Mine was at the age of twelve in columbia county wisconsin during the annual gun deer season. Jim my step father had gotten up early and was in the dining room getting his cold weather gear on and enjoying a cup of coffee. I came down the stairs to see what he was doing and he replied its opening day you wanna go, i responded sure. He pulled out some of his extra clothes and i layered up in them. we got into the truck for a short ride over to one of the dairy farmers property. picture this we pull up to the cattle fence gate and park the truck. beyond the fence is a huge rolling cut corn field. The corn field had a small wood lot about a hunrdred yards wide and deep in the field. We were going to walk out to the wood lot and use it as a sitting spot to see what entered the field. We started to walk towards the woods we, were only about 80 yds. from the truck and he whispers get down. I layed flat on the ground and he gets on one knee, he then raised his remington 308 pump to his shoulder as seven deer came over the hill and ran into the small woodlot and just stopped. I looked up at Jim and he was taking the gun off of safe and was ready to fire. i looked back at the woodlot and BOOM.... a big doe just fell over never took a step. it was a awesome shot probably 250 to 300 yds. i couldnt believe it, then the rest of the deer took off on a dead run across the corn field i looked back at Jim he was pumping another round into the 308 and shouldered the gun again he was aiming at a small buck in the rear of the pack. Boom the gun went off again he rolled it on a dead run i couldnt believe my eyes. I was so excited to get over to the deer and hold it in my hands, i knew from that moment on this was gonna be something i wanted to do. The following year i was enrolled in hunter safety and completed the class. From that point on a fire was lit inside of me which burns still to this day, even though Jim has passed away i recall every moment weve shared in the field, I can only hope that the passion for the outdoors he gave to me, I can pass on to my children. Thanks for taking the time to read my story i cant wait to read yours.....
Mine was 3 years ago at the age of 20. I have always been involved in the outdoors, mainly fishing, and tournament fishing, but never gave hunting a shot. A good friend of mine took me out for Kansas rifle season. I remember stopping the truck at the fence, hopping out, getting dressed, and marching with him for about a half hour to our spot. It was dark of course, and the whole time, I felt like a soldier going into battle, it was an amazing feeling. I sat where he told me, 30 minutes into the hunt a coyote trots pass me about 12 yards away. A few minutes later a decent 6 point runs right up to me at about 25 yards. He turns broadside, I take my aim, and take my shot out of my Marlin .270. He drops to the ground, I can't believe it I just want to scream but know better. Suddenly the deer stands back up, trots about 15 yards in front of me, stops, coughs up some blood, and runs down to the bottom of a creek bottom. I look at my friend, he says, he will die down there, we will give him some time and go get him just sit tight. Gave him about 30 minutes, because I kept bugging my friend to go get my deer. Well we must have spooked him up, there was a patch of grass by the creek layed down and covered in pink bubbly blood, and he must have gotten up and moved on. We tracked that deer for over 3 hours, and finally he went down a river bed and we lost the blood trail. Obviously as an amateur my shot must have not hit perfect and just knicked a lung or something. I felt horrible for weeks after, but I promised myself I would be more prepared and more skilled the next time I ever tried to hunt. I bought a bow this summer, and am practicing hour after hour until I can be a responsible hunter with it. I never want to not recover a deer again.
Great stories. Thanks for sharing. I'll tell y'all a little about my first trip afield. It was opening morning of gun season and i was 8 years old. My dad had given me an old single shot 4-10 to learn to hunt with and we got up and went out before daylight. Well when i got to the spot my dad was gonna leave me at it was still black dark, i was scared, and there was no way he was leaving me there. We hunted the morning hunt together and only saw one doe. (16 years later i still remember every detail of that sighting). Well after the morning hunt we decided to do a quick drive on a creek holler behind our house. Since it was a drive, and i was only 8, they let me carry my gun but would not give me bullets. It was early in the season bucks were still running together and we ended up jumping a herd of bucks. My dad shot at the biggest and missed, then shot the one that was running behind it. When he walked to look at his kill another 8 and 6 point jumped up and ran strait at me and my dads ol' huntin' buddy Russ. Russ shot the 8 point at around 30 yards directly in front of us (me standing there with an unloaded gun). The buck my dad shot ended up scoring 159", and the bigger of the bucks got away!! We never scored the 8 point but it was a good 17" inside "shooter", and Russ had him European mounted. Needless to say, after seeing all that action i was hooked like a catfish that had swallowed the treble. I ended up hunting for 3 more years before i finally got to kill my first deer, 4 point, when i was 11. I agree 100% with what ShedHead said "I can only hope that the passion for the outdoors [my dad] gave to me, I can pass on" __________________
great story lead head i enjoyed every minute of it. good luck to you this season, and keep us posted with this years outcome.
I started hunting whitetails when I was 12 on the opening day of MI firearm season. I went out with my brand new 870 12 gauge pump with a 4x scope mounted on it shooting Winchester Super X slugs out of a smooth bore barrel. I'm not even sure if they had rifled barrels then. About 15 minutes after daylight I looked down the fence row and there was a nice buck heading right towards me. When he was about 50 yds I brought up the gun and put the cross-hairs right on his breast and fired. He dropped on his face and then got up that's where all hell broke loose. Seeing he was getting up I racked another shell in the chamber and fired again, missing very badly and hit him in the thigh, He started bucking like a bull, jumping and spinning in circles. I wasn't sure what to do so I emptied the gun on him, hitting him every shot. There wasn't a blood trail to follow, just a 15 yd wide circle of blood. He was a beautiful first buck. I've never scored him but I would guess he's about a 110" 11 point non-typical with double brow tines and lots of junk. I had his cape tanned although it's a little holy lol. Please keep in mind I was a kid and that was my first day out. Now days I only shoot once and that shot counts. I rarely hunt with a gun anymore. I try to fill my tags during archery season if I can and be the cook on the opener of firearms.
thanks SJ. i appreciate the honesty, as a child i would of taken one any way i could get it... congrats on the first harvest being a nice buck....
