Could Sunday hunting be on its' way? HB 1760

[Yellowfin]

Why must hunting happen seven days a week?

Happen and be available are two different things. Will I necessarily hunt 7 days consecutively? My life isn't that good, nor are most of ours. In fact, it's precisely because the opposite is true: all the other crap I or anyone else has to deal with in life pops up all the time and not having every possible option open to be able to work around those pitfalls screws me and lots of other guys out of being able to enjoy our fair share of hunting. I'm not retired or run my own law or medical practice or other form of work I can just shut down or walk away from on a whim or even with advanced booking. I have a wife whose days she can spend with me are limited to what her career that involves dealing with spontaneous crises of the mentally ill (no, she's not involved with state government or Congress) allows. We own a home that we're not the first or second owners of so every day is a discovery of what isn't finished, what's growing and needs to be trimmed or uprooted, and what might be a budgetary doomsday. We have family that doesn't stay in their neat little box conveniently shutting up and needing nothing outside of my explicitly designated time for them.

...and we don't even have kids yet.

So this "You don't need 7 days" crap can choke on a bag of soggy horse droppings.

[Ranger P229]

Happen and be available are two different things. Will I necessarily hunt 7 days consecutively? My life isn't that good, nor are most of ours. In fact, it's precisely because the opposite is true: all the other crap I or anyone else has to deal with in life pops up all the time and not having every possible option open to be able to work around those pitfalls screws me and lots of other guys out of being able to enjoy our fair share of hunting. I'm not retired or run my own law or medical practice or other form of work I can just shut down or walk away from on a whim or even with advanced booking. I have a wife whose days she can spend with me are limited to what her career that involves dealing with spontaneous crises of the mentally ill (no, she's not involved with state government or Congress) allows. We own a home that we're not the first or second owners of so every day is a discovery of what isn't finished, what's growing and needs to be trimmed or uprooted, and what might be a budgetary doomsday. We have family that doesn't stay in their neat little box conveniently shutting up and needing nothing outside of my explicitly designated time for them.

...and we don't even have kids yet.

So this "You don't need 7 days" crap can choke on a bag of soggy horse droppings.

So basically, you've made a series of willing decisions throughout your life that limit your available time to hunt, and now you want laws changed so you have more time for a hobby that you knowingly marginalized.

If hunting was/is so important to you, why haven't you kept it as a priority in decision making?

Pennsylvania has a ton of opportunity for hunting. The "I don't have time" whining is more than a little tired. If hunting is a serious priority in your life, then make decisions that allow you to have time to hunt.

Between special regs areas, rifle and archery you can hunt deer for 1/4 of the year, with liberal small game seasons, and two turkey seasons. Man, what a small window that is.

As I said, I'm all for the PGC having the authority over Sunday hunting as a management tool, but I hope I never see Sunday hunting for any species other than what it is already legal for.

[goon]

Change the law.
I have yet to see a valid complaint to justify a ban on Sunday hunting that couldn't be used to justify a ban on all hunting.
So if you don't want to ban all hunting, then you have a hard time making up a strong argument to keep it illegal on Sunday.

[goon]

I was actually shot at during turkey season. This was some years ago, and I think it happened on a saturday. I was hiking on the PA side of the DE water gap, on the appalachian trail. I was wearing a purple rain jacket, but had a blaze orange vest on over that. Guy with a shotgun took a shot in my direction from some brush about 25 yards away and God knows how but missed entirely.

When I confronted him he said he didn't see the blaze orange through the brush, but did see my jacket colors and they were the same coloring that turkeys sometimes get, than proceeded to launch into some rambling speech claiming that I had no right to be there as these were hunters lands paid for with hunters license fees (remember, I was on a designated hiking trail, so he should have been aware that there might be non-hunters using the area and should have been more careful).

To be honest, part of me suspects he shot (and missed) on purpose, knowing full well I was a hiker, and just wanted to put a scare into someone who was using "his lands" for non-hunting purposes.

In this case, the problem is the problem hunter.
Did you contact law enforcement or the PGC and push for charges to be filed?

That guy was incredibly reckless and you'd have been doing us a favor to get him out of the woods and get his ability to legally hunt or own guns eliminated.

[Ranger P229]

Change the law.
I have yet to see a valid complaint to justify a ban on Sunday hunting that couldn't be used to justify a ban on all hunting.
So if you don't want to ban all hunting, then you have a hard time making up a strong argument to keep it illegal on Sunday.

Game management. Weekend days by far have higher harvest rates. To have a long season without harvest rates over what you want to see limiting hunting on the highest use days makes sense.

Banning hunting altogether does not accomplish population management. So there you go, a reason that falls flat on its face when extended from a ban on Sunday hunting to a ban on all hunting.

[unclejumbo]

Game management. Weekend days by far have higher harvest rates. To have a long season without harvest rates over what you want to see limiting hunting on the highest use days makes sense.

Banning hunting altogether does not accomplish population management. So there you go, a reason that falls flat on its face when extended from a ban on Sunday hunting to a ban on all hunting.

But the ban on Sunday hunting falls flat on it's face as well because seasons are easily adjusted to account for the extra day. Especially a legislative ban, we don't need the politicians involved in game management decisions. There is no rationale for the ban.

[goon]

Game management. Weekend days by far have higher harvest rates. To have a long season without harvest rates over what you want to see limiting hunting on the highest use days makes sense.

Banning hunting altogether does not accomplish population management. So there you go, a reason that falls flat on its face when extended from a ban on Sunday hunting to a ban on all hunting.

Make the season shorter, sell fewer licenses, or make Sunday primitive hunting only with bows and muzzleloaders.

The ban on Sunday hunting isn't a law based on reason. It's an archaic holdover. It needs addressed.

[Ranger P229]

But the ban on Sunday hunting falls flat on it's face as well because seasons are easily adjusted to account for the extra day. Especially a legislative ban, we don't need the politicians involved in game management decisions. There is no rationale for the ban.

It's your opinion that shortening a season to account for the addition of a Sunday would be a good thing. If the goal is X animals harvested, what makes doing so in the shortest amount of time "better" than otherwise?

There's plenty of rationale for not allowing Sunday hunting, or even Saturday hunting, there is no rationale for the authority of that to be in the hands of politicians instead of the PGC, there's a huge difference.

[Ranger P229]

Make the season shorter, sell fewer licenses, or make Sunday primitive hunting only with bows and muzzleloaders.

The ban on Sunday hunting isn't a law based on reason. It's an archaic holdover. It needs addressed.

All your above "solutions" are to a non-existent problem. I find it particularly hilarious that the same people that rant about not having enough opportunity to hunt will then say "just make seasons shorter" when increased harvest is brought up. I thought pro Sunday hunters wanted more opportunity to hunt? Shorter seasons certainly won't accomplish that.

I'm all for PGC having control over Sunday hunting. I'm also all for Sunday hunting never happening any more than it already does. I want PGC to have the authority, and to keep it a thing of the past.

[goon]

All your above "solutions" are to a non-existent problem. I find it particularly hilarious that the same people that rant about not having enough opportunity to hunt will then say "just make seasons shorter" when increased harvest is brought up. I thought pro Sunday hunters wanted more opportunity to hunt? Shorter seasons certainly won't accomplish that.

I'm all for PGC having control over Sunday hunting. I'm also all for Sunday hunting never happening any more than it already does. I want PGC to have the authority, and to keep it a thing of the past.

Actually, I've never heard of anyone who wanted to buy a hunting license and couldn't. I think there is plenty of "opportunity to hunt"... if you can do it on Saturday.

Shorter seasons wouldn't actually be "shorter" if you could hunt more days of the week. You could still do the math to get X number of deer knocked off to keep the population under control. The difference wouldn't be fewer days, just different days.
The number of deer killed on weekends may increase slightly, but you'd be dividing it by two days instead of one. The total number of deer killed could still be worked out to be within the target range.

Opening Sundays to "primitive" hunting would still let guys who can't hunt on other days get out and enjoy the woods. Sorry, but not everyone can build his entire life around the six days a week, two weeks a year, when he (or she) can legally kill a deer with a .30'06. If you opened Sundays to bows and muzzleloaders, it probably wouldn't result in a whole lot more deer killed. But people who wanted to get more time in the woods may buy more muzzleloader or archery licenses. They may also buy bows and muzzleloaders that they otherwise wouldn't have bought. They'd probably also buy coffee from Sheetz and bacon and eggs from places that fed hunters. And they'd get to be out hunting. I support that.

Really though, why not just open it to regular hunting with whatever rules the season already has? Bows, flintlocks, cartridge rifles... whatever.

After having lived in AK, where people actually do hunt for food, the hunting that goes on in PA just seems like some game to me. People argue about who should be able to hunt with what on which days... but who cares? Go out, get your meat, enjoy your time in the woods, and stop trying to screw the other guy.
And that is why I oppose a ban on Sunday hunting... because it is just a childish way to keep some poor bastard from getting out and enjoying the woods.