Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting PA Deer Season To Open On Saturday

Im sure you rubbed one out as soon as you heard.

There's already a gazillion days to hunt deer in Pa. Plus you could hunt small game and turkeys on that Saturday. Now you can't. Adding one more Saturday for deer ain't gonna do jack chit to increase hunter numbers.

All it does for me is cut family time over the Thanksgiving holiday, I'll have to travel on Friday instead of Saturday or Sunday to get from my daughters house in Berks county to my hunting grounds in Clearfield county. Sucks a big one.

Dale

No Sunday hunting without approval from the legislature. Just how it is here. If they'd give that over to the game commission, then maybe a Saturday deer opener makes a bit more sense? I don't give a damn about Sunday hunting for deer anyway, but that's just my view, lots do want it.

The Monday opener was more to my liking for several reasons.

Sundays for pretty much everything else is fine with me, especially woodchucks and turkeys.

Old traditions die hard and painfully. We always enjoyed the Friday ride to camp and taking our time getting ready for Monday. Saturday was a good day to go try for a turkey or some squirrels and grouse. 'Guess that's done. 'Can't believe they didn't get Sundays included in this. Kinda makes that first Saturday look like the ugly stepchild. Like I said, hard to see the old traditions die off, along with the old hunters.

Now wait a second....YOUR name was signed on the HUSH lawsuit! You dont give a damn about Sunday hunting? Pfft!!! Tell me thats not your name and signature Denny!

Please explain that better with actual dates as an example. did they shorten your season by a week by opening it the saturday before? I will be honest, I never understood how hunting was done on the east coast, even when I lived there. it was so screwed up as a whole I didn't even hunt. To me is seems like a soup sandwich that ya'll are trying to organize and rationalize. Where I live our season(s) run about the same every year. a few are the whole month of november (or october) regardless of when the 1st starts, and the regular rifle for west river runs so the last of the 3 weekends it's open is thanksgiving weekend. Now I get that people bank on these dates and expect them, but to whine about it opening the saturday before, or complaining that it's not closed on sundays seems absolutely retarded to me. I don't know the whole story, nor do I care except for what I see here when I scroll and it intrigues me enough to click. but as an outsider, it looks to me like the overall season hasn't changed aside from the saturday before the "normal" opener is the new one, so in effect you gained A day of hunting, on a weekend... and many are pissed about it. forget the whole "sunday hunting" which you still fight for keeping. I wonder what kind of stupid they put in the water there. You do realize the deer have no idea what day it is right? now if someone can explain it in a rational matter, I'm all ears, but this really seems like you all have been eating [bleep] for so long, that now when they offer you piss, you complain that it isn't more [bleep]. I honestly feel very sorry for you all to not know what it's like to live free, at least to the degree we are allowed out here. You have my prayers

You’ve obviously never been in the PA deer woods at dawn on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The "got to have it now" generation has no time for foreplay. This decision devastates a lifetime of tradition. This is only one season of many.

Nothing says you HAVE to hunt that opening Saturday. Guys I've talked to plan to continue their driving/kibitzing/drinking on Saturday and Sunday and heading into the woods on Monday. Big deal. It just adds a little more flexibility to some people's seasons, that's all.

PA gets dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Hell, we just recently were granted the privelage to buy a six pack between noon and 5 on Sundays ...

It's the no Sunday hunting that makes this a dumb move,I'll likely skip driving 5 hours each way to hunt Saturday and not be able to hunt Sunday
NY did this a few years back but it wasn't as big a deal since you could hunt Sunday
IF PA was really interested in getting more people/youths involved they would allow Sunday hunting

Exactly.

Nope, I sure haven't, nor would I want to from how it sounds.

It must be more magical than opening day in other places..... you know, with it being monday and all....

Like I said earlier, the deer don't know what day of the week it is.

Exactly.

When someone says they get less time with family because they have to leave for camp on Friday, I say BS. Do it as you always had.

Some seriously stuck individuals here. I bet the switch from paper to plastic gave a few wives black eyes.

Paper or plastic? Now there's an issue worth pulling out the pistol over.

Maybe it's an apple and oranges kinda thing, comparing deer hunting traditions from one state to another? PA manages to sell roughly 900,000 licenses per year, despite a national trend of declining sales and the number of hunters, but that's down from what it was a few decades ago.

PA measures a tad over 46,000 square miles and still has lots of rural land, not to mention millions of acres of forested, mountainous land, primarily in the northern parts of the state. Within that acreage is over 2.5 million acres of public access land to hunt on, plus lots more private land open to public access with permission. We probably have roughly 700,000 people that hunt deer. Estimates put the majority of those out on opening day of firearms deer season.

Deer numbers are not spread evenly across the state, but there are areas with huge deer numbers, most areas have adequate numbers and still some areas that hold few deer. People argue endlessly about how many deer we have, but we seem to always rank high in deer/vehicle accident rates, so I'd say we have plenty of deer? Annual deer kill numbers from the various seasons, have stayed in the 300,000+ range for years.

Hunting camps were the thing here, going back to the 1920s, because the deer were primarily in the northern areas. Hundreds of thousands of hunters went to those camps to hunt each year. Not the big deal it once was, partly because deer are now more common in other parts of PA, but that camp thing is still an important part of our deer hunting traditions. May not be the same in other states, can't say?

I couldn't agree more pa game commission just sees $$$$$

The average hunter is a whiny bitch and this thread proves it. LMAO. Some of you guys would squawk about getting hung with a new rope.

I assume you mean turning everything over to the polititions would be preferable?
In my 72 seasons of hunting in PA ive witnessed quite a few changes, and not all I agreed with including this one.
But this just might be one whose time has come. That said I don't think it will change much, especially in license sales numbers.
I don't think Sunday hunting will either other than for maybe a year, but it will no doubt shift the days some choose to hunt.
So we could look for the big exodus on Sunday afternoon instead of Tuesday afternoon?
That might not be all bad.
Bars at least initially will probably see more business with a weekend opener, especially those that offer freebees.
I mean where else is there to go to complain about seein no deer? lol

ARs and brown goes down weekends cant be very far off.

Holy schit...why would you want to with this many screaming children in the woods?