With temperatures hovering just above freezing, weekend snowfall remained to aid Warren County hunters on the first day of deer season Monday.
"It's only a little bit of snow," hunter Jason Stanko said. "Still, enough is out there."
Hunters tend to like snow because it aids visibility and assists when dragging a deer.
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John Bowler of Warren took this 8-point buck in the Indian Camp Run area of Warren County.
Fellow hunter Dean Stanton agreed, "It made it easy with the snow this year."
While deer sightings were sporadic, the presence of other hunters was readily identifiable.
"We only saw four deer all day," Roy Christensen said. "There were quite a few guys out there."
According to his daughter, Jaimi Christensen, there were, "lots of gunshots."
Roy Christensen shot a 10-point buck in the Fluent Run area of the Allegheny National Forest.
Stanton, who shot his 9-point buck near Russell by 8:30 a.m., said, "There was a lot of shooting in the morning. I didn't see too many people, but I wasn't out there long."
Stanko, who hunted in the Jackson Run area, said of his 8-point buck, "That's the first one we saw."
According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), approximately 750,000 hunters are expected to take part in Pennsylvania's two-week deer season.
Antler restrictions this year match those in place in 2011, according to the Game Commission.
In Warren County, hunters in Wildlife Management Unit 1B, which covers western parts of the county, must identify three antler points, not including the brown tine immediately above the antler burr.
Hunters in Management Unit 2F, which covers the remainder of the county, must identify at least three points on one side. Junior hunting license holders, mentored youth hunters, disabled hunters permitted to use a vehicle and resident active-duty armed forces personnel must identify at least one antler with at least two points or one antler at least three inches in length.
Hunters in the two units also must take note of differences in season structure.
In unit 1B, both antlerless and antlered deer are in season for the two weeks from Nov. 26 through Dec. 8. In unit 2F, hunters will observe a split season, in which the first five days, from Nov. 26 until Nov. 30, are restricted to antlered deer hunting, while the remainder of the season is open for antlered and antlerless deer.