Pennsylvania Game News - December 2014 - 25

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Opening Days

HERE'S something special about the opening day of just about any sporting
event. No matter it be when the "Boys of Summer" start up in the spring
or the NFL season kicks off.
Hunting is no different. The opening days of most hunting seasons, especially
deer season, are considered holidays to many hunters. The anticipation building
up to opening days has a lot to do with how special they are.
From the standpoint of being successful, you want to be out there on opening
days. The opening Monday of the deer firearms season still remains the magical
day it has always been for hunters. Nearly half of the antlered deer harvest in
the 2013-14 season was taken on the opening day of the firearms season.
More than half of the bear harvest occurs on the firearms bear season opener.
The opening days of our small-game seasons might not come in with some
of the fanfare they did back in the day, though. I remember as a kid when on
the rabbit and pheasant season opener, hunters had to wait until 9 a.m. to get
started. I can remember seeing scores of hunters lined up at the edges of fields
chomping at the bit to get the new season started, and just like with the 8 a.m.
trout-fishing starting time, it always seemed that someone "jumped the gun" and
started a few minutes earlier. In good pheasant country, right after the 9 o'clock
opening bell, salvos of gunfire could be heard in every direction.
Times have changed with some of our small game seasons, but now the opening
day of pheasant season still brings out a lot of hunters on our game lands where
the birds are stocked. And in the southcentral counties where I hunt pheasants,
it's not unusual to see a lot of vehicles in the parking areas with out-of-state plates,
especially from Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. One fellow from Virginia I
talked to last year said he makes the annual trip to Adams County every year
during the first week of the season because, other than shooting preserves, he
can't hunt pheasants where he's from.
I still eagerly await the opening day of dove season each year. For me, it's the
first hunting I do after the close of spring gobbler season three months prior.
My first buck came on the opening day of the 1979 season, after a few
unsuccessful years of trying real hard and wanting a buck more than anything.
My journal entry reads: "November 26, 1979, Forest County - 7:30 a.m.; out of
the gloomy, steady rain three does followed by a buck ran toward me. When
they stopped and milled around, put the crosshairs of the .30-06 on the buck's
shoulder and touched off a shot. The deer ran out of sight. Followed up where
they had gone and saw a patch of white on the ground in the gloomy woods,
and then an antler sticking up. Got a 4-point."
Don't miss those precious opening days; there are only just so many.

Bob D'Angelo

DECEMBER 2014

25
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2014

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