Inhale, slowly exhale, focus on the target and squeeze the trigger. Whether the deer drops or not, taking the shot is just an instant in a lengthy hunting process that can take weeks or even months.
For many Pennsylvania hunters, one of the most enjoyable junctures is the camaraderie of deer camp, meeting up with old friends or family and debating strategies during the weekend before the traditional Monday opening day.
In January the state board of Game Commissioners unanimously approved a preliminary measure that would move the date of the firearm deer opener from the Monday after Thanksgiving to the previous Saturday. A final vote will be held next month. Firearm deer season may open this year on Nov. 30, a Saturday.
Agriculture-protecting conservation culls, sporting arm-specific seasons and special regulation wildlife management doe hunts can be held months earlier. But for most hunters in Pennsylvania the Monday opening day has been a tradition since 1963.
Before that, other traditions dated to the state’s first regulated deer season in 1869. Travis Lau, Game Commission spokesman, said that in the past 150 years Pennsylvania’s deer season has begun on every day of the week except Sunday.
“For us this is about providing opportunity,” he said. “We understand the tradition, but we see the other side — a lot of people can’t participate in the traditional Monday hunt. People who aren’t able to get off work on a Monday or take vacations or students going to school. There’s a large group out there that would be able to take part in a Saturday opener who can’t on a Monday.”
Bringing more people into the hunt is more than a preoccupation at the state Game Commission. It’s a necessity. Mr. Lau said the agency exists primarily to manage wildlife. Nature cannot manage itself because the primary predators of mature white-tailed deer are gone and acreage of terrestrial wildlife habitat continues to be eliminated. The policy of every U.S. state and Canadian province, including Pennsylvania, maintains that human stewardship of wildlife and wild places is necessary.
Management at a state level is complicated, expensive and almost totally dependent on the sale of hunting licenses and federal taxes on guns and ammunition. Pennsylvania’s general hunting license sales have fallen from 969,692 in 1952 to 885,632 in 2017, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Mr. Lau said the return of the state’s lost hunters and recruitment of the next generation is vital. It is believed that most traditional Monday hunters would likely participate in a Saturday opener, he said, and new hunters may be more likely to try it if the season started on a day that is generally more accessible.
“Last year was the first time the first-Saturday harvest exceeded the Monday harvest,” he said, noting that across the state the weather was terrible on last year’s opening day. “With another Saturday you’d be adding another high-impact day to the firearm season.”
A lot of hunters don’t see it like that. In Game Commission hunter surveys in 2014 and 2017, license holders overwhelmingly opposed a Saturday start. The statewide group, Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, officially “does not support or oppose this issue,” but its website includes no affirmation for a Saturday opener and six letters opposing, including one from Randy Santucci of McKees Rocks, the group’s southwest regional director.
“The concept at face value seems plausible until you dig down into all aspects that this change will affect,” Mr. Santucci stated in his post. “... Cumulatively they paint a very clear and strong argument against a Saturday deer opener.”
Among Mr. Santucci’s concerns are social conflicts with Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shopping, the impact on rural businesses, the loss of deer camp traditions and what he sees as an awkward fit with existing hunting seasons.
If the Game Commission is primarily the state’s wildlife management agency, as Mr. Lau said, how would a Saturday opening day impact deer numbers?
“At this point I don’t know that we would expect to see any significant change due to a Saturday opener,” said Chris Rosenberry, a biologist and leader of the commission’s deer and elk team. “It would be a social change, as far as I understand it. I can’t think of any significant biological issues.”
If a Saturday start was successful in recruiting new hunters, he said, an increase in the opening day harvest would be expected.
“Folks may see more deer if more hunters are out there moving deer, and that may occur with a move to a Saturday opener,” said Mr. Rosenberry. “But with some exceptions it’s essentially a buck hunt and the deer population is controlled by does. With antlerless deer we have regional control with permit allocations and limits on what can be harvested. We don’t expect to have problems with the population [related to a Saturday start].”
Kip Adams, a wildlife biologist with Georgia-based Quality Deer Management Association, said Pennsylvania hunters may be starting new traditions in 2019 but a Saturday start isn’t likely to negatively impact their hunt.
“The Game Commission has a really good handle on how much opportunity they provide to harvest antlerless deer,” said Mr. Adams, director of conservation for the nationwide nonprofit organization that promotes better deer and better-educated hunters. “They know very accurately how many antlerless tags they need to provide to shoot a certain number of antlerless deer.”
There’s “always the potential” for an increased kill of antlered deer to skew the male-female ratio, he said. But antler restrictions have been successful in growing bucks that are at least 2½ years old in Pennsylvania, and many hunters “get it,” voluntarily taking a pass on shooting bucks that meet antler restrictions but otherwise appear to be yearlings.
Mr. Lau said there is no connection between the commissioners’ proposed Saturday hunt and legislative bills that would legalize Sunday hunting. Mr. Adams said the combination would provide a double-barrel boost to hunting participation.
“What could dramatically change participation rates is if we could [also] be able to hunt on Sunday like they can in just about every other state,” he said. “That would be a huge participation boost, principally for kids who are in school and have sports on Saturdays.”
Game Commissioners will hold a public working group likely to include the Saturday start on March 25, and their vote will be held at the next quarterly meeting April 8-9. Both meetings will be held at the agency’s Harrisburg office.
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
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First Published: March 14, 2019, 1:00 p.m.