We may have hunted many animals, but we'll never harvest our First again

[bicboihunter]

I'm sure all of you are itching as much as I am for hunting season to be upon us again. To create some excitement, and perhaps worsen the longing, I thought it'd be cool to see all the photos or stories of the first big game animal you or someone you were hunting with took. I'm sure there are some who harvested their first big game animal long ago and weren't bothered (or able) to capture the moment, but perhaps the memory is still so vibrant in your mind that you wish to tell.
Share away!

BBH

[bicboihunter]

I suppose I should lead by example.
Although only a 2x2, you can't make up that kind of joy!
Possibly story to come.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/14628166_1130468880373104_1444945592_n.jpg?oh=cdc7 fae6af92eaf23a9f388bfdb3e77b&oe=5974664F

[scotty30-06]

Hahahah awesome enthusiasm!!!!

[338win mag]

Good one BBH! I'd take that 2 point as well.

[decker9]

Iv no pictures, heck, we didn't even have a tarp, or a sleeping bag, but we did have 2-3 packages of itchyban!! My first mountain goat hunt, I was 8 years old, September 1988 region 6-04.
Myself and my dad, my dads good friend and his 7 year old son. I can remember like it was yesterday... "well, there's a billy over there, we'r already nearly a day from camp, we have no supplies, what do you think John?".... Not a second went by and John replies, "builds character, it's good for the kids, lets go". I was packing my very first hunting rifle, a custom 6.5 lb 6.5x55 bj imp that my grandad had built for me the year prior.

Off we went!

Long story short,

A looong hike, then 2, 160 grain round nose pills, and that billy fell into hell. Myself and the other youngen stayed up hi and watched dad and John retrieve the goat, back then it didn't look so bad, knowing what I know now, I can see why they left us up there. Of course, like many first goats, dark was coming, and so was the weather. We dropped down into the shintangle, and of course, on the wrong end of the mountain, no tarp, no sleep bag, and a couple empty itchyban packages..... but hey, we did have a lighter, and goat meat, so goat on a stick was the menu that cold night.
All night, the wind blew The sleet horizontally into our little shintangle patch, needless to say, there was no sleep that night, and for myself and the other kid, a couple valuable lessons were learnt.

But, it's made me into this character I am today, addicted to goat hunting like nobody's business, and loven it.

[two-feet]

My first moose was 24 years ago as a 16 year old,on a cow draw. It was in a complex of cut blocks that is now 50' high regen. That day we saw 9 moose, I guess thats the good old days. I was with my dad and we worked like pigs to get it to the truck through the snow, I remember my hands being so cold and my dad being very patient and understanding. After we got loaded we went and showed my grandpa, that was a proud moment.

[two-feet]

My first goat hunt was the year before, my dad taking my brother and I. We had put in several days cutting a trail up to our mountain earlier in the summer, about a 10km jaunt through mature spruce leading up to alder and devils club.

The hunt itself was conducted with m99 savages and trapper nelson back packs. Boy did my brother and I suffer with those canvas straps digging into our shoulders! With hind sight I see how soft we were compared to my father who was a faller at the time.

We got onto goats but came up empty handed, we had an amazing trip in the mountains though. Bed was balsam boughs with a piece of polly as a rain guard. My brother and I both look back at this as an amazing expirience even with the suffering.

[steel_ram]

My first deer was pretty anti climactic. I was 14, bow hunting on some crown land. After screwing up on several nice bucks, I finally after desperation decided to take a doe. After the hit she took off. Took me nearly an hour to find her, though she'd only gone about about 50 yds. before piling up in a salal thicket. Dressing a deer for the first time on my own, having only read about it was interesting. I was bagged so I decided to take a short cut through some private land. Left the deer near the road and walked down the road to get my dad in the car. When we got back the landowner was standing there kind of PO'd, but in the end we left OK. I'm sure by the persons' dogs reaction to the deer that it probably accounts for far more dead deer than I ever could.
First moose: After spending all morning "hunting" swamps through heavy brush etc. we got into the truck headed for breakfast, not 1 minute passed and a young bull popped out on the road side to take one for the team.

[Fella]

My first ever animal was a bear. We were headed back to camp with an hour left of light on our last day, saw 5 or 6 bears but I was a bumbling idiot that didn't know how to stalk so no chance at any of them. On the way back we came around a corner and saw a big ol'guy just munching on some grass, hopped out of the vehicle, bear headed into the woods so like an idiot I followed. Bear stood his ground at 30 yards, 1 shot from the .30-06 through the shoulder and he was dead 5 seconds later. Big old boy with no teeth. Pic is after 3 hours of trying to gut with a full knife under the light of 1 headlamp. Learned a lot that night lol
http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag105/Fellala/66DBCB35-FE24-436B-A4AC-AD10F71E5F64_zpsvfc7rkwe.jpg (http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/Fellala/media/66DBCB35-FE24-436B-A4AC-AD10F71E5F64_zpsvfc7rkwe.jpg.html)
First moose was the next November, spotted him 600 yards away on the side of a hill across a cutblock, started cow calling and he and his buddy came trotting over. 1 shot at 15 yards and he died, 2 minutes later the other one died from a shot by my buddy. Both had our first moose that day.
http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag105/Fellala/37432EDE-D473-4C0D-BECE-4990CD77EFF9_zpsescs8mur.jpg (http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/Fellala/media/37432EDE-D473-4C0D-BECE-4990CD77EFF9_zpsescs8mur.jpg.html)
First deer was last year, 30 minutes after first light saw the buck coming at me at 20 yards, bang flop.
http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag105/Fellala/3FFCA82B-C446-4133-9052-02A6D735BAD9_zpstiw1hhf2.jpg (http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/Fellala/media/3FFCA82B-C446-4133-9052-02A6D735BAD9_zpstiw1hhf2.jpg.html)

[chuckerb]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6418&stc=1wow I was such a young pup back then at 18 and now I'm 65, Well to start this story we had been out cat hunting the day before and darkness had set in and only 3 dogs came back with us and three were still out there on the trail so headed home after leaving my shirt on the side of the road where we had turned the dogs loose on the track. Came back in the early morning but no sign of the dogs and no bayin or tree barkin to be heard so I decided to drive some old loggin roads and stop and listened every mile or so nothing so I was heading to a forestry camp site not far away and ran into a older lady and asked her if she had seen any hound dogs on the road and she tells me that she had seen two on the road a mile or so back towards the camp site so off I head. I get down the road and here is two big tom cats fighting on the road not my dogs. So I jump out with my 22 lever action tube loader and so does my friends 10 year old retired dog,the cats take off and both tree about a hundred yards off the road . I think the scene over and think to my self this is not a good place to be on the ground so up a tree I go with in 20 ft of both cats staring and growling at me ,Now heres where things got really scary I take a bead on the biggest of the two and pop perfect shot he shuddered and stiffened and out of the tree he fell as he hit the ground I levered a nother shell or tried to but as I lowered the rifle out came the tube to load and all the shells hit the ground below me and this other cat is pissed , I was startin to worry he would attack the old dog but he bailed and high tailed it out of there so down the tree I come put a leash on the old girl throw the dead cat over my shoulder and head it back to the truck , The next day I got a call that my dogs had been found and picked up by a couple there were camping and they called the number on the tags so all ended well except for this tom. Chuck B.

[chuckerb]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6419&stc=1Here is a pic of me and my main dog sady and a good size blacky was my 2nd bear If my brain remembers right. Cheers Chuck B..

[chuckerb]

You gotta love the first. Way to go, I remember my sons first deer and and the glow on his face was something I had never seen before and will remember it the rest of my life. Cheers Chuck B

[Red_Mist]

My brother put a stalk on a black bear but only chance at a shot, he had glare from the sun so he passed. Fast forward a year, same clearing and same bear, i was able to put him down with my 270 win. double lung with a beautiful red mist as the back drop.....hence my handle. I was very pleased with myself.

oh and i love the hug on the deer in the first story lol

[HarryToolips]

Great stories folks...will have to wait a few days to post, pics on my home computer and were going camping..

[VFX_man]

Circa 1977 in S.W. Missouri Ozarks.

http://i.imgur.com/jYvNX8O.jpg (http://imgur.com/jYvNX8O)

[Rupert Retired]

OK, here is my story of my first (and only) cougar:

In January of 1984 I decided that I had a real good chanceof getting a cougar in Sayward, which is where I Iived at the time. So I wasdriving around looking for tracks. I found some fresh tracks of a female withtwo kittens. Then, I came upon a track of a good male. The pad was 4 to 4 ½inches across. I was with my wife and our one-year old son, and the track wentacross the road in fresh snow at the top of a switch-back, heading down thehill. So, I drove down to the bottom of the switchback, and backed into thebend at the bottom, and was going to leave my wife and baby to follow the tracks.I was planning on walking back up the hill on the road, then follow the tracksdown the steep hill, and see if I could see him between the switchbacks, or findout if he had cut sideways and went into the timber. The tracks were veryfresh.

[Rupert Retired]

Anyway, once I got parked in an ideal spot, I decided thatthis was not too good a plan, and that I had to take my wife and son homebefore I did this, which I did. Then I came back to the switchback - I had beenaway for about 1 ½ hours. Turned out, the tracks had come onto the bottom road,just as I had predicted, and the cougar had walked right past where we hadparked the Land Cruiser, if my wife had of been there, she would have had agood view! So, the cat had walked into a big timbered area. I drove home andphoned an old family friend, Dave, who had known my mom and dad and our familyfor years. He had also been a cougar hunter for many years, had hunted themduring the depression for some extra money. He used to have dogs, and he usedto contract out to the Conservation Officer service to respond to problem cats.However, he was retired now. I told him the situation, and he said he would getsome dogs that a friend of his had, and be up to Sayward in the morning. Thatis what I consider day one of my cougar hunt.

[Buckmeister]

As a friend pointed out to me last year, there are many "firsts" in hunting and they don't stop coming. Your first mule deer. Your first Whitetail. Your first "big" mule deer. Your first typical or non-typical. Your first "book" animal. The first deer you call in. First with a bow. First immy moose. First LEH moose. Etc, etc... I find every year brings it's own adventures and firsts.

This is my first ever mule deer, but it is my 2nd buck overall. Found his fresh track in the snow and followed them till I found him and another buck tailing a hot doe. Spotted him standing between some trees. The doe walked out, he followed. I macked at him and he stopped and stood broadside about 30 yards above me on a hill. One shot just below the chin put him to sleep for good. He stank to high heaven and was truly "rutted up". But with proper care of the scent glands and careful field dressing and skining and hanging, he tasted absolutely delicious with no "gamey" taste whatsoever.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/MulieHunting005_1_.jpg

[Rupert Retired]

On Day 2, Dave arrived with two dogs, but they were youngand hadn’t really been trained in running cats. We went out to the tracks, andsince I knew exactly how old they were, this helped Dave evaluate the dogs. Oneof them was pretty good, the other didn’t know what he was supposed to do.Anyway, he had them both on leashes, and we followed the tracks down into avalley, then across the valley and towards the highway. That is when we decidedthat I would go back and get the truck, and would meet Dave and the dogs on thehighway, which is what we did. There was a logging road paralleling thehighway, and so, we got on that one, and finally, after a lot of looking, foundwhere the cat had crossed that logging road and headed up the hill. By then itwas getting on towards dusk, and so we called it a day. Dave said, if you finda fresh kill, call me, because these dogs aren’t really good in tracking, andunless you find a fresh kill they probably won’t be able to find the cat. So hewent home.
That day, I slipped on the snowy, icy hill, I had my .308Browning BLR over my shoulder, and fell and broke my scope, which was a Leupold2X7 compact scope. The barrel of the scope was broken. So that night, I tookthe scope off, and decided to rely on my iron sights, I knew any shot would notbe very far.

[Rupert Retired]

Day 3, I went out again and followed the cat tracks up thehill, through lots of Christmas tree second growth. I followed it up the hilluntil it went into the timber at the top of the ridge. At that point, I thoughtthat it would keep going, into the next valley, and that I had lost it, and soI called it off and went home.

[Rupert Retired]

Day 4, I went out and sized up the situation, looking from adistance at where the cat had went. Then, I decided to take a good look at someof the side roads that were around, seeing if I could find his track. And, sureenough, I found it again! The cat had went up into the timber, but had camedown into the Christmas trees again, and I finally found its track near the endof that day. Later that day, my brother-in-law showed up for a visit. He wasenthusiastic to continue our hunt, so we made plans for the next day.

[Rupert Retired]

http://i.imgur.com/uA61112.jpg

[Rupert Retired]

Day 5, we went back to the tracks early (first light), andfollowed them through the Christmas trees, on a huge slope that was covered byChristmas tree size evergreens. The snow was being rained on by then, and sothe tracks weren’t going to last too long. However, near late afternoon, we gotto an area of a bunch of blow-downs, and the cat was circling, circling. Tomand I were separated a bit trying to keep track of where he was going.Suddenly, I found a doe that he had killed! It was still pretty fresh, and hehad just started to eat it, I think we probably jumped it off the carcass. So,since we had a fresh kill, we went home and called Dave that night, andexplained everything to him. He made plans to come up the next morning.

[Rupert Retired]

http://i.imgur.com/uM2OEM0.jpg

[Rupert Retired]

Day 6, Dave arrived at our house and we went out to thekill. I knew of a road that went above the doe kill, and so that is where wewent. Dave let the dogs off their leashes, and they went cruising immediately.Next thing we know, as we were still getting our boots on, the dogs werewhooping it up down the hill. Dave walked out onto a point of land beside thetruck, and said, “Oh, I think they are barking treed!”
I couldn’t believe it, after all these days, that they couldfind the cat so quickly. Dave later said that no doubt the cat had a fullbelly, had been sleeping right beside or on top of his kill, and the dogs puthim up a tree immediately. We climbed down the hill to where the cougar was, whohad treed in the only big mature tree on the hillside.
So, there he was, up a large tree, looking down at us. I wastrying to take some pictures, but the lighting was real bad. So Dave said, noproblem, we will move him to another tree. He told my brother-in-law to get abig stick, more like a log, and go whack the tree, this would get the cat tojump off the tree, and the dogs would put him up another tree immediately.Which he did! But the cat just growled real loud, and didn’t leave the tree hewas in. So then Dave told me, OK, get up on that lower branch, and you will getsome real good close-up pictures. So my brother-in-law made a cradle with hishands, and I used that to help me get on the lower branch. At that time, thecat was watching us of course, and he was just over an arm’s length from me,being on the lower branch. He growled real loud and low, like as if he reallymeant business, and pulled his paw back in a position to swipe really quickly –he could have taken y head off or my scalp for sure!. Dave said, OK, wait aminute, he isn’t going to cooperate, and so, come on back down, which I did. Hethen said, OK, go ahead and shoot the damn thing! The cougar was looking over abranch at us, so the branch covered most of his chest, all I could really shootat was his neck. However, I pulled my shot down as much as I could, and shot!Remember, I was shooting with iron sights, because my scope had been broken andremoved. The cougar launched himself off the tree, and disappeared, with thedogs in hot pursuit. Dave said, “oh oh”, I remember that vividly, he wasworried about the dogs getting hurt. But it turned out my shot had went throughthe top part of the branch, and then into the cougar’s boiler room. We foundthe cougar dead about 30 or 50 yards from the tree. The dogs were ecstatic, andbarking like crazy!
So, we got lots of pictures, and took the cat down the hill,I went up to the truck and brought it down to the lower road. The cougarmeasured over 11 feet with the skin hanging by a hook, and we also weighed him,he was 140 lbs.
He scored 14 12/16, so just under the BC book.

[Rupert Retired]

So that was my first cougar hunt, and probably my last, but hey, you never know. I have the cougar skin "rug" mounted with the head up of course, and it is one of my all time best trophies. Hope you all have enjoyed the story!

[Rupert Retired]

http://i.imgur.com/0n2H1hm.jpg

[untilthelastbeat]

Iv no pictures, heck, we didn't even have a tarp, or a sleeping bag, but we did have 2-3 packages of itchyban!! My first mountain goat hunt, I was 8 years old, September 1988 region 6-04.
Myself and my dad, my dads good friend and his 7 year old son. I can remember like it was yesterday... "well, there's a billy over there, we'r already nearly a day from camp, we have no supplies, what do you think John?".... Not a second went by and John replies, "builds character, it's good for the kids, lets go". I was packing my very first hunting rifle, a custom 6.5 lb 6.5x55 bj imp that my grandad had built for me the year prior.

Off we went!

Long story short,

A looong hike, then 2, 160 grain round nose pills, and that billy fell into hell. Myself and the other youngen stayed up hi and watched dad and John retrieve the goat, back then it didn't look so bad, knowing what I know now, I can see why they left us up there. Of course, like many first goats, dark was coming, and so was the weather. We dropped down into the shintangle, and of course, on the wrong end of the mountain, no tarp, no sleep bag, and a couple empty itchyban packages..... but hey, we did have a lighter, and goat meat, so goat on a stick was the menu that cold night.
All night, the wind blew The sleet horizontally into our little shintangle patch, needless to say, there was no sleep that night, and for myself and the other kid, a couple valuable lessons were learnt.

But, it's made me into this character I am today, addicted to goat hunting like nobody's business, and loven it.

Just deadly ed. Can't wait to take my boy goat hunting. That would make an epic first kill for sure. What a great story.

[bicboihunter]

Awesome stories and photos keep em coming!