Ten minutes to seven this morning and I just heARD 3 SHOTS OUT BACK. You can't even see out there..
 

Sunday night my uncle called me to talk a little and to wish me luck on Monday. Sort of as a joke I said I wasn't looking for a trophy at all & the first legal buck to cross my path was as good as dead. I told my uncle "I wouldn't be disappointed if my buck season was over by 7:30"
Well,l I got in my stand at about 6:45 yesterday and heard shooting by 6:50. At 7:15 I heard a deer walking towards me was able to make out quickly that he was a buck but took me a little longer to determine if he was legal. ! was finally able to tell he was a legal 7pt and let him have it with the 7mm Mag. 7:18 my buck season was over.



He's no trophy, but no matter how long you cook them you can't eat the antlers.
Now Saturday I'm gonna see if I can get a doe to keep him company in the freezer.
Good luck out there this week fellas!

Like you said, you can't eat the antlers... nice looking buck!
 
Congrats!

Pretty quiet in my area yesterday.  I was out all day and heard less than 20 shots.  I did see some deer including a few young bucks, just none of the big guys yet.  I'll be back at it Saturday.
 
Congrats to you guys who connected!

Here's a goofy one I got the last day of archery.  Yes that's a tine sticking straight out on the right.  http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn192/startinout/2012deer.jpg

Great job to everyone who scored so far!
 
Ironhed

Thank you! Yeah I lie my 7 Mag! 4 years ago I killed my first 8 point with that rifle at 386 yards. Best shot I ever made & even at that range it dropped him in his tracks.
Thanks again everyone & good luck!

I knew this was going to be good day,picked a nasty thicket to hunt.Daylight came slowly, we had a light coating of snow. Around 8:00 I hear crashing deer in the thicket, a buck chasing a doe,and her two fawn don't know whats going on.It's so thick and nasty I can't get a look at the bucks head and they head down the hollow,well I think I just blew a chance. A few minutes later the doe runs back in front of me at about 65 yards,Mr BUCKY walk into a very small window,I'm on the sticks cross hair settle on shoulder bang 270 speaks,30 yard death run,Nice 8 pt 18 inch spread,lacks tine lenth but I'll take him. I tagged out in Ohio(bow) and Pa. Bring on the ice (fishing) now I  can put in  time and start my beagle pup Bella. Good luck boys and girls.

Congrats Tuna..... bet that was exciting......

I had the best opening day in my life.  My 11 year old son got his first buck...a nice little 4pt at about 7:30 (pics posted on off-topic PA).  He was stoked, but probably not as much as I was.

I shot this one Tuesday morning.

The problem with that line of thinking is there is only so much open land and it is rapidly becoming less as a result of HR as folks post, or lease and post in order to have a few deer.
That in turn forces most folks onto public lands already depleted of deer and leads to the large hunter dropout rate we are seeing.
That in turn gives us less clout and the anti hunters and non hunters more control over our hunting rights than they currently have.
Using the internet to point this out is not bitc--ng but trying to inform folks so they will contact the politicans to voice their objection to the lies and false information the PGC is spreading.
A current example of this is the PGC CLAIMS to be managing for a stable herd but have based the Current allocation of antlerless licenses on our having THE SAME number of deer as we had BEFORE AR/HR.    As you have already stated that is simply not true.
You can act like a sheep and go quietly or you can try to enlist help in changing things. The thing that you can do that will most favor you is to stop what is happening.
Hunters typically are not vocial in support of their sport. The antis are, and know how to use the internet and politican's to further their cause. That fact will probably defeat us In the long run.

Congrats Road Runner....awesome buck there....good job!

"A current example of this is the PGC CLAIMS to be managing for a stable herd but have based the Current allocation of antlerless licenses on our having THE SAME number of deer as we had BEFORE AR/HR."
 
Have you written for, and recieved an explanation for this.? Are they "managing for a stable herd" statewide, or just specific WMAs? Are they using pre HR/AR numbers to base allocations statewide, or just specific WMA's?

Spoon asked: Have you written for, and recieved an explanation for this.? Are they "managing for a stable herd" statewide, or just specific WMAs? Are they using pre HR/AR numbers to base allocations statewide, or just specific WMA's?
 
Spoon---I'll answer this question on here but so as not to hijack the thread lets continue it through pm's or another thread if you want more info.
Yes, I had several exchanges of e-mails on this and several other topics with my BOC member. When I pointed out the fallacy of his first answers he attempted to change the conversation. When I backed up my second round with facts from the PGC website itself he decided we had talked enough and I suggested he should wait until my generation had died off and perhaps they could convince younger folks who didn't know better and didn't bother to research their claims.
 
They claim to be managing all but a couple WMU's for a stable herd.
They are not using PRE AR/HR numbers but claim to calculate the current numbers for each WMU each year and those numbers are posted on their website.
The PGC has STATED they could not support Alts 1,600,000 number but stated they could confirm 1,500,000 deer prior to 2001.
You have to do a bit of digging and some math to confirm their estimation of deer in the SRA's but all the others are there and you merely add them up.
Do the math and you see they claim we have the same number or more today as we did before AR/HR.
Some folks, including myself, have killed some nice bucks this year but we always have killed some nice bucks each and every year. Don't forget that according to the PGC record books the year we entered the most bucks EVER is STILL the year before AR/HR which is also the year we killed the MOST total bucks. 
As an aside, I found my first pair of dropped horns Tuesday and saw a different buck last night that had also dropped his. Hope they don't get shot as doe. Next years potential shooters.