your first game animal taken with a handgun.

i am sure this has been covered before but with the big game seasons closed lets here some stories from the past.

my addiction to handguns started long before i could legally owen one. first chance i got i bought a ruger redhawk 44mag. then i added a t/c contender to that.
the first season my father and brother thought i was crazy for hunting opening day of deer season with the contender. they were right i missed a buck 7 times between the t/c and the ruger. that made me pull the rifles back out for that season.

fast forward to the next year opening day after lots of practice i was determined to take a deer with my handcannons.
opening morning i rattled in a small 4 point he would leave then i would rattle and he would come running back. wasnt the kinda of buck i was looking for. when he left the last time i looked over my shoulder and heres comes a nicer buck looking for a fight. panic mode kicked in missed him once at 60 yards he ran out to about 85 yards and put a 200gr bullet from my 35 remington into his shoulder. he ran about 20 yards and piled up.
my brother was hunting on the backside of the land he had to drive past me on the 4wheeler so i just dragged the deer to the trail and waited for him to come out. i was sitting there waiting when he finally drive up he didnt even stop just left me there. he couldnt believe that i killed a deer with handgun. he finally came back about 10 mintues later. they both thought i was crazy until that day when i showed them that it could be done. By the way the buck was just a 15inch tennessee 8pt but still my favorite trophy. had that deer mounted just because that was my first handgun buck.

I bought a DW in 357 Max in the spring of 1991. I practiced all summer long on charlies and paper. That fall I took two large doe, each with one shot. The first doe came along a trail from my left, at about 25 yards I took her out. A couple days later a medium/large sized doe at 65 yards was harvested with my wolf and brother in laws as witnesses. Sure suprised them. From that time forward I have been "hooked" on handgun hunting!

first thing bigger than a squirrel was a badger with a S&W 629

Pretty cool guys. My 1st was when i went hunting west of Ft. Collins, CO with Ernie (XPhunter). WE backpacked into a spot right off the road with several big basins and i had my too big 15-60x Spacemaster spotting scope. I was hunting along a ridge and spotted a couple deer bedded up under some scrub oak about 150 yds. away. I slowly gathered ny gear and glassed the lower buck as the higher buck was too small (had to have 3 points on one side then). But for the life of me he was positioned in such a way that if he had a 3rd point i couldn't see it. So i gave out a low whistle while watching thru the s. scope. He turned his head just slightly then, and there it was--a skinny little brow tine. I went prone with my XP-100 7 BR with a Bushnell 4-12x on top and sent a 115 gr. Speer HP into his chest. He never got out of his bed. Never forget that 1.

Groundhog just taken last week, but hey you have to start somewhere. I will say this I'm more proud of this one when I tell people it was taken with a pistol they say noway so I just show them the pics on my cell phone. Then they give you that look of suprise.

I think some of you have seen mine.

http://www.handgunhunt.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1043

19 years now--- Sure does not seem like that long..

Took a three point this year that could have been a twin to h20bugs. Nice doe was my first last year. Squirrels in years past, but didn't consider myself a handgunner, until I proved to myself I could do it again this year. Its not the harvest. its how I harvested that gives me a feeling of accomplishment. I'm hooked.

This was my first handgun kill.

http://www.handgunhunt.com/promo/membership/features/readNewArticle.php?oid=2

My first was a spike whitetail I took with a T/C Contender in 30/30 win, topped with a Tasco 2x... back in, I think 89' or maybe 90'.

325 pound hog with a T/C in 357 max. Took 3 years to spill blood with a handgun, but I'd never give it up for anything.

Lars

I nice Javelina taken in the Superstition Mountions N.E. of Pheonix AZ. That gave me the confidence to go handgunning for Mule Deer.

The 1st was a fork horn mule deer. Taken with 7-30 waters at 140 yards. That was 1996 near Pagosa Spring Colorado.I crawled the last 50 yards to get that close.

The first head of big game I took with a handgun was an antelope doe. I used my Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 mag. I shot my second antelope doe about 10 minutes after I had my first one loaded in the truck.

Took a six point mule deer in colorado with Smith and Wesson .460 performance center hunter with a 12 inch barrel and a burris XTS-135 speed dot scope. Shot him at 104 yards. No wasted meat at all cause to bullet was going so fast, it never had time to expand. The shock wave is what killed the deer -- stood it up on its back feet, and it fell over dead before it hit the ground. That's my kind of tracking!!! :-) I've sold that .460 cause I've moved to texas. Wanted to hunt elk with it, but didn't get the chance. Now looking for a TC encore .44 mag or .357 mag.

I'll never hunt with anything but a handgun again. Even flys if I could! :-)

My first was a small doe about 6 yrs ago. Third dayof season. Had already killed a nice buck on first day with 444 malin lever. Sitting in tree stand, small doe came by about 15 yds. I decided was perfect opportunity for handgun shot. Made a nice clean shot through both lungs and she piled up pretty quick. silver dollar size backstraps for supper that nite at camp. yeah i know i shouldn't have shot such a small deer. However I was elated and will never forget it. 45 BH with ( as memory serves me correctly) a 265 gr wfn at 1360 fps chronied. Alll the guys at camps said i should be using hp loads. I loved showing them the wound channel about the size of a golf ball thru the ribs. shot clear thru with no bullet recovery. Will never forget it.


jar

My first animal was a ground hog, not really considered a game animal. My first game animal was a doe from about 50 yards. Both were shot with a T/C Contender in .44 magnum.

thanks for the stories. like the hunting stories as much as i like hunting.

second animal i took was also with my 35rem contender. big hog at about 10 yards. the dogs had him bayed up next to a rock bluff and when he saw me he stared to charge talk about a rush charge hog. dogs everywhere and trying to get a shot off. i manged to drop him in his track before he got to me.

The first game animals were squirrels, taken in Pennsylvania with a flatgate Ruger Single-Six. The first big game was a wild boar taken in Tennessee with a Ruger Super Blackhawk.

Well technically my first were coons when I hunted them with hounds,with a 617 masterpiece w/full underlug.My first big game was a suicidal white-tail that came out in a cloud of cigarette smoke only 25 steps from me.Just got off work and went by a hunting spot to look and see what was using the area from a ways off,so smoking weren't going to bother the deer because I was looking for activity to be 600+yards a way and the area is known for yotes so I carried the blackhawk for them.Never guessed a white-tail wanted to be in my freezer that bad.Came out right after I blew a big puff out.At that range I figured I couldn't miss and didn't.Pics on bragging board.

Shot every kind of varmint with a handgun, but the first big head of game was a hog....... I rarely hunt with anything but a handgun any more.

my first was a doe at around 20 yards with my super blackhawk 44 mag. punched both lungs ran around 60 yards. now im hooked just picked up a contender in 7-30 waters cant wait til next year!

good job!!

My first game animal taken with a handgun was a forked horn 4 point whitetail shot in Leon County, Texas in 1991. I used a Ruger Redhawk .44 Magnum 7.5 inch stainless barrel, open sights. I was shooting handloaded 240 grain XTPs with W296 powder, Winchester brass, CCI 350s, chronographing about 1450 fps. Sitting in a tree stand, deer walks out to sample the oats about 35 yards away. I put the red ramp on his shoulder, gun go boom, deer fall down. Went through both shoulders and left a baseball size exit hole. I hunted for a while with rifles after that but have been handguns exclusively for about a year now. Not going back.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

My first handgun animal was a 125 pound wild boar. This happened in 1970. I was living in NC and living off base while working for uncle sam in the 82nd Airborne. I saw a group of 8-10 pigs run across the dirt road ind into a corn field where I knew there was a bramble. I handed my old 1897 12 ga. shotgun to my partner, loaded with 00 buck and I grabbed my High Standard 9 shot 3"bbl 22LR revolver and gave chase. I creeped within 10 yards, my buddie was on the other side of the bramble, maybe 25 yards away. The first pig I saw was a big old sow, maybe 300 pounds, ah, no way! She moved off and a little boar took her place. At about 5 yards I put the first round behind his ear, he stiffened and rolled over then started squealing and thrashing. I shot 8 more shots at the moving grass where he was and got the hell outta there. We came back and there he laid. I hit him with 5 outof the nine shots and we ate like kings!!

Bill in OR