Your first deer is often the most memorable whether it has antlers or not. You remember where you were, who was there and how excited it made you feel. It's like being baptized in water, and almost as spiritual of a moment.
The only thing better than getting your first deer is being there for someone else's first. If that isn't a special bond, how about marriage?
58-year-old Ohio native Kim Hall started hunting last season to spend more time with her husband, Mark. Now she's got the edge on him after taking her first deer and becoming one of the elite who can claim a 200-plus-inch buck.
Just one day after Kim and Mark got married, she sent a bolt through this irregular 16-pointer at 25 yards on their 50-acre parcel in Delaware County, Ohio. The blood trail went cold, and the newlyweds didn't recover the buck until nearly three months later in January.
"We followed blood for 250 yards but couldn't locate the deer," she said. "We went back the next day and searched for three hours and still couldn't find it. On the last day of muzzleloader season, we found it in a creek bed 100 yards from where we stopped looking."
Coyotes and maggots got first dibs on Kim's buck, but she was able to retrieve the skull cap and had it scored by Buckmasters master scorer Toby Hughes in February.
Kim's buck scored 202 2/8 for Buckmasters Trophy Records in the irregular category for crossbows and is the only 200-plus-inch deer taken by a female during the 2022-23 season (so far).
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