Not good at stories, but I'll just say this has been a long time coming.
I was finally able to get my first handgun kill Sunday morning. It was pretty cold and we had been hunting hard all weekend. I could very easily decided to stay in bed. I chose to go one more time, mainly just to say I did. I didn't have very high hopes.

I got to where I was headed and got set up on my sticks. About 20 minutes pass by and it started getting light. Still didn't have very high hopes. 20 more minutes goes by and I spot something heading my way. It was a doe. I tried to turn on her as she was favoring my right side. I couldn't get the angle quick enough, but then she veered to my left. Problem was, she made it to the fence line before I could get lined up on her.

Just then, when I thought I had blown it, there he was, an 8 point. He had his nose to the ground and was grunting with every other step. I had just enough time to make sure he was a legal deer (has to have 4 on one side), and I settled my crosshairs on him, and pulled the trigger.

He ever so gently gallops off, and I thought I had missed. Then I heard a big crash in the woods about 25 yards away.
I tried to sit still for a few minutes, but the anxiety got the best of me. I gathered my stuff and went to look for him. 25-30 yards was all the farther he made it. I had my first handgun kill!!

I shoot a 15" Encore in 7-08. 140 grain sierra gameking. 39 grains of H4895. Recovered the bullet under the hide in the offside shoulder. It weighed 126.4 grains. The shot was right at 32 yards, on the ground next to a fence line.

I'll post pics in a few. (if I can figure it out)

A big hearty congratulations on your first! Let's see some pics!

Congrats on your first!

Welcome to the club ;-)

Congratulations!

Congratulations. Now, you are hooked!

Congrats!

WOOHOO!!!! Nice job!

Good job! It never pays to give up and you proved that.

Congrats on a great hunt and good shot. Now wish me luck as I leave to make a morning hunt with my Ruger Blackhawk 357 mag.

AWESOME!!!! way to go!

Congratulations.

ok, got the pic thing figured out. Sorry for the crappy pic. I guess I need to start carrying an actual camera again instead of just a phone. Anyway, you can get the jest of him.

Thanks for all who post. You are very inspiring to someone like myself. I've been hunting a long time, just not with handguns. You guys have helped me make the transition in more ways than I could count. Thank you very much. I'm extremely happy with my decision, even if it did take two years to get something with it! Many more to come, hopefully...

Congratulations on your first, he's a beauty!

X2 .... You should be hooked now!

The picture's fine:


You just need to copy the URL from the image itself, not the little thumbnail image. In other words, click on the little thumbnail to pull up the actual picture, then use it.

Congratulations!

congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the pic help TN.

great job!

Nice!

Nice deer -- congrats!

Thank you all for the kind words and the continual encouragement. I hope you guys don't mind that I live vicariously through you most of the time!!

Congratulations nice buck.

Very nice. Took me 2 seasons to drop one with handgun as well. Nowadays I'd feel strange toting a rifle around.

Congratulations

Huge congrats!