PA House Bill 1431 - Repeal ban on Sunday Hunting

[Jpsmith1]

In PA, no, not for deer.

But the point is folks aren’t bellyaching about having those holidays off. But want their cake and to eat it too about hunting on Sundays.

I see Sunday as adding options.

It might not increase my total time in the woods but it'll smooth some things out at home. Sure, babe, I'll go to that thing on Saturday with you, but I'm hunting Sunday.

 

[KurtR]

Not on Christmas in PA.

That’s a bad deal . Nothing beats mallards coming off the river steam in snow flurries .

Can you fish?

 

[plebe]

I see Sunday as adding options.

It might not increase my total time in the woods but it'll smooth some things out at home. Sure, babe, I'll go to that thing on Saturday with you, but I'm hunting Sunday.

Yes, legalizing Sunday hunting throughout the PA deer seasons definitely adds the option to hunt on Sundays. That is simply indisputable.

It’s a separate argument than secularization, which I’m open to as well. I just see it as a tad contradictory when it’s applied in a here but not there manner.

 

[RS3579]

I hope this will happen! Let us hunt!

 

[Yoder]

Don’t care what ya “ feel” that’s one of the main reasons I moved years ago. Terrible law imo.

Moving to the South opened my eyes to how backwards the north east is. Libtard central. I never go back, but feel bad for family and friends that are stuck there.

PA isn't that bad. I've lived all over and there is a lot worse.

 

[Yoder]

What a strange, archaic law. How about no golfing on Sunday? No yard work on Sunday? No watching sports on Sunday? No shopping on Sunday? No wahing your car on Sunday. You apply this to anything else and the absurdity quickly reveals itself.

Besides the religious aspect you can also look at it as a day for non hunters to enjoy the public lands without gunfire. I honestly don't care if this passes or not. They have a few Sundays open during the season. Even if this passes, some Federal lands like the Water Gap don't allow any Sunday hunting.

 

[Poser]

Besides the religious aspect you can also look at it as a day for non hunters to enjoy the public lands without gunfire. I honestly don't care if this passes or not. They have a few Sundays open during the season. Even if this passes, some Federal lands like the Water Gap don't allow any Sunday hunting.

The vast majority of Sundays throughout the year are already free of gunfire. From what I've gathered about PA hunting, we're talking about, what 2-3 Sundays of big game hunting?

 

[Jpsmith1]

Don’t care what ya “ feel” that’s one of the main reasons I moved years ago. Terrible law imo.

Moving to the South opened my eyes to how backwards the north east is. Libtard central. I never go back, but feel bad for family and friends that are stuck there.

It's not liberals that are fighting this. They're fighting FOR it

The supporters of this bill in the legislature are mostly Dems.

 

[Yoder]

The vast majority of Sundays throughout the year are already free of gunfire. From what I've gathered about PA hunting, we're talking about, what 2-3 Sundays of big game hunting?

There is small game season too, but I agree with you. I can just also see the point of view of a paranoid bunny hugger that's afraid of getting shot.

 

[Jpsmith1]

The vast majority of Sundays throughout the year are already free of gunfire. From what I've gathered about PA hunting, we're talking about, what 2-3 Sundays of big game hunting?

Except for Spring turkey, this would add maybe 1 Sunday of big game firearms hunting.

 

[plebe]

And here’s what it looks like in Ohio:

Ohio Deer gun: Monday, Dec. 1 to Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025; Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, and Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025

 

[taxidermybycam]

Not on Christmas in PA.

You can hunt waterfowl and small game on Christmas and I think flintlock deer starts Christmas or day after.

 

[taxidermybycam]

I would bet a lot of money if you did a poll across the state. You'll find it's mostly the baby boomers that don't want Sunday hunting. They generally have the better jobs ,accrued the overtime and vacation time that the young fellas haven't . And have the opportunity with the work to take off during the week. And it's a crabs in the bucket mentality,they don't want the young guys or girls to go after the deer they wanted to hunt. They are pulling up the ladder behind them. All the younger people I know want the Sunday hunting. There's no biological or political reason not to have it. It is a selfish act to deny children and grandchildren the opportunity to hunt a day. When they go to school and work during the week. Every other state has it. We currently have more deer in the state than ever. I cannot drive down my road I live on in the fall and not see a dozen or more deer.
There's many many leases in pa ,anyone with a bit of acreage wants paid for it . Alot of people I know just hunt opening day then go to Ohio or New York to hunt. And I'm in northern pa . When it comes to Sunday hunting I see more hunters denying and not wanting other hunters the ability to hunt sunday's than I do non hunters.

 

[plebe]

Every other state has it.

That’s not entirely accurate I don’t think

 

[CMP70306]

250 deer seen and a small buck taken.

Yes some were absolutely deer bumped about, but you saw a lot of deer is the point.

Everyone in camp took at least a small buck much of the time.

There was shooting all day. It’s not like that anymore, but has improved to where folks from VT, ME, NH are saying it’s incredible all the deer there are. I’m not complaining. Last hunt I saw around 30 deer, 3 shootable bucks with one being very nice on the opener.

What I’m saying is it’s not what it was prior to the 2000s nor the abomination it was a couple years after the “herd management” policies had their effect.

IMO, they didn’t need to cut it back to nothing and let it slowly come back up. Makes no sense. And it certainly had an effect on hunter interest.

I understand carrying capacity, and maybe the lands were close to maxed out, but there was a good population every year nonetheless. Then they whacked the does and the population was decimated. Groups of hunters that always got bucks would maybe get one amongst them or none and see sparse deer numbers.

Like I said, happily it’s come back to a level where the hunting is fine enough. Just it came at the cost of a generation of hunters and the tradition of the state.

My observation, my opinion. I’m sure folks who hunt private land or elsewhere in the state have their own and possibly quite different experiences of it.

30 deer and 3 bucks on the opener is still better than a significant portion of the state, I’m hunting ag country in 4A and a handful of does and maybe a buck once in a while is an average sit. The only time we are seeing double digits is when we are putting on drives and even then 30 deer would be an exceptionally successful day of drives.

Back before I started hunting in 2004 our group hunted a farm that was overrun with deer and you could see upwards of 80 deer in a single 50 acre field at night. Those guys still weren’t seeing 250 deer a season let alone in a single day.

Additionally deer are prolific breeders, if the food is there then they will bounce back rather quickly, the issue becomes when they over run their food for too long and the population crashes as a result.

If the Monday bill also gets traction, ending on a Sunday instead of a Saturday would probably be met with fair approval.

That would reestablish something of the PA hunting identity with a meaningful Deer Day. And there would be two Sundays.

The Monday bill won’t gain traction as the majority of hunters do not want the legislature messing with the hunting season and making the dates law. Codifying rifle season as a two week season starting the Monday after Thanksgiving by law pretty much destroys any possibility of it being changed in the future and sets a precedent to meddle in the seasons which could be problematic if an anti hunting sentiment overtakes them.

I hunt Pa and Ny primarily. I'm for lifting the ban, many people have given up the past time because of work. That being said I feel the much bigger issue is Hunter access. Something has been be done to reverse the trend of automatic posting one's land. I'm not saying a law needs to be put in place at all, just that if access continues to decrease so will Hunter recruitment. It was nothing in the 90's to get out of the truck and hunt a piece, no harm no foul because it was expected others would do the same on yours. Now it is rare to be driving along and not see posted signs. Kids get bored hunting the same 40 acres, and I don't blame them. Half of falling in love with the sport was the adventure, thst sadly is being lost and being replaced with the quest for the biggest buck.

Back in the day for the majority of people hunting was a past time, something you did for fun when it was convenient. Small game was plentiful, deer were a nuisance that farmers wanted gone and people were more respectful than they are today. An accidental trespass and a respectful first meeting is how we met life long friends and got started hunting in the area we have been hunting for the better part of half a century. The other reason is that the farmer was over run with deer and the additional tags and man power we brought during hunting season would kill more deer and reduce his crop damage.

However in our case bucks aren’t the reason we post our land, it’s the fact that hunting is the main reason we own our property and since we have a ton of time, effort and money tied up into improving the property we want a say in who gets to hunt it. And we don’t mind sharing the land, we let the neighbors hunt and outside of the 3 owners there have been 26 or more people that have hunted the property over the years with a core group of 10 coming up twice a year.

Additionally part of our property is sensitive to pressure and walking through certain areas can bump the deer off the property entirely. As a result we like to have a handle on who goes on the property as someone bumbling around one afternoon can screw up the hunt for the guys coming up and hunting the following day.

Not to mention the safety aspect, when we hunt we know exactly who is where and are in regular contact to know when people are moving. With the number of drives we do knowing where people are is paramount to keeping everyone safe and those who don’t follow the rules are not invited back. Somebody randomly walking onto the property would not be known to the group nor would they know where anybody is leading to a high likelihood of an accident.

Take for example the guy who was put on a hot stand and told to stay there till someone picked him up, he got bored after an hour so he wandered over the ridge saw some deer and took a shot at them but didn’t get one. What he didn’t realize is that in that timeframe he was nearly killed by my brother who was the driver set to walk out to him and had deer run between them. He did not know the other guy had moved but luckily he didn’t shoot, those deer did run between the other guy and another stander and the guy however did shoot directly in the direction of another stander. Luckily he hit the ground or a tree between them, since that was the second time he left his position he was not invited back.

 

[Jethro]

You can hunt waterfowl and small game on Christmas and I think flintlock deer starts Christmas or day after.

No small game on Christmas

 

[Rifleman86]

This is the most insane thread I’ve ever read on this forum. I expected 100% support for this.

It’s not like you can’t look at a dozen other states as predictors who have previously gotten rid of Sunday hunting bans and see what if any negative impact there was.

We got rid of our Sunday hunting ban here in the 90s, and our deer herd is better than ever.

The attitudes in this thread boggle my mind.

 

[plebe]

No small game on Christmas

Foxes or Yotes under the furbearer hunting section?

 

[Pochuck]

That’s a bad deal . Nothing beats mallards coming off the river steam in snow flurries .

Can you fish?

This makes it all the more laughable: "Yes, fishing on Sundays is legal in Pennsylvania, and in fact, there are designated "Fish-for-Free Days" where no fishing license is required. These days typically include the Sunday before Memorial Day and July 4th."

 

[plebe]

30 deer and 3 bucks on the opener is still better than a significant portion of the state, I’m hunting ag country in 4A and a handful of does and maybe a buck once in a while is an average sit. The only time we are seeing double digits is when we are putting on drives and even then 30 deer would be an exceptionally successful day of drives.

Back before I started hunting in 2004 our group hunted a farm that was overrun with deer and you could see upwards of 80 deer in a single 50 acre field at night. Those guys still weren’t seeing 250 deer a season let alone in a single day.

I had a good day, but didn’t shoot anything. I only had a neck shot at the big buck and I didn’t take it. My brother tagged a buck though and saw a dozen deer but just the one buck. My father saw nothing. I stopped hunting to help my brother with his buck.

But my first PA rifle opener many years ago I stopped counting at 100 deer and it was only the morning. I had four spikes bed within 50yds of me and a guy that shot an 8pt had found a 6pt someone else shot and he thought it was me, but wasn’t, and a local family put up 7 bucks for a 100% rate of success and that evening I shot what was a nicer 8pt in those days. In my first 5 openers I shot 3 8pts and the two years I didn’t I had opportunities at 8pts on the second day but didn’t shoot (one was on a ridge and I thought it a bit of a dangerous shot and the other my scope fogged up).

Awesome hunting back in the day, and it’s great now too. But I’m telling you there were some very lean years in there after the doe kill was rolled out.