How'd You Get Your First Buck?

[PRDATR]

3 minutes ago, Huntnfish said:

Missed a 100" coues buck down by Patagonia when I was 10 yrs. old in 1974. I was shaking like a leaf. My dad didn't show it, but I know he was kind of bummed. Ended up killing a little forkie. Man those were the good old days.

Sounds like you were blessed to have a great dad.

[Tropicalmulch]

My first mule deer buck, since this is posted in mule deer hunting,  was about 6 years ago Dec otc archery. Was a Sunday and I work early on Monday. I got up over a puddle of water thinking things will surely come in after feeding.  At about 3pm I woke up to a couple does and fawns coming in, nothing with horns following.  With my little bit of action I had hopes things would pick up. Wrong, so before dark I think to myself,  let's get outta here, relax a bit and be ready for my 3 am wake-up for work. On my hike out I top a ridge and take a look. Deer everywhere in that canyon! Only a couple of small bucks and they're towards the truck but no cover and eyes everywhere.  F it I hike straight line towards em, after all I don't even really wanna kill anything at this point anyway. Just wanna get home and kick it. After hiking straight across an open rocky slope the smallest buck and a couple does are still standing there looking at me. He's broadside at 55 yards. This is also my first deer kill with a bow. So I think to myself,  man, do you really wanna deal with this right now for a dinner buck? I'll just draw and see how it feels. We'll I also released that arrow and that buck ran about 50 more yards toward the truck. I wasnt a long way from the truck but I'm pretty sure I was worthless at work the next day. Small mule fork tasted good. My first and only archery deer kill.

 

My first buck was 1995  in 36b...December, little 3x2 with eye guards chasing a doe. Shot em in the flank on the trot. He disappeared in a little draw for a second but followed exactly where the doe came out. 275 yards was my uncles estimate.  Hit him in the neck right where it connected to the skull. I was aiming for heart and lungs

[Bill@roofer]

2 hours ago, PRDATR said:

Sounds like you were blessed to have a great dad.

Absolutely!!! Man I miss my Dad... Fishing and hunting and Rodeo.. years and years of good times. 

[Heat]

19 hours ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

One heck of a fork n horn! Congrats! 

This was my last buck not my first. This one is actually a 2x3 but has a big fork frame.

I have some old pics of that little buck somewhere but nothing handy to post. Posted it on AZOD back in day.

[HighschoolHunter]

Some great stories in this thread, great topic. 
2015 was my first year putting in for the draw at 13 years old, drew my first choice and shot a doe on the kaibab road hunting. 2016 I didn’t draw, 2017 I drew a yth hunt on the border but I could only go for 1 day cause my dad had to work that weekend. We saw some does but no bucks. 
 

By 2018 I was getting to be a better pig hunter than deer hunter, and every year I went pig hunting we would see nice Muley bucks in the desert unit we hunted. Of course, yth pig season is in January every year which is why we always saw good bucks. So I put in for the yth deer tag in that unit and drew it. There was certain little bowl that we always jumped deer out of on our hike into our pig hunting area, so we headed there first. Well, of course, our first time not spooking deer out of that bowl was when we were hunting deer and not pigs. We kept hiking up the hill and glassed down the other side from the top for a while, and at about 8 am I turned around and glassed back down the way we had came in, looking right into that bowl. I was basically glassing right into the sun, but I instantly picked up 2 or 3 deer at just 400 yards, making their way into some thick mesquite thickets. I called my buddy over and he broke out his spotting scope. We found 4 deer total, one of which was a little 2x2 Buck. I wasn’t comfortable shooting at that distance yet, and by the time I decided I was going to take him they had moved off into the trees. We knew the general area where they were though, so we started our stalk down the hill into the thickets. I had my gun loaded and ready as we headed into the trees, and sure enough, as soon as we got to the spot we had last seen them, we had a doe staring us down at 40 yards. As I was racking a round in my 243 getting ready the other 3 deer stood up and they all began to bound away. At about 80 yards they stopped and looked back at us for a few seconds but I couldn’t see antlers. One of the deer was noticeably bigger than the rest, but, and I still don’t know why to this day, I couldn’t make out the horns on his head. My buddy kept whisper-shouting at me “shoot the buck, shoot the buck!” I had him in my scope, and was almost certain it was the Buck, but since I couldn’t make out the antlers, for fear of accidentally shooting a doe I never pulled the trigger and they all bounded away into the desert. I was devastated. 
After a few minutes of arguing about which one was the Buck and kicking myself for not being able to see the antlers, we took off in the general direction it seemed they had run, but we were in the flats at this point and didn’t know where to go. We got up on a little knoll and glassed from there for a few hours in hopes we would pick them again, but we didn’t. So, we decided to head back to the bowl we had originally glassed them up in, where we always jump them with pig hunting. This time, right as we got to the edge of the bowl, sure enough, we heard the sound of rocks slipping and sliding, and looking down into the bowl, we saw 4 deer making their way up the other side, and this time, I could see the little rack on the 4th deer in line. I got my gun set up on a boulder and followed him in my scope as he trotted up and right when they got to the top of the other side, they all stopped broadside and looked back at us at 150 yards. I took a shot at the Buck and missed right over his back. He spun around and ran about more 10 yards to the right, as I quickly racked another round. The does began to bound over the ridge, and just as he was beginning to follow them, I shot again, and he fell over backwards! It was all woohoos and hi fives and hugs as we made our way over to the buck and skinned him out. We ate backstrap tacos in camp that afternoon. I had seen much  bigger bucks in that area before but I was just so excited to have bagged a deer I didn’t care about the antlers. I was 16

 

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

42 minutes ago, HighschoolHunter said:

Some great stories in this thread, great topic. 
2015 was my first year putting in for the draw at 13 years old, drew my first choice and shot a doe on the kaibab road hunting. 2016 I didn’t draw, 2017 I drew a yth hunt on the border but I could only go for 1 day cause my dad had to work that weekend. We saw some does but no bucks. 
 

By 2018 I was getting to be a better pig hunter than deer hunter, and every year I went pig hunting we would see nice Muley bucks in the desert unit we hunted. Of course, yth pig season is in January every year which is why we always saw good bucks. So I put in for the yth deer tag in that unit and drew it. There was certain little bowl that we always jumped deer out of on our hike into our pig hunting area, so we headed there first. Well, of course, our first time not spooking deer out of that bowl was when we were hunting deer and not pigs. We kept hiking up the hill and glassed down the other side from the top for a while, and at about 8 am I turned around and glassed back down the way we had came in, looking right into that bowl. I was basically glassing right into the sun, but I instantly picked up 2 or 3 deer at just 400 yards, making their way into some thick mesquite thickets. I called my buddy over and he broke out his spotting scope. We found 4 deer total, one of which was a little 2x2 Buck. I wasn’t comfortable shooting at that distance yet, and by the time I decided I was going to take him they had moved off into the trees. We knew the general area where they were though, so we started our stalk down the hill into the thickets. I had my gun loaded and ready as we headed into the trees, and sure enough, as soon as we got to the spot we had last seen them, we had a doe staring us down at 40 yards. As I was racking a round in my 243 getting ready the other 3 deer stood up and they all began to bound away. At about 80 yards they stopped and looked back at us for a few seconds but I couldn’t see antlers. One of the deer was noticeably bigger than the rest, but, and I still don’t know why to this day, I couldn’t make out the horns on his head. My buddy kept whisper-shouting at me “shoot the buck, shoot the buck!” I had him in my scope, and was almost certain it was the Buck, but since I couldn’t make out the antlers, for fear of accidentally shooting a doe I never pulled the trigger and they all bounded away into the desert. I was devastated. 
After a few minutes of arguing about which one was the Buck and kicking myself for not being able to see the antlers, we took off in the general direction it seemed they had run, but we were in the flats at this point and didn’t know where to go. We got up on a little knoll and glassed from there for a few hours in hopes we would pick them again, but we didn’t. So, we decided to head back to the bowl we had originally glassed them up in, where we always jump them with pig hunting. This time, right as we got to the edge of the bowl, sure enough, we heard the sound of rocks slipping and sliding, and looking down into the bowl, we saw 4 deer making their way up the other side, and this time, I could see the little rack on the 4th deer in line. I got my gun set up on a boulder and followed him in my scope as he trotted up and right when they got to the top of the other side, they all stopped broadside and looked back at us at 150 yards. I took a shot at the Buck and missed right over his back. He spun around and ran about more 10 yards to the right, as I quickly racked another round. The does began to bound over the ridge, and just as he was beginning to follow them, I shot again, and he fell over backwards! It was all woohoos and hi fives and hugs as we made our way over to the buck and skinned him out. We ate backstrap tacos in camp that afternoon. I had seen much  bigger bucks in that area before but I was just so excited to have bagged a deer I didn’t care about the antlers. I was 16

 

Great story and congratulations! 

[HighschoolHunter]

Thank you! You’re story was awesome. I love it when guys do full write-ups

 

 

[Viper]

12 hours ago, PRDATR said:

Mid 30's just north of Saguaro Lake off Cottonwood Creek. Drove in off of Four Peaks Rd down to where an old ranch used to be and slept in the bed of my truck. Got up in the morning and walked the wash toward the lake and about 200 yards in I came around a bend and there stood two spikes sparing. As I reached for my Contender they stopped and looked at me so I pulled up my 06 and shot one at about 75'.

They both ran over the bank of the wash and disappeared. I followed and found blood and tracked it a short way and it came back across the wash twice and about 50 yards down the wash it died. I had some rope in my pack so I dragged it over to a Palo Verde and was able to  get it somewhat upright enough to gut it. I managed to throw him up across my shoulders and hiked back to the truck and with my free hand dropped the tailgate on the old  72 2WD Chevy Truck and plopped him down in the bed. A hour later I was home and while the wife was at work I butchered it up on the kitchen table. This was maybe 1984 or 85. I had bought the rifle new at Walk-In Auto in Tempe for $269. It was a Winchester Featherweight and kicked like a mule and gave it to one of my brothers a few years later complete with Tasco scope. The Contender had a 10" octagon 44 barrel with a 1.5X Thompson Scope I bought from a friend for $100. It was an early production model with a mid 13K serial number.  Later I put a 14" 223 barrel on it and Dave Van Horn tightened up the frame with an aftermarket pin. You could cover the groups with a dime. H322 was the most accurate powder and at the time was $4.99 from Pistol Parlour in Mesa and marked as Mil Surplus. The contender was sold around 1989 or 90 to fund an XP-100.

I remember that ranch...Cottonwood Ranch. I sat on the side of that road one night, early 80's, and drank whiskey with a ranch hand. Too bad it's all destroyed. 

[BOHNTR]

1978….. a Columbian Blacktail shot with my longbow at 23 yards.    Lit a bowhunting fire that has never gone out.  

[bigbuckfever]

My two brothers took me hunting for deer the first time about 1983 when I was in my 20's.  I never got to shoot at anything until 1985.  I was a total rookie and wasn't even sure I would be able to tell a mulie from a Coues.  That year my brother Mike and I were down to our last day in December and were both looking forward to getting to town and having a nice breakfast that we didn't have to clean the dishes from.  We decided we would give it one more shot and go check out a ridge line we knew we could glass from.  There was some patchy snow, and it was pretty cold that morning.  When we got out of the truck we split up and I ever so slowly crept my way along the top.  I remember thinking how I wanted to walk as slow and quiet as possible so IF there was anything below me, he wasn't going to hear me before I saw him.  I worked my way around a big round juniper and when I finally had a good view of the canyon below me, I looked over and instantly saw a big antlered deer staring at me.  He was about 75 yards away, standing broadside and he was sky lined on a small rocky outcropping.  My heart started pounding like crazy and I was in shock that he was actually there.  Buck fever hit me like a ton of bricks, and I started power shaking.  I raised my rifle up and when I tried to line him up, I breathed on my scope and completely fogged it up.  It was so cold it stayed fogged for what seemed like an eternity.  I had a wool over shirt on and it just smeared the moisture around.  I had to painfully wait for it to clear on its own before I could see through it.  All the while I was convinced he was going to bolt and leave me there to cry.  I was shaking so bad, I knew I wouldn't be able to hit him unless I got down on a knee, so I did.  I was sure he was going to bolt at any second, but he just stood there watching me flounder about.  (I remember thinking later on that he probably has never seen a human before as this was a very remote spot back in 1985 before all the quads and sxs's came about)  I was finally able to get a shot off and missed him completely, but he just stood there.  I jacked another round in and this time I connected.  Well, I just barely got him.  I hit him in the leg, but he let me get another shot off and I hit him again.  This time he turned and started half running/stumbling off (in the direction of the truck and my brother)  I followed and was able to find him with my brothers help.  One last shot finished him off.  

My brother kept telling me he was sure he would make the book, but I was used to seeing pics of big mulies and thought he was just stroking me to make me feel good.  I wasn't used to seeing Coues deer, but I had seen plenty pics of big mulies, so I had no idea what I had just tagged.  I was just lucky it was a Coues and not a mulie.  It wasn't until my other brother got his hands on it and I could tell he was in shock, telling me I should just quit hunting right now because I'll never see another buck this nice ever again.  He ended up grossing 126 and was the second biggest Coues typical taken that year.  I have since come to realize what an awesome buck he is, and I still look at him every day and feel grateful.  My next two bucks were spikes and I was grateful for those too.

[AZkiller]

I shot itabout 250yds with a 243 thru both lungs in 5b opening morning 1990

[mc68]

1978, I was 10 years old. Shot a fork horn coues. Iron sights, lever action 30/30. My Mom and Dad were there and after we gutted him my Dad pointed me to camp and I drug him back  myself while they continued hunting. Child neglect by today’s standards 😂

[CatfishKev]

First buck was archery summer hunt. Had a kid with me I was taking under my wing. Sitting under a giant hollowed out oak. Saw a buck in the distance at a full on run coming right to us. Hit the sleeping kid said "look look!". Buck runs straight up to us at 10 yards and turns perfectly broadside and looks back the way he came. Popped off a quick shot at his ticker and nailed his jugular instead, he runs around in two circles and drops over. Didn't know what just happened then I see a guy on a mountain bike coming up the dirt road we drove in on. He pushed it right to me. Couldn't have worked out better. It was a little spike coues in velvet. I'll never forget it.