Quietest Opening Day I Can Recall

[Doc]

I'm not sure that all the quietness is due to scarcity of deer or anything to do with their patterns and activity. At least that doesn't seem to be the case in our area. What I do see is very light south-bound traffic compared to years past, and not a whole lot of cars in the state parking lots, and darn few guys in the woods. Today was definitely better. Maybe today the hunters were getting a bit bored and finally decided to do a bit of walking and got the deer on their feet more than Saturday. I don't know..... I'm just guessing and theorizing .... lol.

[Pygmy]

I thought that the amount of shooting was about average, considering that rifles have been made legal here. Certainly a LOT less than when everyone was using shotguns...

A friend of mine had his nephew in a tower stand with him, and the boy counted the shots they heard from dusk till dawn..He heard 177 shots...

[Nomad]

Just picked up buck from butcher. He said good numbers so far, up from last year at this point. Some really nice bucks there !

[Fletch]

In 7m state land Saturday LOTS of hunters but shooting very low. Sunday hunters fair amount first half of the day and I think more shooting than Saturday. Heard of a lot of nice bucks seen but not taken. My brother Saturday night saw a 10 , 9 and a 6 or 8 on last watch. And Another in my party saw a nice buck he missed.

My butcher in 7f is very busy so somebody is killing a lot of deer!

Oh and just for the record quietest not even close here. Last year 30 mile an hour winds. the year before torrential rain. 2 years before that an ice storm. Those were poor opening days!!

Edited November 21, 2011 by Fletch

[Dad 6424]

Hunting in Franklin Delaware County there are more people in the woods this year then ever before in my 30 years of hunting BUT not to many shots seing a few tags being filled not monsters well theres not many of them around here to many people shotting meat and most will shot a small buck becouse they did not give out many doe tages it is ruff hunting here with out the doe tags and try to grow a herd

[New York Hillbilly]

Sunday report.......total shots heard for entire day less than a dozen, all far off. Three shots were one after another at .....hold your boots for this...........6AM. Next shots at 6:30 and the rest scattered throughout the day. At 8 AM I watched 3 does being followed by a buck with just one antler, a fork horn. They all walked..........no shots from me today and none fired on my property. Deadsville...........in Sangerfield. LOL!

[taly35]

No deer at all from 05:00 am to 05:00 pm, wind very strong no shuts at all : - (

[ELMER J. FUDD]

In 4J, I heard 8 shots from 615 to legal shooting time, total of 38 by noon. Only 1 double shot. Maybe some are not hearing shots due to crossbows being used in lieu of firearms...

[WNYBuckHunter]

I was outside most of the day today hanging Christmas lights, doing general cleanup of the yard and cleaning out gutters. Heard maybe 10 series of shots. Counted the vehicles parked at the state land on my way to drop my daughter off @ 4:30, there were 6. I think the warm temps and wind had the deer in their beds for alot of the day today. Temps are going back down and will top out at 41 for my area tomorrow, very light winds as well. Should be a great day tomorrow. Winds out of the NE too, gonna take a trip up to a farm I have been saving for a N NE wind. Seen some great bucks up there through binos before season.

[wooffer]

i was hunting in Bethel (Sullivan County) and saw 2 does in the morning and 2 more in the evening. Other guys in the party got two bucks.

[Hunter1]

The quietest opening 2 day in 35 yrs on the border of 4p &4g . I heard more shots last weekend from sighting in

[Jennifer]

Interestingly, this afternoon after the really strong winds died down, right around 4:00pm, the shooting started. Didn't hear a shot all day then at 4pm-sunset it was like opening morning, lot of barrages... people shooting running or jumped deer. I wonder if the weekend hunters decided to do some driving in the afternoon as their weekend was winding down to a close? No shots at all, then the last hour sounded more like opening day than opening day did.

I didn't see any deer all day-- winds were bad here. It was one of those days where you keep an eye on the tree canopy to make sure you aren't walking under a widow-maker, because the wind was screaming right along. Then we pull in to our driveway at home about 5:00 and my yard had no less than 16 deer in it. 16!! We had a good laugh at that one.

[RobC]

I was hunting 9g and I thought the shots were very low. Always been able to hunt with rifle in my area so it's not that guys are taking less shots just no shots at all not sure whats going on here.

[Moosemaple]

8-Y was also very quiet, it did pick up a little on Sunday.