Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting PA Game Commision- Vote to change opening day.....

i'm big on tradition but i like this idea. should have done it years ago. shoot a deer on saturday, celebrate saturday night and butcher it on sunday and head home if you don't have monday off. this will make a big difference in hunting for me and my boys.

Sorry Scott, I tried to be clear but didn't make it. Item 1 (small game and scouting) happened when I lived in that area and it was easy to go hunting but I don't live there anymore. Item 2 (traveling) is what happens now. Moving the opener to that Saturday really limits my travel time to the Friday after Thanksgiving. It does that same for a lot of other hunters who travel to 'camp'.

Dale

Opening day is still opening day. I don’t thin’ it’s ever been a different day in my life so it’s very interesting reading different perspectives here. You’d think having opening day on a non work day traditionally is better. You can bet your azz the politicians commissioners etc. make decisions based on reason$.

I think that if I lived in PA, I'd be having a celebration. They're giving you an extra day to hunt and moving the opener to Saturday. So some people who have to work, don't have to take off or miss opening day. Sounds like a Win/Win situation to me.

In Maryland, opening day has always been on Saturday. Like you, it's been a tradition. Most people here, don't actually go to Deer Camp. Like most people here, I just walk out my door and 45 minutes later I'm sitting in my tree stand. Logistically, I can see how this might screw up people's routine. If it's that much trouble, just keep on doing what you do. Up until a few years ago, it was illegal to hunt on Sunday here. Sunday seemed as though it was like a cool down day after the place was shot up on Saturday. I always thought it was beneficial for the hunting on Monday. Now we can hunt on Sunday here and it hasn't changed a damn thing.

We're only about a 30 to 60 minute drive from the PA line. If you drive past the parking areas at the public hunting lands on Saturday, 75% of the vehicles have PA tags. If PA changes to Saturday, it might keep those "Penntuckians" from coming down here a scaring all of our deer.

Changing hunting seasons can be problematic for a lot of people though. Up until 1990, our gun season was only one week long, Saturday to Saturday. So basically, if you had to work during the week, it only gave you two days to hunt. Our deer population was exploding and DNR had to do something. So they extended it another week. The waterfowl hunters went crazy because it was cutting a week out of their 6 month long hunting season. I was hunting a lot of geese back then, but I loved to hunt deer too, so I welcomed it.

I do business with a lot of people in North East PA and most of those guys hunt. I'm going to ask them what they think about this the next time I talk to them.

All I can say is that if they change it, it won't be the end of the world and everybody will adapt.

Maybe they should take a lesson from Idaho's experience. Years ago, Idaho's opening day was on Saturday. Then we had a spell when deer numbers dropped way down. They switched it to Wednesday to cut the opening day pressure and to hopefully have more deer survive. After deer numbers revived, many hunters wanted to return to Saturday while others preferred an opener with lower hunter numbers. They compromised by going to a date rather than a day of the week. General season opens Oct 10 (5th in some areas with larger deer numbers) no matter what day of the week it falls on. They did the same with elk, opening on Oct 15. It's been working well this way for a long time. No matter what day you prefer, it'll come around again in a few years.

There are plenty of deer in Kentucky.
https://app.fw.ky.gov/SeasonDates/Default.aspx (Hit the drop-down & choose "Deer")

All of this may not matter as CWD is the elephant in the room and deer hunting as we have known it in PA is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

PGC Executive Director Bryan Burhans called CWD an ecological disaster and compared it to the blight that wiped out the Chestnut trees a century ago.

In 2017 CWD was found in 78 free ranging deer (compared to 25 in 2016). Will be interesting to see what the 2018 numbers portend.

No offense, but PA isn’t KY....

Just pointing out that KY's gun season is at the height of the rut and the KY bucks seem to be gittin'-r-dun.

Is there something different about PA bucks?

Pretty much sums it up for our group of camps.

I drove 2+ hours each way from NY and hunted every weekend this year (including second archery season) so I don't need 1 extra day. Half my vacation goes towards hunting, and don't rally care. We own a camp in area 1B, (among a group that was established in the late 40s). The groups of guys in these camps are extremely traditional and old school. Traditional to the point where no women are allowed at deer camp. Ever. We have a dinner the day after Thanksgiving that has been happening for over 40 years where around 30-35 people show up from surrounding camps. This is the only time most of us see these guys. We eat a ton of food, drink a ton of beer and shoot the shït for hours. Hell, guys still throw in $1 for the buck pool hoping it goes to one of the kids on opening MONDAY. Saturday hunting would destroy this for us.

I agree with most of you that they opening Sunday hunting is more important to most of us, but keep the opening day of deer MONDAY.

Don’t know about the bucks being different, but yes, hunter participation and hunting pressure is much different in PA. The 2017-18 deer harvest in PA was 367,000 deer (that’s more than the total number of licensed hunters in KY) while in KY it was 130,000 deer (with MUCH more liberal bag limits). As previously stated a firearms season during peak rut would decimate the PA buck population. Just ask a PA rifle hunter what impact they think bow season during the rut has on the overall buck population.

A buck must be alive to git-r-dun.

Protectionism... Grin.

I think the point restriction has a big influence on the reproduction rates as well. Adding to your hunting pressure comment, before the point restriction, when most people saw antlers, pull the trigger, not allowing him the chance to do his thing. Now, that spike, forky, and small 6 has those three extra years to bang that many more does. Also, in the last 5 years or so, we see big boys on a regular basis. We pass on deer we would have had mounted 20 years ago.

I’m not talking about reproduction rates, talking about PA rifle season coinciding with peak rut....

The increasing expansion of early seasons during the rut, declining rifle season participation and the posting of private lands are the three biggest factors effecting PA’s rifle season. Changing opening day would be devistating.

There it is. Bottom line.

No, theres something different about PA. Number of hunters are double that of KY

Yeah but he's one to talk. He started this bitchfest.

PA has double the deer population too, correct?

Montana's firearms season flows right on through the rut, most years. I try to kill my deer early for that reason. Rutty buck tastes...rutty. I can't imagine that hunting during the rut would make that much difference to breeding. They'd just do the deed on Sundays, when the hunters can't hunt.