Hunters using muzzle-loading rifles killed eight deer on the first day of Howard County's 39-day managed hunt yesterday, compared with 24 animals killed with shotguns on the first day of last year's event.
Philip C. Norman, the county's deer project manager, said warm weather might have made the deer less active, providing fewer targets for hunters.
Joe Webster, who got one of the eight deer, said he saw others.
"But they were moving or in the brush," denying him a clear shot, he said.
No hunter got more than a single deer, Norman said.
Webster, like many hunters, either uses the deer for food or donates the meat through the state program Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.
The hunt will continue through Dec. 15 in Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in Columbia and David W. Force Park near Interstate 70 in western Ellicott City.
The managed hunt is part of the county's campaign to reduce the deer population.
