First deer stories

[John Krause]

Charlie's story about finding the arrow that killed his first deer and reliving it got me to thinking about my first deer.

Maybe we all should share our first deer story.

Here's mine....

It was 80 or 81, can't exactly remember but I was in my early twenties. I was raised in St Louis in a non hunting family but went to NE MO State for college. It was there I got into bowhunting, totally self taught and knowing nothing. It was my third year bowhunting after 2 years of making every mistake a city boy with no experience and no mentor could make.

I was in a huge old oak that I had climbed with the help of some spikes pounded into the trunk. No fancy treestand, I just stood on a big thick branch. It was one of those big knarly oaks.

I was right on a sandy creek in the middle of a timbered draw that connected two decent size patches of woods. A perfect funnel but I had no idea of that then.

The bow was a 55 lb 52" Browning Cobra with the exposed Kwikee bow quiver. Bear metric aluminums with plastic vanes and Bear razor heads with no bleeder. I was shooting off the shelf. (I told you I was self taught).

A little after five I saw a flash of white to the north which materialized into an medium 8 pointer heading my way. He stopped in the creek directly below my stand. He was the first deer I had ever had in bow range but for some reason I was cool and collected. (last time for that haha).

I sent a perfect arrow into his chest at about 4 yds. When it hit him there was a loud smack. The smack was really loud about as loud as you could smack your hands together.

Penetration was about half the arrow. He took off the way he came and I could see the arrow shaft bouncing against trees as he ran by them. Then he was out of sight and sound.

Just a short time later I hear the sound of pounding hooves and he is coming my way but he is out of the draw in an old field about 30 yds to my right. Every time his feet hit the ground I can see a red mist coming from his chest. The arrow is gone. As he runs passed I loose sight of him but then hear a loud thud as he hits the ground.

I still get up there and hunt that same draw from 30 yrs ago and it is still my favorite spot.

Let's hear your story.

[lpcjon2]

Hey john can you tell this tale for St.Jude
 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=084980;p=10#000137
And thats a cool story.

[bolong]

Well here's mine. It was in 1968 and I was 16 years old. It was early October about 15 minutes before dark. I was sitting on the ground in a makeshift blind on the edge of a beanfield. Two yearling doe came out of a thicket about 10 yards from me.
when one of them was broadside I released a cedar shaft tipped with a Pearson Deadhead and made a good shot. I was shooting a Ben Pearson Hunter 45# at 28 in. It was probably the third deer I had shot at with a bow, missed the first two. It went about 75 yards. One of the happiest days of my life. Will never forget it.

[John Krause]

Sure, Tim. Not good at checking pms. Email [email protected]

[Wannabe1]

Get back to me after the end of Dec.!      

[GMMAT]

I'd love to.....but forum protocol prohibits wheeled comments!....lol

I always feel a little weird when discussions of deer "firsts" come up (personally).  My first was with a compound.  It's not my fondest deer story.  My first with my recurve is not my fondest traditional harvest.  Accomplishments?  Yes!

I'm looking forward to reading these, guys.  Good stuff!

[wapiti792]

Well I will stear clear of my first with a gun (age 12) or mechanical arrow launcher (age 16)...my FIRST big game animal with my recurve was 4 years ago on my own property using a technique that Mike Mitten refers to as "puppet fighting". I called a giant buck (see avatar) away from 2 yearling does. He came on a dead run across 40 acres of open field to the base of my tree at a whopping 5 yards. After nearly blowing the shot and getting only one lung, I found him stone dead 1/4 mile away. That was my first trad deer, and I have been trying like mad since then to top it    I have learned alot since then. Like don't shoot at an alert deer, don't shoot a bow you can't draw an hold a second or two, and NEVER assume that ANY shot is a slamdunk!

[Overspined]

I was 15 yrs old and it was raining on opening weekend. This was my second DAY bowhunting with a longbow. I had never shot a deer with anything. Rain quit and I was in a ground blind for gun hunting. My father and I were brand new longbowmen. I look up with the weather breaking and out from the ferns pops an antlered head in northern Michigan. He walks directly to me and turns broadside at 10 yds. My 44# Great Northern longbow hit all of about 1/2 draw as he stared at me with curiosity and the arrow found its mark. I never saw a deer disappear so fast into the woods. I got my father and he couldn't believe I had already shot one as he couldn't even find his blind in the dark, and had just sat down when I came looking for him. No blood trail, but the deer was down in about 60 yds. Double lunger. I remember like it was yesterday...now 20 years ago.

To this day, I have shot a whole lot of deer with a trad bow, and he has yet to shoot AT one! LOL. He loves to deerhunt, but isn't really all that good at it! We have a great time and now I have him hooked on elk hunting too. Basically we go for walks with our bows  

[imhntn]

Mine was in 1982.  I had worked a couple summers before in Indiana and bought a Bear Kodiak Magnum from a forester up there.  In the summer of '82, a couple took me under their wings and began to teach me to shoot the bow.  They had hunted for years and were officers in the local bowhunters club but had never killed any with the bow.  I practiced all summer and got confident.  The first day of season, I was so excited that I got sick before daylight and threw up in my tree and had to get down.  I decided to walk around since I had never been there before.  I saw a huge buck with some does crossing a field and shortly after, jumped 3 bucks near a small pond and they ran down a trail.  I decided the trail next to the pond was my spot.  I put a 2x4 in a fork of a tree that I notched and sat on the board and stood on a limb that was about 6 ft off the ground.  Didn't see another deer for a month and then decided to try it before work one morning.  I walked in with bright moonlight and got in my usual spot.  Just at sunup, I looked up and a 6 pt buck walked into the clearing near the pond following the same trail I had walked in on.  He slowly trailed me and where I had come off the trail to go to my tree, he followed my tracks.  He walked up about 5 yrds from the tree and would stare at the tree and then smell the ground as he faced me.  When he looked down for about the 4th time, I drew and shot him in the top of the back.  The Bear Razorhead hit with a pop and then fell out on the ground but the buck's hips hit the ground.  I had broken his back but in my youth, had no idea and was sure he would run away.  I had 4 arrows in an open clip on quiver and I quickly dropped the first one I grabbed.  I nocked another and remembering a buddy's story about hitting a deer in the rump and getting the femoral, I shot him in the butt.  I pulled the last arrow and shot it in the dirt next to him.  Finally got down and picked up the dropped arrow and finished him with a shot to the chest.  When I came home with that deer, my wife could not believe that I had killed one with a bow and arrow.  We were both excited and lots of guys in the  archery club came by to see the deer.  It was still a pretty rare event in our area for archery kills and anyone who got a deer, got put in the newspaper.  Great memories and I'm enjoying reading everyone's stories.  I took pictures of old pictures for these.  First is a shot my wife took of me shooting in the yard that summer.  Next is of me and that first archery deer.  I had hair back then and there was about 60 less lbs of me.
 
 

[Jerry Wald]

Great stories....He my first deer story.

It was nov in Alberta. I was working a ravine (lots of poplars - least I think they were poplars). I had been there all day from 6 am in the dark until now.

I had jumped a few deer and they waved at me on there way outta there (darn whitetails). It was real foggy in the morning and I had setup just off a trail that had lots of sign on it.

My buddy told me to make a racket going in (I was pretty new to bowhunting whitetails) and then get off the trail quick and circle back quietly down wind about 10 yards off the trail.

He said they will hold up real still when you come crashing through the bush but they will get curious after the sound stops and they will come lookin. I thought he was pullin my leg, but the slow stalking wasn't working so I thought I would give it a try.

I crunched every log and twig on the trail...didn't even look for deer. Then I circled around after about 75 yards..real quuuuuiiiiettttttt like.

I set up with a clump of willows between me and the trail. There was a fallen tree there which made a great seat. I hunkered down. About an hour went by and I was just about to get up (hard to get me to sit still very lond anyway) and there she appeared....boy that can scare the crap outta you when you don't hear 'em and there they are.

I waited until her head was behind a tree I got into position. She was about 12 yards...I tried to gain my composure, but my heart was racing. I kept thinking.....pick a spot, but my mind was telling the story to my buddies already (ever been there).

So I start to draw when she went behind the next tree about 8 yards. I got to full draw just as her mid section passed the tree and let fly.....

Sailed right over her.....crap I missed....you idiot...a give me and you blew it....

She busted outta there like a quarter horse on steriods.

Well I am done physically and mentally. So it was about 3:30 by then and in an hour or so it was going to be dark. I had my pack so I opened it up and had a frozen sandwich and some tea.

All the time I am just going over the shot..the miss...the unbelievable close shot the one you dream of..broadside at under ten yards...I will have nightmares tonight.

I waited for about a half hour. The trail ended back out on a field and then it was about a 100 yards to the truck.

When I got to the edge of the field I looked for deer..about that shade of light when they hit the fields...maybe another 1/2 hour till the sun went down. The sunset was beautiful....orange light filled the sky so i walked along the edge of the trees back to the truck.

I was walking when I had a feeling...you know...that feeling you get when you think something is there... I looked to my right and there was a doe....just GLOWING in the sunlight.

The sun was in her eyes so she couldn't make me out. She was just standing there on a small knoll. She looked magnificent....her body colour in that sunset was stunning.

So I turned slowly and knelt down. I guessed her to be about 25 yards and well within my shooting range back then.

I picked a spot pulled and shot. That arrow had destiny written all over it. It fluttered through the air as if in slow motion. The feathers spinning in the rays of sunlight.

It mades it way right to her chest cavity and that sound....that unmistakable sound you hear with an arrow...vvvvvvvvahhhhhhhhhh.

The arrow dissapeared....I thought I had missed...it was so clean. Her skin shook a bit and she just stood there..like a statue.

I saw a trickle of blood come out behind her leg..crimson on a gold statue. She finally walked off...peaceful like. A monarch of the bush just walking off as if nothing happened.

I watched her with my binoc...utter disbelief. There was no kicking...no jumping..no panic...just quiet almost peacefulness.

She layed up on the hillside in the snow...in the sunset...she fell into a deep sleep.

It was so different to anything I had read of heard. this was my first deer....I left her there for about 15 minutes..just dazed I was. I had some more tea. Went up to where she had stood and found my arrow on the otherside of the knoll buried into a poplar up to the back of the head (eskimos). So I dug it out (that took a bit of work).

The arrow was covered in blood. I walked up to my doe....she was lying there so peacefull looking I was half expecting her to jump up and take off running.

Nope she was asleep.

That is my first deer story.

Jer Bear

[Arwin]

My first deer ever took 3 arrows, only one of which actually connected, LOL!
 She was small enough to fit in the "trunk" of a Jeep Wrangler.

[wollelybugger]

I went hunting with my Brother in law and he was usuing a Pro line compound and I was using a HH longbow. We got to the woods and split up. It was just breaking dawn when I set up in some grapevines along a deer trail. I was sitting on a small stool and was wearing old WW2 camo with a old army wool sweater.
    I was settled in and the morning chill was keeping me wide awake. I could hear some noise and came to full alert. It was still pretty dark but the noise seemed to be coming down the trail. The deer was taking his time coming a few steps at a time and munching and taking a few more steps. I could see he was a buck and all the chill seemed to go away. He kept coming down the trail, 50 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards, 20 yards. I was turned and had my bow ready for a shot. 10 yards and still coming and I was starting to get a little nervous. At about 6 yards he stopped and was staring at me. I could see his eyebrows and  he was trying to make me out. He turned slowly and I pulled and put a arrow through him. He ran about 50 yards and piled up. Twenty years of bowhunting and finally got my first kill. That was a long time ago and can't remember the year.

[Don Stokes]

Growing up in Mississippi, we had very few deer. There was a refuge that had a herd about 30 miles from my hometown, where the state had deer traps used to repopulate other areas of the state. We could hunt on National Forest land outside the "red line" boundaries. When I started with my Bear 40# solid fiberglass longbow I wasn't old enough to drive yet. It was 1963. I tried for years, but game was so scarce that just seeing a deer made for a good season.

Fast forward to 1976 or '77. Out of college, living in South Carolina. I had killed a few by then with a gun, but that didn't count. I was using a Ben Pearson Sovereign recurve, about 45# draw weight, 2117 aluminum arrows and Bear razorheads. I climbed a poplar tree with my Baker Mighty Mite tree stand before daylight on a foggy morning, and after good light a spike buck sneaked in from behind me and bedded down only about 10 yards in front of me! I shot him as he lay there, and he made it about 125 yards before piling up. I've never been more proud while deer hunting, before or since!

My first big game animal with a longbow was a 4X3 bull elk in Colorado, in 1988, using an Archery Traditions 68" Bamboo Longhunter from Dan Quillian, 67# draw, 2219 aluminum arrows tipped with 160 grain Thunderheads. In my excitement I missed him three times, calling him back in each time, finally killing him with my fourth and last arrow. I guess we were both excited!

[longbowman]

It was 1971 & I was on my first official date with the girl that would end up being my wife.  We had the last 2 hrs. of day light left before we needed to go and so I gave her a camo jacket and we went to a small hidden clover field and set up in ground blinds I had built.  Just before dark 2 doe came out near me and began feeding.  I just knew she was going to move and spook them but when they got broadside I drew and shot and nailed the closest one dropping it on the spot.  She didn't believe in killing anything but I guess love conquers all.

[Owlgrowler]

OK, it's 1972, I'm 16, been bowhunting since I was 12, and unlike most of you above I had loosed probably 100 arrows at deer, even made a couple of em jump!!(Obviously didn't have much in the way of mentoring) But, I was gettin closer and I knew it was going to happen.

One the spots I hunted was a cow pasture with a high tension powerline running through it at the top of the hill. I'd been seeing a lot of deer up there and there was an ash tree with a lot of limbs on it that they fed under just about every evening.

I get home from school, put on my jeans, one of my brothers wool USMC shirts, Case sheath knife and grab my Browning Nomad II with blue spray- painted cedars tipped with Bear razorheads and head for that ash.

No steps, no stand,no safety belt, no pull-up rope for my bow. Just climb it like an animal. Get up about 12-15 feet and stand on a limb.

I can't remember the exact date, but it's the Tuesday after the time change, late October, early November, there's a chill in the air. I'm 16, I don't feel a thing, cause here they come, couple of does and fawns. The biggest doe feeds right under me. I draw back 50 some pounds of energy like it's nothing, take my time, pick a spot on her back and release. She hits the ground with a thud and I know she ain't gettin up. I reach down with my right hand, grab the limb I'm standing on and swing out of that tree like Tarzan. Pull another arrow off the kwikee and give it to her in the lungs.

Then I had a quiet time to reflect on what had just transpired. NOT!!! I ran the half mile home to get my brother without ever touching the ground. What a high.

 
And no, not that kind of high, even though I look a little stoned in that picture.

[HOWITZER]

I'll be sure to share mine when I finally connect with a trad bow!  Nice stories memories that will last a life time!

[mjdglobal]

My first was with a compound so I'll tell the story of my first (and only, so far) traditional.
  I've shot recurves for a long time but had never hunted with them, except for just a couple of times about 6 years ago, but nothing serious.  About 5 years ago I decided to buy a custom longbow (Horne).  I was used to the recurve so I really did'nt shoot the longbow much at all.  I was really into the Matthews and shooting 3-D'S.  
  Two seasons ago, Michigan began an early season for antlerless.  I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get one with the longbow.  I had always been nervous about having 'the big one' standing out there broadside at 30 yards while I had a traditional bow in my hand.  This early season would present no problems in that regard.
  So, I got the bow set up the way I wanted and began practicing that spring.  The bow is a great shooter and by the time the early antlerless season arrived, I was very confident.  I  set up an Ameristep penthouse blind, which is big enough to stand and shoot with a longbow.  I put it in a position where I would have a good opportunity for a 12-20 yard shot.
  On the second day of the season, three does came into my setup.  I got ready, and when a nice doe turned broadside at about 12 yards I drew.  I remember really boring a hole into the strand of hair I wanted to hit with my eyes.  Then the arrow was off.  As she began to run, I seen the arrow on the opposite side of her, hanging on my just a bit of the fletchings, right in the perfect spot.  After about two bounds, the arrow shook out of her, with the broadhead sticking in the ground, and the arrow standing perfectly straight out of the ground.  She made it about 120 yards, a tough deer for sure.
  Well, as I'm sure you all know, this awakened sowething within me.  Now, I've never shot a really big buck, but I'm way more proud of that doe I got with the longbow than my biggest buck with the wheelie.  I'll probably always hunt a little with the compound, I just love archery, but now I'm dedicated to traditional, forever.