What was your first successful hunt?

[Caveman]

What was your first successful big game hunt, or small, no matter. Tell the story. How old were you? Details! I'm sure it is etched in your mind. Pictures if you have them. I don't remember my first grouse or what have you but I do remember my first moose, the first big game I killed. I was solo.

It was a very cool October morning in 1988. I had been here many times before. An old road ran beside a dry swamp, that very few people ever walked into. There was a hard frost in the air and the range cattle were bellowing in several directions. Most years you could walk the road and see into the swamp, where a moose might be feeding on the willows. This year was different. As I crept along the trail cursing under my breathe on every step because of the frozen grass and the sound it made. I could hear the same sounds in the long grass of the swamp, but the willow was grown up such that you could not see into the swamp. I slowly made my way along the trail, as I knew there was a good opening at the far end. As I approached the opening, I discovered the sound I heard in the swamp grass was three bull moose. Two of the bulls were engaged in a sparring match and the third has noticed me standing 80yds off. The larger of the sparring young bulls pushed his rival out from behind a willow which was concealing a shot at the boiler room. As the bulls stepped out in front of me and clear of the one that has seen me, I am on one knee with my Marlin 336 30.30 raised for a shot. I take the bull right behind his left shoulder and he drops to the ground. He tries to get up and I put the second round into his neck and he was down for good. The first shot caught the lower tip of the young bulls heart, and the bullet was lodged against the hide on the right side of the bull. I still have it today. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the bull, but as you can see it is very alive in my memory.

Lets hear yours!

[tuffteddyb]

squirrell with first cooey .22 single shot,first day i bought it too! was 9 i think.shot it off the side of dads shop,needless to say he was a little worried,lmao

[Gateholio]

FIrst grouse were killed with rocks and sticks. FIrst deer was a little Island buck that I shot with my 46# longbow, homemade string and a steel broadhead. 14 years old and on a trip with 4 other teenagers, we ate that deer in 2 days! The whole deer!:-D

[todbartell]

my first was a mule deer buck, when I was 15. I was hiding in a small patch of tall grass and brush in the corner of a hay field, where we had seen deer recently. I was day dreaming when my Dad whispered that my buck was there. I rolled over, cocked the hammer on the 30-30, and plugged the forkhorn at 30 yards, dropped it stone dead :grin:

[dutchie]

Mine was a grouse.

We were ready to get back onto the coquahalla and my friend jamms on the brakes with me sleeping and yells grouse!!! SHOOT IT!!!

I jumped out, grabbed my .22 and shot the thing one time... it was about a 50m shot, and I unloaded the clip on the bird... hitting it with the first shot only!!!

I later read the regs more cafefully and noticed that shooting within 400m of the Coqu is illegal... I may have been a solid 40m off:confused:.... the hwy....

live and learn!

Dutchie

[hunter1947]

Back in the day 54 years ago I shot my first spiker island deer at the age of 10 I shot this deer with my .22 cooey..

[oneheadshot]

Quail with a sling shot age 7

[bowhunterbruce]

with my dad holding onto the weight of the shotgun,i aimed and squeezed the trigger on a pheasent that was sitting on a fence post.blew him stone dead.
this was what i thought was my first kill at the ripe ol age of 1 1/2 years old.it is accually my earliest recall of life.
some 25 years later while talking to mom and dad one day recalling the moment dad revieled to me that he had shot it earlier and put it there, then came and got me so i could experience the thrill of it all.
my first big game animal was a blacktail up pemberton medows,1 shot through the neck at less then 25 yards with a 30-30 winchester.
been an addict ever since
bhb

[Steeleco]

Not growing up in a hunting family, I had to marry into one!! So at the ripe old age of 35 I was taken to Trimble lake on a fly in moose trip. I'd been bouncing around Harrison and Chealis for 6 or 7 years thinking I was hunting.

Then one cold for Aug day in the hills I got my first critter. A Bull moose. Talk about jumping in the deep end of the pool. We finally sealed the deal on him near a mile up a draw from the lake where the chase began.

That trip turned a curiosity into an all consuming obsession. Now my kids have the bug bad, it's a way of life for me!!

[pnbrock]

had to wait till old enough to do core and firearms licence parents not a fan of hunting.after a real good party in pemberton(age 19)hit the hills early morning hung to gills wandered up a skidder trail as far as feet would take,sat on a log leaning myself against a boulder just about asleep when buddy kicks me says deer.after straining eyes on deer (no binos) determine its a spike.raise old 303 i paid $30 for with ammo ,take a shot AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW THE RIFLE IS SOMEWHAT ACCURATE STRIKING THE NECK.now two teenage guys looking down at dead deer trying to figure out the gutting thing as we were shown in the manual.after fumbling through we did not a bad job and from there ive been an addict.

[tomahawk]

I was 16, my grandpa took me to 100 mile on the Remembrance day weekend to use the 303 Lee Enfield with open sights I had got the previous yr for Christmas. We were walking a skid road when we spotted a doe with a huge buck on her ass. My grandpa never said anything he just pointed so we waited till they walked past us to about 80 yds and he whistled. They stopped, i raised the 303, pointed it in the general direction (I had buck fever so bad) and pulled (no squeeze here) the trigger and down went the doe and off went the massive buck. We ran over to the doe and found she had no skull cap left. (does and bucks were open back then, luckily) He asked me why I didn't shoot the buck and I told him I didn't see it. I stuck to that story for many yrs, even told my uncles I was aiming for her head but i'm sure it was obvious to them what happened.

[proguide66]

Like Btlstalker , I came onto hunting bymyself when I was a little punk.My mom lived in Sooke with a drunk skidbag so each time I had to stay there I dissappeared into the woods all day each day till I had to go back to vic for school.
There was an old martin recurve at the house and I took it out and chased rabbits on the power lines up behind Edward Milne school and got one! Freind of family was a member of the Vancouver island bowhunters and took me to 3d shoots where I met a bunch of grown men in camo with 'big bows' with wheels on em and everything,haha...well,took my 3 day core course , shot a grouse with a .22 then a frikkin 5X5 and spike blacktail with my first 'big bow' wich was a brand new PSE LAser Magnum , cost me $313.15 cents from Robinsons sporting goods.bought and paid for by tying and packaging 'Spring King Fishing Lures' after school..on that same powerline run up on the hill behind Edward Milne School my first season !..well , quite a way back , you can see the moss rocks from the highway up there...I was 13 er 14 yrs old...then 'IT began'..hehe...one of my best memories ever shooting that big buck! would do anything to re live that one!

[Bow Walker]

8 or 9 years old - shot a woodpecker with my fiberglass recurve (20 lbs @ 24") - poor thing. Up until then it had been my slingshot and the local bird population suffered greatly between me, my brothers, and our friends.

When I was old enough I got a .177 cal pellet rifle. There wasn't a bird that was safe within half a day's walking distance of our house!

Later I got an old Amy/Navy .303 that I had to share with my older brother. He got the first kill with the gun, and my first kill with it (other than blowing up a grouse by shooting it up the bum) was a nice 3x4 point from Copper Canyon.

My first big game bow-kill was a nice chubby doe. Man she tasted good! I think she means more to me than my 'gun-buck'.

[Frango]

Whitetail buck when I was 10 .On the farm with my dad..My dad was not much of a hunter but we always had deer on the farm .We would sit in a hay stack and just wait. He was sleeping when I got it .Woke him up in a hurry.

[warnniklz]

I think it was 2004 or 2005. I do know it was thanksgiving weekend. Friends of ours were were up (to Williams Lake) from Vancouver. We hunted all weekend and my dad had dropped a little two point. Now a days he would have let me take it (i would have been quicker on the trigger) but it was a little far for my shooting ability at the time.

Anyways on our way home on the last day a little 2x1 came up out of the ditch right next to the truck. My dad locked up the brakes and I bailed out. By this time the deer dropped down off the road. I threw the clip in the model 99c and chambered the old 308. All I could hear was my dad yelling "put the crosshairs on hair and shoot". All I could see was the deer in my sights and BANG! I seen the deer hunch up in my scope. It hunched up the way I've seen cariboo hunch up in hunting shows.

My dad came down the road and asked if I hit it. I said yeah he was standing there. 5 yards to the right he fell over next to a juniper bush. I hit him a little far back. Got the bottom part of his lungs and obliterated his liver. Didn't touch the guts so that was good enough for me!

I still have the antlers to this day. I ended up giving the deer to our friends but I kept those ;-) tenderloin glands that nobody likes anyways ;-)

[warnniklz]

p.s. when I was 3 we were out picking brain mushrooms (well me and my brother were playing with sticks and stuff as the family picked mushrooms). We did some target practice with the .22. My dad held it up for me and he said put the cross where yo want to shoot and pull the trigger. So I did. I shot Fido Dido (on the old 7up cans) right in the head. That was the first shot I could remember.

[BlackwaterHunter]

A young buck taken with my dads friends marlin 336 3030 at around 75 yards, right through the heart flipped it broadside, took that when i was 12 on the tako creek.

[pg83]

First off, great thread.


Not counting a hundred grouse or so throughout childhood plus numerous bunnies along the way my first big game was a 4x3 muley. I was up in the mountains with my dad who was chasing his first goat at the time. 16 years old and loving every second of it. We had hiked up to the top of the mountain and had great views in all directions, but no goats in sight. We glassed into the valley we were camped in and saw what looked like a potential 4 point(it was opening day for 4 point only). My dad came up with a game plan that looked to get us within 100 yards of the buck who was having an afternoon nap. We made our descent and popped over a knob with a perfect view of the deer who was still bedded down. We set up shop with a perfect rest over a log for me and patiently waited for the buck to get up. It seemed like hours passed, but it was probably closer to fifteeen minutes when the buck finally stood up and streched his muscles. I put up the crosshairs on him and squeezed the trigger. Boom. Clean miss. My dad was looking at me with this confused face, probably thinking something along the lines of 'how the hell did you miss that shot?'. I reloaded the 30-06 while the buck did a perfect 180 all lined up broadside the other way now. I settled down and fired again. Another clean miss. At this point I am thinking there is something wrong with me. The deer is looking around trying to figure out what the hell is going on and has faced directly towards us leaving me with a much smaller target than I had my first two shots. I put the gun up on him again and shoot for a third time. He drops on the spot and doesn't budge after that. I was so excited. Two days later dad got his first goat, but I know the hilight for both of us on that trip was the deer. A memory I will never forget and a set-up on a first big game animal I can only hope to equal when it comes time to take my son out.

[KevinB]

As far as big game goes, I was probably about 14 or 15 (1985 or 85, or thereabouts). A small blacktail buck that I shot with my new-to-me Husqvarna in .270 win, at about 40 yards. I was with my Dad which was pretty cool.

FD would be proud, we road hunted him :mrgreen:

[thunderheart]

32 yrs ago shawnigan lake a 2 point buck had his nose down following a doe .... was new to it all lmao .. 180 grain out of a 30 06 at 20 or 30 feet .. oh dear just about blew hin in half ... but what was left sure tasted good

[swampthing]

This wasnt my first successful trip as I had taken several spikes and does, but was still new to big game hunting. I called this hunt " the awakening". Twanger and I took of on our first big game hunting trip. We headed up the Yalokom river out of Lilloett looking for the alpine that I had spotted that summer while working with Ducks Unlimited on the cariboo plateau. We drove till we found alpine above and set up camp. It was noon on a hot sept 1st when I started climbing. An hour later I had already seen 3 small bucks that I couldnt get a shot at. I just broke treeline and stopped to rest. The view of the alpine mountains around me was breathtaking and I was pretty happy with my new hunting spot. I had only taken a few steps when I spotted him. A magnificent mulie buck was bedded 100m above me and staring right at me. Buck fever overcame me in a way that I had never experienced before. Breathing ceased and the trembling began as I took two steps to a small sub alpine spruce to get a rest. The crosshairs danced all around and I couldnt squeeze the trigger. The buck stood and I managed to place one behind the shoulder. The buck took off downhill and insinct took over. The mini 14 barked repeatedly and the buck tumbled. I slapped in a new clip and ran to him. Although he was only a 23inch 5x7, I thought I had broken world records. He was in full velvet to boot. After this hunt I thought that I had this deer hunting thing all figured out. Deer hunting became much easier after this experience. I have since learned that I havnt really figured anything out and that the alpine is my favorite place to be. Good thread caveman, great to re-live the memories.

[Islandeer]

This is cool stuff, all of the stories the start of something amazing.

well my first blue grouse was up the old " shale hill" up or off butler main. Dad had a stud GSP who ran all day and was a phenom,nose,retrieve,tough and hels birds to a fault. In the winter he kept active retrieving neighbouring chickens after habitually escaping from his kennel. Anyhow I was 6 and been chasin Dad'd behind all over the fireweed slashes of the day when the dog dissapeared,actually he had been MIA alot that day,this dog would get pissed and hunt further and further until he found a covey. Dad was starting to use the dogs second name alot at this point and I was very impressed with the new verbage!!:-D So Dad its me on a stump and tells me to stay,which I did as I had seen the consequences of not staying enough with the dog. Off he goes whistling and using the dogs second name alot, following a creek and out od site. Next thing I know Brum,our GSP is coming my way and there are grouse flying everywhere!! Well one landes on another stump aways away and I shot it with my single 20 gauge. Brum retrieved it and the dog and Dad arrived at my location about the same time. Looking back,pretty humerous situation,and I was a proud little hunter.

Yada,first blacktail,I'm 10,in the Vic Water shed with Dad,open doe season,Nov 11 1970, pissing down rain,near Lubbe Lake,off the road. Wow,like yesterday!! Now I'm hunting with my boys!! Who are now men .... :-D

[deeks1989]

189 Gross mule deer.

[Caveman]

189 Gross mule deer.

Riveting story too!! deeks1989. :wink: LOL!! Great buck!

[seatoskymiles]

gopher with a string, 7 I think