How old were you when you shot your 1st deer?

[dan]

I was 31... AND this was about 5 days ago. Small 8 pointer. Shoot him with 270.

Congrats.

[lyndon57]

I was 12 when I started bow hunting. Back then we self taught ourselves.
No camo, bow release, or compounds. You hunted out of a tree if you could
climb it & find a good branch to hunt out of.

I was 14 when i connected on a 7ptr. Hit high & angled down. Internal bleed.
By that age we could all track like beagles on a hot rabbit.
My Fred Bear recurve, cedar shaft tipped with a Zwicki head did the job.
As county we never made it that high in gun kill, but Wood county was ground zero
for bow hunting.

[Eddiegomes83]

I was 17. It was a small 3 pt. I was disappointed at time.

What sucks was a week before I went and picked up my grandpa to show him a spot i found....when we got there were walking and kinda wispering.

I heard something that sounded like a squirrel but when i looked it was a big old 8 pt with dried velvet hanging down.

I told my grandpa stop. There is a huge buck. It was only 20 yds and not paying attention to us at all.

I had the buck in my scope and only had a head shot. It was walking broadside but some small trees were in the way. My grandpa kept saying shoot em Eddie shoot him.

The deer was walking slowly and was about to give me a perfect shot.

BOOM!! I watched him him go down in my scope. It was one of those shots where the deer sits down on its but and then falls over backwards and lands upside down.

You got em Eddie my grandpa said...

I said i didnt shoot...he laughed. It was him that shot. He took the neck shot and dropped it in its tracks.

He then told me that I could tell everyone i shot him...i think he felt bad. I told him no way. I didn't shoot so i am not taking credit.

He told everybody at home i must of go buck fever because he kept saying shoot em and i wouldn't. I told him i waited almost 18 years for that moment i could wait a couple more steps for the perfect shot.

To this day still the biggest body deer i have ever seen in Florida...real old too. He had two big puncture wounds on his side from fighting that was all pussed up. He must have been thinking about that when we seen him because he gave not regard to us being there at all.

What sucks is we took all sorts of pics with a disposable camera and no one pic came out. I still have the rack on my wall this day.

Would have been an awesome first buck but as i am typing this and looking back now it is even a better memory.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

I was 31... AND this was about 5 days ago. Small 8 pointer. Shoot him with 270.

Congrats.

Thank you!

[raisins]

As a teen, I got crippling buck fever, doe fever, fawn fever, and even squirrel fever. I missed so many animals (thankfully clean). At 18, a deer popped up so quick I didn't have a chance to get feverish. This let me know "I can do this", and I've been better since.

[seazofcheeze]

I think I was 20, but may have been 18, that part of my life is pretty blurry. I definitely remember the hunt though. I had a hand me down Bear whitetail II with a too long draw length and a single metal sight pin, a 125 grain thunderhead, some old aluminum gamegetter II arrows, no peep sight, no release aid. I shot a doe after it winded me and blew for about 10 minutes straight. She never did see me and finally came in. Shot her at 10yds and thought I missed. She stood there for a few minutes and went back to feeding, then she tipped over and died right there, no track job.

[Antler Assassin]

16. Seems like no matter how many deer you shoot the first one is always the most special. No matter what the size atleast for me.

[Paca]

12 years old 420 yard shot the furthest I’ve ever shot anything. 9 shots fired, 7 hits. I should of had a adult with me but I was solo. So much different now with hunting mentors setting up shooting sticks and holding the young hunters hand. I really learned hunting skills shooting and chasing squirrels many years before I was 12. Those were the days!

[Bonecrusher101]

14 - 1 antlered spike with my bow.

Bio1

Very similar for me a one antlered spike shot with a 30-30.

[Josh_S]

The responses here are very surprising, I thought I would be the odd ball for starting later in life.

I lost my father at a young age, so unfortunately we never got a chance to hunt together. None of my immediate family hunted, so I really had nobody to teach me. I spent a lot of my youth fishing (and still do), so the passion for the outdoors was always in me. Throughout high school I played sports pretty much year round, so I never really had the time or desire to attempt hunting at this point in my life. Fast forward to my mid twenties, I miss competition and challenging myself. At the age of 26 I decided I wanted to take on the challenge of bow hunting (to compete against myself). Luckily, 2 of my best friends were experienced bow hunters and had the patience to teach me. If not for them, I honestly don't know if I would have stuck with it. At 26 I shot an archery doe in my first year hunting, and have been hooked ever since. I'm now 36 and just like the rest of you lunatics on this site!

[Bonecrusher101]

I was 17. It was a small 3 pt. I was disappointed at time.

What sucks was a week before I went and picked up my grandpa to show him a spot i found....when we got there were walking and kinda wispering.

I heard something that sounded like a squirrel but when i looked it was a big old 8 pt with dried velvet hanging down.

I told my grandpa stop. There is a huge buck. It was only 20 yds and not paying attention to us at all.

I had the buck in my scope and only had a head shot. It was walking broadside but some small trees were in the way. My grandpa kept saying shoot em Eddie shoot him.

The deer was walking slowly and was about to give me a perfect shot.

BOOM!! I watched him him go down in my scope. It was one of those shots where the deer sits down on its but and then falls over backwards and lands upside down.

You got em Eddie my grandpa said...

I said i didnt shoot...he laughed. It was him that shot. He took the neck shot and dropped it in its tracks.

He then told me that I could tell everyone i shot him...i think he felt bad. I told him no way. I didn't shoot so i am not taking credit.

He told everybody at home i must of go buck fever because he kept saying shoot em and i wouldn't. I told him i waited almost 18 years for that moment i could wait a couple more steps for the perfect shot.

To this day still the biggest body deer i have ever seen in Florida...real old too. He had two big puncture wounds on his side from fighting that was all pussed up. He must have been thinking about that when we seen him because he gave not regard to us being there at all.

What sucks is we took all sorts of pics with a disposable camera and no one pic came out. I still have the rack on my wall this day.

Would have been an awesome first buck but as i am typing this and looking back now it is even a better memory.

Your grandpa sounds old school, like He wasn’t going to waste the opportunity and probably did what he thought was best. He knew a neck shot at that range was lethal and took the first best shot he had. He gave you a very brief opportunity to shoot first and decided to get him after you weren’t quick enough for his liking with the shot.

Sorry you feel like you got a bad deal on your first experience. My first deer left me with a similar sour feeling too.

It was starting to get dark on a sunday evening and my dad came walking back to the old wooden stand I was in right at dusk. I saw a deer come trotting and I lined him up in the scope and shot the deer at 60-70 yards with a 30-30. I didn’t see him leave but there was a lot of briars where he was headed. I was shaking and overly excited. I felt like I had finally gotten my first deer after 2-3 years of botching deer hunts.

My dad looked briefly but it was extremely apparent he didn’t even want to mess with it. We didn’t have a flashlight with us and my dad kept claiming he didn’t see any blood as I told him about where the deer was when I had shot it. I asked if we could get flashlights and call for others to help us look. He kept talking about having to be at work in the morning and he said he wasn’t sure I even hit the deer. I was adamant and he wouldn’t even call other members of the hunting club who lived within a mile of the hunting grounds to help us look.

We went home and another member of the club walked right to the half rack spike the next evening. It was 2 days later before my dad would take me back out there. We snapped a pic and snapped the one antler off and that was all that was salvaged.

My dad had never killed a deer before so I shouldn’t be so critical. He didn’t know how to gut one or any of that. He’s killed a few but it’s never been his thing really. I feel cheated out of my moment to celebrate and eat my first deer.

[BigBrutus11]

12 nice doe, back then it was the earliest you could get a license in Wisconsin

[bigredneck61088]

As soon as I could drive at 16, that’s when I got to spend as much time in the woods as there was daylight after school and work, hunted almost everyday! Dad took me out once in a while but two jobs and not much drive to hunt didn’t get me out much....

Killed my first buck November but wounded and lost one earlier in the year

[john1984]

19

[Wolfshead]

I’m that guy who posted the “51 or older” vote.
Nov. 30th 2013.
53 years old
Late comer to the hunting game to say the least.
Was getting into position as a sitter on the end of a drive. A family friend and I were walking to our spots I chose an old cherry tree to sit against as he continued down the tree line to his spot.
I cleared some snow and leaves from the base, sat down, and looked up.
About 80 yards from where I had just sat down a good sized doe was looking at me trying to figure me out.
She turned her head in the direction of my friend allowing me to get my muzzleloader up on her and I shot.
She ran off out of sight and I thought I had missed.
When the drivers made it to my position we found a blood trail and then her about 100 yards away.