Your First Big Game Animal

[Whitetail Addict]

Ozy Clint's thread, A Rite Of Passage, got me thinking about the first big game animal I shot with a traditional bow. Mine was a yearling whitetail buck. He had a spike on one side, and a fork on the other. I hit him a little too far back, and through the liver. I was young and foolish, and didn't wait long enough before I started tracking him. I kicked him out of a bunch of blowdowns a couple hundred yards down the blood trail, but I noticed that he didn't leave with the same gusto that he did at the shot. I went home, and and gave him four hours before I went back. There was a fair amount of blood in his bed, but he didn't leave me much to work with from there on, but I eventually found him. He'd made a circle, and I found him dead within a hundred yards of where I'd shot him earlier that morning. I've killed bigger deer over the years, but that little 3 point will always be my favorite.

What was your first big game kill?

Bob

[jt85]

My first was a nice doe, my second was five minutes later when the best buck I've killed so far came following her trails with his nose to the ground.

[elkken]

Mine was a mule deer doe in 1970 hunting an area in eastern Washington called the Nile near Naches. I shot her with a Wing recurve and cedar arrows from Glenn St Charles shop tipped with bear broadheads.

[mcgroundstalker]

Haven't put one down yet (with trad gear) but having a blast at this stalking and still hunting stuff!    "Almost" should be my middle name...  :rolleyes:  ...

... mike ...

[lbshooter]

Whitetail doe when I was a teenager in the 60's and using a 45# Bear Grizzly. She was feeding at the edge of a field and I crawled to get within 40 yards to make a clean heart shot. I was hooked for life.

[3arrows]

Shot mine 3 rolls over in a corn field not quiet P+Y but B+C to me.1970 wood arrow, Bear broadhead 50# Kmag.

[m midd]

Mine was a small 7pt whitetail in 2006. Great Northern longbow, cedar arrow and a grizzly broadhead

[KyStickbow]

My first was a doe last season. There aint no better feeling in the world that could top sticking ur first one with trad gear!!

[Bowwild]

5-point white-tail in 1970. I was 16. The bow was a 45# Pearson Cougar. Arrow was cedar with a Razorhead.

It was the first live deer I ever saw. I was 120 miles from home in Brown County, Indiana. The story is wild and almost unbelievable when I met, by pure chance, the stranger 7 years later who built the stand I had hunted from.

[varmint101]

Bowwild, that's where I live/hunt right on the county line.  Kinda neat.  My first was a fawn doe.  Took her thru the shoulders with a cedar shaft and glue on Wensel Woodsman and she didn't go 15 yards.  Knocked her down actually.  I ended up taking 3 does that early season after I broke the ice.

Mine was a Corsican sheep in west Tx. I never forget that hunt!

This was he day I shot him:




And this is whee he resides today, in my living room:



Bisch

[Birdbow]

Mine was a boar hog while still hunting the perpetual, dripping twilight of the Hawaiian rain forest with my longbow - surrealistic.

[reddogge]

Mine was a small 5 pt whitetail in 1969. First deer, first shot at a deer but not a classic kill though. I was in a portable tree stand with a 25 yard shot and he jumped the string and was perpendicular to the flight of the arrow which caught his femoral artery and then sliced his belly open. He died in 40 yards.

[joe ashton]

Great thread..
My first was a mule deer doe, 23 years ago.
58lb big horn recurve.
Cedar shaft dipped in red with red feathers.
Zwicky 2 blade head.
A 30yard shot after crawling up and running out of cover.  I can close my eyes and clearly see the flight of that arrow.  I can see the deer running away with just feather showing tight behind her shoulder. I can hear a crash and wondering why the sound stopped. I can still remember thinking I will probably spend the rest of the day looking for that deer (I had no clue how deadly a sharp broad head is). I remember how hard it was to wait at least an hour before starting the blood trail (it is still hard). I found her with in 70yard or so. I can even remember the smell of the broken cedar shaft I found along the great blood trail.
Oh and I remember the 5 miles and two trips to get her out!

[ron w]

Still at it...........been a long road!

[huskyarcher]

Doe fawn when i was about 15, been a great journey, and alot of animals have hit the dirt since!

[Bowwild]

Matthew,
I know Freetown.My first job out of college (1977) was as a forester at Jackson Washington State Forest. A nice fellow named Chester Mullins and another guy named Chadwell were maintenance specialists at the forest. I commuted to and from Jackson  and Brown county (turned at Story) during the season of 1977.

That buck I killed was on the boundary of the Brown County State Park on a small piece of Yellowwood State Forest. In fact, he jumped the barbed wire fence of the park and walked to within 15 yards of my tree stand before the shot.

[Tater]

My first was 1972, Whitetail Forkhorn, Bear Kodiak Hunter, Bear Fiberglass arrow with Bear Razorhead.

  Shot was from a treestand which was a wooden wire spool end, nailed up in a tree.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

I had a heck of a time killing my first deer. Took till my fourth year hunting, when I was fourteen in 1988. I had a decent guy setting me up    and I blew plenty of chances, fortunately didn't kill and lose any learning how.  My first deer was a year and a half old 8 pt, single lung-livered him at 10 yards with a 50lb Assenheimer, a graphlex arrow and big Snuffer. The arrow stopped on the diaphragm, so not much external blood and he went into standing corn.  Fortunately Dad's buddy we were hunting with is like a bloodhound and found my deer.  I killed a buck each year in high school, back in the day when they weren't too easy to come by where I grew up, but frankly it took me a couple more years to really become a hunter.  From about 16 on I got pretty serious about it....

R

[highlow]

First was a mature doe from the ground. Sat on a fairly steep hillside and the evening was perfect. No wind and the cooling thermals coming downhill. Got into some cover and before too long a group of about six trouped by about 15 yds. away. I waited for the last doe to pass and started my draw. She caught some movement and turned to head back uphill. Loosed an arrow and caught her in the neck. Left a decent blood trail and recovered her in about 150 yds. Using a Browning Explorer but can't remember what arrow. It was '76. What do you want? I'm old. It was  tipped with a Bear Razorhead. That I do remember. Went to the dark side not long after for many years. So good to be back.