Chris Caldana, 22, and his younger brother, 16-year-old Jarred, hiked along Spring Creek on Monday.
They heard a single gunshot to their left, up a steep hill that they had scaled earlier in the morning but didn’t plan to climb again.
“Someone might’ve got one,” said the younger brother.
The Caldanas weren’t so lucky Monday. The brothers from Snow Show took to the woods along with thousands of other hunters for the first day of deer rifle hunting season.
They had spotted some doe, but hadn’t seen any bucks they judged to be big enough to shoot at. They figured that the warm weather, with temperatures reaching into the high 60s, was partially to blame.
It meant more ticks were around to latch on to their legs, necks and arms as they sat in the woods, they said. And it meant there were fewer deer walking around those woods.
“They ain’t moving like they usually do. They’re just lying down,” said Chris Caldana. “They ain’t dumb.”
Many hunters in Centre County headed to Spring Creek Canyon, which was largely closed to the public for decades until this year.
The state Department of Corrections agreed to sell and donate 1,829 acres of land to the state Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commission, Penn State and Benner Township in 2010, and the canyon formally opened to the public in October.
“I’m kind of surprised there’s not more people out here,” said Jeff Sturniolo, 45, of Warriors Mark. “But it’s not on the Game Commission’s website yet.”
By 11 a.m. Monday, there were about 30 cars parked at lots in the canyon. Sturniolo, a project manager with Glenn O. Hawbaker construction company, was there with Don Ferrell, 45, of State College.
The two have been friends since the age of 4 and have hunted together nearly as long.
“There was a part of this, before they built the highway, that we used to hunt when we were younger,” Ferrell said, pointing to a section of Interstate 99 where a friend’s family used to own a farm. “We haven’t been out here in years. But he called me up last night and said, ‘They’re opening up.’ So we figure we’d give it a shot.”
They pulled into a parking lot about 5 a.m. and were out in the woods by 5:30.
Early on Ferrell spotted four doe walking across a field. He didn’t fire.
“No horns,” said Ferrell, the director of rugby at Penn State and head coach of the men’s team. “I looked hard.”
Brian Meek, a 41-year-old construction worker from Morrisdale, counted each deer he spotted in the morning. He was up to 11 doe and six bucks, but had fired zero shots before he headed for a lunch break.
“I’m looking for a big one. I figured this would be a good place to find one,” he said, adding that he had “seen a nice one in here the first day of archery season. And actually, the first buck I seen this morning was a nice one, too, but just wasn’t big enough.”
By 3 p.m., Ron Guenot’s butcher shop in the village of Gatesburg had two bucks in the freezer, two more on the floor, and two more on the way — he had just gotten off the phone with a successful hunter and soon-to-be-customer.
“It’s been pretty slow compared to last year. But the quality of the deer seems to be real good,” said Guenot, who pushed the antlers of one of them with his foot to demonstrate.
“This is a 10-point right here. That’s a real good buck.”
Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.
