Print edition: 
The 2011 firearms deer season opened Wednesday.
Most reports indicate so far, so good.
* "We've been really busy," said John Parsons of Parsons Taxidermy and Wild Game Processing in Derby. "It does seem like the size of the bucks is averaging smaller this year, though."
Parsons said most hunters have indicated deer numbers are good.
"It's always mixed. One guy says it was hard to find his deer and the next guy says they're running around everywhere," Parsons said.
* Deer processing has become a major part of the fall and winter business at Krehbiel Specialty Meats in McPherson.
"It's gone very, very well," Jeff Krehbiel said Saturday morning. "It's been at a pretty steady pace and our coolers are filling fast. From a business standpoint we're very happy."
He said deer have ranged widely from large, trophy-class bucks to young does.
* Mark Tittle said Saturday's rain put a damper on the number of deer brought to his meat processing facility in Halstead.
Still, the season that runs through next Sunday is off to a good start.
"We've been even busier than last year," Tittle said. "We've been getting a lot of big deer."
* Keaton Kelso, K & K Outfitters, labeled the season as "mediocre so far." He said the weather hasn't been conducive to good daylight movement for big bucks in units 6, 11 and 12.
"It's just been too warm all year," Kelso said. "You have to have some (cold) weather to get the deer up and moving. I like it when it's in the teens."
One positive is that his hunters are seeing more rutting activity than normal. Kelso said the breeding season is probably running late because of the full moon and heat in mid-November.
* Action has been hit-and-miss for game wardens.
A.J. Meyer said he's seen fewer hunters in Reno County. "Last year it seemed like I couldn't drive a mile without finding a vehicle," he said. "This year I might go 15 miles between vehicles."
Meyer said he'd gotten some complaints about spotlighters but none on tresspassing issues.
Things have been different for Tyson Nielsen, a Butler County game warden.
He worked a 14-hour day on Wednesday, much of it answering tresspassing complaints. Along the way he checked a lot of hunters. Most were happy though none had taken a huge buck.
He started the day watching a deer decoy placed on a backroad often traveled by poachers. Not only did nobody shoot at the fake buck, he didn't even have a vehicle pass in four hours of waiting.
He's not too worried about protecting the spot for a few days. "The rain (Saturday) closed those roads for a while," he said. "They'll be pretty muddy."
