Springville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Saturday marks an exciting time for deer hunters across most parts of Western New York, as shotgun season officially opens through Dec. 11.
"It is my favorite time of year," said local hunter Kyle Abdo. "Just getting to hang out with all my hunting friends and stuff is one of my favorite things to do."
While some local hunters look forward to their time gathering with friends to hunt, others enjoy the time heading to the woods with family members who may be home for the Thanksgiving holiday.
"I bow hunt, I muzzleloader hunt, but shotgun season, for me, is more family tradition," said local hunter Steven Grimm. "We get to my aunt's house at 4:30 in the morning for breakfast, head out before sunrise, come back in for lunch, warm up, get a cup of coffee or something, and then head back out, hunt until dark and then come back in. It's just the family camaraderie that really gets me excited for it."
While the bow hunting season has been open since early October, local hunters definitely have different feelings about the shotgun season when it opens every third Saturday in November.
"You get more of a camaraderie thing with all your friends, where you get to do it more together than archery. Archery is more alone unless you have somebody that's just hanging out in the stand with you, but if you're doing it during shotgun, it's more of a camaraderie thing. That's the more exciting part for hunting for me," Abdo said.
"Archery is significantly more time consuming, for me. You've really got to do your homework. You've got to pattern the deer, you've got to know whether travel corridors are," Grimm added. "I mean, your average archery shot, I like to keep them within 40 yards at the absolute max, to where shotgun season, obviously, you can stretch that out. It's not uncommon to shoot 100, 150 yards. It ups the success rate, I guess, which is what I like."
To some hunters, the opening of shotgun season is almost seen as a second Christmas, or even a first Christmas for that matter. Other hunters will, arguably, say that opening day of shotgun season for deer hunting may be bigger than Christmas.
One way the opening of shotgun season could be seen like Christmas morning is the way hunters are up-and-at-it early in the morning, and also getting ready with all the essentials for the 23 days of opportunity.
"Leading up to it, it's ammo sales, there's people coming in buying gloves, they're buying guns, getting them sighted in, scope caps, depending on what they need," said Bryce Stedman, co-owner of S&S Taxidermy in Springville. "But it's all about the weather, and this year, it's a pretty cold opening day. There's a lot of people coming in for camo, gloves and hand warmers, especially."
Stedman says from a business standpoint, shotgun season is one of the busiest times of the year with plenty of people coming in to stock up for all their essential needs.
"The whole week leading up to it, it's people getting just stocked up on ammo, stocked up on everything, the excitement's there. People are ready to go and ready to get out and hunt," he said.
So what are some of the essential needs for hunters, other than making sure they're fully stocked and loaded before heading to the woods?
"Warm clothes, hand warmers, feet warmers. I always have a cell phone handy to read things during the boring parts, but not too much," Abdo said. "A couple of snacks that keep you occupied and kill time while you're out there."
"For me, a good good pair of boots and a good pair of gloves. If your feet and hands get cold, to me, you might as well just go in. It makes it miserable," Grimm added. "In Western New York, obviously, we can go from sunny and 70 [degrees] to 20 [degrees] and snow in the blink of an eye. So, to me, being prepared for any and all weather conditions that Mother Nature can throw at you while you're out there."
From the business side of things, Stedman notices a number of items flying off the shelves that will potentially give hunters a leg-up when they head out for the day.
"There's a lot of deer scents, like deer urine, stuff like that. There's a lot of people that are coming in for more ammo too and such, but a lot of grunt tubes, bleats, calls. There's a lot of deer attractants and stuff along that way," Stedman said.
"You've got a lot of people that are trying new stuff. There's more deer attractants coming out, like Black Widow, for example. There's a lot of people going to more local stuff, such as Concord Whitetails, Antler Ice has always been a big thing. And you see a lot of people buy not just one, but two, three, four of these items, and they're really getting stocked up on stuff like that."
Perhaps one of the more intriguing aspects of the hunt during deer season is the use of scents over the course of bow, regular and muzzleloader season. While hunters may be more inclined to use deer scents during archery season, the use of scents or attractants during shotgun season have been increasing.
"Early season, they're getting temptation, pretty much what it is. You're getting a deer interested in that area. Usually when gun season comes, there's not as many people going the scent way," Stedman said. "But this year, it seems like a lot of people are still going and they're still putting a lot of that scent and attractants out there for the deer."
While some hunters look to use scents and attractants during deer season to bring the deer to them, others are turning to other alternatives to keep them invisible in the woods.
"Deer are such incredibly smart animals. So gun season, I don't worry so much about the attractant scents as I do my cover scents," Grimm said. "I have an Ozone bag where I put all my hunting gear in it and it pumps Ozone into it and kills the natural human odor that we can't smell that the deer can, and that seems to be my go-to thing is cover scents and eliminating the human odor aspect of it."
Every hunter has their own personal objectives before heading out for the season, whether it's looking to kill that big buck or doe for pride, or it may be just a matter of trying to fill the freezer and have plenty of venison available for the winter.
For both Abdo and Grimm this year, it's a bit of both of those situations.
"It's always been more of a meat thing for me, but I've been doing it for so long that I haven't gotten that big buck that I want. Now it's more about that than it has been in years prior," Abdo said.
"I would like to say that my No. 1 concern is filling the freezer, which it is, but I would say I'm equally as concerned with putting some antlers on the wall. I don't really care when I get the big one, I just want to get it," Grimm added. "At the end of the day, if there's a small buck stand in there and the freezer is empty, well, I'm gonna do what I have to do to put some meat in the freezer."
As hunters get ready to head off into the shotgun season, Stedman has a friendly reminder for everyone before taking to the woods early Saturday morning.
"No. 1, safety. That's what it comes down to," he said. "Wear your orange, make sure you don't forget your orange hat or your orange vest. Know where you're shooting, don't just shoot blind. If you see something over there and you're not sure what it is, maybe take a moment and just try to check out and see what it is, know what you're shooting at. Also know your surroundings too. Make sure you know your property, you know what a safe direction is, a safe place to shoot, and just know your your area."