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.

 

[Jpsmith1]

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.

Could it be thay they are "slow rolling" the changes out and plan to open more or all Sundays for next season?

It's new and was a fast breaking change.

Just food for thought

 

[Jethro]

No doubt they’ll expand for 2026 and get spring turkey included. It is odd though that they picked Sundays Sept-Dec and stopped short of the end of the year.

But it’s also a rarity that they implement such big changes after regulations have been printed and issued. I honestly thought they’d wait till 26 to start.

 

[RMM]

No doubt they’ll expand for 2026 and get spring turkey included. It is odd though that they picked Sundays Sept-Dec and stopped short of the end of the year.

But it’s also a rarity that they implement such big changes after regulations have been printed and issued. I honestly thought they’d wait till 26 to start.

Don't be so sure, the turkey biologist recommended against Sundays for the upcoming spring. Obviously, this doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but here is the quote from the article.

"Mary Jo Casalena, the Game Commission’s wild turkey biologist, noted that due to population and breeding concerns, she does not recommend Sunday hunting during the spring gobbler season or adding the Sunday to the mentored youth turkey hunt one week prior to the spring season. But both of those decisions will be taken up in 2026 at the commissioners’ January meeting when they consider seasons and bag limits ahead of final approval in April."

 

[CMP70306]

Could it be thay they are "slow rolling" the changes out and plan to open more or all Sundays for next season?

It's new and was a fast breaking change.

Just food for thought

They said they were but the issue for me is the threw together a special meeting and made a big deal about adding more Sundays only for archery to get 100% of the benefit out of the gate. They did add a token Sunday in the middle of rifle season but the data shows few people would hunt it and it would create a shitstorm if they skipped that day. It’s hard to argue that you are slow rolling the implementation and are concerned about over harvest when you open every Sunday in the two seasons that kills 99% of the deer. To me that shows archery is their sole priority and everyone else can kick rocks.

For example they were fine with the early archery season getting 8 more days to kill an extra 20k to 40k deer but couldn’t give one Sunday to the flintlock season which doesn’t even kill 4,000 deer in 3 weeks. Nor could they be bothered giving more time to the 75,000 people who paid extra to support the pheasant stocking program. Pheasant season is 16 weeks long and the only 3 extra Sundays they got overlap with the early archery season. They intentionally chose to skip adding Sundays for the last three weeks in December while they are actively stocking pheasants and no deer seasons are open.

No doubt they’ll expand for 2026 and get spring turkey included. It is odd though that they picked Sundays Sept-Dec and stopped short of the end of the year.

But it’s also a rarity that they implement such big changes after regulations have been printed and issued. I honestly thought they’d wait till 26 to start.

Not running until the end of the year is honestly the worst part about it, I could kind of understand not wanting to add Sundays into the late rifle doe season but there was zero reason not to include the rest of the Sunday’s in December.

 

[Jethro]

Don't be so sure, the turkey biologist recommended against Sundays for the upcoming spring. Obviously, this doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but here is the quote from the article.

"Mary Jo Casalena, the Game Commission’s wild turkey biologist, noted that due to population and breeding concerns, she does not recommend Sunday hunting during the spring gobbler season or adding the Sunday to the mentored youth turkey hunt one week prior to the spring season. But both of those decisions will be taken up in 2026 at the commissioners’ January meeting when they consider seasons and bag limits ahead of final approval in April."

Good point. I forget many areas still not doing well for turkey population. Although I’m not there anymore, my area in NE corner has rebounded nicely from very low numbers 5-6 years ago.

 

[RMM]

Good point. I forget many areas still not doing well for turkey population. Although I’m not there anymore, my area in NE corner has rebounded nicely from very low numbers 5-6 years ago.

Very true, a lot of guys I talked to this year didn't have much luck in the turkey woods. Our population has been on the upswing for a few years now. Surprisingly it appears we had another good hatch this year. Lots of hens with poults on trail cams. Grouse numbers are the highest I've seen in probably 15 years as well.