Opening *BANG* Day *BANG* Rifle *BANG* Deer *BANG* Season *BANGBANGBANG*

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dust_101

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What a Saturday... sitting alone in one of my usual spots I counted (i kid you not) 137 shots fired during the morning and evening hunts I sat through. Saw only a bare few whitetails (duh) and was amazed to hear if anyone got anything.

What on earth could you be shooting at, for that many shots?? I've been told it's just opening day jitters, or frustration, or just shooting at anything/everything that moves...

Needless to say I shortly was in a FULL ON pumpkin suit, forget camo anything that was one scary day to be out.

Sunday was much quieter, only saw an 8 pointer following 2 does about 250yds out through dense saplings, and one spike following a doe who presented a perfect broadside shot, but lucky for him he was illegal.

Just kept wondering.... that many shots... did the Zombies finally awaken?
 
Maybe you were near us. My dad and I hunted in the morning till about 2 pm, then decided to do some target shooting on some land we had leased last season but lost for this season. Didn't want to get caught hunting it, but we figured Intl. Paper Co. wouldn't mind if we did some target shooting on their land.
 
Yes, Zombies. They awaken much more frequently than you might suspect, they just don't last long enough to make headlines. One day they'll catch us unprepared and then it'll really get ugly. :neener:
 
I was out for the CT shotgun opener last wednesday....I heard about 6 three shot strings. I thought for sure the zombies were coming...
 
Ohhh no this was in upstate NY... doubtful it was target shooting... Zombies are always a possibility but I really think it was just some hunters frustrated with the lack of bucks (smaller crop of acorns this year, less deer sightings) and just blasting off rounds...
 
I grew up hunting Jefferson National Forest. The first day of season vehicles lined the roads, people came from miles around to hunt there first day. Though it is made of thousands and thousands of acres the place got rather filled up. I know some people complain about lots of shooting going on, but to me, the thought of being out on first day hearing all the shots and the deer running all over was exciting. Where ever shots came from, I'd get ready in case something came from that way. And very often I would hear them running from that location toward me. Sometimes I got to see them, and sometimes not. I'm sure there are a few knuckleheads out there just shooting to make noise, but I'd say most people shooting were looking at a deer. (I understand it is illegal to target shoot on National Forest outside a designated area.) I have my own place to hunt now, but sometimes I am tempted to go back there and hunt opening day to experience all the action just for the excitement of it.
 
I understand it is illegal to target shoot on National Forest outside a designated area.
Click to expand...

Not true. You can't shoot within 100 feet of a structure or a roadway, but other than that you can shoot anywhere that's safe.

National PARKS are a different animal.
 
Opening day here in Ky, I heard one hunter fire six shots in a row. My question is, if you couldn't hit him the first time when he wasn't expecting it, what in the h e double ll makes you think you're gonna hit him with him runnin wide open. :banghead:
 
I heard a few rapid fire blasts here in Michigan. We were near some lakes and my hunting partner said it could be duck/geese hunters. Not sure if they're in season or poachers but we kept hearing rapid 3 shot strings so it makes sense.
 
opening day i fired 2 shots at a doe

and felt bad that i missed then i herd a string of 7 shots from what soundsed to be the same gun


then saturday i heard 2 shots not counting mine
 
I was on a farm outside of St. Louis last week. We were on private land, so didn't have to worry too much about other hunters.

There was a LOT of shooting in the countryside around us, some of it LONG after sundown. In fact, while I was sitting on a hillside waiting for something to come along (nothing ever did), I actually heard MACHINEGUN fire, probably M16, and possibly some BAR. This was quite a ways off. I don't know if there was some guy with legal Class III stuff, or it was the MOARNG. Hopefully, it was one or the other.
 
I was hunting in a valley between two ridgelines in the Missouri Ozarks last year. I constantly heard a lot of shooting from one of these ridges. I knew our mailman and some of his family/friends hunted that ridge and afterwards when I next saw him I asked if they killed a lot of deer and he said only a couple of them got anything. I asked him about all the shooting and he said that it came from a camp a ways down the ridge from theirs and most of these hunters never left camp but all they did was drink beer and then shoot at the empty cans. One shot, deer. Two shots, maybe deer. Three shots, no deer.

RJ
 
dust 101, I was in Onondaga County on Saturday and had the same experience. Lots of shooting, including a couple of strings that sounded longer than any shotgun can handle. Maybe somebody hunting with a handgun? It's a shotgun/handgun only area. I saw a couple of doe between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., then five more in a group about 9:30, but that was it for the day. I don't get the many-shot strings. If yer not sure you can do it with this one shot, probably shouldn't be takin' that shot!

Monday went down to Cortland County and took a nice doe around 11:30am. Far less shooting that day, and only a couple of 5+ strings. Still didn't see an antler. Unfortunately, that's all the time I'm going to get in NY this year.
 
<<If yer not sure you can do it with this one shot, probably shouldn't be takin' that shot!>>

True.
But if one is talking zombies (deer) here.
Like Cujo (Steven King movie), that dog, that was bitten by a bat, infected with rabies.
It will take a few (more than 3?) rounds.
 
Ohhh no this was in upstate NY... doubtful it was target shooting... Zombies are always a possibility but I really think it was just some hunters frustrated with the lack of bucks (smaller crop of acorns this year, less deer sightings) and just blasting off rounds...
Click to expand...
This kind of thing happens all the time on openning day. A lot of the shots are at deer, but my guess is many are also not at deer but at squirrels or whatever. I was out last Saturday also, I wrote about my dder hunt over on my blog here:

http://ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com/2007/11/no-dear.html

This year I did not hear the usual amount of shots that I normally hear while hunting on state land. Of course there was at least one guy who shot before it was legal by maybe at least 5 or 10 minutes. He probably shot the deer, or one of the two that had walked by my stand, heard but unseen by me. Found their tracks later though, so I am sure two of them walked by my stand.

Back to the rat a tat tat shooters. I was quite surprised that I only heard about 2 early shots this year. Usually I hear about 5 to 10 of them, some as much as 30 to 45 minutes before legal shooting time. I did hear thebapparently obligatory single shots, rapidly followed by another 4 quick shots. I have to wonder what these guys are shoting at when they miss with the first, then the second shot. My bet is they never hit the deer with the followup shots. There are just oo many guys shooting like that to keep me relaxed while I am on state land, but I have no other hunting options. I wear some camo, but have a coat and hat of blaze orange during gun season.

It sure doesn't just happen in NY. I have heard it in PA, ME, and in CA. You should have seen the opener of Dove Hunting Season back in the early 80s in and around Calexico, CA. There were actually up to 100 or more hunters who surrounded a section of land, and I literally mean surrounded and all pointing their guns toward the center of the same piece of land. Then when one guy opened up on a bird it was like the fourth of July, but really scary. I just could not see being dumb enough to stand there and be rained upon by multiple hunters' birdshot.

All the best,
Glenn B
 
I was in Steuben County on opening day and got a (200# 12 point). Only 1 shot at 30 yards 7:30am. I heard a lot of shooting every day I was hunting. I think several people were doing some late sighting in of new rifles, since that was a new thing this year. Sorry no pics yet. Still have to download them to the computer.
 
I teach Hunter Safety Ed. 3 shots in a row is the international distress signal for "Come Save My Butt, I'm Lost/Hurt."

But, I tell my students, that in Illinois, 3 shots during legal shooting hours during deer season means "They Missed."
 
I shot 4 times last year in about 10 seconds. 7 deer about 50 yards from me got 4 of em but I doubt that happens very often. First time for me in 17 years of hunting.
 
I shot 4 times last year in about 10 seconds. 7 deer about 50 yards from me got 4 of em but I doubt that happens very often. First time for me in 17 years of hunting.
Click to expand...

Twig,

Were the last three running? That's pretty impressive to one-shot a standing deer and then one-shot three on the run...
 
On the afternoon of the second day of hunting this year, I was sitting on a hill overlooking the Menomonie river which is the border between Michigan and Wisconsin in that area. I witnessed a guy rowing up the river in an orange suit, when he got about even with where my friend's stand was, the guy opened up and fired 3 shots, reloaded and fired at least 2 more toward shore. The guy was in a rowboat, drifting with the current, and firing across at least 80 yards of water. What he was shooting at we could not figure out. Where my buddy sat, he could see the river, and heard bullets hit trees near him, but he didn't see any deer. The best we could figure out was that this moron was shooting at ducks that had been swimming along the banks of the river all weekend long.

We had set up a good 3/4 of a mile away from any roads or parking areas in order to avoid jackasses, but they still found us:banghead:
 
A few years back I took a real (well deserved) ribbing over a bent front site post and a four shot string with nothing to show for it. My buddy said: ''Anymore shots from over there and I was going to call in air support...'' :D

This year one shot-one kill on a 120# eight pointer. But I almost never hunt opening day... too dangerous. Could be an urban legend but I think most ''accidental'' shootings happen opening day and opening weekend.
 
Bang bang...

Ya don't really have to worry until it sounds like a VERY loud BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR......then you got to find the guy with the mini-gun....
 
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