My First Deer Ever

Guest Jersey_Girl_Hunts

By Guest Jersey_Girl_Hunts
in Deer Hunting

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Guest Jersey_Girl_Hunts

Guest Jersey_Girl_Hunts

Posted
Posted

I shot and tagged my first deer ever tonight. It was a year and a half old 4 pointer, about 90 pounds dressed out. Small but healthy; he will be a nice addition to my freezer.

This is the first week of shotgun season in NJ, and today is opening day. I hunted early this morning, hitting my stand at first light. The air temp was about 30F but the wind chill made it brutal. The gusts were upwards of 20 mph and my stand faces due north - right into the wind. Add to the mix a week-long bout with a head cold, a dead battery in the automatic feeder, and a night of so-so sleep, and you have a recipe for Going-Home Stew. So we did. My BF headed towards my stand around 9:30. When we turned to walk up the orchard row leading to the Jeep, he pointed out a four-point buck that had been eyeing him for a few minutes. I had unloaded my shotgun already, so he handed me his muzzleloader to see if I could scope the buck and get a shot on him. No such luck; the moment I had him in the crosshares he was on the move up into the woods. Our morning ended with a cup of coffee, a bagel sandwich, and a much needed nap on my part.

Since DBF had to work this afternoon, I went out later on with his dad. I took up the same position as this morning, hitting the stand at around 2 pm. The wind had died down and the sun had done a bit of work warming the air in the orchard. About an hour and forty-five minutes later, BF's dad called me on the radio to signal a deer coming at us down the field. I swung my head left and there he was, coming straight down the field towards the orchard. I did not realize at first that he was a buck; his antlers were obscured by the grass and the branches of the apple trees. Mr. H. radioed again "nice 3-pointer" just as the buck began to move out of the row of apple trees and into my sights. He was trotting at a good pace towards the thickets past the stone row at the back of the field, so I made a little bleat to get his attention. WHAM! I had him at about 20 or 25 yards, a nice clean shot directly behind his right fore-quarters, through the lungs and heart. He bucked, stumbled, and then fell about 30 feet or so from where I shot him.

I was strangely calm for someone who had just taken her first quarry. I had a brief heart-racing moment at the adrenaline surge, but afterwards, it was as though something mechanical took hold of me - I went into a process: wait 20 minutes, unload gun, lower gun to ground, release safety belt, climb out of stand, etc. etc. After I found the deer I realized that what I thought was a 3-pointer was really a 4-pointer (later on I would find out that it was the same 4-pt we saw that morning). It did not hit me until I had made it to the truck that "OMG! I got my first deer! Yay!" I thought I would have had much stronger and much different emotions than that.

I hope to have a photo to post tomorrow. He may not be much in the eyes of the many experienced hunters here (I have seen some of the monsters that are taken, and I am impressed!). But this is my first deer and I wanted to relate the experience and hopefully share some photos with the community here.

There is still a 10-pointer out there on that orchard. Perhaps tomorrow I or the BF will be able to post about bagging that buck.

For now, I am happy that I made a clean shot that felled the animal quickly.

I hope the season continues to go this well for all of you.

Cheers!

JGH

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