer FAST. Little brother got right in there and tore the lungs and esophagus out, and they went at skinning it, cut the head off and threw it back in the van. All I got to do was wash down the floor and clean up. But they were acting... Odd. Big eyes, fixed stares, barely talking but working together without seeming to communicate. Little bro had NEVER done this before, and Mr. Van W. had retired before he hit 7th grade, he didn't do hunter safety either. I had no idea what was going on, but there was a hair raising vibe about them and they seemed VERY happy to be cutting on that animal.

Went home about 2:00 am with them and dropped them and the deer off. Looked at me with big grins and said "Could you tell we dropped acid 15 minutes before you came and asked us to help?"

I didn't try to kill a deer again for 28 years.

[Bert2368]

Winter of 1980-81.

I also helped run the NRA rifle club that shot in the grade school gym every Friday night during the school year- The behavior of the kids I taught had something to do with me not wanting to be on public land during the deer season too, I'm afraid. Knowing the same 14 year olds I occasionally had to discipline for muzzle sweeping the room and horseplay next to loaded guns could be on their own with a centerfire behind the bushes... And dad had quit after some bad experiences of being near slob hunters who came up from Illinois with booze and guns. I never shot a thing with dad but targets, however I got to do that every other Friday in winter from 8 to 18.

I finally started shooting deer and have taken one every year since we got 75 acres of business property with a good deer population. Fat deer who come out to snack on the beans and corn in the 37 acres we rent to the farmer. Is it really hunting if you see them all year long and know their schedule???

My deer stand is actually on the rifle range we put in on one side of the property, so it's no trouble estimating distances.

Little bro is now a respected professional in the medical field, earns much more than I do. His old girlfriend is long gone.

[Tazman1602]

A lot of us are respectable and professional now my friend.

It was a different world back then and I wouldn't change a thing even if I had the chance....

Art

[Sax.45]

I was 15 when I got my first deer, a 5 pointer. My dad wasn't a hunter and he and my mom always wondered how I got the bug about hunting and guns. I learned by myself and and an old coot up the street from me. He got me into handloading at about 12 years old, with my dad's permission. I have never killed a deer with factory ammo and never will.

Sax.45

[bearstopper]

I was 14 in 1985 and took a blacktail with a bow.

[Boyscout]

I started at age 13 in 1973 and didn't kill my first deer until 11-6-92 with a bow. I killed my second deer the following weekend with a 12 gauge slug at 20 yards. 20 years later I just took number 43. Next year will be my first CB kill either with a CB and sabot with a muzzle loader or
44 Rem. Mag out of a Handi-rifle. I am glad my sons didn't need 19 years to get their first. They only killed 5000 in Indiana the first year I hunted and Dad had worse luck than I did.