The first of Sunday hunting during deer season received a lukewarm response from hunters and processors across the state.
Several changes greeted hunters this season, which for the second year began on a Saturday but now remained open on the following Sunday. In addition, concurrent buck and doe hunting was opened in more Wildlife Management Units to start the season, and the response from hunters varied throughout the state.
“I’m OK with the Saturday opener. I like it. But I could take or leave the Sunday,” said Stan Haire, who hunts in WMU 1B in Erie County.
Haire added that hunting pressure was pretty heavy on private and public land in his area, which leads him to believe the opening weekend was popular.
“I heard a lot of shots and saw a lot of deer on both days,” he said. “That tells me a lot of people were in the woods moving deer.”
Things were quieter during the opening weekend on the farm where Luzerne County resident Miller Stella hunted. He counted five shots on Saturday, and Sunday was nearly silent, he said.
Stella believes the reason why participation was down in his area is because many hunters had to work on Saturday – a busy retail day – and kids were busy with sports activities.
If it was up to him, Stella said he’d do away with the entire opening weekend, shift the start back to Monday and then keep the season open on the following Sunday. That way, he added, it would bring back the traditional Monday opener and allow the season to continue uninterrupted through the following weekend.
“There’s a lot of negativity toward the Saturday opener because people have to work, it hurts businesses and it’s too close to Thanksgiving,” Stella said. “Hunting is more about tradition than killing a deer, and that’s been lost.
“I heard five shots on opening day. Something’s wrong with this.”
In Lycoming County, participation on the opening weekend peaked and then quickly subsided, according to Dave Aumen, who hunts near state game lands 134.
On Saturday, he said, hunter turnout was less than last year, but participation increased noticeably on Sunday, albeit briefly.
“In the morning there were cars everywhere, but the number of shots was way down and by 9 a.m. most of the hunters were gone,” Aumen said. “By the afternoon I didn’t see nearly as many vehicles.”
While he added that Sunday provided more opportunity for hunters, Aumen said he doesn’t support the concept for a couple of reasons.
“From the standpoint that the deer are really getting pressured anymore, giving them a day off was a good thing,” Aumen said. “I’m also a Christian, so I have mixed feelings about Sunday hunting.”
Due to the potential for long days with his job in the gas industry, Ryan Hill of Berks County said having both Saturday and Sunday to hunt was a nice change. In the past, if he wanted to hunt for two consecutive days, Hill said he’d have to use vacation time from work.
“To have an extra day on the weekend was nice,” he said.
The season began with a flurry on the public land that Hill hunts in WMU 5C – which is concurrent for both weeks. He consistently heard shots throughout the day on Saturday, but then things changed on Sunday.
“Sunday was dramatically different as I heard maybe three to four shots. It wasn’t what I expected,” Hill said. “While we had a lot more hunters out on Saturday, on Sunday the deer weren’t moving and there wasn’t much going on.”
And despite having extra time to hunt on the weekend without having to take time off from work, Hill’s support for Sunday hunting is limited.
“I like how they had one for archery and one for rifle, but I don’t know if I’d be for it if it was open on every Sunday all through the season,” he said. “After a while with that, there’s going to be a lot of deer that are going to get wiped out.”
While hunters’ reactions were mixed on the opening weekend, the sentiment from deer processors followed a similar course.
Charles Musselman, owner of Twin Pines Custom Meats in Myerstown, Lebanon County, didn’t hesitate to state his opinion on this season’s changes.
“I’m not a fan at all of the Sunday, Musselman said. “From a business standpoint it’s incredibly harder to plan and accommodate. Plus, there are very few processors around here open on a Sunday, so that becomes an issue with warmer weather and we saw that this year.”
Musselman noted that archery season was very busy for his business as the number of deer brought in was 30% more than last year.
After a strong showing by hunters during archery season followed by a weekend rifle season opener, Musselman said his position on Sunday hunting is firm.
“With Sunday hunting, nothing gets a break,” he said.
Ed White of Death Valley Kustom Kutz in Mansfield, Tioga County, agreed that having both Saturday and Sunday both open to start the season pushed his business to the limit – especially after an archery season that resulted in twice as many deer coming into his shop.
“We were OK on space, but we just had to work twice as hard,” White said. “The first two days of rifle, it was a nice weather weekend, and the numbers were about double for me. We didn’t get a day to rest this year like in the past.”
The perception was different in Westmoreland County, which was open for a two-week concurrent season.
Mark Zimmerman of Hoffer’s Ligonier Valley Packing, said all of the changes this year are a good thing in his area because deer numbers are high.
More deer were brought to his shop on the first Saturday and Sunday he said, attributing the upswing to the two-week concurrent season. On the Saturday opener in 2019, hunters brought 55 deer to Zimmerman’s shop. This year the number rose to 105, followed by roughly 80 more on Sunday.
And with two weeks to hunt antlerless deer in parts of the state, Zimmerman felt this season’s overall deer harvest will increase over last season.
“I think most hunters around here enjoyed the Saturday and Sunday opening weekend. It was another chance for them to get out,” he said. “And in this area, if more does can get harvested that’s a good thing. There’s too many deer around here right now.”
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News
