Is it true?

Question

When deer hunting season starts do you have to go out that first day to get a deer. If not you will not get a deer at all thats what I was told.

Answer 1

I've taken deer first thing in the morning on opening day. I've also killed deer with 5 minutes of legal shooting light left on the last day of the season. My suggestion is to be in the woods as much as possible during deer season. There is some luck involved in deer hunting but the people who spend time pre-season scouting and then many hours in the woods during the season are usually the successful ones year in and year out. Also, stay all day. Pack a lunch and eat it in the woods. A lot of people head back to their trucks or camp for lunch and they move a lot of deer as they do. With less people in the woods deer will sometimes feed while the pressure is lower. So your chances of killing a deer increase with the time you spend in the woods. Good luck and good hunting.

Answer 2

In general, where the land is open to the public, you have a better chance of getting a deer on the first day of the season than on later days. This is because all of the activity in the woods drive the deer to other locations or deeper into the woods where they feel safer. They don't just disappear, although it sometimes seems as if they do, they just go to where there is less human activity, they change their feeding habits and they move about less during the day. A really bad time to hunt is the first full moon after deer season has opened. The deer will hide during the day and feed by moonlight at night. You'll have a pretty hard time seeing one on those days. It's not impossible but the likelyhood is significantly decreased.

Answer 3

Hopefully you took that with a grain of salt as you would if someone told you if you step on a sidewalk crack you'll break your mother's back. It is total superstition concocted by some guy who didn't get out on opening day and had to come up with an excuse.

It is far more likely that you will get a deer on opening morning than any other specific day of the season, because number one, there are more deer remaining, they have not been spooked by a lot of hunters and their shooting and more hunters to move them around.

You can certainly shoot a deer any day of the season and it is all about being in the woods and at the right spot when the deer are, regardless of what day it is. It is more important to scout your area, determine the best 2 or 3 places for a stand or to still hunt them based on funnels to and from resting and feeding spots, scrapes, rubs and other deer sign and trails.

A great location on a well travelled route early in the season will almost guaranty you a deer sighting, but keep in mind besides the items mentioned before, you have to be able to blend into the surroundings (even though they are basically color blind) so as to not provide a stark silohette, your sight selection should allow for the winds to come from different directions so for instance you aren't shut out because your only good apparoach is from your front and the wind from your back.

A good natural food source and funnel to bedding area or thick cover is by far the best place to try to have a stand as they will likely come this way at one time or another if you have good sign around that is fresh anyway.

Be patient, hunt through the mid day break many hunters take to eat and rest and you will be as likely to get one as you are going opening morning, assuming sight and scent are right.

Answer 4

Sometimes it happens that way, but not always. Beleave me deer are smart and know what day the season opens just as well as the hunters. Always do your hunting faceing into the wind, a deer can smell you down wind from miles away. A 30-30 is the best gun for brushy country. For open range a 243 or 270 is great. A 30-06 is to strong, unless you are shoting at very long ranges and will destroy a good 1/4 of the deer, if you make a shoulder shot.

Answer 5

That has some truth in it for inexperienced hunters in areas where the hunting pressure is severe. On the other hand, I've scouted a deer in August and hunted from the beginning of bow season through until I killed him in January (we have long seasons in my state), usually picking up an "incidental" deer or two on the way to getting the one I'm hunting.

Answer 6

It's no more true of deer hunting than it is of Christmas-present hunting. It's the anticipation that drives people out in droves on the first day of any season. Christmas present hunting (a.k.a. shopping) season starts officially the day after Thanksgiving. Look at the folks who come out in gaggles and droves for that. The deals may be a little better, but you can get those same deals (or very close) by waiting until mid-December. It's just not as much fun. If you don't get out early, you may miss the best ones of whatever you're hunting. However, good things come to they who wait, too.

Answer 7

25 % of all Deer harvested are taken on the first day.* That leaves 75 % left to harvest the rest of the season or days.* However the greater number of hunters in the woods on the first day means you would have a greater opportunity to harvest one because the Deer are going to be more active & moving around more during the first day.*

Answer 8

Actually, it depends on what day season opens, If it opens on a friday saturday orsunday, I wait until midweek to go. Their are so many hunters out, they stir the animals up and drive them to cover. I find that waiting till midweek, the pressure is off and it seems to be easier to find the animals. If opening day is mid week, I do try to hit that day, hunting pressure is not as heavy cuz most guys are at work, just the more dedicated ones take the days off midweek. I've gotten my animal on the first day, the last day, and many days in between. It all boils down to how much pre hunting time you put in to locate the animals and figure out where to find them come hunting season.
Good luck

Answer 9

no deer hunting is a season ..not a day

Answer 10

I've heard the same myth you have, it's supposed to be good luck to go out on opening day, otherwise you have bad luck the rest of the season. I know some hunters who swear by it, and others who go out when ever they have time and usually end up doing just as well as the superstitious ones did.