Wondering how vividly you remember walking up to that first deer you arrowed?
What a rush! Heart pounding, vomit feeling, adrenaline rush!
Where were you hunting geographically and in particular, what was your woodsy set up or conditions? Do you remember?
Were you in wool? What equipment were you using?
Mine was a doe in the Catskill Mountains of NY using a Bear Whitetail Hunter. I sat in the crotch of a tree with 2x4 steps nailed in it. I know I wasn't wearing wool but can't remember what warmth I was wearing.
Time marches on and it's hard to believe that doe was 45 years ago...
1971 I was hunting with my dad at the Necedah wildlife area. He placed me on a intersection of trails that come together in a funnel that led between two marshes.
I remember seeing several deer but none close enough for a shot. When just before dark and I was expecting my dad to pick me up a spike buck came down a trail right in front of me. I drew when he cleared some brush and shot hitting him right in the head. The shot obviously wasn’t where I wanted but it was where I was looking LOL.
I remember my left leg started shaking so badly that I had to sit down or fall over. I was using a Fiberglas bow with Bear cedar shafts and Bear razor heads. I had some insulated camo pants that I was wearing. But I don’t remember what I had on for a top. I’m thinking it was a normal coat with one of my dads camo shirts wore over the top. My dad helped me gut it. I remember the warmth and smells when we opened it up. To this day when I gut a deer it takes me back to that day.
My dad handed me the rope and said I’ll meet you at the car jokingly. At 11 years old I could hardly move it. He showed me how to put the rope around the neck with the front feet over the horns and a 1/2 hitch over the snout to get the head off the ground. With the pope and young score of 9” I was more than thrilled. It took me five more years to top that one.
I shot a nubbin the last day of early season when I was 12. My uncle was hunting a few hundred yards away and did a small push to me when he got down. That nubbin was a giant to me at that time. Lol. It took 7 yrs to shoot an antlered buck. I then shot a 124" 8 ptr. Both of those hunts I remember like they were yesterday.
Mine was a fork horn. I was 14, dressed in blue and grey plaid. I prayed I'd see a deer. Immediately I see a six pointer. Shot at him at 20 yards from a tree limb. I missed. Prayed for a second opportunity, and look up, and a fork horn is standing in the exact same spot. Drew, aimed true, and heart shot him. He ran and dropped ten feet from my brother in law who was easily as excited as I was. I used a gifted Bear Kodiak recurve he gifted me. Shot a bear chisel tip. Cedar shafts. Hooked ever since. Easily the best deer I ever killed. 20 years later, I made him a knife, and the handle was made of half of that rack. He grinned from ear to ear, and immediately knew where that handle came from. He had never killed one with his bow, when I did. I was there the very next year, when he scored.
Times have changed, but I still get as excited about bow hunting.
I only hope that this thread stays alive. We've done this before, and in my opinion, these threads are the ones I read intently. Others I dont even open.
Good post Pete. I hope your shoulder allows you to hunt this year, instead of butchering, and being camp cook.
Mine was also about 45 years ago and it was a button buck shot with a Bear Black Bear 45# recurve and cedar arrows with 3-blade solid broadheads. The arrows and broadheads were bought at Ostling Archery arrow factory in Luck, WI. Back then if you killed a deer with one of his arrows and brought in a photo he gave you a free dozen arrows. It was a big deal! I loved going to the arrow factory and smelling the fresh cut cedar.
I was hunting in the middle of a big woods south of Balsam Lake (known by the locals as the 700 because it was about 700 acres) in a homemade treestand watching a trail through the oaks. I was wearing cotton camo in the old WWII pattern, that's about all that was available back then for camo.
My buddy and his dad helped me track and find the deer. Back then we had the old metal tags that you had to put around an antler or through the hock. I was like 13 or 14 and when I was trying to tag my deer through the hock the tag was all bent up and I was having hard time with it. My buddy's dad said "it's all bent up and it won't go in" and I replied with "that's what she said". I'll never forget how hard my buddy's dad, who was probably in his mid 30's laughed at my comment. This was in early 1970's and it was seriously the first time any of us ever heard or said "that's what she said". It just came to me and I said it. I always had a quick wit and would say funny things but this time I really hit it out of the park.
My buddy's dad just died recently and at the funeral my buddy and I reminisced about that day and before I could even finish the story, my buddy said "that's what she said". Both of us credit me with starting that statement which has spread worldwide. So that's my claim to fame and that's my story and I'm sticking to it...
Mine was the fall of 1983, 18 ears old. The first year I ever bow hunted and the first day too!
Was using my brand new that summer American Archery Cheetah Mag, (still have it) 2117 Easton arrows and Wasp Cam-loc broadheads. Also state of the art cotton camo probably from Fleet Farm.
That evening as my father was dropping myself and my buddy off at our Green Lake Co hunting spot he asked me what I intended to shoot that night. I replied that the first deer to come along would do just fine. He jokingly said "does ain't deer and 6 pointers ain't bucks". Of course he didn't really mean that.
The first deer to come along was a 7 pt! First buck gun or bow. 2nd year opening day also got a 8 pt!
Got harder after that. Most with compound some mixed in with recurve as I've dabbled with Bear recurves over the years. Kodiak Mag, Kodiak Hunter and American Archery Super Nitro that was my Dads. Always use Bear Razor heads on cedar arrows with trad gear.
First buck, around 1990, I don't remember the exact year. I set my climber up the evening before, walked in early, at o dark 30, and couldn't find my stand at the base of the tree. I looked around that area until it was starting to get a little light on the horizon and decided to hunker down by some clumps of large Basswood trees. As it got lighter out, I notice my climber about 5 yards away from where I was at but didn't want to move after light. I could hear a strange clanking sound a ways away from me and it sounded like it was moving towards me, a few minutes later I see a group of 5 bucks walking my way. I figured out that the clanking sound was the bucks sparring with each other, I watched them spar several times as they worked their way towards me. As they walked behind some trees, I drew back and one stopped in an opening to look back at the others, so I let the arrow go. I thought that I saw it drop, but wasn't sure so I walked over to where my dad was sitting. After talking with him for a few minutes, my cousin came walking over to say that he hit one too. He thought that his hit was really good, so we tracked his buck first with no luck. We headed to where I was, found blood and my arrow right away, followed the trail for about 40 yards to where I last saw the buck and he was about 5 yards in the cattails, right where I thought he went down. 7 point buck, not sure if he was the biggest or smallest in the group of bucks but I didn't care, he was the first one to give me a clear shot at 40 yards.
Sept. 21, 1968. Opening morning. Sitting behind a rock when a 3pt. buck came running by. The cedar arrow with a Bear Razorhead hit him in the heart. He ran about 60yrds. 44# Super Kodiak. One, very happy 16 yr. old !!
Yep, 1979, 17 years old, my Mom's 76 Montego, quite the hunting rig, LOL. A fork horn comes in grunting chasing a couple does. It comes up to my cotton ball with Rut Deer scent on it. Shakingly, I draw set the pin behind the shoulder and released. I saw the hair were I was aiming fluff out and the deer took off. Now totally freaking out, I climb down and find blood!!! I marked the spot with TP and went to the Buckhorn Bar and told Kenny I hit one good. He told me to wait for so and so and I did. The 3 older guys and I went out tracking with a 12 pack of Walters, LOL. Long story short, found the deer, they helped me gut it, drug it out, and threw it in the trunk of the Montego. Pretty proud dude driving home.
Sunday of opening weekend 1972. Bear Kodiak. Bear Razorheads. My camo was gray coveralls with orange, yellow and green leaves sewn on them along with spots that I made by bleaching areas in irregular patterns.I was standing on 2) 2x4s with a 2X8 on top of them.12 yard shot. Spike buck. He went about 60 yards and he toppled over just out of my sight. Made for a great first blood trail with high anticipation.
I was 13 and hunting with a Pse jet flight that had to long of a draw length. Practiced for 2 months trying to pull it back for the first time.
November 14 hunting the bigwoods. I had a fork walking down the edge of a creek bed following a doe that was in the water drinking. I took the shot as he was quartering away from me. I watched him fall over in a patch of cedars on the edge of the swamp. Never shook so bad in my life and I thought, I have to pinch myself to wake up. Definitely one of my most memorable hunt.
For some reason back then I had started a personal bowhunting journal and I recorded the details of many of my hunts. They were that important to me. I still have those old and worn handwritten notes, and I enjoy the occasional journey through the bygone days provided by my tattered pages.
I won't bore all you good readers with superfluous detail but I will say this:
Summer 1964, there was a group of us 18-19-20 year old guys who shot our bows on the west end of the UW campus in Madison, in what were then the very large athletic fields. Today they'd go nuts and call out the SWAT team if someone did that, fifty years ago the campus police would drive by and wave, or get out and watch us. One of them even was a bowhunter himself!
Three of us decided to bowhunt the first week of the 1964 season. We were not sure where to go but asked around and eventually picked a spot in eastern Jackson County near the Knapp fire tower.
We drove up there the Friday afternoon before opening day and ramdonly picked a location deep in the woods down a remote two track trail. We camped and hunted there. The Knapp fire tower was just a half-mile away, looking down, watching our every move.
We fought the September mosquitos and tried to hunt as best we could. We were all nimrods and were perfect examples of young bowhunters who had a lot to learn. We saw a few deer and got a shot or two with no result other than a lost an arrow.
I finally got lucky (and I emphasize "lucky") on Wednesday afternoon, September 30, 1964.
I was hunkered down in a log and brush blind I'd built near the edge of a fire lane trail. About 5:30, to the east, I saw a doe and a buck start to walk out of the woods and cross the fire lane. I grabbed my bow, drew, aimed (instinctive), and shot. I watched the arrow in flight and saw it arc into the chest of the buck, I then heard a loud "crack". The deer took off, tails high and waving good-bye against the September woods.
Although I had first bowhunted in 1957, and should have been well on my way to becoming an experienced bowhunter by now, this was my first hit on a deer and I truly did not know what to do.
I just sat there.
I knew enough not to go running after the deer, so I walked back to camp and met my hunting buddy, the other guy had left for home that morning.
To make a long story short,...we trailed the deer with flashlights and a Coleman lantern and finally found him around midnight, he'd gone a few hundred yards on the run!
This was my first deer ever and it would be no exaggeration to say I was one happy camper! I'd finally killed a deer with a bow and arrow!
He was an eight point with about a ten inch spread and probably dressed out at around 120 pounds. But to me he was a trophy! I still have his set of antlers and the upper part of the arrow that killed him.
Details: 45#, RH, Bear Kodiak Magnum bow, wooden POC arrow, Bear Razorhead broadhead with insert, shooting glove, instinctive (no sight). The shot distance was just a bit over fifty yards, I did not know enough back then not to shoot that far! I was not a good shot, I just got lucky! Very lucky to have made that shot, but that's okay, it was my first ever!
I remember hearing leaves rustling behind me and feeling like my heart was going to blow up. It came closer and closer but I didn't want to move. Just as I was about to go into cardiac arrest, a red fox went trotting under the tree I was in. It kind took some of the convulsions away when the doe finally showed up.
Around 1982 using a Browning Nomad bow, Easton Gamegetter arrows tipped with Savora broadheads. Sitting in a steel frame wood platform homemade portable stand with a pc of drilled for bolts heavy steel banding securing it to the tree. This was hung 15 yds from a fresh scrape. Sneaking in before daylight in mid October after an all night rain, I can still remember the cool dampness in the air. Just after daylight a busted up 8pt comes from a cornfield behind me to freshen the scrape. I let fly with no sight pins and a leather finger tab. The buck bolted about 50 yds uphill then turned left and ran out of sight. After a 1 hour wait, I began tracking with my bowhunting mentor. After a pretty steady blood trail of 250 yds we jumped the brisket hit buck. Another arrow finished the job. I'll never forget this one.
I was eighteen and shot a forkhorn. Hadn't even made it six feet up the tree with my Baker. I heard him coming so I turned around, saw him, pulled up my bow and he came within tens yards and the rest is history. He went sixty yards and piled up. I was on top of the world.
Reading all of the above,...a couple guys said it,...how small their first bucks were (like mine),...or how much the doe meant. That proves it, beauty in the eye of the beholder, those deer were and still are trophies. In these cases, size truly does not matter!
My first one could have been an 8 pointer. I was duck hunting and saw him bed down in an alfalfa field about 5 yards on the other side of a thick fence line, rushed home to get my bow and put the sneak on him. Had the perfect opportunity, I was about to draw the bow and I remembered it was the friday before gun season. Oops, I gave him one last look and snuck out the way I came in. I was probably 17 at the time. This would have probably been 1971.
My first real kill was a 6 pointer, I was in a tree stand in a swampy area of Buffalo county public land. Hit him good, he ran about 50 yards and I saw him go down. I was probably 25 at the time. Shot several more bucks and doe from that same area after that. This would have probably been 1979.
I do not remember my first archery buck. I remember my first archery deer and my biggest archery buck and some other archery bucks but not the first one or all of them.
Some wonderful stories. Great distractions honestly, and I'm pleased to hear the similarities in our "firsts". I might as well add the year. Doing the math, it must have been 1982.
Stagetek I still hunt with those "greenies" if that is what you were using. I find them on the auction site every now and then. They sure get sharp still and bleeders do some damage.
1977 16 yo standing on a limb of a tree I free climbed. Missed that nubbin the first time but not the second. I'll never forget how proud I was of that first deer!
1989 Martin Cougar magnum XX75 Easton shafts and 4 blade muzzys. Hunting over acorns, I had been busted by the same fork horn in my last 2 sits. He would come in for a snack, I would stand and "try" to draw. Needless to say he would pick me off and walk away. My brother devised a plan to climb one of the oaks that was dropping the acorns. When the buck comes in, he would drop enough acorns to draw the forks attention away from me. I'll be damned if it didn't work!!! Heart shot at 17 yards with my brother dropping acorns on his back! That's when the shaking really started!!
!967 opening day. Stick bow. Cedar arrows. 8 point buck. My mom took a picture and sent it to the Polk County Ledger. A few days after the picture was in the paper, I got a congratulatory card from Governor Warren Knowles with the picture in the card. Long time ago....but I still remember lots of details.
September 1985 Fourteen years old. 6 point in SE MN. 40# Bear Silver Magnum compound, 2117 Bear arrows and a 3 blade Satellite broadhead.
Was still hunting through the woods and saw him about 100 yards away using the same deer trail that I was on. Leaned up against a tree and waited. He came right to me and started head bobbing about 5 yards away. When he turned to leave, I whipped the bow up and shot as he broke into a run. The arrow hit him in the hindquarter and cut the artery. Found him bedded in the creek bottom about a quarter mile away - can't believe he made it that far; the blood was just pumping.
My dad bet me a new bow that I couldn't kill a deer with a bow and arrow - he never paid up. Must have been because he was bigger than me and I couldn't force the issue.
I have something in common with RD. Not my first deer but my first archery 10 pointer. Buck walked up to my doe decoy, I was ready when his nose got about 6" from her tail. I let the arrow fly at the same time he jumped and turned. Arrow hit square into the hind quarter and my first thought was OH SHIT. On his second bound blood was shooting up in the air 2 feet out of his hind quarter, OH WHAT A RELIEF THAT WAS. Got to work a 'little' late that day.
Yep remember it like it was yesterday. Second week of November 1994. I had just started bow hunting for the first time ever one month earlier. Didn't have a clue what I was doing. Earlier in the year I bought a pse thunderbolt and practiced all summer. Easton 2314 aluminum arrows. 85 grain wasp sst broadhead and a 15 dollar zero gap release.
I had permission on a little 30 acre woods that was surrounded by about 600 acres of prime woods. I went out and hung one aluma lock treestand. Didn't even own any camo. Brown carhart coveralls, brown stocking hat and probably a yellow pair of chore gloves.
I watched this buck breed a doe twice about 50 yards from my treestand in the morning. No shot opportunity. Went back out that evening and about 4 o'clock that same buck came walking by at 35 yards. So I proceeded to snuff out my Marlboro light against the tree. By this time I was shaking so bad and could hardly breath. I couldn't tell you if I threw the cigarette on the ground, put it in my pocket or ate the damn thing. I was really a mess. Somehow I managed to draw back and get the shot off. Actually heart shot him. He only went about 30 yards and I watched him go down.
I can't remember if I waited awhile to climb down or fell or jumped or just took flight and flew over to him. He ended up being a 125 inch 19 inch wide 7 point. Had one brow tine broke off. I remember telling all my friends that hunted man this bow hunting is easy. Well I sure found out I was wrong. It took me 6 years to shoot another buck.
I remember all my bow kills but this one will always be the most special to me. Other than getting married or my son being born probably the happiest day of my life. I was hooked forever.
1978, still in high school. Shooting a borrowed 40# fiberglass Bear, aluminum arrows, and Bear razorheads. I shot a good 3 pt one side half rack, the opening weekend of the 2nd archery season in December, after the gun season. The other side of his rack was shot completely off during the gun season, and the one side of his face was quite swollen. I did not see all of that when I took the shot, as it was on the far side of the deer as he passed me broadside. Of course, my buddies claimed that I took advantage by shooting a half blind deer. When I skinned him, I noticed that his skull was cracked partially open. I was amazed at how tough he was to be walking around, basically acting normal, with a small sliver of his brain case opened up. Learned later, that someone hit this deer in the gun season during a deer drive. He was not recovered by them, obviously. They really are tough animals.
1988 12 yo bear bow. Gamegetters arrows muzzy 90 gr broadhead. Ten foot home buildt ladder stand. Ten apples I had three hunting arrows. At 430 I know four thirty cause every one had a watch around there now limb back then. A forker comes into apple. Finger tabs a all I unload my quiber. No hit I get down from stand retrieve my arrows climb back up ten min later. In walks mr fork I tell myself on this time I will hit wear I am aiming. Shoot he falls. Dam I spined him buck fever kicked in went back to cabin fifty yards away I could not spit out that I just shot a buck. Now I am hooked forever that was 31 years ago man I wish we all could go back to that.
Absolutely! 2006 in Outagami County seems like a long time ago. I remember everything from the crazy walk in that morning to the autumn smell of the dark earth and cedar trees . Walked in so early I had to hold up getting to my stand. Bucks were chasing does everywhere in the dark. There was just enough snow to see them via moon light. The night before I moved my climber a mere 10 yards after intense action without a shooting lane the afternoon before. It worked out perfectly as a buck chased a doe directly under the tree I was sitting in the day before. I stopped him and sent a 100 grain slick trick through my first deer using my Hoyt Ultramag. Had I stayed in my last spot, there is no way I'd have been able to take a straight down shot.
1969 Waupaca Oct 24th. 7 am , 45 degrees & Sunny . ( Yes I have 50 years of records) .
The six of us were hung over & my buddy Marv & I were the only 2 in the woods . 100 yards apart on an Oak ridge .
6 Deer walked right at me & stopped at 20 yards . 1 Doe was stairing at me & I figured I was screwed .
ALL OF A SUDDEN Marv starting gagging & throwing up . All the Deer looked in his direction . I drew my bow on a big 6 pt & let fly as they started to run .
The Fredbear cedar shaft with a fredbear broadhead ( just sharpened the nite before ) found the heart . The Buck still ran 100 yards .
The deer is still refered to as THE BARF BUCK . Bow was a Bear super kodiak .
Myke , the 4 guys that didn't go that morning paid dearly . We poured blood on them & 1 of them had a certain part of the buck sticking in his ear .
A note for you younger guys . TAKE PICTURES . Lots of them . & not just hunting . Family , buddys , Vehicles & so on . I have 35 lbs of pics & 5 flash drives dating back to 1965 . There so much fun for show & tell .
Sidenote : That buck took 1 st place at our Bowclubs contest . MY how times have changed .
Fairchild, WI. Right across the road from th FD. He came from the swamp in front of me and walked directly to my tree. He did a half circle around my tree at 0 yds. I shot him straight down as he stood next to my ladder. He did a backflip and died 10 yds from my tree. Basket rack 11 pointer. I’ve had more action in that highway spot than any other area I hunt.
Arcadia WI October 14th 2000. I was 13 yrs old High County I believe it was a split force with a 2117 aluminum arrow and a 100 grain thunderhead. 11 point 14 wide probably only a 1.5 or maybe 2.5 yr old buck. sitting along the edge of a standing corn field in a ladder stand that I could grab the seat while standing on the ground. came from the swamp on my right and walked through the standing corn to the corner of the field and stood quartering away at 25 yards. a well placed arrow and he died within sight (about 20 steps from the base of the tree) and I shook for 30 minutes before I could collect myself enough to climb down. Hunting seemed simpler back then.
