Well?

Had kids in two enclosed blinds in my hot spots. One saw a doe and 2 fawns fly by and the other one saw a small buck with 2 doe with no shooting. All day sits. I took a ride about 10 and saw no deer live or dead. Some hunters out but no masses like it used to be. Heard a couple shots close early but they must not have connected or else not shooting at deer.
 
Lots of deer out there but they learned not to leave rubs, scrapes, tracks or poop. Just have to go deeper into the woods.

I was a little north of you, but the weather conditions were far from ideal in my area on Monday.  Warm and breezy in the morning then snow/sleet/rain in the afternoon followed by some more wind for the last hour of light.  Shooting was fairly light in my area as I expected.
 
I got down out of my stand around 1 to take a break and eat lunch at my truck and saw a pretty good buck while walking out.  He was bedded in a thicket and just slowly stood up and wandered off, but never offered a shot.  I hauled butt and tried to loop around and cut him off as I thought I knew where he was headed, but that didn't work out of course.
 
Looks like some more crappy weather is on the way for this weekend  I'll be back at it Friday and Saturday regardless.  
 
 

I was up in 1B where I have hunted for the past 30 years. There were only a few hunters out. Heard a couple of distance shots. (nothing close) First time in 12 years I did not fire a shot. With 2 others who saw one small 4 point. I just wanted a doe for the frezer. Weather was rain off and on but we stuck it out the whole day.

Just having some lunch and enjoying the post.  If I didn't know better I'd guess you guys were hunting in my back yard.  Tree stands to my south were filled by opening light but, no shooting and by noon there was lots of vacancies in the trees.  Three shots rang out from the dairy farm across the road around 7:00 am then one shot from the woods bordering the farm.  It wasn't till 2:15 pm that I heard four shots to the East of my place.  I saw no deer being pulled from any of the areas where the shootings took place.  The Amish farm to the north of me usually has four deer hanging from the eve of their barn by quitting time and there was nothing I could see.
 
Anybody want to bet the PGC is ready to increase the 'antlerless tags' for next year?
 
Gotta get back to hunting for something I didn't lose and I know I'll find it in the last place I look.
 
Good luck to yinz all.
 
 
PS. Hey Doc how is your buddy doing?

Seems like many are seeing and hearing the same thing. Not sure where the 750,000 deer hunters are the PGC says are out there. If those 750,000 moved as much as 750,000 of the 1,000,000 we used to have did, deer should still be moving around. 
 
Wayne, what township in Western Greene? You can't be far from me in East Finley Washington, but I don't see many hunters out at all in these parts. I heard more Marcellus boring shafts together banging than gunshots. 

'Bout the same as most of you.
 
Butler Co portion of 2B in the AM till about 8:30 and had to take care of a few things.  I don't count individual shots, but volleys of shots that seem to be coming from the same hunter.  Heard 6 volleys in that time, but nothing close.  Previous opening days until about 3 years ago, wouldn't be uncommon to hear 40+ volleys in that time.  Got busted by one sneaking in behind me about 7:15. Couldn't tell what it was.  
 
Working from home in southern 2D till mid morning till about 1 PM heard about as many shots as I did in the woods.
 
Hunted a few miles south of the morning spot in the PM with my son - still in 2B.  In the woods from 2:30 till dark.  Heard 3 volleys of shots and didn't see a thing.  
 
Very, very strange opener for sure.
 
Got my son after school and headed out yesterday evening.  In our spot by 4:20 and the fog rolled in about 4:45.  Scope was a foggy mess, so we backed out quietly and cut our losses.  Woulda been a good idea to bring the open sighted .30/.30.  
 
Might get out here this evening for a bit when he gets off the bus.  Tomorrow and Saturday are out due to basketball for him.  Hopefully hunt Friday evening if it's not raining too hard.  

Here in Ct I have only  a  small farm to hunt- The huntable area-aside from fields- is a large brushy half dry lowland and swamp.
Been hunting regular since the opener 2 weeks ago and not a tail yet.
NADA--Just slipping in quiet and taking a stand or two= no pushing or craziness.
 No nuts- no squirrels - no turkeys- no freaking chipmunks and only a very rare tweety bird flying past. VERY few far distant shots.
 Never seen it like this in over 45 years of Deer hunting.
Sounds like PA and Ct are having similar---"issues".

S-10
I enjoy looking at the success photos on another pa hunting site and have for years. One thing seems to be happening in my perception is the number and size of the racks is  decreasing as time goes on. For sure this years rifle season has tanked so far or else folks just quit posting photos.

Seems down on the sites I visit to. I don't get the impression as you do about the size of the racks though. Less bucks, numbers wise for sure, but rack size holding its own, IMO. 

 Quit huntin' 'em 'bout 3 yrs. ago. Very, very little sign/tracks in old snow so stopped buying licence 'till herd comes back 'round here. Least they thin the herd early & don't have the opening day slaughter like yrs. past.
 
crappy 

Good point s10, on the rack size also declining.   Personally I have seen it over the last few years.   I think its partially that the "3 up" rule makes it so much easier to tell a legal buck quickly that far less are "saved" due to indecision of even previously legal bucks.    I am also seeing and hearing about LOTS of poaching etc.    The lower the herd gets, it seems the more it occurs.   Even the local wcos had a writeup recently about seeing a big increase in baiting every year for the last few.    I also know of several deer in the last few years that were inedible due to infected gunshots from 22's etc.  that were shot some point previously during or prior to archery season.   I and others I hunt with have seen multiple occaissions where guys got out of vehicle along backroads to shoot at a deer or turkey with a gun, when the only season in was archery deer.    Also hear of these things and more on a regular basis.   Even stopped to ask a goofball to hunt his land, and was basically bragging that he went out on his 200 or so acreas and shot deer whenever he felt like it.   ( and not for crop damage, he has none)  Its bad.  Very bad.   Southwest Pa is becoming the poaching capital of Pa.

Hunted public land in 1B.  Counted 89 shots before I got bored of it around 10:00 or so.  That's about half the pace of the last two opening days.
 
Saw 8 deer from stand.  Doe+fawn, then a doe and two fawns that got jumped passed me by a sow and 4 cubs.  Around 10:30 caught a buck sneaking behind me then noticed there were two other deer ahead of him, does.  Shot the buck, decent 7pt.  Jumped two different deer while dragging him out.  I actually thought it was a decent deer-seeing opening day.  I had the feeling if I stayed in stand I could expect to see deer throughout the day.  6 or 7 vehicles in the lot, but never saw another hunter except closer to the road.
 
For what it's worth, heard from a local taxidermist who compared his buck numbers to same time last year.  As of the end of PA archery and 1st week of NY gun he was right on last year's pace.

Saw no deer Monday.  Was out in the rain all day.  Tuesday was out all day in the sleet and freezing rain.  Had 8 hunters driving.  We got 6 bucks up.  One a six and the other a 5 or 6.  Both were shot at and missed.  I saw 12 deer but no bucks.  Today I was out all day and saw one big date eight point that another hunter got.   He was coming my way but got cut down before he got to me.  We saw this buck yesterday with a doe.  Monday I heard 8 shots all day.  Was hunting in 2C.

This is just a little tip. If you want deer meat in P.A. don't wait for the first day. You have to put the season in when you cook it. The rules are there are no RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More of the same...
 
Did not hunt but it was slow here least amount of shots I have heard since 2005 when I moved here-1B
Heard of 1 nice 8 taken Monday but even that guy said it was slow as far as deer sightings.
My family in NEPA got 1 missed 2 and let another walk Monday(all bucks they do not hunt does)also said a lot of people were out and a lot of shots fired.
I have noticed more hunters around here last 3 years and less deer.
Also seemed like the rough winter last year affected antler growth this year lil' bucks were real scrubby looking this year lots of busted up skinny racks-might be a good year for bucks next year if winter isn't bad.
PGC will tell us it was a great year...WCW

i think we all can agree that there are less deer and therefore less bucks out there open to public hunting. at least where i hunt in the ANF. (i can't speak for those that hunt on private property.)
i have noticed there are more people sitting in tree stands. who do you expect to push deer towards you of only the few deer that are left? i see very few hunters actually walking the woods any more especially on the first day. i used to sit all day at one location also but learned i've been doing better seeing deer while i move more. it's interesting reading how people SEE deer on the way to their tree stand and on the way out.
with the increase of yotes out there i believe the deer don't move around as far as they used to to feed or bed down. in colder rainy weather i've kicked deer out of beds as late as 10 in the morning that haven't moved from the night before. and these beds aren't that far from feeding areas.
my own opinion if more people were moving in the woods during the day we all might be seeing more of the few deer that are out there.
with that being said i talked to people from 3 camps that no one had got a buck the first 2 days and only a few seen deer.
anyhow here's the buck i got this year. i only seen 4 other deer before i got this at 3:30pm monday. last year i only seen one which was the buck i got.
good luck to all of you!!
 
5 point, an inch shy of a 6 point, 17" outside spread. died in the ANF Forest County from a single gunshot.


 
cheers!