Kill the deer?

[22lex]

As this is a big-game thread (and not a horse thread)  , let's all think back to their first deer they ever took with a bow/gun.

I'll start, mine was a six pointer w/bow from ten yards that passed throught the shoulder and blazed out the other side. As he turned and ran he blew through the farmers electric fence, and then got caught up in the barb wire fence right behind it. After catching my breath, wiping sweat off my brow, and shakily getting out of the treestand I rushed over to the animal I had harvested. I was happier than a lark, and stood over the magnificent deer laying just on the other side of the barb wire fence scratching my head wondering how he could bust the top wire as he tried jumping it with a busted shoulder and a hole on the opposite side.

I got a quick lesson on deer gutting as this was my first. I had to work fast as this was bow opener 1997 and was a sultry 68 degrees out. I know I butchered the poor straps, and made incisions in sacks where I would never dare now, but I got it done and had it hanging an hour later.

As payback to the farmer, I quickly got out to the property the next day and fixed both fences, and gave him whatever backstraps were left and a bunch of burger meat.

[deadeye]

Many years ago I went hunting with a friend of mine.  As we walked through the woods, I spotted a tree I thought I could climb and find a spot to sit.  (back then we didn't have perminent or portable stands.  We just climbed a tree and sat on a branch.)  My partner continued on his way.  About 10 minutes later a small 8pt ran up to within 20 feet of my tree and stopped in a dense stand of small popples.  I did my best to line up a shot and let one fly.  Nothing seemed to happen.  I didn't see the deer run away and I didn't see it laying on the ground. It seemed to simply dissapear.  I stared at that group of popples for what seemed forever (probably less than one minute) when all of a sudden I saw an eye blink.  After a few moments I was able to make out the deer and this time it dropped when I fired.  This all happend in the fall of 1979 but I still remember every detail of the expierence.   

[guythathunts]

I was 15. Hunting with my older brother John (17) It was my second year hunting and it was his first, so I was the expert. I gained hunting permission by asking arround at school. I found a friend that said his parents had 35 acres just out of town but they hunted up north so it was open! I called him latter that night to see what ma and pa said. Of course he forgot to ask, so he asked while I was on the phone! How could they say no?
We arrived at the woods in my brothers ultimate hunting machine (a Mazda 323) on opening morning. The thing i remember the most were all the gun shots! As a rookie to the hunting woods I thought we were under attack! At arround 8;30 am a young doe appeared about 200yards away in a cut field. I watched as she walked on a straight line untill she was 17 paces from the base of my tree. I took aim and BANG! Nothing..... "ok"... BANG! nothing..... "ummmm"...... after being stunned at the result of my first 2 shots for about 10 seconds she took off at full speed. Now at 50 yards and a full sprint I took on last shoot and she hit the groung like a ton of bricks. Come to find out while field dressing that I had 3 well placed shoots no more than 4 inches from eachother! Also come to find out that my brother bagged a doe at first light, but waited in his stand to make sure he didn't disturb the woods for me. The 2 of us got our first deer on the same day. Awesome.

[dakids]

I was 15 and it was my second season deer hunting.  Dad always said that the deer head to the thickest cover when the shooting starts, so I found a huge fallen oak that was in some very thick prickly ash and climbed up.  After 3 hours of nothing I heard what seemed like the start of a war on the other side of the river.  I heard a big splash, and then a lot of sticks breaking.  I brought the gun up and got ready.   This doe was headed right at me.  I shot her at about 10 feet with my brand new Browning pump 12 gauge.  She didnt stop or even break stride.  She runs right past me.  I then empty out the gun as she vanishes out of sight.  My older brother comes over and askes if I got it.  I said that I didn't know.  We checked where she was when I shot the first time and we only found about a dozen hairs and one drop of blood.  We searched where she ran away and only found where the other 4 slugs had hit the ground. I missed all 4 times.  We found NO blood.  My older brother said that I must have only grazed her back and that HE would never have missed, and then started to laugh at me.  It was then that I spotted her white belly 20 yards away next to a large dead elm.  The slug entered next to her wind pipe and then continued through her lengthwise and flatened out on her hip bone.  I still have that slug 25 years later.  It was the only slug that I was ever able to recover from a deer.  My wife thinks it is gross.  I think it brings back a great memory.  You NEVER forget your first.

[Outdoors Junkie]

I was 14 year old hunting with my dad, grandpa & grandma.  I was in a stand that I saw a few deer the year before (nothing that was close enough to shoot that year).  I hear one shot from my dad and was looking that direction, but nothing came my way.  I glance over my shoulder and see a six point buck about 75-80 yards out nibbling on some buck brush.  My heart starts racing.  I slowly raise my gun up.  I look down my sights and see nothing.  I think to myself "where did he go"?  He just vanished.  Now I start questioning myself.  Did he see me move?  Did he catch my scent?  When all of a sudden he steps out from behind this pine tree ( he must of walk a couple steps while I was raising the gun up before).  He was standing broad side.  I raise up the gun again and put the cross-hairs on his front shoulder, click off the safety, take a deep breath and slowly pull the trigger.  KABOOM (I was using a 6mm).  The deer turns and starts running straight for me.  I pull the trigger again...Kaboom.  He still keeps running right at me.  Kaboom!  He still coming right at my tree at full speed.  I stand up, lean back (almost flinching) and point the gun one last time...Kaboom!  He turns (maybe 2-3 feet from the bottom off my stand) and runs off into some thick brush.  I can't see him.  I am shaking.  All I can hear is some sticks and branches snapping as he it seems he runs off and ringing in my ears.  Now, I am thinking how could I miss him?  What the heck did he charge at me for?  My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.  My dad comes walking over about a half hour later.  I am still scatching my head.  He asked if I got one.  I said I shot at a buck, but I think, by the way he ran off, I missed him.  He listens to my story, sees the ground tore up by the bottom of my stand (where he changed direction).  He notices blood on the ground.  He asks me how many times I shot (I had no idea).  He sees my chamber is wide open (I guess I emptied the gun).  He walks the direction I last saw the buck and about 50 yards into the thick brush, there he layed.  My dad had shot a six pointer earlier that morning.  It was one of the most exciting days of my life.

When we cut the deer up later, I had grazed him with twice with my other shots. 

I was hooked for life!

[Grute Man]

My first was taken by bow while I was walking down a trail.  I was moving to a different area and as I walked, I kicked one up and it ran off; I never saw it but it saw me and took off.  I tried harder to walk more quietly then.  A little further down the trail, I saw into another trail which lead off of the one I was on.  The sun was shining in straight down this other trail and standing there facing away was a big beautiful shiny (from the sun) doe.  I backed up so I could get a good view of her ribs and took careful aim.  She was frozen; I think she thought she was camo-ed out of my vision.  Just one split moment before I released my arrow, another deer WIFFED real loud and then my deer, the one that WIFFED and anther which I never saw, all took off running.  Well by this time my arrow was in the air.  She started to move but I still hit her; I remember hearing it hit.  It sounded different than anything else.  Being overly excited, I ran to the spot where she was when I shot her -- no blood, no hair, no arrow - WHAAA!??!  So I took off running at full speed in the direction she ran - umm yeah -- didn't see them.  So I went back to the cabin and got my buddy who came to help me track her.  We looked where I shot her and he didn't see any blood either.  So we started looking in areas she could have run.  After 1/2 an hour or so, he's already ready to give up when all of a sudden I turn and see her in the center of a path we hadn't gone down yet.  Now we have blood but until there, not one drop.  She lay there in a pool of blood about 4' in diameter.  When I rolled her over, it gushed out from the arrow wound like a garden hose; that kinda surprised me.  When my arrow hit her she was turning to run away.  So my target changed from her ribs to her butt.  The arrow actually hit her in the hind quarter and came out near the opposite front arm pit (leg pit??)  It went from one end to the other and I never found the arrow.  I then had to field dress her on a warm Sept 15 with bees and moquitos ALL over me.  I got that done and took her to the local butcher which was another adventure.  Apparently, they wont take a deer unless it is skinned, be-headed and be-hooved.  HUH!?!?!  OK so here I am in the parking lot doing all this which I thought they did.  I'll never forget the lady asking me "Is she skun?"  Huh?  Skun?  Is that really a word?