QUANTICO -- Early last week, the stroll into the bright moonlight at Nanticoke River Wildlife Management Area had quickly become a trudge, the pace slowed by a bagful of duck decoys, a day bag crammed with chest waders, a couple of boxes of shot shells, gloves, sandwiches and drinks, and about seven pounds of shotgun.
Yesterday morning, opening day of modern firearms deer season, the walking was easier.
The bag of decoys, the two boxes of shells and the nine pounds of chest waders had been left behind, replaced with a small day bag packed with a box of deer slugs, a coil of quarter-inch braided line, a strong-backed knife, a water bottle and two sliced turkey sandwiches.
Yet the cumbersome pace of Tuesday morning had helped set a hopeful stage for yesterday.
On the walk in to the edge of the marsh on Tuesday, the moonlight highlighted deer tracks and dozens of runways to and from field edges.
Several times, out toward Chapel Point, where the woodland edges turn to bramble and blowdowns before the footing turns to the boot-sucking muck of the marsh, the hollow thump of decoys against tree trunks or hip raised deer from their beds.
Most had the sound of a large dog running through dry brush. But in the stillness of the woodland floor, two spooked loudly, grunting and breaking away through the thick undergrowth, their hoofbeats sounding as heavy as horses.
Nanticoke River WMA, 1,700 acres in Wicomico County open to public hunting, had not been much for ducks on Tuesday, but after scouting the edges of stubbled cornfields and soybeans, it seemed as good a public hunting tract as any on which to take a deer.
Ninety minutes before shooting time, and yet two hours to sunrise, the parking area off Nutter's Neck Road was overflowing with pickup trucks, 4x4s and family sedans.
Roughly three dozen hunters set out before first light, the moon still rising behind them and Orion starting toward set ahead of them.
Yet by 10 a.m., no deer had been brought out of the tract, and hunters were walking out of the woods and climbing down from tree stands.
By noon, even the die-hard morning hunters were returning to their vehicles, and a handful of afternoon hunters were walking in.
As one hunter from Glen Burnie said to his companion as they passed through the parking lot: "Face it, you just have to be in the right place at the right time to get your deer on state land."
Eighty-nine percent of the modern firearms deer kill is made on private land, and for bow, muzzleloader and modern firearms seasons combined last year, 87 percent of the kill was made on private lands.
"But you know, it's funny," a hunter from nearby Nanticoke said, "before this property was taken over by the state, people who had permission to hunt here used to just set up off alongside the road and shoot out across the fields and get their deer.
"Now the roads are closed to vehicles, and if you do get back in there and get your deer, you'll kill yourself getting it out."
Perhaps limited access is one reason that public lands produce so many fewer deer than private lands. And maybe it is simply a lack of local knowledge.
"Hunters? There aren't many real hunters out there today," said a cocksure fellow sitting with a group of friends at the Hebron Family Restaurant a few miles from Nanticoke WMA. "You got to spend some time in the woods before you can hunt good. Opening day? Heck, that's just another TV amateur hour."
And when asked if he had taken his deer that morning, he said, "Well, no. But you don't want to take it on opening day, anyway. Take it then, you got nothing to look forward to. Take it on the last day and make the hunt worth it."
The Department of Natural Resources estimates that there are 99,000 modern firearms deer hunters in Maryland, and of those, about 35 percent take a deer.
And you can bet that virtually all among those 99,000 who were out for opening day would have been pleased to have had one good shot at one good deer.
"But you know," said one among the group of hunters having lunch at the restaurant in Hebron, "there have been years when I have not taken a shot all season, and anyone who says he gets his shots in every time out is either a liar or shooting at trees. Or both."
:. The modern firearms season closes Dec. 10.