On Monday they filtered through Hunter’s Choice, a meat processing plant in Shady Spring, one after another.

Owner Gary Redden says, after eight years of running his business, he can tell how the season is going by traffic in the store. Based on the first day, Redden says this looks like a good season.

“Hunters that have been coming have seen a lot of deer,” said Redden.

Redden says he expects the hunting to pick up through Wednesday. That seems to go along with the Division of Natural Resources' estimates as well. It’s expected that throughout this season 280,000 hunters will hit the woods in West Virginia.