Md. Opening Day Firearms Deer Season

[wilcam47]

Stupid question, but what would ya'll estimate is your time in the field versus harvest rate. Ie spending 30hrs in the field for every deer harvested. Just curious. I feel like I read something in the DNR magazine that it is something like 40-60hrs or something like that on average in MD. I realize sometimes you get lucky 2 minutes after the start of legal shooting light on your first day and other times you can spend 10 days and nothing. As a first season hunter I am curious.

I dont know that either...like you said sometimes you sit 5 minutes sometimes its days to see a deer.. thats why they call it hunting and not killing

 

[Derwood]

This year for me, it was 50 hours in the stand with a bow. I got no deer, but saw plenty just out of range. Then 4 hours in the stand with a muzzleloader and I got one. So that's 54 hours...or 4 hours. Of course, I'd spent those 50 hours hunting/scouting and knowing where to be and when, so I think you have to count them.

 

[outrider58]

I dont know that either...like you said sometimes you sit 5 minutes sometimes its days to see a deer.. thats why they call it hunting and not shopping

FIFY

lazarus, every day I spend in a tree is as close to paradise as I can get on earth(well, that and a couple other things too). Old Confucian saying: 'It takes no patience if one enjoys what one is doing.'

 

[lazarus]

I enjoy it a lot. I think I am just feeling a little discouraged because on Saturday I had to of tripped over half a dozen hunters or groups of hunters trying to find a spot to settle in patuxent and still got stuck setup within sight (but maybe 120yds away) of another hunter (mostly different fields of fire) right as it was getting on "stop moving and setup" time of day. I had moved from a different section I had been still hunting earlier in the day and seem to have picked the most over crowded part of the park. That and the hunter feed back from guys setup ON the trail "screwing" with their setup.

Interestingly, back in ML, everyone I ran in to with a ML or bow, mostly also still hunting or a small number setup were all at least outwardly super nice, offering sightings and advice. 2 of the guys I ran in to during rifle with shotguns were pure assholes even though I would think the way I was acting it was obvious I was trying to be as quiet and try not to bust heir setup, but the only way to avoid them would be to go off trail an easy 100+ yds and probably do more to scare off any deer bedded in the underbrush than stay on the trail and walk past their setup (maybe don't setup a few feet off the trail if you don't want people walking by you!).

Maybe next year I need to try to take a couple of days off during the week to hunt rifle season and hope there are fewer hunters. It seems like the more people are in the filed, the more arses you get, or maybe just the arses are shorter tempered. Dunno.

I still have hope for this Saturday. Not sure if I am going to try a new place I think might work or go back to the spot I was going to setup in this past Saturday, but there was a twosome in it when I got there so I went elsewhere.

*edit* I enjoyed the heck out of the 3 very long days of early ML. I even enjoyed the earlier part of this past Saturday. It was just the last couple of hours that felt frustrating as hell. I did bump two huge does I didn't have a reasonable shot on earlier that day and also flushed some wild turkey. I hard a bunch of gobblers back in early ML and I've seen feathers in the park, but first actual sighting. Sad it wasn't turkey season and me with my 870 with some #4. 2 took to the air and I had a good 3-4s opening on a huge Tom up in the air at maybe 30yds, other one was mostly insured by trees and was closer to 45 or 45yds. Another 3-6 took off through the underbrush. Only 3rd time I've ever seen wild turkeys.

 

[outrider58]

I enjoy it a lot. I think I am just feeling a little discouraged because on Saturday I had to of tripped over half a dozen hunters or groups of hunters trying to find a spot to settle in patuxent and still got stuck setup within sight (but maybe 120yds away) of another hunter (mostly different fields of fire) right as it was getting on "stop moving and setup" time of day. I had moved from a different section I had been still hunting earlier in the day and seem to have picked the most over crowded part of the park. That and the hunter feed back from guys setup ON the trail "screwing" with their setup.

Interestingly, back in ML, everyone I ran in to with a ML or bow, mostly also still hunting or a small number setup were all at least outwardly super nice, offering sightings and advice. 2 of the guys I ran in to during rifle with shotguns were pure assholes even though I would think the way I was acting it was obvious I was trying to be as quiet and try not to bust heir setup, but the only way to avoid them would be to go off trail an easy 100+ yds and probably do more to scare off any deer bedded in the underbrush than stay on the trail and walk past their setup (maybe don't setup a few feet off the trail if you don't want people walking by you!).

Maybe next year I need to try to take a couple of days off during the week to hunt rifle season and hope there are fewer hunters. It seems like the more people are in the filed, the more arses you get, or maybe just the arses are shorter tempered. Dunno.

I still have hope for this Saturday. Not sure if I am going to try a new place I think might work or go back to the spot I was going to setup in this past Saturday, but there was a twosome in it when I got there so I went elsewhere.

*edit* I enjoyed the heck out of the 3 very long days of early ML. I even enjoyed the earlier part of this past Saturday. It was just the last couple of hours that felt frustrating as hell. I did bump two huge does I didn't have a reasonable shot on earlier that day and also flushed some wild turkey. I hard a bunch of gobblers back in early ML and I've seen feathers in the park, but first actual sighting. Sad it wasn't turkey season and me with my 870 with some #4. 2 took to the air and I had a good 3-4s opening on a huge Tom up in the air at maybe 30yds, other one was mostly insured by trees and was closer to 45 or 45yds. Another 3-6 took off through the underbrush. Only 3rd time I've ever seen wild turkeys.

Late ML season definitely cuts down on the A-hole factor. Bide your time.

 

[sclag22]

I enjoy it a lot. I think I am just feeling a little discouraged because on Saturday I had to of tripped over half a dozen hunters or groups of hunters trying to find a spot to settle in patuxent and still got stuck setup within sight (but maybe 120yds away) of another hunter (mostly different fields of fire) right as it was getting on "stop moving and setup" time of day. I had moved from a different section I had been still hunting earlier in the day and seem to have picked the most over crowded part of the park. That and the hunter feed back from guys setup ON the trail "screwing" with their setup.

Interestingly, back in ML, everyone I ran in to with a ML or bow, mostly also still hunting or a small number setup were all at least outwardly super nice, offering sightings and advice. 2 of the guys I ran in to during rifle with shotguns were pure assholes even though I would think the way I was acting it was obvious I was trying to be as quiet and try not to bust heir setup, but the only way to avoid them would be to go off trail an easy 100+ yds and probably do more to scare off any deer bedded in the underbrush than stay on the trail and walk past their setup (maybe don't setup a few feet off the trail if you don't want people walking by you!).

Maybe next year I need to try to take a couple of days off during the week to hunt rifle season and hope there are fewer hunters. It seems like the more people are in the filed, the more arses you get, or maybe just the arses are shorter tempered. Dunno.

I still have hope for this Saturday. Not sure if I am going to try a new place I think might work or go back to the spot I was going to setup in this past Saturday, but there was a twosome in it when I got there so I went elsewhere.

*edit* I enjoyed the heck out of the 3 very long days of early ML. I even enjoyed the earlier part of this past Saturday. It was just the last couple of hours that felt frustrating as hell. I did bump two huge does I didn't have a reasonable shot on earlier that day and also flushed some wild turkey. I hard a bunch of gobblers back in early ML and I've seen feathers in the park, but first actual sighting. Sad it wasn't turkey season and me with my 870 with some #4. 2 took to the air and I had a good 3-4s opening on a huge Tom up in the air at maybe 30yds, other one was mostly insured by trees and was closer to 45 or 45yds. Another 3-6 took off through the underbrush. Only 3rd time I've ever seen wild turkeys.

I was off Browns Church this weekend, and it was so crowded and I didn't see anything. It's been a while since I've gone out it first firearms season and damn, it's crazy.

 

[lazarus]

If I walked by you at some point, sorry!

I am hoping to be out during late seasons. Patuxent again for ML but out on the eastern shore looking for sika for late firearm. My worry about late ML is I already got a buck during early season and I have zero does so far. I don't mind only getting a doe in the late season, but I have this feeling ill get a buck strutting his stuff and no does. Or my real paranoia is I'll take a deer thinking it is a doe and find out it is a spike with 3.01" antlers I couldn't see, even with binocs.

Brown's church was relatively busy during early season ML, but it wasn't too terrible. I think about 5 parties of hunters, but they spread around. This time, at least based on barrel counts and vehicles, there were about 12-14 and at least half of them seemed to all setup along the same path. Long corner also jumped from 4-5 to 8-9, but I only saw the one twosome of hunters, so either they were very spread out or else I just wasn't in the one place they all setup.

 

[lazarus]

Also thanks for the encouragement all!