The only negative is folks who can't except change.
And the PGC is stuck in 1962
Although I can't say your hunting camp will ever return to the good times I do believe we need Sunday hunting and semi autos. I also believe we need to move the opener to Saturday. My camp has suffered like yours so I feel your pain. But since the PGC is stuck in 1962 any change that adds a day to the rifle season is a positive step in getting our family and friends back to "deer camp".Well considering I started hunting in 2004 when I was 12 I guess I could consider myself as one of the new generation of hunters. In that time the biggest change to rifle season was the removal of doe from the first week of the season. That honestly negatively effected rifle season in our camp to the point it is near unrecognizable from what it was just a few short years ago. We used to go up Friday after Thanksgiving and stay at camp till Wednesday, the opening two days our group of 12 would get 6 to 10 deer and spend Wednesday butchering. Those were honestly some of the best vacations I've ever had.
After they removed doe from the first week our opening day harvest numbers plummeted. We only managed to get 1 buck total the first three years after the change when we should have gotten 18 to 30 deer. Part of this is because 2/3rds of our harvests are does and partially because no one was shooting the deer simply stayed put. At that point we stopped staying up till Wednesday as watching nothing but does, spikes and fork horns run by for two straight days didn't do much for camp morale. Without anybody harvesting deer my two cousins started only coming up for the weekend and leaving Sunday night before stopping coming up all together, our other friend decided to use his vacation time elsewhere and the old guy hung it up entirely. Our group of 12 dropped to 6 or 7 in the matter of a couple years with the new rules.
So what does this have to do with the opener moving to Saturday? I fully expect it to fragment our group even more. My uncle and our friend frequently have to work Saturday so they may elect to skip the opening weekend entirely since they would miss the opening day. If people can't hunt the opener then why head up Sunday to only hunt bucks on Monday and Tuesday, they might as well wait till the following weekend when they can also shoot does.
Next thing you know the once special opening day of deer season is now just like any other weekend, traveling up Friday night, hunting Saturday and going home Sunday. Gone would be the five day trip to hunting camp, the three days of hanging out, getting hyped up and ready for the opener on Monday, the campfires the camaraderie and toasts to the good times passed and those ahead. To me it removes what makes the opening day of rifle season so special and cheapens the experience.
So forgive me if I'm not sold on this "change", the changes that would provide a positive benefit with no downside such as Sunday Hunting and allowing semi autos for deer hunting have been shelved while the only change we seem to get is ones that screws over us and many other hunters for my favorite weekend of the year.
Although I can't say your hunting camp will ever return to the good times I do believe we need Sunday hunting and semi autos. I also believe we need to move the opener to Saturday. My camp has suffered like yours so I feel your pain. But since the PGC is stuck in 1962 any change that adds a day to the rifle season is a positive step in getting our family and friends back to "deer camp".
Well your story ties in exactly to what Ive said. That being that hunting in PA, especially deer hunting, was at one time a (tradition). All, and I said (all) the schools statewide were closed for the first 3 days of the (bucks only) season when I was in school, and still in some areas when my kids were in school.Well considering I started hunting in 2004 when I was 12 I guess I could consider myself as one of the new generation of hunters. In that time the biggest change to rifle season was the removal of doe from the first week of the season. That honestly negatively effected rifle season in our camp to the point it is near unrecognizable from what it was just a few short years ago. We used to go up Friday after Thanksgiving and stay at camp till Wednesday, the opening two days our group of 12 would get 6 to 10 deer and spend Wednesday butchering. Those were honestly some of the best vacations I've ever had.
After they removed doe from the first week our opening day harvest numbers plummeted. We only managed to get 1 buck total the first three years after the change when we should have gotten 18 to 30 deer. Part of this is because 2/3rds of our harvests are does and partially because no one was shooting the deer simply stayed put. At that point we stopped staying up till Wednesday as watching nothing but does, spikes and fork horns run by for two straight days didn't do much for camp morale. Without anybody harvesting deer my two cousins started only coming up for the weekend and leaving Sunday night before stopping coming up all together, our other friend decided to use his vacation time elsewhere and the old guy hung it up entirely. Our group of 12 dropped to 6 or 7 in the matter of a couple years with the new rules.
So what does this have to do with the opener moving to Saturday? I fully expect it to fragment our group even more. My uncle and our friend frequently have to work Saturday so they may elect to skip the opening weekend entirely since they would miss the opening day. If people can't hunt the opener then why head up Sunday to only hunt bucks on Monday and Tuesday, they might as well wait till the following weekend when they can also shoot does.
Next thing you know the once special opening day of deer season is now just like any other weekend, traveling up Friday night, hunting Saturday and going home Sunday. Gone would be the five day trip to hunting camp, the three days of hanging out, getting hyped up and ready for the opener on Monday, the campfires the camaraderie and toasts to the good times passed and those ahead. To me it removes what makes the opening day of rifle season so special and cheapens the experience.
So forgive me if I'm not sold on this "change", the changes that would provide a positive benefit with no downside such as Sunday Hunting and allowing semi autos for deer hunting have been shelved while the only change we seem to get is ones that screws over us and many other hunters for my favorite weekend of the year.