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HUNLOCK CREEK — After pulling his Jeep into the parking lot of Naugle’s Custom Butchering and Deer Processing, Dean Podwika hopped out and got ready to drag the buck he bagged into the butcher shop.
While he did, the Harding man told a reporter about staking out a spot in the woods with his two young daughters, Karlie, 10, and Kelcey, 8.
“They were eating cookies when (the buck) came out,” he said with a laugh, pulling the seven-point buck off the rack on his Jeep.
He said it’s the second year in a row he’s gone out with his daughters, but only the first time they managed to get a buck together.
“We saw one last year, but we were too busy laughing together to get it,” he said.
The Monday after Thanksgiving has long been the opening day of rifle deer hunting season in Pennsylvania, and it runs this year until Dec. 8. In our part of the state, hunters can only kill antlered deer until Nov. 30. Afterward, they can also get antlerless deer until the closing of the season.
Kurt Zweibel and his son, Aiden, 13, of Nanticoke, weren’t as lucky as the Podwikas. But Kurt said that’s not the point of the day for him.
“Getting to spend the day out in the woods with my son: that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
Like the Podwikas, this is only the second year in a row that the Zweibels went out together, and the first time they went out on opening day. They plan on coming out a few more times before the season wraps up.
It was a cold, rainy morning on Monday, and a representative from the Pennsylvania Game Commission said the rain could put a damper on how many deer are harvested.
With fewer hunters in the woods because of the rain, there was less pressure pushing the deer population toward other hunters.
However, the representative said there were still many hunters killing deer, but it was too early to say definitively what sort of effect the weather would have on the opening day.
According to the Game Commission, game wardens were investigating some reports of hunting violations, including safety zone violations, hunting from the side of the road and baiting.
Busy day for some
Despite the rain, there were obviously numerous hunters out. Cars lined Suscon Road in Bear Creek Township in state hunting lands, and Naugle’s was packed to the brim with hunters who had successfully bagged a buck.
One such success story came from Ned Palka and his daughter, Autumn. The younger Palka, only 13, had successfully gotten several deer in other hunting seasons, including archery season, but the deer she got Monday was, as she put it, “the first big buck (she) got with a rifle.”
And her father was quick to emphasize it was her buck, not his.
The Palkas, having gotten other deer in recent seasons, decided they didn’t need meat. So Autumn, holding the deer’s head triumphantly, fist wrapped around an antler, told the staff at Naugle’s they would be donating the meat to people who need it.
