Hunters find opening day success
Rifle season for antlered deer opened Monday in Pennsylvania, and several hunters returned from the woods with kills despite poor weather conditions.
Several counties in the northwest region had controlled burning efforts this year to help build healthy habitats, said Chip Brunst, an information and education supervisor for the state Game Commission's Northwest Division. However, poor weather conditions prevented burns from taking place in Butler County this year.
The same ugly weather reared its head Monday, leading to a seemingly light first-day harvest.
Tiffany Criswell, 25, of Sarver, works at Mc Kruit's Meats in Cabot, and she said their usual processing operation was significantly slower than usual for an opening day.
“It's been slow this year,” Criswell said. “Tomorrow will be real busy because we're supposed to see some snow tonight.”
Criswell, however, already has her buck.
“I only get about four hours a year for this hunt,” Criswell said. “So I guess I got lucky.”
Criswell and a friend sat in a box-stand in Kittaning Monday morning. A 9-point buck appeared on her friend's side of their lookout, but his gun jammed.
Instead, Criswell made the shot.
“He was happy,” she said. “I thought he'd be a little upset, but he was glad somebody got it.”
Father and daughter duo John and Jaden Gaillot returned from the woods near their house in Sarver with a 6-pointer. It was Jaden's kill, her second buck ever. She is 13.
“I like hunting with my dad,” Jaden said.
It makes for good bonding time, John added. They waited in a tree stand from about 5:30 a.m. until 1:10 p.m.
Ben Hilty, 41, said he'd been hunting since he was 12.On Monday, he showed up at Mc Kruit's with a 10-pointer that he shot in Armstrong County.“We spent the entire morning in the woods, then when we were heading back to the truck to grab some lunch it blared across the field about 80 yards away,” Hilty said.It wasn't a beautiful day to hunt, he said. He described conditions as “horrible.”Brunst said it's important for hunters to remember a big rule: Wear your blaze orange.“If you don't have an orange hat on, you're going to get a ticket,” he said, for a safety violation.He also advised hunters to not shoot from, at or through space within 150 yards of any building that might be occupied, which the law demands.The antlerless season starts Saturday. In Wildlife Management Unit 1A, which includes most of western Butler County, 48,000 antlerless tags were sold, Brunst said Monday, while 63,000 antlerless tags were sold in 2D, which covers most of the rest of Butler County. Both zones include other counties.Some hunters shoot doe early and try to pass them off once antlerless deer season begins, Brunst said. He warned that authorities are frequently able to catch people in the act by examining their supposed times of death.
