Opening day here, 4A, was noisy as all get out but not much of a harvest; in fact, those hunters I spoke with all said they saw little or nothing but sure heard a lot of shots. Our party counted over 100 shots in the first 4 hours of opening day; it sounded like they (other hunters) were putting on drives and just unloading their shotguns to see if they could get anything up and moving. We have seen a healthy fawn population this year from last year's rut and have tried to keep the coyote population down in support of a larger Whitetail herd but as of right now, we ain't seeing much movement at all (Southern Zone - 4A). I think most of the Whitetail are still down low and don't come up to the higher elevations where I am (hunt) until the rut is nearly over and the does have moved in for the winter, or unless they get pushed up from the hunting pressure. Those hunters I have spoken with who have gotten bucks have siad their stomachs were full of corn and sileage, and from where I hunt, the nearest standing corn fields are almost one mile away as the crow flies (hopefully a straight line), so they would have to travel uphill to get to where I am.
None the less, we continue to try. My place is either a early morning or late afternoon spot for bucks following does into a bedding area but we haven't even seen the doe yet although the tracks and trails and trail cams indicate a healthy and good sized population. I may have to await the full moon for a very early hunt. We have also seen some road kill locally, one small buck and two doe over the past month. My buddy drove to nj Sunday and said the thruway heading n-s has a bunch of road kill, also indicating they are on the move, so this just might be a 'wait and see' year.
Good luck on ya.
