What did you kill your first deer with for a weapon?

[wiscwhip]

First bow I shot at deer was a 38# Root recurve, used it till I was 14. Zero deer, I did hit one and lost it because it started to downpour about 10 minutes after I shot it and had no blood trail to follow. Those first 2 years sucked and I vowed to get some better equipment. The summer I turned 14 I got a brand new Browning Explorer II 4 pulley compound(we later referred to them as Exploder II's) and started killing deer that fall. I still have it today, but I'm afraid to even draw it now, those wood risers and wood laminated limbs were notorious for exploding when they were new. Now that they have had 30 years to dry out I can't imagine they would be very safe to shoot. My dad had one just like it and after about 4 years, the top limb bolt pulled right out of the wooden riser handle when he was practicing one day. He got clubbed in the head with the top limb, everyone got a great laugh except him.:D Very pretty bows though, they look great hanging in the bow rack.:cool:

 

[Jameson]

Remington 870 12-gauge shot gun, but that deer was running very injured from another hunter's shot so it was more of finishing it off than getting my first deer. The next deer was with an old Remington 742 30-06.

 

[sandbur]

A bow (and now a crossbow) give me more time to sit in the woods. I no longer really intend to shoot anything, but just to be there. I guess the X-bow is along if I change my mind. I want to hunt as long as a possible and prefer to shoot a young'un near the end of season with a rifle.

A life time trophy could change my mind, but I do not worry about it.

O

Load on Sunday.....and shoot all week? LOL Art....Can you tell us how many rounds were left in the gun when the shooting stopped? :D

I figured that question would be coming. the answer is NONE! I was 13 and broke the deer's back on the first shot. That area has had very good regrowth of vegetation because of all of the rainfall. There are still so many holes in the air, that much more rain hits the ground in that area!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I killed my first deer with a bow. A hand me down from my dad, an XI legend. To this day i have taken far more deer with a bow than with a firearm. Archery seasons in the two states i hunt the most are much longer than firearms seasons....so i usually have more time in the stand with a bow, so sometimes I'm tagged out before rifle season starts! I do usually try to have a tag or two for gun season...I spend more time hunting with friends and family during rifle season.

 

[Jason]

remington 870 without a rifled barrel. could barely hit the broadside of a barn with it but somehow spined a 4point.

I shot it in the first 30 minutes of the season, the first year i hunted without my dad. The previous 4 years i hunted with my dad and didn't see a deer. I honestly felt bad for shooting it because i felt like it made my dad look bad. still bugs me almost 30 years later.

 

[wiscwhip]

Old .30 Remington my Dad bought me for my 15th b-day. Dropped a spike buck where he stood...I was hooked for life. Think it was about 15 minutes into opening day of my first rifle season. :D

Dad ended up trading that rifle in for a brand new Remington Model 4, 30-06 (.30 had a weak firing pin, cost me a very nice 8 ptr a year or two later) that he gave me for my 18th b-day. Still have the Model 4....but it won't get used much since I hunt in a slug zone now. If I ever did rifle hunt again I'd use Dad's .308 anyway

Those Model 4's are pretty rifles as far as the semi-autos go! My uncle has a Model 6 and it puts my daughters brand new 7600 to shame as far as the wood and finish of the gun goes.

 

[Snowball271]

Will humbly say I have yet to harvest a deer. I'm 34 and just started hunting for first time 2 years ago. Couple times out with father as kid and just wasn't into it. Now I am full on obsessed. So the thing is no background and I only hunt with a bow. Kind of thrown to the wolves but I enjoy it. Passed a doe couple times early season last year, didn't have heart to shoot her with fawns still milking off her. To each his own. Then missed a shot at big ten hopefully got that out of my system and this is the year.

 

[2ndHand]

I shot my first deer last year (6 pt. buck) with the rifle my wife bought me as an early Christmas present. Remington 700 CDL - 270...:)

 

[ogeechee]

Ruger M77 243

 

[OkieKubota]

16 gauge break open Long Tom smoothbore shotgun with a cracked stock and the bb sight worn off. Crawled up to within 7 yards of the largest buck I have ever killed while he was bedded and laid there in the prone position awaiting him to get up. He finally rose and was scratching his headquarters with the tines on his tall 14 point rack by leaning his head straight back when the rifled slug caught him straight in the shoulder and literally blew him down sideways. He scored well over 150 per my dad. I was 14 at the time... the rack burned in a house fire when I was 21. I shot him about 1 mile from where I am now sitting in my living room... this was in a time when seeing a deer let alone a buck was almost news story...

 

[scott44]

I was 15 yrs old and using my dad's Remington 700 30-06, 9pt.

 

[BluffCountry]

My first deer was a doe I shot with a Martin Compound Bow I built from a kit that my dad bought me for my birthday when I was 12 (1981). I was 14 has had missed probably missed 6-8 Bucks by a mile before I finally decided to shoot at doe. No buck fever I guess, made a good shot and she went maybe 20 yards and fell over.

 

[bueller]

I was 15 yrs old and using my dad's Remington 700 30-06, 9pt.

Same here except I think I was a year or two older and mine was a spiker :p

 

[ruskbucks]

3o/30 Winchester. Iron sights 60yds big doe.

 

[biglakeba$$]

Sadly, the first deer I killed, we didnt find until the next weekend...... So that doesnt really count. but it was with a model 94 30-30.
My first tagged deer was with a model 70 .243. I used that gun for another 30 years and shot many deer with it.

 

[j-bird]

My firs deer harvest was with a hoyt bow - from the ground without a blind! Yep - right place, right time and dumb luck! Sometimes I prefer to be lucky than good!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Will humbly say I have yet to harvest a deer. I'm 34 and just started hunting for first time 2 years ago. Couple times out with father as kid and just wasn't into it. Now I am full on obsessed. So the thing is no background and I only hunt with a bow. Kind of thrown to the wolves but I enjoy it. Passed a doe couple times early season last year, didn't have heart to shoot her with fawns still milking off her. To each his own. Then missed a shot at big ten hopefully got that out of my system and this is the year.

I didn't kill my first deer until i was 22. Grew up going along with my dad when he went hunting. got my license at 12 and basically myself and the other young kids at camp were the "beagles" on drives. Did a little bowhunting with my dad but not much. then we moved to Northern NJ for my dad's job and we pretty much only made the trip back to camp for the first few days of rifle season from age 13 to 18. we hunted in some low deer density big woods mountains....i can count the number of deer i saw in rifle seasons from 12-18 on 2 hands. Any way i hardly hunted all through college. When i graduated college and set off on my own i dove headlong into bowhunting and never looked back. the first season i bowhunted after college i shot my first deer, a small 2 year old buck.

 

[j-bird]

I was 28 when I took my first deer (2002). Hunted with shotgun with no results in 2000 and then again with a shotgun and smokepole in 2001 (swore I would NEVR hun with a bow). Took up the bow in 2002 to extend my hunting season and things fell into place. Deer numbers had not blossomed yet in my area (my county only harvsted 350 to 400 deer then). I am self taught as well - biggest thig I can tell you is to enjoy it and you want your circle of awarness to surpass your circle of influence in the woods - then you got a chance. Learn evrything you can about how the deer use the property you hunt.

 

[sagittarius]

Remington 742 woodsmaster semi-auto in 30.06.

15 years later, won a Browning A-bolt Rem 7mm mag in a raffle. Sold the 30.06 to buy a Leupold VX3 for the 7mmMag. No regrets. ;)

 

[tooln]

1966 Pontiac Tempest, (not by choice). Then a Marlin 30/30 lever.