First Archery/Deer Harvests

All right, lets see some of our first archery or deer harvests.

This was my first Archery Harvest taken in my second year of hunting with my PSE. I was hunting in ND during NDSU Homecoming of 1999. I had two of my best friends within 80 yards of me in another tree. I was sitting on the farm that is now my friend Paul’s place. This guy came by just as the Sun was coming over the horizon. He put on a show in front of me as he worked a scrape and then came directly towards my tree to go to his bedding area along the River. I was sitting in the Nose Bleed stand and drilled him @ 7 yards and I was higher than he was far (Nose Bleed) He made a hop and tipped over within 5 yards from where I shot him. Right there and then the passion and determination set in for life and took over from there.

Not the biggest buck but not bad for your first archery kill. It is a 4×5 that grosses around 93″ inches. I had passed up numerous smaller bucks that year and the year before to get him and I even deflected off a branch the morning before from the same stand on a 120″ 4×4. It didn’t matter I was pumped and to share it with a few good buddies topped it off!

How about your first??? Archery, Gun it don’t matter share it here!!!

Sorry for the poor picture as it is a picture of a picture!

Here’s a pix of my 1st Buck shot in the 2007 Camp Ripley Archery Hunt.

That is a beauty of a first buck Craig!

Anyone else?

Here is Melissa’s first kill. Hard to believe that was 7 yrs ago already. Wish I had one of mine but camera’s were only for the rich back then and I would have needed one with a zoom lens. I did receive the nick name “spike” at deer camp though.

Nice!

Thanks for sharing Spike!

my first harvest was back when i was in 9th grade…the picture was taken w/ a 35 mm camera There is no way of transferring it to my computer

Like Rob did take a picture of the picture

Quote:

---

Like Rob did take a picture of the picture

---

Yep, that was good old 35Mm Film there! And probably before you were in 9th Grade!

I shot this 8 pt buck w/ my 12 gauge in Pilsbury State Forest on 11/11/97 and have been hooked ever since.

I remember it like yesterday. It was a Tuesday evening and i had left the night before to head up to my uncle Greg’s place. My brother was already up hunting and i had been hunting w/ a friend and his dad closer to home on opening weekend and missed a spike buck. Any way, i remember waking up in the morning and sitting in a stand that my brother built and didn’t see a deer. We met up later that morning and ended up walking a bunch of snowmobile trails throughout the day and still didn’t see a deer. Long story short… i ended up back in the stand that evening and didn’t expect to see a thing. I fell asleep for about an hour and woke up and looked around, nothing. About 10 mins pass by and i see a car driving down the county road a few hundred yards away and i see them hit the brakes… seconds later i see shadows in the woods and pray they come my way. before i had a chance to even move, i had 2 does on my right and 1 on my left (then i heard my first grunt in the wild). this buck was chasing the does and he ended up running w/in 12 yds of my stand. I don’t even remember aiming, shot and watched him drop. just writing this is putting a smile on my face. hard to believe it’s been that long.

the 2nd pic is my 1st bow kill 10/17/02 and the 3rd/4th pic is my 1st “Wallhanger” 9 pt 9/19/05

After another smaller buck in 97′ (party hunting) & 99′ i decided bow only

can’t wait for 9/18/10 and the new memories that will take place

This was my first deer taken at age 13 with my Bear Silver Mag my mom brought home from a day of shopping “Crazy Days” My first shot missed the deer by at least a foot but was able to nock another arrow and make a good shot. He only ran abour 50yrds and tipped over and then I remember shaking so bad I didn’t know how I was going to climb down from the stand. My dad was away on business so my mom had to call the neighbor to help me gut it as I just wasn’t sure. As for most of you this is all it takes and since I saw my mom pull that bow out of her car trunk I’ve never missed a deer season, with newer equipment of course. Thanks Mom!!! BTW- The hat I’m wearing is the same reversible camo/orange as my current buck in my avatar. I don’t leave home without it!

Exactly what I was looking for!

I was a late starter but made up for lost time quick!

Great Stuff guys, keep ’em coming!

Quote:

---

This was my first deer taken at age 13 with my Bear Silver Mag my mom brought home from a day of shopping “Crazy Days” My first shot missed the deer by at least a foot but was able to nock another arrow and make a good shot. He only ran abour 50yrds and tipped over and then I remember shaking so bad I didn’t know how I was going to climb down from the stand. My dad was away on business so my mom had to call the neighbor to help me gut it as I just wasn’t sure. As for most of you this is all it takes and since I saw my mom pull that bow out of her car trunk I’ve never missed a deer season, with newer equipment of course. Thanks Mom!!! BTW- The hat I’m wearing is the same reversible camo/orange as my current buck in my avatar. I don’t leave home without it!

---

It also helps that you are still the same size

Ok Early October 1987 I can’t remember what kind of bow I was shooting But I do remember shooting over him 1st and having him come closer and giving me another try 5-pointer down

Nevermind the date I also took a picture of the picture

This is 1993 after Gut got me set up with a compound bow, it was recurve before that with no success. My first deer with a bow was a nice doe. The second year was this 7 pointer with a Martin Gazelle. There aren’t many nice deer in that area that we had permission to hunt and I needed to get deer under my belt before moving onto to bigger bucks. PIcture of a picture. No laughing allowed.

Unfortunately, cameras were not invented when I got my first kill….. I will see what I can dig up and scan or take a picture of and try to post. This is cool to see these

For me it was October 1975 and I was shooting a Colt 40# re-curve, and fiberglass arrows with Hilbre razor injected tips. We were poor as dirt at the time and my step-mom fashioned me a set of camo’s out of a set of early 70’s drapes! I kid you not! They looked great! A lot of reds and yellows that blended in with the crab apple and birch trees I had available. I can still smell the apple scent I used to wear! I sat for about a week in a treeline where I would see deer come out when I did chores on the farm. It would never fail that every time I sat in that tree, the deer would come out by a crab apple tree kitty corner across the field from me. So on a Tuesday or Wednesday after school, I built as good of a stand that a 13 year old could build in a birch tree, close to where the deer were coming out by the crab apple tree. That Friday, my uncle and my dad hunted with me. Back then we had no sights, it was all instinctive. Well as luck would have it…witching hour arrived and a doe and fawn arrived within 20 yards of me. My heartbeat was so loud in my ears I swore they could hear it! I drew back…didn’t get busted…and aimed down my index finger knuckle like I did every night prior in the hay loft practicing, and let it fly at the big doe. She jumped (Ducked) the string and I ended up shooting the fawn right through the heart! The doe took off and ran to my dad who got her. My uncle got a six point buck the same evening! I never got a picture of that deer, but the sight of the three deer riding on the 3 point hitch of the old Ford Jubilee tractor back to the farm will live forever in my mind.