Pennsylvania's Sunday deer hunting ban is in the crosshairs: Could it change?

“Every state surrounding Pennsylvania is offering seven-day hunting at some level. We need to do this," said Harold Daub, executive director of the advocacy group Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

“With casinos, we got them because everyone else around us had them. We’re buying beer on Sundays now. It’s about time we can do something wholesome with our families on a Sunday.”

More:Pa. Sunday hunting bill passes game committee vote, will move to senate floor

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states with significant restrictions or outright bans on Sunday hunting. Keystone State hunters are allowed to go after foxes, crows and coyotes on Sundays, but big game has become the center of debate.

Daub believes 2019 could be the year Pennsylvania's Sunday deer hunting ban is lifted.

"It has changed dramatically," Daub said. "We've had meetings with the Game and Fisheries Committee, and we're getting more support. This could lead to dramatic changes." 

Rep. Keith Gillespie, R-Hellam Township, chairman of the state House Game and Fisheries Committee, has had a change of heart about Sunday hunting after talking to constituents.

More:Sunday hunting in Pa.: What is in the bill, reaction from the Farm Bureau and what's next?

“Some farmers asked why they weren’t allowed to do what they want on their own property. That really resonated with me,” Gillespie said. “Pennsylvania would be one of the last states to allow this, and honestly, I think the real question is when is this going to happen as opposed to if this is going to happen.”

Gillespie, an avid waterfowl hunter, said he has had some of his best hunts on Sundays, outside of Pennsylvania. “I’ve always hunted on Sundays. I would not have a goldeneye on my wall had it not been for Sunday hunting in New York state, where I was lucky enough to bag one,” he said.

The argument for Sunday hunting

Both Daub and Gillespie said that something must be done to increase hunting license sales in the state.

“The biggest barrier we see when we ask people why they stopped hunting is that they don’t have time,” Daub said. “If we open up Sunday hunting, we break down the biggest barrier that keeps people from hunting, and we optimize the opportunity to sell hunting licenses.”

“People are pulled in a thousand different directions in today’s age,” Gillespie said. “Saturdays are sometimes tied up with family events, or kids have soccer games, or the weather is bad. So, they miss the opportunity and subsequently they stop buying licenses.”

With the Baby Boomer generation beginning to retire from hunting, Daub said Pennsylvania isn’t producing enough newly licensed hunters to keep up with the numbers lost each year.

“It’s simple numbers. We are bringing in 65 new hunters for every 100 we lose,” he said.

With fewer middle-aged hunters sticking with the sport, it’s unlikely they’ll buy their children licenses, or even attempt to get them interested in the sport.

“We have already lost a big part of our teaching class. If something doesn’t change soon, we are about to lose a second generation, and it will be very hard to recover from that,” Daub said “How are we going to get kids to hunt if their parents or grandparents don’t hunt?  If we don’t have the hunters funding the conservation effort, we aren’t going to have the same habitat on the 1.5 million acres of Pennsylvania game lands.”

The argument against Sunday hunting

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, opposes efforts to expand hunting on Sundays in Pennsylvania.

“The vast majority of hunting that takes place in Pennsylvania occurs on farmland and other private property. Many of these farmers and landowners are providing free access to their land for hunting on Monday through Saturday during hunting season, as long as the hunters gain permission from the landowner to hunt on their property,” Farm Bureau Director of Media and Strategic Communications Mark O’Neill said in an email. “It shouldn’t be difficult for people to understand why farmers, who typically work every day of the week but try to limit their workload on Sundays, would want to spend extra time with their family and not be bothered by hearing gunshots on their property or having hunters knocking on their doors seeking permission to hunt.”

O’Neill said the Sunday hunting debate sometimes is unfairly seen as “farmers vs. hunters." He noted that many farmers are hunters themselves.

If hunting becomes a seven-day-a-week venture, some landowners fear a 24/7 headache.

“Many farmers believe if hunting is expanded on Sundays, they will likely see an increase in the number of illegal hunters on their land,” O’Neill said. “It is important to remember that the farm is not just a piece of property, it is also the home of farm families. Farmers want one day a week to enjoy their properties without disturbances.”

“They want one a day week where they don’t have someone driving down their lane, asking for permission to hunt on their land. I can understand that,” Gillespie said. “There’s a lot of little pushbacks, but when you put them all together, it’s substantial."

Possible compromise?

The Farm Bureau believes there is a solution that could appease both sides.

“We do support the expansion of the rifled deer-hunting season (antler and antlerless deer season) by one week, as long as Sunday is excluded,” O’Neill said in his email.  “In addition, if two extra days is what some hunters are looking for, they could petition the State Game Commission to allow rifled deer hunting on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving.”

But some Sunday hunting supporters say expansion doesn’t accomplish much if Sunday is the only day a person has available.

"When my daughters were growing up, they could never hunt with me because my day off is during the week and they were in school," said Terry Benner Jr. of Halifax. "Both of them are grown now, but I can't pull them out of work to go hunting with me on a Wednesday."

Benner owns eight acres on which to hunt, but he found that because of the restrictions, his passion for hunting wasn't easily transferred to his own children. 

"My daughters are starting to fade away from it, and I hate to see that," Benner said. "I just couldn't get them out in the woods with me enough because of the timing and laws." 

Day of rest

Religion is at the root of another objection to Sunday hunting. Though most practicing Christians see Sunday as a day for rest and worship, that doesn't apply to all Pennsylvania hunters. 

Harrisburg resident Josh First is Jewish. This means his sabbath runs from Friday night through Saturday, making weekend hunting with his 15-year-old son, Isaac, impossible in Pennsylvania. 

"We observe the Sabbath. We do not drive cars on the Sabbath, we don’t use phones on the Sabbath and we don’t hunt on the Sabbath,” First said. “Then Sunday comes, and we can’t hunt.”

With his dad by his side, Isaac was able to harvest his first buck this month. But it happened in St. Michaels, Maryland, where Sunday hunting is permitted. 

“The only way I can hunt with my son in Pennsylvania is to go against my religion. There are religious people all over the country that hunt on Sunday. We’re not re-inventing the wheel or pioneering anything radical here."

“It’s important to realize that there are more religions than just the Christian faith,” Daub said. “My Jewish friends shut down starting at sundown on Friday, and they don’t hunt all day on Saturday. If we’re going to have religious laws in place, it sounds like we shouldn’t hunt Saturday either. We have to be careful with how we think about this.”

What’s next?

Both Gillespie and Daub expect to see some movement on this issue once the state Legislature reconvenes in January. But that doesn’t mean Pennsylvania hunters should start planning their 2019 Sunday hunting trips  

“My expectation is that we’ll see a bill moving sometime in the first quarter of 2019,” Daub said. “That doesn’t mean we’ll be hunting on Sundays as soon as the language is removed, but it gets things going.”

If the Legislature removes Sunday hunting restrictions, the state Game Commission could decide on Sunday Hunting regulations. The commission would perform studies and conduct public hearings, listening to both sides of the argument and would eventually decide on a plan.

“What may have been suitable 10 or 15 years ago sometimes needs brought up to speed, and I think that’s what we have going on here,” Gillespie said. “I think of big part of that would be to put it in the hands of a professional agency like the game commission.”

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