In my 40’s...both my sons shot deer before I did. They were both between 8-10.

11 yrs old, 3 point buck with a marlin 3030 lever gun open sights at 8 paces.
this was way back when Kentucky only had a 2 day gun season and of course antlered deer only.
there were very few deer hunters and even fewer deer shot so my little opening morning 3 point was newsworthy for days lol.

13 yo, bagged a 6 pt with Dad's 270 @ 250 paces. We were on a large 3000 acre lease with a couple other folks in Zapata County. Late 60's/early 70's the Screw worms were
rampant and natural deer density at that time was around 1 deer/75 acres if you were lucky. I can remember counting about 20 deer total for the whole season. There were lots of
bonuses: more quail both bobs & blues than I've ever seen, huge lake that attracted hundreds of ducks and was full of BIG bass. and arrowheads on every road/sendero on the place.
No doubt the reason I live to get outdoors. hunt/fish/ranch.

Seven point buck when I was 11yo in Comal county out of a tree with a few boards nailed in it using my pawpaws old lever action 300 Savage. Steel butt plate and barrel had been cut down. It kicked like a mule..almost knocked me outta the tree.

1972, at the age of 12. Shot a doe with my uncles model 92 in 25-20 caliber. Aunt gave me the gun when my uncle passed away. Take it out of the safe every year, run an oil rag through the barrel and give it a good wipe down on the outside with an oily rag.

Many yrs ago dad went a few times although I never went with him. He taught me the art of fishing when I was very young and I really enjoy the H2O to this day. Shot my first and only wt buck on my 50th birthday, on our place with a 357cal lever action. We processed it ourselves because I wanted the whole experience from drop to freezer. Told the wife at that time I need to put my pic in the local paper with all the seven year olds with their first kill—ha.

is that place still in a raw state or has it been turned into a housing development yet?

14 years old. 1985. Bethal, Mpumalanga Province. Hunting gamebirds with a 12ga using no 7 shot. Steenbuck ewe flushed unexpectedly and I shot her at around 15m. Died instantly.
My son (11) shot his first antelope this year. Used a .243 and shot the ram at close range after we went out on foot, spotted it, stalked it and then ambushed it along the route it was taking. Very different experience to mine. Very rewarding for my son and his dad.

Killed my first Deer when I was 10 years old. Shot it with a single shot 20 gauge with #1 buck shot. At 15 yards, I hit it from Head to Tail with buck shot. We paterned that gun after I killed the deer. Dad shot it at a box and put one pellet in the box. I was lucky.

I remember I was sitting by a corner post in a plowed field. Dad put my older brother in the "good" spot. He stuck me in the plowed field to just put me somewhere. Agian I was LUCKY. Older Brother did not see a thing.

The Single shot is still on the farm. We have taught 8 to 10 kids to shot with that ole gun. LOTS of memories in it.

1973 talked my dad into taking my cousin and me to Colorado, he always had friends that went but he never went along. He shot a nice 3x3 and I shot a 3x2 buck. My cousin didn't have a shot. We missed a week of football practice and all the coach did was shake his head. It was a trip of a life time for me being 16. We rented a 16' camp trailer and towed it behind a 66 Impala stationwagon.

Great memories with my Dad, I'll never forget the trip!

My first deer hunt was a 3 day opening weekend of bow season in Llano when I was 20.....seems hard to believe that was roughly 36 years ago

8 years old a doe then a spike with a 303 British that knocked me out of my chair on the first shot. Then the spike tried to mount the doe so I got him too.

8 years old with a break open 30-30. Darn deer had it coming after I missed it the first two times due to the shakes

!3 and like most stories here I was using my dads 30-30 and sitting in a ground blind alone.
Shot a six point and gutted it myself which was also a first, while waiting for my dad to come by and pick me up!
That was 60 years ago and remember it like yesterday!

17, doe with a .270

1975 and I was 18. Season after my dad passed. He was in a club between Hermitage and Moro Bay in SE Ark my uncle was also in. First year of forestry school in Monticello nearby and went over to hunt. 6 pt. walking away from me with my 742 30.06 I had bought with hay hauling money in 73. Pulled up to shoot but had not closed the bolt completely, racked a shell and hit him in the head with last shot. Wished my dad could have been there.

7 while hunting by myself from a platform about 20 ft. off the ground in a big live oak. It was a trophy spike that fell to the 30-30 Model Winchester that belonged to my Grandfather. The shot was a little high and I broke his back.
Adios,
Gary

I didn’t grow up in a hunting family, I actually got my father back into it after a 15 dry spell.

23, mule deer in Northern Arizona. I was in the USAF outside of Phoenix and borrowed a 1917 Eddystone . I later bought it , butchered it up and it is still my go to hunting rifle with a new barrel. ThT would have been in 1967. At that time there were almost no deer in North Texas.

I guess the .222 was a popular hunting rifle back in the day

Very, friend of mines grandfather bought him and his three kids each one. I bet he has killed 300 deer with his.

When I moved to Huntsville in 1985, the big buck contest in Walker County was won that year by an 11 year old boy who shot a 14 point buck in SHNF with a .222.

Put it in the right place, they work. One of my old coworkers at TDCJ has a Remington 788 .222 that has killed a buttload (his answer) of deer.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Yes and still is. 222 & 223 & 22-250's are still very popular in South Texas, regardless of what some experts on the internet say.

I have hunted with my BIL for almost 30 years. He either uses his Dad's 222 or his old 223 bolt gun only. He fills more tags every year than anyone else on the place. He's lost one deer in all that time, and that was his fault.


He has some NICE deer on the wall........

The .222 was a fairly new caliber offering back in the late 60's and came out before the .223 which the military accepted.
I saw what a poorly placed shot with the .222 would do, and it wasn't a caliber you would want to hit bone with, and the same wound with the old 30-30 would have been a clean kill.
Shot placement, and don't hit bone!