Are there any studies on shots heard opening weekend?

foggy

5 year old buck +
I'd like to discuss this topic ^ from another thread. One always hears a number of shots during opening weekend.....and wonders if that was on deer, squirrels, coyotes, coons, dogs, grouse or other critters or perhaps targeting a gun. Some days.....if all those shots connected there would be allot of dead deer. We all speculate on what those shots are about at times and how many are "legitimate" deer shots.

My question: Has anyone seen any "formal study" by the DNR, University, or other party that would help determine the % shots on deer?

My guess is NOT (too many variables).....but inquiring minds want to know. :D I'd guess that 70% are legitimate.....but the time of day is a big factor IMO.
 
Wind direction too. If you are down wind of a heavy pressure area you will probably hear a lot more shots than if you are up wind of it. Since weather drastically effects sound it would be almost impossible to get results that you could compare from year to year.
 
We have public lands to the east and west that are close enough to hear the shots from. Several years ago when the population was good and there were unlimited anterless tags, opening morning would sound like a war zone. Now with the population down and more limited antlerless tags I can count the number of shots heard opening morning. Shots from private land are generally one single shot and a dead deer, sometimes a followup shot. Shots from public land are of the repetitive type. Guy shoots and missed 3 times at running deer, guy 100 yards away shoots 3 more times at same running deer, guy 200 yards away shoots 3 more times at same running deer. Maybe somebody gets him, maybe they don't.
 
I also hunt some public land in Illinois which you must check in and out and they record your harvest. I've had days were I hear dozens of shots being taken from within the park only to find out that 4 or 5 deer were registered.
 
There were 2 people hunting the property next door last year. Over 40 shots, slugs and I think they shot 2 deer. I verified by looking under their stands.( I have permission). They literally see brown through the trees and empty the guns each time. 5 shots and reload. 5 shots and reload. It really is unbelievable. I witnessed another neighbor some years back empty his gun (5 slugs on a running deer at 200 yards) 3 times. Around me I figure one deer for every 20 shots. Kind of funny but really sad too. On the other hand, I remember when PA had bucks only season and then a doe day. With rifles. You heard one shot once in a while. I figured that to be one shot, one deer.
 
I started my own this year. Got the data through today. That's probably about it given how many hunters have gone home already.
 
I would say 90-95% are deer hunters shooting at deer. However from my experience less than 50% are hits not to mention how many could be poor hits.

If you have a keen ear you can generally hear a hit vs a miss. It isn't perfect but can give you an idea.

Essentially a hit sounds like a tha-wack then the fading echo of the shot. A miss generally is just a fading sound you would hear at a shooting range. I know that is probably a horrible description but it is something I've picked up from family members and its pretty accurate.
 
Put this to the test a bit this weekend. I tried to listenand it didnt work very well. First I was never paying enough attention and secondly many shots were off in the distance. Close by shots I could tell but that doesn't do much good.

Only heard about 5-10 shots per sit Friday-Sunday. I think the cold really slowed things down.
 
There were 2 people hunting the property next door last year. Over 40 shots, slugs and I think they shot 2 deer. I verified by looking under their stands.( I have permission). They literally see brown through the trees and empty the guns each time. 5 shots and reload. 5 shots and reload. It really is unbelievable. I witnessed another neighbor some years back empty his gun (5 slugs on a running deer at 200 yards) 3 times. Around me I figure one deer for every 20 shots. Kind of funny but really sad too. On the other hand, I remember when PA had bucks only season and then a doe day. With rifles. You heard one shot once in a while. I figured that to be one shot, one deer.
depends on where in PA. I remember those days...i was young but i remember hearing shooting all day long on opening day of "buck season" we had a 3 day doe season after "buck season" had ended. On heavily hunted public land you would here strings of multiple shots, then once the day went on ad guys would start driving after sitting for a few hours for the morning, you start to hear lots of shots.
 
I only heard a few shots all year and all my coyote pictures stopped so I am hoping they were the target, or coyotes felt the pressure and left. Either way I am going with coyotes as the target. I also contributed two shots to the neighborhood. Last night of muzzle loader I emptied my gun on a porcupine at dark. My buddy bumped his scope and wanted to check it and shot a tree. Both cases resulted in the neighbors showing up asking if we got one. That is how rare deer were this year, neighbors investigated every shot.
 
Another factor to be considered is type of weapon used. Since I'm a mile south of the rifle zone, I can hear both rifle and shotguns firing. From my purely anecdotal observations, it certainly sounds like fewer rifle shots are fired per hunter than shotgun. Now...that could be due to the type of hunting going on as well. Rifle guys tend to sit in tower stands and take shots at unhurried deer...shotgun hunters are oftentimes participating in drives and are shooting at running deer. While there are obviously exceptions to these statements (I'm one, I use a shotgun and do not do drives)....I do think there is at least a bit of truth in there.
For the above reasons I feel safer in a rifle zone. Most of my kills are one shot and at less than 50 yards.
 
Saturday AM In sitting in the stand bow hunting. Heard one rifle shot @ 6:15 AM. I know darn well it was someone poaching. If I could have pin pointed it better l'd have call the local LEO. This really ticked me off.
 
Heard several single rifle shots in the area last night during the late afternoon......o_O
 
Checking zero at dusk, maybe. Could be checking zero on that deer standing in the backyard...
 
Several shots would be sighting in my area about any time of the day. One just at sunrise is poaching or just one any time of the day is poaching.
 
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