By sundown tomorrow, something like 60 percent of the season's total buck kill will be bagged, tagged and dragged.

But there's plenty of deer hunting left to do. Since antler restrictions took force in 2002, buck hunting success is less concentrated on opening day than it once was. As recently as the late 1990s, the opener accounted for around 80 percent of the total take.

In a 2005 study of buck mortality conducted by Penn State University and the Game Commission, researchers captured and marked 32 bucks in Armstrong County. Archers accounted for four of the collared bucks and rifle hunters got 10. The rest survived to the next season or succumbed to causes other than hunting.

Even if you don't tag a 10-point tomorrow morning, there's no reason to stop anticipating antlers. Legal bucks will still be out there and a lot of hunters will get lucky -- or good -- over the next two weeks.

The hunter with an antlerless license has even more incentive to stay in the woods.

"Historically, a majority of the antlered deer harvest occurs on opening day, whereas the antlerless harvest is typically more evenly distributed across the entire two weeks," said Game Commission deer section supervisor Chris Rosenberry.

Another study in central Pennsylvania found that as many as 76 percent of captured and marked antlerless deer survived for one full year, including one gun season.

All of which means that if you can hunt after opening day, you and a deer may have a date with destiny.

A midweek hunt, however, may demand a different approach. Penn State researchers spotting from aircraft over central Pennsylvania in 2006 found that hunter density had dropped to one hunter for every 3 square miles by Wednesday afternoon of the season's first week. Without help from other humans to move the quarry past fixed stands, the in-season hunter may need to take his hunt to the deer.

A time-tested way of doing so is to "still-hunt," which does not mean sitting still on a stump. Rather, still-hunting is moving slowly and quietly, stopping frequently to search the cover ahead before moving again, a few feet at a time. The key is to slow your pace to the rhythm of the woods. A hunter cannot hurry when walking up a deer. Experienced still-hunters say they train their minds to consider every square yard of cover as good as anything they'll find beyond the next hill, so they are less tempted to move fast. They assume that a deer could be anywhere, because it can. Depending on conditions, say some experts, walking up a whitetail need not be an unattainable fantasy.

"When still-hunting, the idea is to see a deer before it sees you. A rainy day, or a fresh snowfall increases that possibility since you can walk quietly," said John Trout Jr., who hunts deer across the country's Midwestern whitetail belt every year.

Trout says he watches the weather predictions closely and makes a point to hunt when a cold front approaches or the barometer drops.

"When a cold front is close and the wind is blowing steadily from one direction, you can count on the opportunity to move cautiously without being scented," Trout said.

Happily for hunters, the same conditions that make it possible to walk quietly in the woods often prompt deer to move and feed.

"It is the unsettled weather associated with the leading edge of a low pressure front that causes deer movement," said widely known deer hunter, researcher and photographer Charles Alsheimer. "If more whitetail hunters studied weather and weather fronts as much as they do scents and the rut, success rates would be higher."

Even if deer are bedded down, still-hunting late in the season can be productive if the footing is quiet.

"Expect to find deer bedded on the south-facing slopes where they can get warmed by the sun, plus exploit the advantage of a good view of the surrounding terrain and a quick escape route from danger that may approach from behind," said deer hunter and former editor of New York Sportsman magazine, Bob McNitt.

McNitt offered a summary for still-hunting success, proven in the Adirondack Mountains where he's taken many deer after opening day:

"Walk slow and quiet with the wind in your face; stop often and do more looking than walking in cover you know holds deer. Eventually it will work, and few things in the outdoors are more enjoyable or satisfying."