"She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes. And points on her own, sittin' way up high. Way up firm and high." - Bob Seger, Night Moves
I'm another deer hunter whose first buck was a really nice one. I was hunting a small parcel of wooded private land adjacent to a feeding area. It's one of those little parcels where, sometimes the deer are there, most times not. It was a cool Mid-November morning in 1995 (peak of the rut in Connecticut), and the first hour of daylight had me thinking that we just weren't going to see any deer on the property that morning. I was hunting with my young bride ... she was about 100 yards further into the woods behind me covering another common trail the deer use through those woods.
After sitting for a while after daybreak I was almost ready to call it quits, when along comes this doe out of nowhere, tearing out of the field I was watching from 25 yards inside the woods, as I sat somewhat concealed on a fallen tree. She comes running into the woods bounding up and down over some other downed trees, passing right by me at about 10 yards. Trailing behind her was a nice mature 8-point buck, coming through like he was being pulled on a string by that doe. I had a split-second chance to shoot - he was all business in pursuit of that doe - up and down between a trot and a gallop coming through the woods and quartering toward me as he tried to pass at 10 yards as well...
Well hitting deer on the run is not exactly easy ... and I'm usually not one to even try to take a shot at running deer, but he was close, quartering toward me, and closing the distance fast. I squeezed off my .308 Winchester aiming at his chest but he must've dropped just as the shot went off because it connected with the spine and dropped him right there.
The excitement wasn't over yet though, as I jumped off my perch to go tag my first-ever deer harvest, I heard a gunshot in the woods behind me. My young wife connected with that doe the buck had been trailing. Inside of 60 seconds, we had both taken our first deer! A truly special day for both of us.
On hunts since then, there have been other days when we both harvested deer, but somehow none have been as special as the first!