2019 Saturday deer opener PA.

[CMP70306]

So I was looking back through some reports on the PGC website and came across the hunter survey for the 2011, 2013 and 2016 hunting years. In there they asked what days you hunted during the rifle season then compiled the data into a handy chart as shown below along with the links.



https://www.pgc.pa.gov/InformationR...er Survey - Preliminary Statewide Results.pdf


https://www.pgc.pa.gov/InformationR...unter Survey - Report - Statewide Results.pdf


https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/Wil...er Hunter Survey Report Statewide Results.pdf

As you can see the biggest day is the Monday opener followed by the two Saturdays. I fully expect if the Saturday opener is implemented that the Monday numbers would drop 20% or more along with the Tuesday and Wednesday numbers dropping into the mid 20s.

Additionally based on the survey in 2016, 65% of hunters supported keeping the opener on Monday while only 35% opposed it. That is a 3% swing from 2013 when it was 62% to 38%.

 

[Waynzee]

Jeez Yobuck you do have a sense of humor, free beer and wings at Hooters provided by the PGC. LOL Trans Am haha.

 

[thekyrifleman]

Like Yobuck been hunting in PA a long time, since 1955.....legally! Grandfather had a farm, started really early....now live in FL for the last 10 years and still make the trek back for bear and deer. Personally, I wish the Commissioners would just leave well enough alone, hunting hours used to be just 7to 5..... ok, let's go with sunrise to sunset......more complicated depending on where you live, and at least where I am, SW PA, most mornings it's at least 7:30 before there is enough light to shoot. What I see is the one to two day hunter....so if we start on Saturday, Monday will be practically deserted as will the rest of the week. The first Saturday is not a big day any more also. Now I read they are playing with the fluorescent orange requirement.....more complications and confusion......I said a long time ago that I expected to see hunting all but disappear in my lifetime....now my favorite gripe, semiautos in the woods during deer season? Maybe equipped with Slide Fire stocks? I don't think so......what happened to one and done, shot placement, being proud that you "made THE shot",?
Rant over, just wish they would leave well enough alone......trophy bucks, if you want, your call, me, growing up meat was the goal, as they say you can't eat the horns!!
Bottom line, be it Saturday or Monday and the rest of the two weeks I will be looking and watching......

 

[Deleted member 103481]

not alllowing semi autos in the woods is some of the dumbest legislation I can imagine.
Lord help one of these mass killers is used for sport?!

taken on opening Saturday to boot

Or is it just the scary black semi autos that are bad?

 

[7magcreedmoor]

Some ruminations: As a kid I waited all year for one thing- deer season. Living on a farm, the way it worked was I hunted with my grandfather, as my dad could handle the work alone for a few days for us to go away. The four hour drive from south-central PA to the hunting camp in Potter County was almost an adventure in and of itself and made me even more eager for my 16th birthday and a driver's license. At that time buck season was 2 weeks, doe the 3rd week for usually 2 days. Bear season was Thanksgiving week. Gramps alternated schedules from one year to the next: go for bear and stay for Buck opener, the next year go for second week of buck and stay for doe. It made for a nice tradition. The time spent with that man, and the other mostly older gents in camp are some of my dearest memories. Those guys won WW2! a few younger fellows were in Korea. Vietnam had just ended when I started hunting and we only had a few guys in that age bracket. I learned absolutely inflexible gun safety rules from men who'd been there and done that. There were also strict rules about alcohol. If you were in camp Saturday night, you could have a few. No hunting on Sunday, and no drinking after dinner that night- no impairment on Monday morning. No one was allowed to touch a gun after bottles were opened! Once a new member thought that rule was just for show, and found himself expelled from camp. Permanently. Time passes, my family got out of farming and I could hunt with my Dad for the first time. We lived about an hour closer to Deer Camp, but the trip was still something special. After the season allowed both sexes at the same time, we didn't have to choose which week to schedule vacation time, we could just go hunt. That was okay. I never really appreciated that PA was unique in prohibiting Sunday hunting until I started chasing elk out west. My personal religious beliefs include sabbath-keeping, but growing up on the farm we had to be practical about it. We still had to do work on Sunday (it was a dairy farm, you gotta milk the ladies every day, and you gotta feed all the critters every day, no matter what day it is), but we only did what had to be done and not a full day's worth. I don't feel guilty hunting on Sunday when I'm in Montana, as my time out there is precious. With all the other changes in society that have stopped respecting sabbath-keeping, I don't know that hunting should be the one special exception. If PA does change the rule I'm okay with it. If they also approve semi-autos I'll probably buy an upper in 6.5 Grendel for my AR. Why? Why not? When it comes to guns I'm one of those fanatics who declares "I don't NEED A REASON, I just CAN because I want to." I do hope that anyone else who decides to go that route is mature enough to remember that just because you can shoot fast and a lot does not mean you should. My "hunting mags" will not be 30 rounders. After the novelty wears off, I may just keep using my bolt guns. After all, I put a lot of time into building, load development, and practicing my LR marksmanship. Who knows how we'll look back on this time in a few decades? No one can predict that, and it has always been that way throughout history. Reading history has the advantage of knowing how the story ended. Being in the story keeps us guessing...

Here's hoping for a good ending.

 

[yobuck]

not alllowing semi autos in the woods is some of the dumbest legislation I can imagine.
Lord help one of these mass killers is used for sport?!
View attachment 122023
View attachment 122024

Or is it just the scary black semi autos that are bad?

Well I personally don't feel that the types of both guns and people in the photo are the issue, at least not with this old fudd.
But the fact is that the so called "black" ones can be
to me, and it really has little to do with the gun itself. Many of my friends feel the same, to the point that when they are at a public range, they leave when these guys arrive. And if you take a look at many of the public ranges, the reason is pretty obvious.
Weve experienced it in our own camp, to the point we ultimately had to expel a member for his behavior with these type rifles in the off season.
Some otherwise normal people just cant handle certain things without restrictions being placed upon them.

 

[Deleted member 103481]

Cool, so we are clear. Its the black semi autos that are too scary for hunting. The tacticalness just overcomes those otherwise normal people and they shart shooting up everything...

Sorry, you expelled a member from your camp because the person had a lack character, not because the scary black rifle removed their character.

If generations past can take an M1 Garand to war for the sake of humanity world wide no state in the USA should not allow them to feed their family with it. Period.

 

[schrock27]

I think the bottom line here is that you just can't please everyone. No matter what rules or regulations are put into place. There will always be someone who gets their feelings hurt, plans ruined, or think their way is better. I am sure way back in 1869 when they put a season on hunting, somebody was upset about that.

 

[yobuck]

Cool, so we are clear. Its the black semi autos that are too scary for hunting. The tacticalness just overcomes those otherwise normal people and they shart shooting up everything...

Sorry, you expelled a member from your camp because the person had a lack character, not because the scary black rifle removed their character.
Well I am old enough to be very familiar with the M1 also, as well as the carbine model, and the fact is those rifles never created the type thing im referring to here. But when someone feels the need to expel a case of ammo over a weekend shooting at basicly nothing, it concerns me. And the fact is there are more of those types around than most of us might think, or at least be willing to admit too. Mind you im not saying you shouldn't be permitted to own them.

 

[Deleted member 103481]

How does a magazine cap for hunting game animals not accomplish what you want without denying people from using the less scary wood guns?

 

[yobuck]

Well as for the argument about feeding ones family,
we seem to have been doing that quite well since the Pilgrims landed.
As for the magazines, lets be perfectly honest here, the important thing is to get the door open, and then go for more.
I have no doubt that ultimately this will happen, based on everything else thats happening today. But it dosent mean we all have to agree on it either.
Best thing for you guys to do, would be to get some clear thinkers who agree with you appointed to the PGC.

 

[Pa Grizz]

Call me old fashion,but i will miss starting on Monday's.As long as I can remember.I would eat Thanksgiving dinner and pack the truck.Friday head up state while the women got ready to go shopping .Get to camp and see how many was already there .Head to town to get what we need for the week.Saturday fix what needs to be fixed.Sunday scout a little and go see friend's we have not seen for a while.Go to bed early Sunday night .but could not sleep until about an hour before the alarm was to go off..Been doing this for over fifty years.but nothing last's forever

 

[Pa Grizz]

Call me old fashion,but i will miss starting on Monday's.As long as I can remember.I would eat Thanksgiving dinner and pack the truck.Friday head up state while the women got ready to go shopping .Get to camp and see how many was already there .Head to town to get what we need for the week.Saturday fix what needs to be fixed.Sunday scout a little and go see friend's we have not seen for a while.Go to bed early Sunday night .but could not sleep until about an hour before the alarm was to go off..Been doing this for over fifty years.but nothing last's forever

 

[Darktimber]

I agree that it's just PGC trying to drive license sales when they are seeing a decline.

That being said I support it and I hope they finally allow Sunday hunting as well.

Where i work getting days off in buck season is hard and is based on seniority so an extra Saturday and 3 extra Sunday's would give a lot of us younger guys a reason to buy licenses. I'm already fully invested and will always buy a license but I know guys that don't buy anymore because they only get to hunt the 2 saturdays.
[QUOTE="rharfo, post: 1543497, member: 5003] I do believe we need Sunday hunting and semi autos. [/QUOTE]
Not sure why semi autos are in this equation though...PGC wanted to give us semi autos and voted yes on using them, it was the hunters who said no. I'm not opposed to using them but it seems when the time came the majority, or at least the most vocal of hunters didn't want them in the deer woods