The count was down from last year at area check-ins

A gray and rainy opening day kept the deer harvest down in the Valley.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

MECCA — By the time 77-year-old William Brewster had bagged a 12-point buck during opening day of the deer gun season in Ohio, 13-year-old Sydney Stuber was wet and cold, ready to go home.

Both were at Monty’s Mosquito Carry-out at Bazetta and Hoagland-Blackstub roads in Mecca Township on Monday. It’s normally one of the busiest check-in stations in Trumbull County.

For Mahoning Valley hunters, it was tough going because of the overcast, rainy day.

At Glenn’s Archery & Tackle in Lisbon, where 100 deer have been checked in on an opening day, only 25 hunters with deer had shown up by dusk.

Laurie Kyser, manager of Red’s Sport Shop on Market Street near Columbiana, but in Mahoning County, also felt the effect of weather — with 51 hunters checking, compared with the normal 125 on opening day.

“They want snow,” Kyser said of the hunters, so the deer are easier to spot as they move around.

It was more encouraging at Mespo Hardware on Kinsman Road in northern Trumbull County with 125 deer checked in, compared with the usual 150.

Veteran hunter Brewster, who has harvested about 20 deer during his life, stayed warm and dry despite the rain. He was in his “shack” rather than a tree stand.

Behind Brewster’s home on Dennison-Ashtabula Road in Greene Township is a tree with his stand about 8 feet off the ground. It has glass windows and a gas heater.

Brewster started about 7 a.m. and had his deer two hours later.

He was on his way to a friend’s house to butcher the buck. Some he gives to his friend, the rest his wife cooks up.

Brewster said, as he sipped on a cup of coffee at Monty’s, that he’ll continue to hunt while he can still walk, although it’s getting more difficult.

Sydney, of Cortland, missed classes at Lakeview Middle School to be with her father, Todd Stuber, on the hunt. She hasn’t passed the state test to get an Ohio hunting license.

Sydney was an observer her first day, but neither she nor her father saw anything to shoot.

“She talked about how cold it was, and wanted to go home,” her father said.

The Stubers weren’t alone.

Bill Kemp, 23, of Champion, stopped at Monty’s to check out the harvest. He, too, didn’t kill a deer.

Kemp said he had seen deer before in Mecca Township where he went on post. He noted that he wasn’t disappointed Monday.

“It’s just one of those things. You have to go with the flow,” he said, pointing out that the seven-day season isn’t over.

Pat Tabor, 37, and his brother, Steve, 35, both of Niles, scored opening day as they both shot one deer.

They were at the Mosquito Lake Wildlife Area when they spotted a deer shortly before 7:30 a.m.

“He came from the right,” Pat Tabor said, explaining that he fired and hit his target in the shoulder. The deer bounced up and his brother shot it in the stomach area.

“Part of it is going on the grill today,” Pat Tabor said of how they were going to spend the rest of the day.

Also bringing in a deer at Monty’s was Matt Molnar of Greene.

He was on post near Greene about 8:45 a.m. He had watched four deer pass him by but he didn’t fire because they were all does. Molnar said he saw two more and fired one shot to bring down a buck.

It was the 45-year-old’s first deer since 1995.

yovich@vindy.com