opening day

[white eagle]

Is the same for you all
If you don't get a deer ,elk ect.on opening day you won't get one
opening weekend here is usually it for me, if I don't have one on the ground then the chances of getting one at all are greatly diminished

[s mac]

I don't give up after opening day, but seems it get harder the deeper into the season we get.

[edctexas]

The deer learn alot in the first few days of the season! My dad worked at a research lab with a tall fence. There were two places that a deer could jump the fence due to terrain (one entering and one leaving). After the first weekend of open hunting, there would be hundreds of deer coming into the lab compound (many acres) at first light. At sunset, they would be queuing up to leave.

Muzzleloading seemed to give you a better chance at bagging a deer, but several days into that season they learned again to take evasive action.

Ed C

[Viper225]

We have so much ground posted or leased around me that the pressure is not all that bad. Then we have Alternate Weapons season to try again, so I get another week with my Super RedHawk. Between both seasons I have nearly 3 weeks to hunt with my handgun, and cast bullets.
Tomorrow morning is opening day of the firearms season here in Missouri.

Bob

[DonMountain]

Tomorrow is opening day here in Missouri. On the first day the kids and grandkids make such a ruckus in the woods running wild instead of staying in their deer stands, and don't get anything but chase all the deer off the farm. So, I wait a week or so and sneak out to my deer stand with a book and thermos of coffee, and by the time the day is over I usually have my three.

Saturday Evening: Well, I drank my thermos of coffee on the deer stand this morning and didn't see anything, but the grandson shot a nice buck with his 30-06 and store bought ammo. This evening I shot a nice buck with real odd coloring using a 180 grain gas checked RCBS boolet out of the 7.5 French, over 32.0 grains of H4895. A lot of black on its face and a dark brown to black body colors with spashes of white on its face. Never seen one like that in Missouri. A huge blood trail for the 30 feet it went. Like red water running out of a 1/2" pipe. But guess what the grandson is going to use tomorrow since he used up his last store bought ammo? I don't carry in "stock" any store bought ammo.

[starmac]

My neighbor always waits till the last 2 days of moose season before he heads out, always gets one. lol This year he went after sheep opening day, and took a friend with him, by noon on opening morning they both had sheep down.
I think a lot depends on where you hunt.

[leftiye]

"I think a lot depends on where you hunt." Starmac

It all depends how wound up the deer are. Which can be that you have access to area where the deer aren't pressured. When the whole world climbs up in the mountains (traffic jam) opening morning and fires their guns in unison at daybreak, yelling "hooray, deer season is here" the deer simply crawl down the nearest rabbit burrow.

[richhodg66]

Our firearms season always starts on a Wednesday which means the guys who won't/can't take off work to hunt won't be out and I have a decent track record of taking one opening morning. I hunt public land, so the first weekend is a madhouse of idiots with rifles, so I usually try to stay in. Last year, I didn't get one opening day, knew I didn't have many days I'd be able to hunt, so I went out that first weekend and didn't see another soul the whole day. It snowed and turned real bad that day, but I didn't see any tracks besides mine coming onto the plot I hunted. Got a nice doe that evening.

I plan on being on my favorite stand at first light opening morning, for public land hunters, it's the best day of the season.

[pworley1]

Since I retired 11 years, I try to wait a few days before I go. The deer usually settle down a few days after the opening day crowd leave the woods.

[dragon813gt]

Opening day, which is a Monday, pushes them all over. There are about 75% less hunters come Tuesday. They are back to their normal patterns by Thursday. First Saturday screws it all up again. But by Tuesday they are back to normal patterns. I hunt a mixture of private and public land so I've been able to observe their patterns. Day of the week determines where you should hunt. Opening day and Saturdays they get pushed onto private land. But they don't stay there more than a day and go back to life as usual. I'm sure it's different everywhere but this what I've observed where I hunt.

Good thing about opening day here is all the people. They cause every animal to be on the move. We have a concurrent bear season so this helps push them out.

[s mac]

My cast boolit worked for me this morning, couldn't have been any better. How sweet it is.

[lovedogs]

Until I moved into a bigger town I used to live in a small town on the edge of Custer National Forest. I roamed the woods almost every day "just in case" an opportunity presented itself. But usually during the first part of the deer season the woods were crawling with hunters, both resident and non-resident so deer were pretty skittish. My best hunting was almost always the last week of season. By Thanksgiving Day there was almost no one out there. For one thing, it usually snowed heavy by then and a lot of hunters preferred to be at home. My best days were almost always on Thanksgiving...no one out and about...all home with family I guess. Seldom did I not fill a tag on Thanksgiving Day when I had the woods all to myself. The bigger bucks who had been in hiding were then out cruising.