Got my deer already
 

Just got back from taking my deer to the butcher shop. It' s only a doe, but it' s my first deer so far, so I' m happy with that at least. I got it at 7:05 this morning, just as I was ready to go to sleep, it and another doe stepped out of the woods into a little clearng about 60 yards away, just where I dreamed of seeing it. The wind was to my advantage, and they had no clue I was there. The front one got nto the woods before I noticed, but the second one stopped for a second, then took about 2 steps, and I downed her. 1 shot, right behind the shoulder and down a little bit, and she went straight down, and kicked a few times, but didin' t move. When we gutted her, we saw that the bullet blew through the ribs of one side, tore the main artery into the heart right off of the heart, and went out the other side. So, my doe tag is filled, but I' m getting ready to go out now, and fell the buck tag with the bg one that' s been running behind my stand. ;)
Hope everyone else had good luck:D

RE: Got my deer already
 

I downed a doe about 8:45 this morning. It was the only thing moving, guess the high wind gusts are keeping the deer bedded. Very few shots all morning, seemed like a Sunday or something. Some guy up from me shot a buck 20 minutes before legal shooting time, must of had some type of night vision because it was still quite dark out at 6:20. Looking at the local butchershop' s pile (about 10 am), there were 5 buck and 26 antlerless brought in so far.

Seems that PA has truly become a doe hunters paradise.

RE: Got my deer already
 

yah, I ytook mine in about 11:00, and there was only about 20-30 doe then, and no buck, I didin' t hear hardly any shos either, less than 30 all day, and usually it' s like d-day all over again behind my house.

RE: Got my deer already
 

Congrats guys,I shot a 7pt around 10:30. It was about 10' away.The spot I was huntin is pretty thick.I was in a tree stand and the longest shot I could of taken was about 20 yds.

RE: Got my deer already
 

Congrats guys. I was already to go, but when I woke up at 3:45am, I wasn' t feeling too good[X(] So I missed the opener[:' (] Was everyone else getting high winds? I stepped outside my door and almost blew away![&:]

RE: Got my deer already
 

Congrats everyone. ;)

I got stuck working today so I missed the opener. [:' (] Probably won' t make it out until Wednesday.

RE: Got my deer already
 

Congrats to all!!good luck to the rest!!

RE: Got my deer already
 

Today was the most wild deer hunting day I have EVER EVER had. I downed a nice, large bodied doe at about noon today. When everyone was heading back to the trucks for lunch, I had already eaten and was sitting tight. It worked out well. I say it was wild because, The wind was so crazy that it almost knocked me out of my tree stand several times(thats when I got down) and I have never seen a deer quite as tough as this one that i kiled today. It just kept taking a hit after hit and just kept running! I handloaded Nosler Ballistic tips in a .300 and the deer would just take the hit, fall down, and get back up and run. No Garbage gut shots either! It was nuts[:o]! I ran it down and thats probably why it ran so far now that i think of it. I ran out of shells in the process. I felt so goofy cause Ive shot 7 deer and Ive never shot more than twice to down a deer. Im young and unexperienced...

About that wind... Do you PA guys think that it affected the harvest a lot today? It seemed to me that there wasnt a whole lot of shooting going on. Last year in the same spot it seemed like hell breakin loose... not this year for sure. I heard a few guys down on the Game lands firing volleys of shots at em but that was it for the morning. Most guys I talked to said they only saw 1 or no deer at all which is very uncommon for this spot.

RE: Got my deer already
 

Congrats to those who scored....
I grazed the belly of a doe - didn' t even get a drop of blood, just some white hair.
That wind was brutal! There was a lot of action (shooting) here in the morning all around the valley but not on our hill (except for me). I seen 8 deer total - 3 bucks of which one was a shooter. Two button bucks and four does. The shooter buck snuck up behind me before I knew it - couldn' t shoot at him as there was a house in that direction. Overall I would say that this was the quietest opening day. Let' s see what tomorrow brings us....... hopefully less wind!

RE: Got my deer already
 

Well I got a half day in, cause of work. First thing in the morning there was alot of shots but as soon as the wind picked up very few shoots. I went by the local butcher he had quite a few deer but nothing like last year on first day. I wont be back out till thursday. I wish everyone else good luck.

Congrats to all

RE: Got my deer already
 

RemLover,To answer your question about the wind.YES It does cause the deer to move less and also makes them more cautious when they do move.Somethin you might wanna try is,find the thickest spot you can.You won' t be able to see far and a tree stand really helps.That' s where the deer are goin to be.They may hit the thick stuff and lay downbut it' s not uncommon for a deer to get up and move around 5 or 6 times in a day.That' s when you' ll have a chance to take one and they will usually just be walkin slowly cause they feel safe.Good Luck

RE: Got my deer already
 

I had good luck hunting in Washington County, we have approx. 200 acres we hunt near the WV border. I got into the woods about 0630 and perched in a wooden treestand I built a few years ago. I' m about 240 lbs, so its difficult for me to ascend this stand in silence. At about 0715, it became light enough to shoot and much to my surprise a nice buck was bedded about 100 yards to my left, it never spooked when I walked in, must have used that wind to my advantage. The deer noticed that I was there, but stood up and fed in an area that did not present a shot. After a few minutes it began walking and I was able to get off a shot. Idowned the deer at about 80 to 100 yards. A nice 8 pt with a 15" spread, I consider it a great deer for the 4 point restriction in Washington County. good luck to everyone else.

RE: Got my deer already
 

congrats to the ones that scored. :D. The wind really makes it hard for natural movement, but when the drivers come out it just doesn' t matter what its doing out there.

Good luck the rest of the 2 weeks and above all be safe out there and have Fun.

Brian

RE: Got my deer already
 

ind was bad but , the sleet was worse in my opinion , and i didn't see any deer , i only heard about 15 shots all day , a real downer in all