My First Buck!

[Ole]

Everyone remembers their first time shooting a Buck. Please share your stories and pictures of your first Deer.

I shot my first Deer on a cold Minnesota November morning. We were hunting private land in Pine County, MN and it was freezing outside. Swede and I were stand hunting and after sitting for about 2 hours in 12 degree weather, I was frozen. I hadn't seen nor heard a thing except for the farmers donkey, when i heard that " Snap". I looked behind me and there was a nice 9pt just walking along, smelling the rut, without a care in the world.

I slowly turned, raised my 30.06 and fired.....CLICK! My rifle misfired, so i quickly rechambered my bolt action, raised my rifle and ClICK!...Another misfire. This happened 2 more times, before I had to completely reload my rifle. Surprising, the Deer didn't even noticed me. It continued to slowly walk, it's nose to the earth, completely oblivious to my frantic attempts to get my damn gun to fire.

So, now i have reloaded my rifle and sure enough, I cant see the deer anywhere. Looking through my scope, I final catch a glimspe of its tail through the woods. My first shot misses and yet the deer doesnt run. I reload and fire again....BANG and the Deer disappears.

At this point, I am crushed as I figured there was no way that I had hit the deer. I climb down from my stand and walk in the general direction of where I think the deer was standing. As I approach, I see it laying on the ground...No blood nothing...I had hit it in the spine and dropped it where it stood. The Deer never knew what hit it

[kevin]

I was hunting with my father when I was younger, we had just walked at least 5 miles of thick brush, saw a few deer but only the back ends, coming out on a road we were walking towards our truck when a buck came down a bank, his head was stuck to the ground and was walking really fast. I saw horns from even 200 yds so I thought it had to be big, I had a hard time placing him in my scope he just kept moving, but by this time he had added a few more yards in between us, so I let out a high pitch bleat and he stopped to take a look, my visibility wasn't the greatest but I had a good stable shooting position so I took my time and squeezed of a shot, with the recoil I never saw what had happened but my dad was sure happy. After all the excitement I pulled my binoculars to see I had got him, I thought I was excited my dad was more then me, It was a 10 point whitetail which was 175 lbs dressed and a hell of a drag back to our truck.
We stepped of the distance the next day to see how far I shot and we paced it off, no range finders in those days, 325 yds to the deer I think I was amazed I actually hit it I know my dad was sure proud he even stuffed it for me when we got home. Funny everytime I look at it, sure brings back memories something I'll never forget. I was 12 at the time from then on I was hooked never missed any opportunity to be in the woods.

[Ole]

I love this story Kevin, thank you so much for sharing
Ole

[Chet Norris]

Hey Ole, I was thinking back to 1991 when I got my first buck. I was hunting on my Grandpa's land up in Pine City, MN. The stand I was in was a rotted old birch tree cut off with two 2x4 attached to another tree that was about 6 inches in diameter. It was a cold day and I had been sitting for about 2 hrs when i heard something coming towards me from the south. I had seen many deer before this but all were does and i never took a shot. So you could imagine how excited I was when I saw the two long singular spikes sticking up from it's head from about 40 yrds in thick cover. I was shaking so much with excitement that i thought the rotten old stand was going to tip over. I pulled up on the deer with my grandpa's old 30-30 lever action...kinda like the old cowboys you see in the westerns. Bang, I touched one off...and it dropped. I was anxious to get down that I actually pushed the deer. As i was getting down it popped up and took off running. Then I thought...oh I really screwed up this one. I thought i had dropped it dead, turns out i was, or the gun...lol was a little to the right and I had shattered the whole right front quarter. As the dee ran oof all i could thin was...why didn't i stay in my stand and why didn't a take a kill shot? Any ways I walked over to Swede's stand and we went on a hour hike tracking down that deer. Luckily there was plenty of blood trail to find him cause it seemed like he went for about another mile criss crossing through the woods. Finally we came out to a corn field and I saw him just laying off in the distance. I pulled up on him from about 60 yrds and ding dong...he was ready for the freezer.

[Ryan]

I hunt public land north of Itasca State park in MN, my first year deer hunting, my dad and I were surrounded by other hunters and we didn't see a thing. The next year my uncle had me go with him to the stands he had been hunting for years, there were never any other hunters around him. Opening morning was nice, not very cold but not too warm, there wasn't any snow yet and I could see for a long way. I was using my dad's old Remington woodsmaster 742 with a 3X9 scope. It was 7:30 and it had been a quiet morning, then I started to hear the "crunch......crunch.....crunch..." I moved as slow as I ever had trying too see what it was that was making that noise. As soon as I was turned the noise stopped, I figured the deer was staring at me getting ready to bolt and I couldn't even see him. Then I saw and heard it..... a grey squirrel took off across the dry leaves my heart instantly stopped. I was so sure it was a deer, my heart was racing, body was shaking, all for a stupid squirrel, I brought up the gun, put the squirrel in the crosshairs and got ready to blast the stupid thing, I didn't do it. I turned around pissed off at what had just happend and what do I see? I little 3X4 head down 30 yards slowly walking broadsides. I bring up my rifle flip the safety off and get ready for him to pass by a group of trees. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity I looked up from my scope to see what was taking him so long. About that time he steps out from behind the trees, I find him in my scope and wait for him to take another step forward to open up the vitals. Amazingly, I am calm and prepared for what I am about to do. I took the first shot and he takes off, I take two more shots as he is running, I managed to kill two trees. As I search for him to take a fourth shot I watch his head catch a fallen tree and I watch him flip over the log. Two quick kicks of the leg and it was done! Not a huge monster but a great first deer.

[Cw Brown]

awe hell that is a lil bitty deer if you wanna know where the big deer just holla at me