CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) — How did the first day of deer season go around the region?

(Photo: Isaiah Dunham, of Oil City, harvested this 8-point buck in the Callensburg area on Monday.)

While numbers haven’t been released by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, anecdotally, it seems to have gone well.

Chip Brunst, Information and Education supervisor for the Game Commission’s Northwest Region, said from all indications starting the season on Saturday went well.

“From what I have seen myself, it has been very well accepted,” Brunst said. “There were a few people who grumbled, but overall, it was well accepted.”

Brunst said a quick glance at friends Facebook pages show that a lot of people got a deer this year, and that seemed to be confirmed when exploreClarion.com reached out to some local deer processing businesses.

O’Neil’s Quality Foods, located between Clarion and Shippenville, said they were busy.

“I would say it’s about the normal amount of deer,” a representative at the store said. “We don’t really have a count right now.”

On the other side of town, at Hollenbaugh Hometown Meats, Chad Hollenbaugh said things were very busy Saturday and Monday.

“We had 67 deer by Monday morning and then at least another 30 or so came in by around 2:00 p.m. Monday I would estimate,” Hollenbaugh said.

Hollenbaugh said he has been processing deer for almost two decades, but with the opening of Hollenbaugh Home Town Meats this fall, the number of deer he is processing has increased.

In Venango County, Heidi Wise, of Heath’s Market in Oil City, said the store had processed around 70 deer by a little before noon on Monday.

“It was a really good day on Saturday,” Wise said.

Wise said she was at first a little worried about how things would go with the first day being on a Saturday, but the outcome seemed to be a little better than Monday starts.

“I was a little worried about the switch, but so far so good,” Wise said.

A representative with Alderton’s Meats, located between Strattanville and Brookville, said he didn’t have the exact number of deer he had processed so far this year, but that he called it a “normal” year saying it was “like a normal Monday” of deer season.

Doug Lockwood, of Lockwood Processing in Brookville, said Saturday was actually busier than Mondays had been.

“We were actually busier Saturday than on the Mondays (in the past),” Lockwood said. “We had 80 some (deer) in on Saturday.”

Lockwood said he got to the shop around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, and there were already 20 deer ready for processing or in the process of being processed.

“I know for a fact that at 9:00 a.m., people were calling while I was in the tree stand,” Lockwood said. “People were starting early.”