Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 31
Opening Days, Lost and Found
It had been daylight for nearly two hours, and I'd yet to see a deer on this opening
day of firearms season. I hadn't even heard a shot.
But with a damp breeze in my face, and purpose in my step, I plunged farther into
the grayness ahead and, suddenly, a buck throttled into view. It nearly was within arm's
reach, but actively speeding away, strapped to a carrier on a passing pickup.
I continued up the sidewalk as the string of vehicles at my side made it to and
through the traffic light ahead, then I crossed the street to head to work, just a bit more
frustrated about what I was missing out on.
As a kid, I never missed an opener. But after high school, any given year was a
toss-up, even recently. That's the way of the working world for many. Responsibilities
sometimes get in the way of what we'd really like to do. Perhaps no matter how much
vacation time we've saved up.
While I always was excited for my first hunt of the season, whenever it came, knowing full well every day in the deer woods holds potential, none seemed to hold quite
the same magic as opening day, when a buck is on the horizon, from dark to dark, in
a hunter's imagination and, sometimes, reality.
I look back at my opening days lost and wonder. Where would I have hunted?
What was there when I was not? What deer might I have had the chance to harvest?
But mostly I wonder just how many hunters no longer have to miss out on the
opener because they don't have to work weekends.
Last year's Saturday opener was popular enough to spike license sales, leading
Pennsylvania to buck nationwide decline trends. And that surge has continued into
this hunting season, when even more opportunities abound.
With deer hunting permitted this year on the Sunday following the Saturday opener,
opening day has become more like opening weekend. And the fact most hunters likely
will be off work both days could make for some great action, and maybe the most
electric-charged second day a Pennsylvania deer season has ever seen - perhaps possessing a little magic of its own.
In the years I missed the opener, such an immediate, high-energy follow-up almost
might have made up for it. But, at the same time, since I seldom had to work weekends
in those years, I probably wouldn't have been looking to make up for a Saturday opening day lost; I'd have been out there hunting it, year after year. And Sunday, as well.
While there's no going back and changing any of it - and with the sheer midweek
luck I've been dealt over the years, I'm not sure I'd want to - it's comforting to think
that, on this year's opener, more of those hunters plunging ahead with the wind in their
faces will be dressed not in their work attire, but in blaze orange, with the chance to
strap their own bucks to a carrier on a pickup.
Travis Lau
DECEMBER 2020
31
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020
Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 48
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 52
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 56
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2020 - Cover4
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