Hi Dakota,
Come to Scotland and I'll take you out and show you how to get on your belly and crawl through the mud with your face in it till your 50 yards away from a red deer stag
. My first memory of going hunting ended very differently to the way I had assumed it would have gone. Basically a long story short I was taken stalking by my dad ( Gamekeeper ) for my first shot at a deer. I'd shot rabbits and ducks etc but nothing like this before. So we headed off and I was very excited with this amazing chance to shoot a red deer stag. I was only 12 at the time and to get behind a 270 with this amazing animal in the scope was some what intimidating....We found a good stag and stalked into him for about and hour and got within 80 yards. I'd shot targets etc to make sure I was good to go. I got into position with a good rest steadied up the rifle and started observing him. He was strutting his stuff with all the ladies up there, big antlers and just magnificent really. My adrenalin was going over time, heart thumping in my chest. When the moment came dad said ok , safety off and when I say put the + just behind his front leg. 1/3rd up and squeeze the trigger. The stag turned perfectly side on and stood still....basically in a nut shell I froze!!! Completely and utterly couldn't do it.... I put the safety back on and said to dad....I cant do it' I'm not ready. He just smiled at me and said well If you aren't happy and can't I'm happy. Better to just slide away and move off back out of sight than make a mess of everything. I thought he would have been upset with me but he respected my decision. Lucky stag
Moral of the story is I was born into this. I thought I'd find it easy because of that but in a way I think just because I have seen a lot of hunting I've also been taught to respect the animals too.
The following year I shot my first stag, 1 shot 1 kill. A good outcome.
I'm now 35 years old and it was a long time ago. Dad is 63 now and I do a lot of the conservation with deer in the winter. last year his very words were "my hearts not in it this year" and he is a seasoned hunter.
You need to learn where to place your bullet for the best chance of a killing shot. Each time you hunt the deer never act the same. You have 2 main killing zones with deer.
1st is the ribs shot. This area is where the heart lungs and all main organs are. The heart is just behind the front leg. 1/3rd up from the belly. The shot in the ribs is catastrophic to the animal and some times they tend to run on a bit which is mainly down to adrenalin. I hit a red deer hind in the heart last autumn and a heart shot is normally quite obvious because the deer's reaction is it tries to run but because there is no pump to pump blood to the muscles it can't.
Lung shot the deer tend to run for a bit.
2nd is a neck shot but I would never advise a beginner to take a neck shot.personally. It is a far better killing zone. If the shot is placed well it is a far quicker death for the animal. Literally it is like flicking a light switch. With a neck shot obviously you sever the neck bone and all communication between the brain and body.
If you can pay for a day to get taken hunting with an expert I'd fully recommend you do that first before buying all the shooting equipment. You'd be far better to spend however much it is on an experienced hunter who can talk you through it and teach you what to look for and show you how to. Its not always about the shot as my story at the start indicated. I didn't pay for that day but if I had I still wouldn't have taken the shot. As someone said previously , a lot can be learnt from picking up a camera and go shoot some animals with it first. Observe there behavior and imagine every time you shoot that camera it was a rifle. When you find your up and personal with the wildlife with the camera swap it with a rifle. The outcome will be some what different at the end of it all though. Good luck with everything and keep us informed of your progress.
Jamie