Quietest Opening Day I Can Recall

[nybuckboy]

I saw no deer and my son saw 2 spikes but overall not alot of shooting... very quiet. How bout you?

[arrow nocker]

thats what i was thinking.And we even had 2 inches of snow on the ground here.

[Jennifer]

Pretty quiet morning here. Not too many shots, and none nearby. All the shots I heard-- for the first time that I've ever been out-- were singles. Usually you hear at least one series of shots where someone is shooting at a running deer, but not this year. I was actually quite happy to hear it.

Watched some does this morning moving and poking around casually, not spooked or pushed at all. Was wishing all my kingdom that I had a doe tag as a big lady doe was hanging out near my stand!

[NY Trophy Hunter]

Saw plenty of deer, but I agree very few shots.

[cnyhunter]

Been huntin for 30 years and can not ever remember so few shots. This is a perfect sign of how the DEC has chased away fair weather hunters with license fee increases. Not that thats a bad thing but less hunters equals less deer movement.

[RifleSharpShot]

Nothing and its getting late so if i see another 4 pointer sorry buddy he's going down ..

[New York Hillbilly]

Four does and one little spike. All walked. No shots fired on my property and only one shot heard all day that was close by on one of my neighbor's. I agree, this was the absolute quietest I can remember in our southern Oneida county town . Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Edited November 20, 2011 by New York Hillbilly

[bkln]

Saw two does and nothing else, heard only few shots, yeah, it was quiet in Hudson Valley

[Deerthug]

Five does and an oddball spike yesterday morning and no movement at all in the afternoon. Hoping for some movement this morning.

[bkln]

Five does and an oddball spike yesterday morning and no movement at all in the afternoon. Hoping for some movement this morning.

What are you still doing here??? :-) Go and get a deer! I'm right there with ya , lol

[growalot]

I'll be going out a bit later ...winds are pretty wild right now ...and have been all night with periods of rain.....gotta go shower...Good Luck

[JMP]

There were quite a few shots in 7F for the first half hr of light then nothing until I climbed down at noon. I saw 4 doe and a little 8. They all got a pass. Hopefully the firearms season will be a little better this year. High winds and pissy warm weather keeping me out of the stand this morning. Maybe I'll get out for the evening hunt.

[315hunter]

I'm in 7F too I thought The shots were way down than recent years. And it is very windy this morning. Always something opening weekend.

[Tio1]

9h was the worst first day. In an area where deer typically seen, not a deer all day on stand.

[Doc]

I've been saying that right along for the last few years that every year is quieter than the last. Yesterday was ridiculous. Also, more and more guys are coming out for only a half day.

But, they must be getting more efficient than ever before because when I took my deer over to the procesor around 11:00 am, he already had the conveyor full of skinned deer and bunches of deer waiting to be skinned laying all over the ground. I'm not sure how unusual that is because I have never took a deer over that early opening day, but there was a pile of them already.

So what's going on? Whoever would have thought that opening day of gun season would be getting so deserted. I finally had to ask my Brother-in-law who's been hunting with me for decades if I was simply having one of those senior recall failures when I start getting the notion that hunter activity used to be so much greater 20 or 30 years ago. He assured me that it really is not just my imagination. The change is dramatic. By the way, surprising to me, the change to Saturday seems to have made it even worse. To me it seems like the change is way more than the annual couple of percentage points of decline that the DEC keeps talking about. I'm starting to wonder if there isn't a significant number of people who buy licenses and then don't go out hunting. Actually I do know a few like that.

[arrow nocker]

i think every one around me is just stand hunting and dont want to spook the deer of their land for the nextdoor neighbor to shoot.So there isn't any driving them.Very few shots more than one at a time,meaning they are probably ambush hunting and taking aim instead of shooting at a jumped deer.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I just came back in from getting the paper (not able to hunt today), and when I was crossing the road, I looked down toward the state land. Yesterday there were some trucks parked on the side of the road down there, today, nothing. Now I cant see the main parking lot from here, as its on another road, but my guess would be theres only a few guys up there this morning.

[NYDeere]

I was hunting near Mexico, NY opening day with a couple inches of snow. Saw a few deer tracks, only a few shots off in the distance but no deer in my area. Fighting a bad cold with lots of coughing today but will be back out hunting Monday assuming I feel better. At 63 I need to take care of myself plus I don't enjoy hunting in the rain anymore. It is hell to get OLD!

[Dstone001]

I'm in 4Z. Yesterday there was a round of shots at sunrise. It's been pretty quiet today I saw two does yesterday and two more today. The Only bucks were on the side of the road as I drive by. Oh, and the pictures my friend emailed me if deer in their yard.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Dstone001

[landtracdeerhunter]

Little breezy this morning here. Someone had to get a deer very badly, early this morning. Two shots went off at 6:28 A.M.. Yesterday was so so in the A.M. Normal shots fired. The afternoon, deer came in, at 4:15, passed on an 8 at 62 yds. Happy with the pass, looking for something a little bigger. Seen a few others . Watched a doe work a scrape, had a shooter come a little later, working the same scrape, out of range.

Edited November 20, 2011 by landtracdeerhunter

[bkln]

Nothing again this morning, not even a doe, heard few shots early. It is too damn warm, they ain't moving, the two does I saw yesterday there were bedded down during the day for hours.

[mxsmitz201]

i hunt oneida county right along the rte 5 corrider near vernon/westmoreland and i had counted 61 shots before 7:30, I thought it was comparable to other seasons.

[Nomad]

8h where I hunt, farm land north of 5/20 was great.We took deer and everyone saw more then most opening days. They were running fields all day,chasing .

Today i popped a nice doe by 8:00 buck chasing 3 doe in clover, lots of shoots too.

When we brought our bucks to the meat cutter at 7:00 we were numbers 26 and 27.

[Doc]

Much different kind of action today from what I heard/saw on Saturday. A lot of shooting on both sides of the valley. Still wasn't anything spectacular, but at least it sounded like a gun season was in progress.

[Gthphtm]

Just my thoughts,# 1 We are on the back side of the Moon.# 2 The DEC gave out Too Many Doe Permits last year.They just about wiped out the heard by me last year.