Story of your first bow kill deer

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backstraps
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Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby backstraps » Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:41 pm

I would like to read about your first bow killed deer....how, when, what kind of bow ect!



I was deer hunting for my first time with a bow. I was in Greene County TN. I was super excited and was perched high in a tree over looking an area I had scouted a couple weekends prior to season opening.

It was just a little after daylight when I caught movement. I quickly got ready to shoot. As the deer came closer I could tell it was a buck. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. He kept getting closer and closer to finally I knew he was within range. I came to full draw and the buck stopped behind a tree covering his vitals.

He stood there for nearly 2 minutes!! Now I am holding a bow back that maybe had 50% letoff! It was a hardrock maple riser with fiberglass limbs, compound bow with tiny round wheels. I held my pin exactly at an elevation to where once he stepped out I would be right on his vitals. The whole time he was standing behind the tree I was holding my pin on where his lung should be. He all of a sudden began walking, and where I had help on so long and steady, I released the string and connected exactly where I was aiming.... only thing was I was still aiming at the darn tree!!!! So I felt like at least I "would have" made a good shot had not been for a huge popular tree!

I set there and just before dark I seen a deer move into a "window" in the treetop canopy to my right. I drew back and the deer stepped out of the window. I let the bow down and the deer ran in a circle and stepped right back in the same window. I quickly got drew back and released. I was the deer get knocked down by my arrow, ran maybe 20 yards and fell over dead!

Once I walked to my deer I could see why my fencepost arrow kicked him down....he was a tiny button buck. But man let me tell ya, he was just the same as a monster buck to me! I was excited as could be. From that very moment on I have been addicted to bow hunting.

There is nothing like your first deer kill with a bow!


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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Dewey » Fri Oct 11, 2013 3:20 pm

My first bow killed deer was October 1st 1994 up in the bigwoods of the UP Michigan.

Up to that point I still hadn't killed my first deer in my home state of WI after trying for almost 8 years. Being up in the bigwoods was quite the adventure so a bunch of us guys decided to head up to the UP and hunt what was a pretty large population of deer back then.

We did quite a bit of scouting before the season and I picked two spots, one on the edge of a swamp and the other on the edge of a recent logging clearcut.

Opening morning was pretty uneventful except for the very large pile of bear crap where my bait pile of corn used to be! :shock: That afternoon I decided to relocate to the clearcut edge and set up my Loc On Limit. Saw a good number of deer, missed a forkhorn and then killed a spike buck still in velvet 2 minutes before closing. Finally killed my first deer with the bow and dropped him right on the spot!! :dance: At that time I was hunting with a Martin Ted Nugent Pro Safari bow shooting Easton XX78 Super Slam 2512 arrows. Instinctive....no sights...no release....no peep...basically a bare bow with a flipper rest.

I will never forget that day. Your first deer is the one you will never forget. 8-)

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Southern Man » Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:51 am

It took me 3 years of bowhunting to kill my first buck. I had shots all the time, every opening day, but missed all the time. I never had a problem getting on the deer. I just kept missing them. In the 1989 season, as usual, I missed a nice buck right under me on opening day. 2 weeks later I climbed up into an old stand (boards nailed into a fork in a tree) in the back of a long narrow field. The woods had been logged and I could see a good ways into the timber. 3 bucks came along out into the fescue field. I shot 3 times at the last one and missed all 3 times. They didn't even spook. All I carried was 3 arrows and I had to watch them walk away down the edge of the field. I was stressed.
The next week I climbed back into the old stand and thought I don't care if I get a shot or not, I'll just watch em. I seen movement back in the timber maybe 150 yards away, it was a small buck. I turned my back on him and watched the field. That little sucker walked straight to me, right underneath me and stopped at the edge of the field, 10 yards away, lookin away from me. :mrgreen: He was standing almost straight away from me so I shot him right behind the ribs. He jumped, ran a half circle maybe 20 yards away and laid down. I was afraid to move. I stood motionless for 45 minutes afraid I would spook him if I moved. I didn't know it at the time but he was dead when he hit the ground. Perfect heart shot. When I finally climbed down, I seen blood everywhere. He was a 1.5 yo 7 pointer and weighed 145 lbs if I remember correctly. I'll never forget it. Awesome day.

I've never had a problem hittin them since that kill. Oh I've missed a time or two but the buckfever was gone once I got that first one out of the way.
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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Riverdeer » Sat Oct 12, 2013 2:30 am

took me two years before I got my first kill, happened Wednesday, going to move my stand back futher in the woods by some oak trees, rounded the bend in the road saw a deer laying down like a dog I was about 50 yards when I saw it, got closer to about 25 yards he stood up I drawed and was shaking so bad I was aiming at the vitals and ended upshooting him in the neck,must have broke its neck, cause he fell in his tracks
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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Busch Light Bandit » Sat Oct 12, 2013 2:42 am

I have been a gun hunter since I have been of legal age to hunt. In all that time I have missed a few deer. Where we were hunting up north deer pops are low so I was discouraged. 5 years ago I finally got my first gun deer. It was nothing to write home about but it was my first deer and I was proud. That deer kinda replentished my love for deer hunting and I decided I wanted to give bow hunting a try. A friend of mine had bought a new bow and he lent me his old browning. I still can't tell you the model. I had a friend who had some land where he said I could hunt around where I live in Jefferson, WI. Tree line right next to a corn field. I had no camo for bow hunting so I am up in my stand in duck hunting camo, quite the site. At the time is was EAB and on my 3rd sit, a doe popped out at 12 yards. Props to my bro Kodiakman, who taught me how to shoot and told me to shoot atleast a doz arrows before each hunt. For me as a beginner, that was huge. Anyways, I put a picture perfect shot on her and she hopped, moved about 10 yards and laid right down. I was overjoyed. 5 days later and 3 sits later I shot the buck that is in my profile pic. Some say beginners luck, I say YOU BET YOUR A**! I'll take it! I have been hooked since and don't see that changing in the near future. My buddy gave me the bow and said when you get a new one, give it to someone to get them started. I haven't upgraded yet, but when I do, I will definitely do the same for someone new to bow hunting.
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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby csgrizz » Sat Oct 12, 2013 4:17 am

I had a kind of unique beginning to my bowhunting, I went through the early years not having a clue and learning a ton, but, eventually I decided around age 14 that I wasn't going to shoot young bucks and one thing led to another and several seasons later, I had yet to kill my first deer. During the 1992 fall, I was bowhunting on public ground, my stand was 20 yards off a road that was closed in the winter to traffic.

Just about "golden hour" time I hear a strange sound coming on the road. It ended up being a tractor with one of those brush hogs on an arm that goes up in the air and chops everything in sight hanging over the road edge etc. I threw my hood up and assumed the fetal position as I got pelted with flying wood projectiles in my stand as the tractor passed by and went on its way.

As I gathered my wits and checked for pieces of wood shrapnel sticking out of my body, I caught movement and noticed a pair of deer coming directly at me. They turned broadside at 20 yards and I slipped an arrow in the back deer. It hit the ground in sight, all while the brush hog continued down the road only 100 yards away!

Ironically, after passing on several young bucks, my first deer ever was a button buck.

later,

CS
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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Nov 26, 2016 7:09 am

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Rich M » Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:15 am

I had been bow hunting since I was about 8, I was 20 and had set up on a button buck that was using a certain field corner every day. He came in as planned, 20 yards out, head down feeding, I drew and released. Little bugger ducked the arrow that went bouncing off into a rock wall and spooked him right under my stand. Straight down shot - made that. He was my first bow kill.
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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby sbeasley » Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:40 am

My 1st victim was a button buck as well. Can't remember how many misses I had before him? Dad got me a custom made takedown recurve for my 13th birthday. We shot into a dirt pile out back.

Fast forward 11 years after I got out of the Marine Corps. I guess southern California has other things to do besides hunt. Any who I was hunting around the block on the backside of a woods in farm country. Had a little platform I built in the crotch of a tree about 15 feet up. Deer never seemed to look up in flat farmland. Mama and two fawns stepped out into the field in the evening. He must have been the unlucky one to get broadside first. Drilled him good at about 6 yards - instinctive. So close I think I could have jumped on him. He ran a big loop out into the field and stopped to look back- arrow sticking out of him. He melted over backwards then got back up on a dead run. He disappeared into the fence row about 50 yards further away.

That's where I found him laying, head stuck in the fence. Drove the hatchback thru the beanstuble right to him. Shot another fawn a few days after that. Thought "this is fun"!!!

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Tufrthnails » Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:59 am

So there I was 26yo and had no clue how to hunt with a string and stick. I had bought a heavily used PSE NOVA. I had practiced for a few months and was pretty good inside 30 yards, but out side of that had no clue where the arrow would end up.


I was hunting a smaller WMA with another veteran. I literally walked into the thickest crap I could find. Found a little 30 yard area where the undergrowth was only about 4ft high and had three heavy game trails crossing. I figured I can shoot anything in the area.



Well about 0900 I hear something coming through the woods. A doe pops out at what I thought was 22yards. I let the stick fly and got a good him. It ran about past me and I heard it fall a bit away. I was so excited I went about 10ft down with my climber slid down the base and hung dropped the last 15ft. I ran up to what was a small spike and it was still alive so I grabbed my knife and gave it the Mexican bow tie. Emotions flooded me. I was fighting tears as it slipped away. At that point I had had plenty of humans slip away in my arms, but I had never had an animal that I had shot not in anger but in excitement and to eat slip away. It was a very important moment in my life as a hunter.

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Ol'DanBoone » Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:11 am

Ha, i shot at sooo many deer throughout highschool, especially my senior year its really not funny. Its a good thing innever connected, or the deer would be wonderin around lookin like pin cushions. I was fortunate enough to get assigned to fort bragg in the fall of 05. I came home on the weekend to continue my arrow flinging quest i began the year previous.
It was on christmad leave of that year, around the 27th i believe, a lil doe fawn made the fatal mistake of coming in. I shot her spine clean in two. I dont mean that as a figure of speech, i mean litterally, in tween above the liver, like the wishbone on yesterdays turkey. She was movin her poor little front feet, bleeding everywhere. I put one through the ribs for good measure.
I carried her over my shoulder, by the back legs to the house. I was PROUD PROUD PRRRROOOOUUUUDDDDD!!! To this day, its the only deer ive shot with a compound.
I was shootin a Alpine Impact Extreme, browning 55/70 arrows with 100gr thunderheads. Lol

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby hunter10 » Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:42 am

My first chance shooting a bow deer didn't end up in a kill but taught me how much I needed to learn. I made a homemade stand on an inside corner of a field facing into the woods. Had an old pse and thought 2 arrows was enough. Well before dark a doe came to 15 yds. No range finder, no idea of wind importance and really just no idea what I was doing. Missed with my first arrow and then with my 2nd and then realized I was an idiot and had some learning to do. I wasn't meant to shoot that deer that day

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby oldrank » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:04 pm

October 23, 1991.

I was 16 yrs old. I can remember being at football practice and we had to stay over and run sprints for some reason. By time I got out it was going to be around 6:30pm before I could get in my stand.

I got home n gathered up my gear and headed out. My tree was an old oak that I climbed a home made ladder to get in. My stand was a piece of barn wood nailed up in a V in the oak. I gathered wild apples for my bait.

My father had never killed a deer. He hunted them but never really put effort into it. He had hunted the same woods but never seen anything. I can remember his constant reminder of "There aint no deer back there". I knew different having spent my childhood running around in the same woods.

I had settled in and within minutes heard a deer moving my way. I readied my Bear Whitetail II and a two fletching, crooked Gamegetter tipped with a Bear razorhead inherited from an uncle. I spotted the deer and it was heading right for my bait. It came in an started munching apples. After spending the last couple seasons launching arrows at every deer I could, near or far in thick or thin I had learned patience. It turned broadside and I drew. It didnt see me!! At full draw I settled my pin on its lungs and let my 3 fingers go. The arrow wobbled right into the boiler room. It spun and ran back to where he had came from. At about 30 yards it wobbled and rolled. A few kick and then nothing. The deer lie motionless, never making it back to the thicket. What !!!! I just killed my first deer. I climbed down and walked to my arrow. It was a complete pass through. I could see the deer but still followed the blood trail. I walked up to the deer and looked at its head. A button buck !!

I dragged it up to the house and walked in the back door. My Mom was in the kitchen. I told her I shot a deer. She didnt believe me till I showed her the blood on my hand. My Dad came out and helped me hang it and we stood and looked at it trying to figure out how to gut him. I had done rabbits and squirrels but never a deer. I called my Grandpa and he told me to gut it like a big rabbit and thats what I did, I didnt even hit guts.

We ate the deer and I continued hunting. 25 years later I can still remember every detail.

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby john1984 » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:29 pm

My first was during my 3rd season of bowhunting.

It was right before gun season in 2010. Preset ladder stand in a funnel on my STEP fathers land.

Killed a big 9 point that evening.

And to this day I have NEVER killed a bigger buck with my bow.

I was shooting a cheap junky old PSE Vulcan 2.

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Re: Story of your first bow kill deer

Unread postby Jonny » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:36 pm

First deer with a bow was a spike shot out of my climber. 6 feet off the ground, 15 yard shot, in the head. I dare anybody to top that. I was aiming for heart/lungs so I don't think I should be too proud of that. But hey, easiest track job ever

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