Thought you might like to know that I filled my first tag. I was behind my house with my Marlin 512 12 gauge slug gun(shotgun only where I live), and I had some Brenneke KO Sabots. Anyway I was sitting right along a well used runway that I had seen deer on many times before. I got in at 1:30 pm and sat as still as could be. A little after 4:00 pm, a doe and her two nearly full-grown fawns came down the runway. They were less than 20 yds away. They walked along for a little bit, seemed like several minutes(was probably five seconds, they took about 4 steps) without seeming upset about anything, then they started acting edgy, looking my way. One fawn was looking right at me very intently while the mother and the other fawn kept walking. I thought I was busted. But then the fawn started walking with the rest of the family, and there was a big apple tree that blocked all three deer's vision of me just long enough for me to get the gun up. I leveled the front bead in the semi-buckhorn rear sight the best I could, placing it behind the shoulder. Now they acted really nervous, they knew something was up. I shot at the mother, and they all took off. I barely heard the blast, and didn't feel any 12 gauge recoil. When the mother bolted, she cringed as she did so, kind of scrunching her neck and shoulders. She took off down along the stream in the ravine I was in, one fawn ran up the other side, and the other fawn went down the ravine, circled and went up the other side. Overall, the whole scene I just described took place in well under 30 seconds, the last part, starting with the fawn giving me the evil eye, was probably 10 seconds. I imediately got up and went to where the deer had been. I looked and didn't see any blood. Then I looked down in the direction they had ran, and saw a HUGE splash of bright, BRIGHT red blood. She left a strong blood trail that made tracking easy, blood was coming out in buckets. I found her bedded down about 100 yards downstream from where I shot her, and I didn't know if she was dead or not. I was about 10 feet away looking, and then she blinked. I had put a Brenneke 3" Golden Super Magnum with a 1-3/8th ounce slug in the chamber for a follow up. I put that slug right in her chest. Then she started trying to get up and trashing, so I put a Winchester 2-3/4" rifled slug in and put that into her chest. how about that! Three different slugs for the same deer! I should have shooted her in the head, but it seemed kind of sacreligious to do so, as if it was a desecration to the animal to me. She trashed her last and I could not bare to watch her die, so I took off my hunting hat, kneeled down, and said a prayer. I thanked God for his creation and allowing me to harvest the bounty of nature for food, and I prayed that God would help me to always respect the sanctity of life. When she was finaly dead, I opened her up and OH BOY, was she fat! She was chucked full of fat. I did the hunter's favorite cut and bung-tied her and pulled all the goods out. I didn't see too much blood, then I cut the diaphragm. Floods! Hot blood gushed everywhere. I spilled it out and got to the chore of dragging her out. She is now hanging in my friend's barn, and my cousins are going to help me cut her up Friday. She dressed about 120 lbs, and the first shot hit her in the shoulder and Exited out the other side, busting about 3 ribs. Just thought you might like to know. I am as proud as can be over my deer, and I'm not the least bit ashamed that my first deer was a doe.

Hey Joe!

Great hunt, my first deer was a doe. In fact I have not shot a buck yet, I won't shoot the spike horns and forkies. Just a personal preference but would rather shoot a mature doe like you did. Way to go. You should be very proud! Those fawns will do just fine on their own and perhaps one will be back for next year.

------------------
~Ann

Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

Super job Joe,

Congratulations.

Nothing wrong with your first deer being a doe. It could be worse. You could be like me and kill a whopper first and then have to spend the rest of you life trying to top it.

Check out my recipe for tenderloin medalions in the recipe section. You'll love it.

------------------
Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Congrats!

With a slug yet. Damn satisfying!

Conngrats!

May I say that I envy you a bit? The deers still are waiting fo me. I have yet shot moose and roe deer.

It must be difficult to use slugs in 100 yards as you describe, as the accuracy with those leads bullets tends to be a unreliable.

Best regards,

Fritz

Good work fellow New Yorker,

My first deer was a fawn, and a badly hit one at that (this has been my only deer ever, by the way). I'm heading up tonight and I'll be gunning for the same thing, a nice big meat laden doe...mmmm....m e a t...

anyhow, congradulations once again and have a happy.

Congrats Joe!

Well now you know that things don't die like they do in the movies! Oh, and nothing wrong with it being a doe either, just like the chicken restaurant ad "They taste better!"

Again, a good job.

Joe,
Good job on your first deer. My first came with a bow many years ago in Vermont.
I hope that it is the first of many.
Bryan

Congratulations! The hunt & the task of field dressing your first deer will remain with you always. I have taken two bucks to date and shot my first doe this last weekend. I used a Ruger #1 in 375 H&H. The effect of a 235 grain bullet was spectacular. She only ran 20 feet before expiring.

Congrats are in order. My first deer was a doe many years ago during a hunt on a military reservation in southeastern Indiana. And like yours with a Brenneke slug mine with a smooth bore barrel. That deer had me so excited, I have continued hunting with the same enthusiasm 36 years later. I hope you have as many happy years as I did, and as many memories too.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight......RiverRat

Joe:
Congrats on a job well done!!! I'm very happy for you and hope it is the first of many for you. I'm also impressed with your attitude-something we don't have enough of among other "hunters" today.

Take care,

Ben

Wonderful!!!!!!! And God Bless you for thanking Him! My first was a forkhorn muley with my .270. I shot him at 11AM and it took me 'til 4PM to drag out, down hill a lonnng way, through deadfalls. (And "dead falls," too. My hunting buddies laughed like crazy when I described tossing the deer down a couple of cliffs, but what the heck, dead meat don't bruise!)

AJ:

Nice one. Well done!

Here is a tip that may save the mess and noise of a finishing shot. I sometimes use if I shoot a deer and it is down and dying, but not dead. It is also a great way to bleed out a carcass. I would only do this with something up to 150 lbs to avoid a wrestling match!

Approach shot deer from behind (out of sight to avoid panic). Put foot on neck near head or on antler. Place whole body weight on this foot. Simultaneously lift foreleg and drive knife down from the base of the neck towards the heart area. Then with your other leg pump the chest with your knee. The deer dies VERY quickly and the blood pumps out of the knife wound very efficiently.

Some folks say a knife being driven into the brain from the atlas joint is a better way of killing a deer with a knife. I have never tried this.

------------------
Regards

Richard

WAY TO GO JOE!
Glad to here of a hunter getting his/her first deer. What a great hunting story, and you tell it well. I'm also pleased to here of anouther hunter that remembers to give the Lord thanks for his provission. Well done on all acounts!
X-Ring AKA Scooter

------------------
Freedom wasn't free. Today they want our guns. What will they want tommorow?

Well, Friday I got her cut up, no problem. I lost a bit of meat from the shoulder I shot, but a lot of the meat on that shoulder was still salvagable. Boy, was she tender, though. It was hard cutting up the inner tenderloins, they were practically falling apart as I cut them into little steaks! After my uncle and I finished cutting her up, he cooked up some backstrap and MMMMMM BOY!!! Melted in my mouth. We took all the shank, flank, and trimmings and ground it into burger. I got quite a bit of meat. I'd love to get another doe, boy are they good eating.

------------------
Let the strucken deer go weep
The hart ungalled play
For some must watch while some must sleep
Thus runs the world away
-Hamlet