Despite hopes for a substantial harvest, the opening day of Pennsylvania's firearms deer season ended as it began yesterday -- with a quiet cold drizzle and not a lot of deer.

Around dusk, deer processing stations in southwestern Pennsylvania reported a slow parade of successful hunters, but the Pennsylvania Game Commission said it was too soon to call the day a bust.

An estimated 900,000 hunters were expected to enter the woods yesterday in search of whitetails, but poor weather conditions might have curtailed the hunt.

Snowfall that had been predicted throughout the region didn't fall, leaving forests without the white backdrop that would have made spotting and tracking easier. Instead, the precipitation fell as a cold, lingering rain. Deer processing stations reported that many hunters didn't go out until afternoon or not at all.

"At least it wasn't as bad as last year, when much of the state was under a fog of rain and sleet on opening day," game commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said. "Generally, when the weather's bad, hunters leave early or don't bother going out. Those that are there don't move around as much, so the deer aren't getting pushed out of cover and fewer are shot."

During the combined 2007-08 deer seasons, an estimated 323,070 deer were killed -- 11 percent fewer than in the previous seasons' harvest. In particular, the antlered deer harvest last year was 19 percent below 2006-07 numbers. The 2007 opening day harvest showed a 50 percent decline from the previous year.

In addition, a 2007 outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer in southwestern Pennsylvania kept many hunters out of those woods last year.

As a result of last year's complications, many hunters and game commission experts believe there are more and bigger deer available this year. But you wouldn't know that from peeking into the coolers at deer processing stations yesterday.

Carol Shellhammer of Tom's Deer Processing in Ford City said new antlered-deer-only restrictions had severely cut into its venison butchering business.

At Kip's Deer Processing in Carnegie, Paula Padgelek said hunters had brought in about 100 deer by nightfall, substantially fewer than average.

Karen Blum of Blackhawk Speciality Foods in Beaver Falls said it was slightly off its yearly average. Mark Zimmerman at Hoffer's Ligonier Valley Packing said he had about 70 deer in the cooler, but had 125 by the same time in 2007. And at Shuba's Processing in Washington, Pa., which has processed as many as 225 deer on opening days, the cooler held 50 to 60 carcasses at about 5 p.m.

"I'm expecting the numbers to pick up tomorrow," said Scott Bennington of Bennington's Butcher Shop in Scottdale.

"I think it's because it's cold," said Kathy Wright of Wright's Deer Processing in Saxonburg, where by nightfall only 25 deer had been brought in.

"The weather's cold enough that they're not going to spoil. They don't have to bring their deer in right away, and I think everybody's driving around showing them off."