What changes happen after opening day of regular deer season?

[Rockspek]

In your experience what are the changes that happen after gun starts?  No wrong answers here and no arguments either.  

The reason I ask is because I started hunting last year after the gun opener.  Last years hunting for me was a bit of a whirlwind.  I saw deer.  I shot a doe.  I shot a great buck.  I didn't really learn that much about deer because of the rush.  This year I bow hunted and never stopped scouting since last season.  I learned a lot about deer behavior.  I'm kinda wondering what differences I should expect between oct 1 and after this Saturday.  I hunt private land but not large amounts of acres.

[genesee_mohican]

In areas where deer are pressured hard, they will head for a place they feel more safe and has fewer hunters. Property  that is off limits/posted safe zones. They may also hunker down in thick cover during daylight hours and only move at night.  If pressure is light, you may not see much change, but this season I expect to see the rut popping loose in the first week of gun here in the southern zone, so it's a great time to be out in the woods.

[PREDATE]

Depends on pressure put on the local deer. If you're the only one hunting the area then you can expect to just sit back and enjoy the rut.

Pressured deer will naturally be more wary and will tend to stick to the thick areas

[wolc123]

At home, the changes after opening day are not as significant as they were 20 or so years ago.  Back then, there were a lot less folks into archery hunting and deer were totally "blind-sided" on opening day of gun season.    Now they are already accustomed to some hunting pressure by opening day, and it is not such a shock to them.  Even though there are more deer around now than there were then, the number I see on opening day is typically a lot less.   The reason for that is many go nocturnal due to the archery season pressure.   The good news is that the later gun-season sightings are up considerably.   In the old days, if you did not score on the opener, you may as well have stayed home the rest of the season.         

[WNYBuckHunter]

In our area it all depends. If they feel pressure, they become scarce during the day, but that just means its time to adjust how you hunt. When the pressure is kept off of our place, the deer tend to move in from surrounding areas that are pressured.

[doebuck1234]

Well said mohican.i see the same on the property i hunt.to the north of creek that runs along property is some dense cover.always see stronger sign going into that after first few days of gun season apose to bow season.area isnt too heavily pressured as its all private and im only one hunting the property im on but still notice the change.guess it depends?

[matthewbundy1973]

Around my area greater highland and surrounding areas..around here they move at dawn and again at dusk..spyed 29 the other night 3 big buck and the rest doe..one was a 4. A 6. And what looked like an 8...all 3 were big. That was up on poppletown Rd

Sent from my XT830C using Tapatalk

[ApexerER]

I Googled lockdown today when I wasn't seeing much this morning. Brought up some QDMA articles...anyway according to radio collared deer in PA..lockdown doesn't exist....it also said it showed pressured deer during rifle season go nocturnal during the weekend when pressure is great...basically return to normal by Wed...Thurs...and back to nocturnal for the weekend. Thought that was very interesting....sounds like pressured deer only need a couple days to return to normal 

[grampy]

When deer feel hunting pressure, most times they will go to the thickest most inaccessible places on the property. Places hunters don't go or won't go. Find these places and hug them close, like a loved one, from the down wind side.

[bushnell]

The trend for me typically is that I am starting to see more deer early the 2nd day. Guessing since they are coming out of their norm after the first day they are just trying to seek different cover in the early hours the 2nd day. That's what I am starting to see. 

[Steve D]

What changes happen after opening day of regular deer season?

THE HONEY DO LIST COMES BACK OUT

[GreeneHunter]

Many people used to say after opening day they -the deer- head for the hills , interesting when I'm hunting in the hills !  They -the deer- head nowhere , they've just been educated a little !

[wdswtr]

It just plain depends on a couple things in my opinion.  Two big ones are pressure and a deers experience with pressure.   Its not all abnormal for the local farmers around camp to push the heck out of surrounding state land starting around noon opening day till thanksgiving.  I am not a fan of deer drives for many reasons myself.  So with this being somewhat of an annual thing for them we hunt our borders from noon on, mostly to keep them drivers from crossing into our property.  So over the years I have witnessed some first hand things.  I have seen mature bucks and doe actually hunker down hard in a blow down, some thick briars or whatever will conceal themself the best and watched them watch the drivers go right past them.  The opposite the immature deer seem to just have the instinct to run and run as fast as they can to get away.  But in either case the deer seem to get real timid and spooked from opening day and most rest of the season.  Now on the years where doe permits were limited, weather was bad and the fair weather hunters and farmers all stayed home its much easier hunting.   The newest thing over the last few years is every Tom Dick and Harry from the cities come up friday night and do there opening day scouting , bring there gun and sight them in right about where they plan to hunt the next morning.  Its like a nice big warning for the deer that they better hide and hide good for the next 48 hours.  Now at home in NTier the conversion from bow to gun is minimal at best on deer.  I just dont see timid and spooked deer like at camp in S Tier.    I always look forward to gun season in N Tier and absolutely hate seeing bow season end in S Tier just for these reasons. Its also expected every gun opener at camp to hear or see an ambulance and count at the very least 100 gun shots before noon and a vast majority of them before sunrise.

Edited November 17, 2016 by wdswtr

[nyslowhand]

1 hour ago, wdswtr said:

 Its also expected every gun opener at camp to hear or see an ambulance and count at the very least 100 gun shots before noon and a vast majority of them before sunrise.

OMG! Dude, for real!!?!!

Opening day is business as usual for the deer & their activity. After that it depends on a lot of things: local deer population, habitat where you hunt, how you hunt, pressure on surrounding properties, when you hunt (specific days), food sources, status of the rut, weather, alignment of the planets..... IMHO, ideal time to get er done is opening morning or following Tue or Wed. From what I've seen, where I've hunted, the deer get super spooky after about Thanksgiving Day morning and after. By then the Orange Army has made its' presence known!

[wdswtr]

2 hours ago, nyslowhand said:

OMG! Dude, for real!!?!!

 

Yes sir, 

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/hunter_shot_and_killed_in_mcgr.html

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/12/police_man_shot_by_another_hunter_in_cortland_county.html

Theres a couple examples, I can recall some others too, guy in blind at bottom of a ravine shot by a guy at top of ravine in the stomach, deer was between them and did not see the camo blind over 100 yards away at the bottom, one time a guy shot his hunting partner when a deer stepped between them, and another a guy shot himself by accident.  A close one that happened to a guy we invited down, he was standing on watch opening day against a tree, pretty big and tall guy and a bullet struck a tree a few inches above his head, needless to say he never came back again.  The number of idiots have calmed down since doe permits are not so easily available and in quantity however it just takes one idiot to ruin any ones life.  Be safe out there Saturday

Edited November 17, 2016 by wdswtr

[Doc]

What I have found locally is that there is the initial shoot-fest, as the deer get a bit caught away from there sanctuaries. The survival mode goes into the start-up phase as they seek out the spots that no sane hunter wants to go. Once the survival mode is fully implemented About 11:00 am, the shooting starts to drift off and becomes almost non-existent. The rest of the season, there are times when you would swear you heard just as many shots during a good small-game day. Todays hunters are kind of into about a 1/2 to 3/4 day season. It used to be that people used the whole season, and special days like the first Saturday and Thanksgiving morning were crazy active. But not anymore. The advent of modern fabrics and designs of hunting clothing have kept guys hunkered in their stands, with no one disturbing the secluded and bedded deer. Others just simply stop hunting at all after opening day. Other times of the season when large groups of hunters used to start driving the deer sanctuaries, that all seems to have died out or severely diminished. These drives were useful for getting deer on their feet again. They aren't much of an impact anymore.

So you've got about a 1/2 to 3/4 of a day of lively hunting, and after that unless you are ready to invade the little hidey-holes with some skillful still-hunting, things can get pretty darn boring.

Things may be considerably different in other parts of the state or area, but in our area, that is kind of what our deer season has evolved into over the years.

[growalot]

Opening day...a lot of running deer...as time progresses, a lot or a sneaky deer. Now as far as buck go...it depends on intensity of the rut. Buck will still be out seeking.

[uberyan]

11 hours ago, wdswtr said:

Yes sir, 

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/hunter_shot_and_killed_in_mcgr.html

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/12/police_man_shot_by_another_hunter_in_cortland_county.html

Theres a couple examples, I can recall some others too, guy in blind at bottom of a ravine shot by a guy at top of ravine in the stomach, deer was between them and did not see the camo blind over 100 yards away at the bottom, one time a guy shot his hunting partner when a deer stepped between them, and another a guy shot himself by accident.  A close one that happened to a guy we invited down, he was standing on watch opening day against a tree, pretty big and tall guy and a bullet struck a tree a few inches above his head, needless to say he never came back again.  The number of idiots have calmed down since doe permits are not so easily available and in quantity however it just takes one idiot to ruin any ones life.  Be safe out there Saturday

Stories like that make you wonder if orange even makes a difference. Seems most accidents happen because people take shots without even taking a moment to properly visually acquire the target.

I'll be wearing orange regardless but these are the kinds of stories that I dread while prepping to stalk on public lands...