Change Opening Day of Deer Season?

[57springer]

No, stay at your Daughters and hunt Monday but why can't I hunt with my son during rifle season? He heads off to school that Sunday so literally I have 0 chance to hunt rifle with him without the change. This whole debate makes no sense to me. Why does it bother so many people to have it that Saturday? If your Thanksgiving is so important to you then enjoy it but that shouldn't prevent me from enjoying a Saturday opener.

I guess I'll just wait for you all to digest before I can hunt.

That was not specifically directed at you but instead of the argument that so many present for not changing. Tradition, not spending time with family, etc. It's so nonsensical, no wonder why people don't hunt anymore. Frustrates me as you can tell.

The people against the Sunday hunting fall into this category as well, they go to sunday school and will be pissed cause others get to hunt instead

[Gunowner99]

The people against the Sunday hunting fall into this category as well, they go to sunday school and will be pissed cause others get to hunt instead

The one I heard that got me scratching my head was if you have a Saturday opener the retailers will suffer (supply stores) because people will hunt instead of buying ammo and clothes? The same person said that also the people who run camp will have to leave family on Thanksgiving to set up camp so it's not right? This was printed in the Outdoor News a few months back.

Yup, don't push that crap my way.

[Bang]

Lost count of the number of times people screwed up opening day of archery with a birthday party, wedding or whatever.

[norb5150]

I'm all for it, but add Sunday in there as well or hang it up. Why hunt Saturday then wait out till Monday to get back in the woods. Seriously, enough is enough. Open up the weekend to hunting for all game in season. I don't mind hunting coyotes or other varmints on Sundays but if its deer season (rifle, bow, inline,flintlock...blah blah blah) why not just allow Deer Hunting on Sundays? I don't get it. New York sportsman's license non resident $250 gets you all hunting all fishing any day of the week including Sunday and New York has just as good a deer population as PA. Ohio... Sunday Hunting ... OPEN UP SUNDAY HUNTING in PA More insurance companies kill deer than hunters.

[unclejumbo]

I'm all for it, but add Sunday in there as well or hang it up. Why hunt Saturday then wait out till Monday to get back in the woods. Seriously, enough is enough. Open up the weekend to hunting for all game in season. I don't mind hunting coyotes or other varmints on Sundays but if its deer season (rifle, bow, inline,flintlock...blah blah blah) why not just allow Deer Hunting on Sundays? I don't get it. New York sportsman's license non resident $250 gets you all hunting all fishing any day of the week including Sunday and New York has just as good a deer population as PA. Ohio... Sunday Hunting ... OPEN UP SUNDAY HUNTING in PA More insurance companies kill deer than hunters.

Everybody needs to be up their legislators ass that cares about this. Look up H.U.S.H. and get involved. We only get there when the legislators feel more threatened by the pro-Sunday hunters than they do by the Farm Bureau.

[dk99358]

No, stay at your Daughters and hunt Monday but why can't I hunt with my son during rifle season? He heads off to school that Sunday so literally I have 0 chance to hunt rifle with him without the change. This whole debate makes no sense to me. Why does it bother so many people to have it that Saturday? If your Thanksgiving is so important to you then enjoy it but that shouldn't prevent me from enjoying a Saturday opener.

I guess I'll just wait for you all to digest before I can hunt.

That was not specifically directed at you but instead of the argument that so many present for not changing. Tradition, not spending time with family, etc. It's so nonsensical, no wonder why people don't hunt anymore. Frustrates me as you can tell.

I went through the same school thing with my son. And also myself way back in the day. You set your priorities. Hunting was more important to me so I was known to skip a few classes. Not so my son, he went to class. Or you could go to where your son is and hunt, I made that offer to my son a couple of times.

You want to hunt deer on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (I'm assuming). I want to hunt small game and do scouting for deer season on that Saturday. It's not currently working out that way for family reasons but it used to. And when my grandsons get older and travel with them isn't a PIA, it will probably change back.

Here's a question for those in favor of Saturday opener. Do you hunt local enough to your home to drive to your spot each day or do you travel and stay somewhere? If you travel, when would you travel? What if you work on Fridays, what do you do, take a vacation day? I don't see any difference between taking Friday to travel or Monday to hunt.

Dale

[unclejumbo]

I went through the same school thing with my son. And also myself way back in the day. You set your priorities. Hunting was more important to me so I was known to skip a few classes. Not so my son, he went to class. Or you could go to where your son is and hunt, I made that offer to my son a couple of times.

You want to hunt deer on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (I'm assuming). I want to hunt small game and do scouting for deer season on that Saturday. It's not currently working out that way for family reasons but it used to. And when my grandsons get older and travel with them isn't a PIA, it will probably change back.

Here's a question for those in favor of Saturday opener. Do you hunt local enough to your home to drive to your spot each day or do you travel and stay somewhere? If you travel, when would you travel? What if you work on Fridays, what do you do, take a vacation day? I don't see any difference between taking Friday to travel or Monday to hunt.

Dale

I hunt on my property and I'm retired, it makes little difference to me. I see it opening up opportunities (especially with Sunday hunting) for more people to enjoy the sport. A lot of places including all schools and a lot of businesses are closed on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The Monday opening is a public school holiday is a lot of PA but not all. If the school is in a more urban area, it may well be open. Most colleges resume classes that day and most businesses gear back up unless the business owner is sympathetic to hunting and hunters.

I could see an even greater boon if it opened the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Maybe a combo deer/bear that weekend with bear going out on Tuesday or Wednesday. That would really increase the opportunities for workers and students. A lot of people only hunt deer, that's the big event. Small game is pretty hit or miss depending on where you live. The days of plentiful pheasants are done in most of the state. Squirrel is one step above rat and rabbits are hard to come by without a decent dog.

I think the PGC needs to shake things up if they want the younger set to get excited about hunting. They've made some strides with mentored hunts and antler restrictions. But they still need to capture the interest of younger hunters or all hunting will soon go the way of the picnic grove and the encyclopedia.

[Here4now]

I’m not sure what the problem is with kids missing school to go hunting. Way back in the day, my school was not closed the first day of buck - although now it’s closed, probably due to the huge list of absentees. Maybe the law has changed, but back then, you were allowed 3 unexcused absences, before a fine was levied on the parents.

I would go to hunting camp for those 3 days. When I was 15, my Dad said that if I get on the honor roll, I could stay at camp for the whole week and he would pay the fine for those extra two days. Now that gave me some incentive. That was the first and only time I ever made the honor roll. IIRC, the fine was 2 bucks per day, but the costs were around $20.

Is the law the same, or do they now levy fines for missing even one day?

[Palerider]

I’d like opening day moved to Saturday, same as bear is now.

It would benefit my college aged kids who could hunt Saturday then go back to school Sunday for Monday classes. I don’t see how making it easier to hunt is a bad thing for the continuation of the sport.

[Palerider]

There sure hasn't been any shortage of deer around here in the last 5 years, I've hit at least one every fall. If anything they should move it to the Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving, the rut is damn near over by the time rifle season opens anymore.

Really?? Around Mill Hall??????? Really??????? Slow down near that private ground or corn field Mr. G! On public ground in the mountains where I hunt, (north and south of Mill Hall), the deer numbers are down for rifle season and have been down for over 10 years. I have deer in my development! I have deer behind the schools! I have deer in the cornfields but that is private ground and either off limits or in safety zones as they should be. Hunter numbers are down for various reasons including the liberalization of our children and the hectic life we need to live to make ends meet while fulfilling family obligations. The more the hunter numbers drop, the more the PGC will increase license allotments to make up the difference which continues to drive down the deer numbers in the Big Woods and public hunting spaces. A Saturday opening will increase the amount of hunters on opening day but won't really fix the issue. Kids don't traditionally hunt like they used to. Social media and some educators in the elementary and middle/senior schools bash guns equating violence they create and not the sports we all enjoyed afield with them. Then when you do get the kids involved, they can go a couple seasons without ever experiencing the heart pounding excitement of hearing an approaching deer, getting it in the sights/scope and distinguishing a buck from a doe, the body size and the points if applicable.
I don't need to kill anything when I go out. But I miss seeing deer. Two years in a row at my camp without seeing a tail. (Stand hunting and small drives). Why stay at camp when you have to drive to private ground to have a chance of seeing a deer with a rifle after youth hunts and the black-powder and archery hunters all had their turns for weeks. (Not knocking you guys! I just don't muzzle-load or archery hunt and don't have the time to do it "right").
It isn't the habitat either. I hunt in Oak and Beech woods with other mixed hardwoods and thick Laurel patches with water nearby. I see plenty of browse and seedlings left untouched. The mast crops have been there but the deer numbers are not there! These are the spaces the traditional herds occupied. Not anymore! And you wonder why the hunter numbers are disappearing! End of rant!

Access to where the deer are is hard. I live in Bucks county. When I pull out of my neighborhood I’ll often see 20-30 deer in the farm fields across from me. I asked countless farmers for access, no permission granted. They either didn’t allow it or already had friends or family hunting there.

I have a cabin above Lock Haven where I’ll hunt on private property along with game lands and state forest. I think if I hunted a lot up north I ‘may’ see 20 total deer all season and usually it’s a single or a doe with a yearlong. I racked my memory and I think I got to a total of 12-14 sightings this year. Some in range, others not, no legal bucks.