PA House Bill 1431 - Repeal ban on Sunday Hunting

[swagner97]

I didn't even know there were states that banned hunting on Sunday. I'm all for a day of rest, but hunting is my form of rest.

 

[Yoder]

So many people in PA do nothing but complain. The number one complaint is "there's no deer". Same people whose idea of scouting and hunting is sitting in the same stand for the last 20 years. I can tell you this, in my area deer hunting is better than it's been in my entire life and I'm 51. When I first started hunting, you would see 10-15 does at a time and get excited over a spike buck. A 2 1/2 yr old 8pt was a trophy. We pass on deer like that all the time now. In the last 5 yrs we've killed bucks between 3.5 and 7.5 yrs old all on public land. The herd is way more balanced and there is more opportunity. They have added to the public lands near me. They bought an old summer camp and a couple hundred acres in another area. Archery season is open from September to November then opens again in January. The added bear seasons are great. I think PA has made some really great improvements. Sunday hunting didn't matter to me due to my work schedule, but I'm glad it passed to give other more opportunity.

 

[06 SB]

So many people in PA do nothing but complain. The number one complaint is "there's no deer". Same people whose idea of scouting and hunting is sitting in the same stand for the last 20 years. I can tell you this, in my area deer hunting is better than it's been in my entire life and I'm 51. When I first started hunting, you would see 10-15 does at a time and get excited over a spike buck. A 2 1/2 yr old 8pt was a trophy. We pass on deer like that all the time now. In the last 5 yrs we've killed bucks between 3.5 and 7.5 yrs old all on public land. The herd is way more balanced and there is more opportunity. They have added to the public lands near me. They bought an old summer camp and a couple hundred acres in another area. Archery season is open from September to November then opens again in January. The added bear seasons are great. I think PA has made some really great improvements. Sunday hunting didn't matter to me due to my work schedule, but I'm glad it passed to give other more opportunity.

I agree 100%. PA people will always complain. When I was a teenager, I would see 30-40 does on the first day then years later I would not even see a fresh deer track in a week of hunting. Now, you will not see a ton of deer but you do and the bucks are far better. With the exception of the rifle opener on Saturday, I am very happy with the changes PA has made to deer and bear hunting.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

So many people in PA do nothing but complain. The number one complaint is "there's no deer". Same people whose idea of scouting and hunting is sitting in the same stand for the last 20 years. I can tell you this, in my area deer hunting is better than it's been in my entire life and I'm 51. When I first started hunting, you would see 10-15 does at a time and get excited over a spike buck. A 2 1/2 yr old 8pt was a trophy. We pass on deer like that all the time now. In the last 5 yrs we've killed bucks between 3.5 and 7.5 yrs old all on public land. The herd is way more balanced and there is more opportunity. They have added to the public lands near me. They bought an old summer camp and a couple hundred acres in another area. Archery season is open from September to November then opens again in January. The added bear seasons are great. I think PA has made some really great improvements. Sunday hunting didn't matter to me due to my work schedule, but I'm glad it passed to give other more opportunity.

I grew up in ne pa and left for the Corps at 18 in 2006. Came back when I got out in 2010. From 2010 till 2018 when I libed there I killed a pope and young 8 years in a row all on public in 4e and 4c. Freaking crap ton of public land with plenty of deer. Took off season scouting and a ton of in season scouting.

You made me laugh cause so many people would tell me I was just lucky…year after year after year.

As they sat in the same stand, no matter the wind, with no scouting.

I will for sure come back to hunt again but couldn’t pay me to move back.

 

[Westcreek16]

I like it for the fact it opens up opportunities for people that could only hunt the weekends, I don’t (selfishly) because that was my day of rest and not feeling guilty for not being in the woods….guess I’ll catch up on my rest when I’m dead

 

[98XJRC]

For those of you who have been following this the Game Commission has had it's meeting regarding adding additional Sunday's for this season. They have made the approval for all Sunday's to be open through the end of regular season rifle.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

For those of you who have been following this the Game Commission has had it's meeting regarding adding additional Sunday's for this season. They have made the approval for all Sunday's to be open through the end of regular season rifle.

I might actually come back and hunt pa then, I moved years ago, came back in 18 and shot my normal archery buck in a spot where I hunted as a kid on game lands. An extra day is huge for out of state hunters. Glad this finally passed.

 

[jimlitzinger]

So much love for the Sunday hunting! I have boys who play sports on Saturdays and practice during the week. Finally, I will be able to get them out for a morning hunt! My moys and I are so pumped!

 

[CMP70306]

For those of you who have been following this the Game Commission has had it's meeting regarding adding additional Sunday's for this season. They have made the approval for all Sunday's to be open through the end of regular season rifle.

My biggest complaint is that they agreed to only add a limited number of Sundays and then prioritized archery hunting over all the other seasons despite them having the longest season to begin with. For example the first three Sundays they added fall on the Archery Elk season, which only 27 people in the whole country got tags for, and Archery in the Special Regulations Areas, which is only 3 of the 22 Wildlife Management Units and already runs from September 20th through January 24th.

They chose those over adding the 3 Sundays in December between the end of rifle and New Years when they are paying several hundred thousand dollars to stock pheasants on State Game Lands across the state.

As someone who doesn’t really archery hunt but was looking forward to the extra days in the late season chasing pheasants and maybe some deer it’s annoying to be told they can’t add even one Sunday during the late season, this includes flintlock which that kills less than 1% of the deer, because it could increase the deer harvest too much after they just added 8 days to the season that kills 50% of the bucks and 30% of the does.