How to Be a Safe Hunter and Tag Your First Buck Deer

Hunting your first buck deer is an exhilarating milestone, especially for new hunters. Before you ever step into the woods, understanding safety and preparation is the key to ensuring a successful hunt.

Last week, our club helped a 10-year-old girl in North Florida with her first successful hunt.

After completing a hunter safety course she confidently harvested her first deer (a legal doe) with a crossbow at just 25 yards. Her experience highlights how crucial preparation is, from learning the fundamentals of hunter safety to ensuring ethical hunting practices.

Let's look at how her hunt went and what everyone can take from the story of her doe hunt to go tag their first buck.

Safety First

When using a firearm, bow, or crossbow — prioritize safety first.

Thanks to her training, my friend's daughter was confident and safe. Her hunter safety course taught her how to handle a crossbow, respect her surroundings, and follow basic safety procedures.

Here are a few things she learned:

• Firearm and Crossbow Safety: One of the first rules taught in any hunter safety course is treating every weapon as if it's loaded. Especially for new hunters who may feel eager to shoot, it needs to be repeated often. In the young girl's case, learning how to treat her crossbow made a big difference in building her confidence.
  
  
• Blaze Orange: Wearing blaze orange is safe for sure, but it's also a legal requirement in many states. It helps other hunters identify you in the woods and minimizes accidents. The girl was in her blaze vest, ensuring her safety.
  
  
• Check Your Gear: It's important to inspect your hunting gear before you go. Before their hunt, her dad checked her crossbow, bolts, and tree stand to ensure they worked well.

Know the layout of your hunting area, too. Modern tools like HuntWise help hunters find good locations and scout areas before the hunt. The girl and her dad used apps and cameras to map out safe zones and pattern the deer.

Hunting Strategies: Scouting and Shot Placement

Scouting is a crucial aspect of successfully hunting your first buck deer. Before opening day, know the environment, deer movement patterns, and ideal shot placement.

The girl spent time scouting with her mom and dad, learning how to read deer tracks and recognize scrapes and rubs. This allowed her to understand where deer would most likely travel and where to set up.

Wind direction and shot placement can also impact the success of your hunt. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Wind Direction: Hunters, even young ones, must learn to respect the wind. The group paid close attention to the direction of the wind so her scent wouldn't alert the deer. 
  
  
• Proper Shot Placement: Taking an ethical shot means knowing where to aim. She learned aiming for vital organs, such as the heart and lungs, provides a quick, humane kill. As a result, when the doe presented itself at 25 yards, she made a clean shot — double lung pass through — and the doe ran about 40 yards before crashing.

Waiting for the perfect shot requires patience, especially for young hunters who might feel "buck fever." This girl's dad showed her how to wait for the right moment, ensuring the shot was clean.

Her dad and the course she took both taught her what to expect.

Tagging Your First Buck (or Doe)

Tagging your first deer, whether a buck or a doe, is a milestone hunters never forget. My buddy's 10-year-old girl won't forget, that's for sure.

The moment she got her first doe was a huge accomplishment.

Before taking your shot, make sure you know a few things, including:

• Regulations: Every state's regulations are different, so it's essential to know the rules where you're hunting. This especially includes having the proper tags and permits. The girl's father made sure she understood the importance of following state guidelines to ensure they were hunting legally.
  
  
• What to Do After the Shot: Once the deer is down, approach it cautiously. Just as the girl did, you should wait to ensure the animal fully expires before tagging it. This helps avoid potentially dangerous situations where an animal could still be alive, especially with a young hunter nearby.
  
  
• Field Dressing the Deer: The learning didn't stop after the shot. The young hunter was involved in field dressing her first deer, learning how to properly care for the meat and prepare it for transport to the processor.

Tagging her first doe gave her a sense of pride and responsibility, marking a significant achievement in her young hunting career.

Be Safe When Tagging Your First Buck Deer

However, hunting is not just about the moment of the shot. Hunting is about preparation, safety measures, and respect for wildlife. This North Florida girl's first deer harvest was a successful example of how hunter safety education, preparation, and ethical hunting practices all come together during a hunt.

Her experience shows that the learning process never stops, even after the first harvest. New hunters have to continue refining their skills, learning from each hunt, if they want to outsmart the animals they pursue.

Taking a hunter safety course through Hunter-Ed ensures that future hunters like her are prepared for both the challenges and rewards of hunting. So, whether you're a young hunter, a new hunter, or you simply haven't taken a hunter education course yet as a more seasoned hunter, our online courses are an excellent way to learn hunting and safety principles for the field.

As you think ahead to your next (or first) hunt, make sure you're prepared. Choose the Hunter-Ed course for your state and start learning with our free study guides.

Scouting and tagging your first (or next) buck deer is easier with HuntWise! Plus, this hunting app is so much more than "just" maps. 

With weather and animal behavior forecasting, information about regulations for your area, rutting insights, and more, you have the ultimate hunting tool in your hands before and during every hunt. 

Plus, Hunter-Ed students get a 30-day free trial of HuntWise after completing their course! 

To activate your free trial, log into your Hunter-Ed student account and follow the instructions.