I know this is a vanity post, but I know you guys will indulge me. Here I am, nearly 39 years old, out at my stepdad's house with my freshly printed doe tag in my wallet. He's long since remarried after my mother, so I'm out with my pseudo-stepbrothers, age 18 and 12.

The 12-year old is not hunting, but just taggin' along like little brothers do, and damned if he didn't flush two does out of hiding and right in front of me, and he's yelling at me "shoot 'em! shoot 'em!". A perfect crossing shot at about 125 yards, downhill. Held dead on on the lead deer, missed the first shot, using my Mossberg with 3" mag slugs, and just a regular bead sight.

Had that clarity of thought that adrenaline gives you, and it spoke to me "lead some more, and raise your elevation to just in front of her face"

The second shot went off, and she did a flip and fell, still as could be. Got down there, and there she was. The slug took her right through the trachea and jugular. She ran no more than six feet before dropping. Took her back on their four runner, quartered her last night between the turkey and pumpkin pie, and then made steaks today. She was a biggun' too!

Now I know what all the excitement about deer season is now. Still got my buck tag and a week left.... gotta get back out there again. [8D]

Congrats!! I bet your hooked now! I took my 10 year old nephew this past weekend on our lease and he got a 7 point buck after being in the stand only 30 minutes. He is hooked for life now!! I got a nine point Tuesday and I still get the thrill that I did years ago. Good luck on taking a buck.

Congratulations! That's cool that you're processing it yourself as well. Especially since it's a doe. Does are alot better eating when turning it into steaks and stuff. Those bucks are only worth shooting if your going to turn it into summer sausage if you ask me.

Anyway, happy hunting, and hope you fill the rest of your tags!

I've been a few times but have never got a deer. Now I'm not sure about going by myself because I've never field dressed a deer and some have said that you should see how it is done the first time. I don't want to waist the meat.
Any suggestions?
Scratch

Congrats ,I got my first deer with a shot gun .moved from that to crossbow and now am shooting a mathews coumpound bow .Nothing beats the thrill of taking a deer with a bow.

Yeah, make sure you gut it within an hour of it's expiration for best meat quality. Also, get the hide off as soon as you can too. The hair is very insulative and will spoil the meat if left on too long. The key is to get the carcass cooled down as quickly as practical.
Kill it, gut it, take it to a check-in station then bring it home and immediately get it skinned out and hanging.

[url]
http://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/syrnewspapers/index.ssf?/sportsstories/20011122_shunter.html[/url]


Too many deer, not enough hunters To combat the problem, DEC officials consider bigger bag limits and longer seasons.

Thursday, November 22, 2001
By J. Michael Kelly

Department of Environmental Conservation biologists expect hunters to kill
about 300,000 white-tailed deer, an all-time record, before the season
winds down in mid-December.
Even that many may not be enough.
New York has an expanding deer herd but a shrinking population of hunters.
As a result of those diverging trends, the DEC is considering bigger bag
limits, longer seasons and other changes in deer-hunting regulations.
In 1996, DEC biologist J. Edward Kautz developed a computer model which
predicted the number of licensed big-game hunters in the state between the
ages of 16 and 64 would decline from 538,000 to 334,000 - a 38 percent
reduction - by the year 2008.
His forecast worried big-game managers, for hunting is the primary method
of controlling deer herds throughout the United States.
As it turns out, hunters are hanging in there a little tougher than Kautz
predicted.
"The decline has not been quite as rapid as I thought it would be," he
said last week. "Right now we have about 480,000 resident big-game hunters
between the ages of 16 and 65. That's about 40,000 more than I had
projected by this time."
Nevertheless, veteran hunters are still getting out of the sport at a
faster rate than neophytes are taking it up, he said.
DEC biologists hope to compensate by enabling remaining hunters to kill
more deer.
The agency has encouraged a bigger doe kill by distributing
ever-increasing numbers of deer-management permits in recent seasons. Such
permits entitle the holder to kill an antlerless whitetail, in addition to
the single buck that's allowed every big-game license-buyer.
This fall, hunters went afield with a record 570,000 deer-management
permits. A majority received two permits, and hunters in some Western New
York wildlife management units wound up with three permits apiece.
Three years ago, the DEC launched the Deer Management Assistance Program,
which issues special hunting permits to land owners who are losing crops,
forests or shrubbery to over-abundant whitetails. The recipients must hand
out the permits to licensed hunters for use during the regular deer season
only. Last year, hunters across the state used DMAP permits to kill 7,994
antlerless deer.
More changes are under review, including:
A new opening day: The bulk of New York's annual deer kill occurs during
the Southern Zone regular firearms season, which for decades has opened on
the first Monday after Nov. 15. The DEC is thinking of starting the hunt
on a Saturday, instead.
"For many, many years we were opposed to that idea because we thought it
would bring too many hunters out there at once," Henry said. "Now our best
guess is it would bring the opening-day participation up to what it was in
1989, which is where we'd like to be."
A Saturday opener would give more school-age hunters an opportunity to be
afield, Henry said. It would probably increase the venison harvest, as
well, since more than half of the deer killed in a typical New York season

are slain on the opening day.
A lower hunting age: Under current state law, kids 12 or older can hunt
small-game animals with firearms and 14-year-olds can hunt deer with a bow
and arrow if a properly licensed parent or guardian tags along; but the
minimum age for hunting deer with firearms is 16. Governor George Pataki
has proposed lowering the firearms deer-hunting age from 16 to 14.
"It's controversial in some circles, but New York is the only state in the
union that doesn't already allow kids under 16 to hunt deer with
firearms," Henry said.
Modernized muzzleloaders: Thousands of hunters go afield annually during
special black-powder rifle seasons held in both the Northern Zone and
Southern Zone hunting areas.
The main attraction of those hunts is the chance to use muzzleloading
rifles similar to those used by Davy Crockett and other 19th century
marksmen. However, Henry said muzzleloader fans could harvest deer more
effectively if they were permitted to add modern scopes to vintage rifles.
"There are a lot of older hunters out there, especially, who could use
that extra help," he said.
A crossbow season: Crossbows, which date back at least to the 12th
century, are short bows mounted on gun stocks. A crossbow is cocked into
firing position, then loaded with a single, short arrow, called a bolt.
Crossbows are aimed like rifles and trigger-fired.
Ohio permits hunters to use crossbows during that state's regular archery
season, but New York Bowhunters Inc. has determinedly blocked proposals
for a crossbow season in the Empire State. The bowhunter organization
argues that crossbows, once introduced, would inevitably lead to shorter
bow seasons because they are easier to master and have a longer effective
range than long bows.
"The crossbow is very controversial, but in states where it has been used,
it has proven to be an effective way of harvesting more deer," Henry said.
"Particularly in areas where the sound of gunfire makes people uneasy."
These and other ideas for increasing deer-hunting opportunities will be
aired at a series of public meetings in 2002, said Henry.
"Tentatively, we're planning to start late this winter or early in the
spring," he said. "The working title is 'The State of the State's Deer
Herd.' The meetings will be like reports to the stockholders, with plenty
of opportunities for discussion."

© 2001 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.

Copyright 2001 syracuse.com. All Rights Reserved.

Well done, Huero! The thrill you're feeling over your first kill is precisely the same one man has been feeling since the beginning; pride, joy, relief, perhaps even a little bittersweet, but a good feeling, nonetheless. It still thrills me whenever I connect, and is a feeling of life affirmation. Congratulations, and waidmansheil.