Anyone had there first this year?

[mike780]

i have been hunting for some time and finally connected on a decent buck in my books... this is my first! Took approx 12 days to finally connect and find his routing and patterns.
I dont have much of a story to go with it other than i put alot of boot time into this buck and finally connected with it on a edge of a oats field where the bush meets the field. He was walking along the fence line and i came up behind him and grunted at him to turn him around and i made a shot at 140 yards. It went directly threw his neck and he came down like a sack of bricks.


The second picture is my wife and her FIRST deer and first morning hunting. We rounded a corner on a cut line and seen them at 100 yards and they didnt notice us as they were eating buds off a popular tree. She was shaking so bad she didn't want to take the shot and risk not putting it down quickly, so with quick thinking i got down on all 4 and make a rest for her to shoot from.
She shot the buck within a 100 yards directly threw the heart with a savage axis 308. After searching for 30 mins we finally found small amount of blood and the buck 50 yards away beside a large fallen popular tree.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and the short story.

[gtr]

Great post, and pics. Congrats to you both.

[Bushleague]

Congrats! nice deer! I got my first buck by snow tracking, which also happened to be my first buck with the Hawken this year. Was a terrific hunt, I was entirely happy with the results. So long as you can keep dreaming up new adventures and challenges you can keep collecting firsts!

[wildwoods]

It's threads like this that embody what this forum is all about. To me at least. Great job. Awesome story's. Beauty animals.
CONGRATS

[mike780]

couple more pictures

[thumper]

Nice looking brace of whitetails Mike, and thanks for the well done photos of the Mrs and her animal. It's a pleasure to read a well prepared story - accompanied by well prepared pictures. 'Well done' to both of you!

[dustinjoels]

I got my first deer with a bow this season. I was elk hunting when a Muley doe walked by at 20 yards. I was torn on whether to shoot or not since it would probably ruin my elk hunt for the evening, but after 4 years of buying General Muley tags for archery season in my zone and nothing but tag soup I decided to let the arrow fly.

I've shot plenty of deer with my rifle and lots of bucks, but this is one I won't forget.

[martinnordegg]

Originally Posted by thumper

Nice looking brace of whitetails Mike, and thanks for the well done photos of the Mrs and her animal. It's a pleasure to read a well prepared story - accompanied by well prepared pictures. 'Well done' to both of you!

X2. I'll bet both of you are looking forward to next years season!

[Spy]

2015 , First Elk

[Spy]

And my wife got her first deer

[outdoors forever]

Awesome first bucks for both you and the wife, Mike! My wifes first was right about the same size as Melissa's - we have it plaque mounted on the wall.

As for us, for firsts - I guess it would be rabbits! My daughters are not quite old enough to hunt big game, but they are amazing shots with the .410, so we put the hurt on some wabbits this past fall! Loved it - fun hunt





( its too bad theres such bad eye glare in this pic - I love this picture, it was SUCH a fun evening out with the kids! )



.

[Ranch11]

My 2 yr old yellow lab, Sheryl, retrieved her first ducks this yr. awesome to see her do what she loves.

[whitetail Junkie]

My First Moose

[Sooner]

First Elk. Taken during the Nov to Dec draw, outside of the Suffield base.


jpg.gif Elk 2015 028.jpg (69.5 KB)

[H380]

Originally Posted by whitetail Junkie

My First Moose

Great moose there WJ.. Congrats !

[Lefty-Canuck]

Shot my first velvet mule deer this year.

LC

[The Flint&Fly Guy]

I shot my first mature buck this year. Also got my first grouse.

[Home in the outdoors]

First year eating tag soup!

[Gerv]

I harvested my first big game animal this year. After plenty of pre-season scouting, and a ton of time walking around both on crown and private land, i lucked out and finally bumped into an antlerless elk.

I was headed out to some private land where i had been seeing plenty of elk sign and on the way out i decided i had better take a quick drive through and do a little glassing in an area of crown land that i had been hiking through earlier in the season. I was on my way down the lease road with the intent of doing some glassing down a few of the cutlines that i had come across decent sign on earlier in the year, and there was something dark in the ditch. with it facing straight on and only the dark colored fur showing i initially thought it was a small moose. I stopped and pulled out my binoculars and was pleasantly surprised to lay eyes on a cow elk, the first i had seen all season. i put my truck in reverse and drove back untill i was out of sight of the animal. parked and began to try to close the distance between me and the elk to where i was comfortable shooting. The wind was in my favour but the bush was too thick on the side of the road for me to walk in through the cover without making a terrible amount of noise, so i walked on the edge of the bush in the ditch taking a few steps everytime she put her head down to eat. Once i was within about 300 yards she started to get pretty spooked but i wasnt comfortable shooting from any further than 150. At that point i slung my rifle over my back and crawled through the mud in the ditch for about two hundred yards, and when i peeked up out of the ditch, i was happy to see that she was still standing beside the road eating. But she knew something was up and faced straight towards me and keeping a close eye on me.

I layed on the ground there, waiting for her to turn and give me a decent shot for twenty minutes before she finally turned a bit and gave me a quartering shot, all the while i was praying that the wind wouldn't change knowing that would be the end of it. I was shaking pretty good but i calmed myself the best i could lined up and shot, clean miss. and by some strike of luck she stood there looking up in my direction long enough for me to get another shot off. i aimed a little lower shot again and i heard a thump but when i looked up after the shot i couldnt see her.

I got up and walked back to my truck and waited for 20 minutes before pulling up the road to see what lie in wait. Not quite ready to celebrate yet because after the elk fell down in the tall grass i couldn't confirm that it went down but i was pretty sure i had heard the bullet strike. After a short little search in the grass next to the road there she lay, a beauty yearling calf. The shot hit her in the spine above the front shoulder and ended up under the hide on the hind quarter. After a little investigation i came to the conclusion that the first shot had gone over top as i was alot closer to the animal than i thought. Live and learn i guess, Ive since invested in a range finder to take the guessing out of the equation

Definately an experience im not likely to forget, and i was certainly lucky to have the opportunity to harvest an animal where the elk don't come easy on public lands. The meat has exceeded my expectations greatly as far as quality goes, having not eaten much for game growing up i wasn't sure what to expect. I'm definitely hooked, cant wait to do it all again next year!

[old dog]

Nice deer mike780. I agree with your comments Wildwooods. Really love the rabbit pics. Reminds me when my sons started hunting 20 years ago. Time flys.

[old dog]

Took my first ram this year. Thanks to my son seen in the pic.

[NPhillips]

maybe this fall i will...3 year of tag soup

[45-70 Hunter]

Some great first's in this thread!

Took my first WT Doe this past year. I was trying for an elusive buck I have named El-Bucko... but, alas I had less than 4 hours in my season to put meat in the freezer and an opportunity presented itself. Previous season was my first WT Buck; both with hand loaded cast lead flat points. I had hope that this past season was to be the year of my first elk, but fate was not in my favour. I was able to find and stalk elk to within 65 yards on many occasions. I just could not grow that 3rd point on their racks.

My wife's first this year was enjoying the butchering process! Any husband knows the value of a wife who will both help "and" enjoy that aspect of the game we play.

[decker]

My first Sheep this year

[Jpaul74]

My wife got both her first grouse and deer this year.

[brie21]

first wolf for me, a whopping 20yd shot, and helped a friend get his first ever big game kill

[KGB]

It was a first grouse and first goose for me this year! Soo much fun!
Don't hunt the big game (for now anyway) - I kind of enjoy seeing those big majestic animals moving around....

[H380]

Originally Posted by brie21

first wolf for me, a whopping 20yd shot, and helped a friend get his first ever big game kill

Congrats on both accounts , and tell your bud that he has set the bar REAL HIGH to try and beat .. Whopper whitey for a first and a beauty wolf for sure .

[albertadeer]

Originally Posted by brie21

first wolf for me, a whopping 20yd shot, and helped a friend get his first ever big game kill

That buck is unreal! Huge congrats to you and your buddy.

[huntinalberta]

My dad and I both got our first bow kills this year on spot and sick mule deer on the prairies. He got a nice 145" buck and I got a doe.