2019 Saturday deer opener PA.

Waynzee

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Jan 21, 2016
Messages
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I guess the PGC is going to go for a Saturday regular deer season opener for PA. hunters instead of the traditional Monday. Any thoughts?
 
NC has opened on Saturday for years, it's good stuff. What's the negative to that?
 
It really doesn't matter to me, I'm retired so I can hunt anytime. But some guys don't like to break with tradition (Monday after Thanksgiving).
 
The only difference will be the same guys will now hunt Saturday and Monday, instead of Monday and Tuesday. And if they allow Sunday hunting, that would replace Monday. The Slate Run Hotel had only one hunter in the dining room for breakfast on the opening day of buck this year. Thats located in the very heart of the big woods of PA. The vast majority of camps in that area are closed up tight for deer season including the opening day. By and large it has been a tradition, and traditions have changed. Changing the days for the opening might help some people, and might appease a few others, at least for awhile.
But overall it wont affect the desire to go, and that to a very large degree appears to have left.
Maybe the PGC could pick up the tab for free beer and wings on Friday night at the local hooter bars, and brown goes down on the Saturday opener? lol
 
The only negative is folks who can't except change.
And the PGC is stuck in 1962

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.
 
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".
 
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".

Personally I think adding doe back to the first week will do more to bring people back than moving the opener to Saturday. That has really taken the wind out of the opening day sails in my neck of the woods.

We typically don't see a lot of bucks in our area so we normally end up seeing a bunch of does the first two days that we can't shoot. This shifts the focus from the opening day to the first and second Saturdays. Guys are more willing to sit in the woods when they have a better chance of shooting the deer they see rather than watching a bunch of deer prance by.
 
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.
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.
But it has slowly changed over the years to being something else. Im now 83 years old, so I definatly qualify as being a fudd. My first season was 1947, 2 years after ww2, and during those war years very little hunting took place as a result of a thing called gas rationing, which placed severe limitations on travel for other than absolute necessities.
Like getting to a defence factory job if you weren't serving in the military. Tires were rationed also, which meant that even if you squirled away some gas stamps, your tires probably wouldn't make the trip anyway. It also took an entire day to travel the roughly 225 or so miles from SE PA to NC PA where a few of us traveled to hunt, mostly in cars having no heat.
As for doe seasons, there weren't any, and when they did start, it was by doe permit only for 2 days after the 2 week buck season was over.
But thats where the first noticeable change in hunter habits began to take place.
More and more hunters gave up on the first days of buck in favor of just the last day or maybe 2, and then staying on till the Monday following which allowed for a sure thing with a doe kill. Thats also when the yelling started seriously over Sunday hunting. I knew a few guys who never killed a deer after many years of hunting, but they always went back, because it was in their blood to do so.
Take a look at where we are today with the country as a whole, and it should come as no surprise as to where we are as for hunting. An average season for our group of 6 to 8 hunters would see 2 bucks killed in a week. A very good season would see 4 at most, and that was by hard hunting by way of organized drives.
So im sorry for my old fudd attitude, but I just cant grasp the need for killing 8 to 10 deer in 2 days of hunting, in order for it to be a worthwhile event.
But thats exactly why so many of those nice old camps are no longer being used.
 
I am really torn on this issue. I remember the weekend anticipation for the first day of buck season on Monday. Laying in bed unable to sleep, hoping for the big one. I remember the tough two weeks of buck season, hunting my butt off for any buck. Then came our two day doe season. If the harvest wasn't up where it should be, the PGC would add an extended day. Those two days were also tough days after people were in the woods daily chasing deer around looking for a buck for two prior weeks.

Then the seasons were combined. Sure made things easier in my neck of the woods. I was older and was more into trophy hunting instead of filling the freezer. I'd see tons of doe and small buck. But I'd rather wait for a "trophy".......a lot of tag soup those years.

Then came along my kids. I couldn't wait to get them into the woods. I bought a blind big enough for 4 of us to sit in. The anticipation came back like I had as a kid, now in their faces. We sounded like a 4 piece band in there between thermos bottles of hot chocolate and coffee, candy wrappers, fidgeting, coughing, fighting, etc. Times I would never trade. Things were great even though we didn't get a deer.

Now the boys are old enough to hunt. I hope and pray the excitement and love for the sport can be instilled in them. This is where Sunday hunting would really help us out. If they were to still have the first Monday off with a Saturday start, I could support it. I'm looking at maximizing our time in the woods against their busy school activity schedules and my work schedule.

Sorry for the long post. Gave me a chance to reminisce and explain that it is a tough choice to support or not support the change.
 
Well again my age enters into it.
It's actually not the changes in policy as for starting times, or hunting Sundays or even the type guns we choose that I see as the issue. It's simply that the attitude among hunters and especially younger ones has changed, and I see it in my own family.
How many today would rather just shoot down the target frames at the local range, or see something blow up, than they would put up a target and see how small a group they could shoot?
If were being totally honest, i think the answer might be, more than we wish to think.
We live today in a fast paced world, and hunting isn't by its very nature a fast paced activity, at least as the current rules make it.
So lets drive to camp Friday after work, hunt Saturday and a half day on Sunday, so we can drive home with a deer and get back to the more important things in life.
If we want to hold out for a buck, we can go back next Friday also.
Especially if theres more free beer and wings at hooters.
Would we be seeing many hands held up if we put that to a vote?
I might even vote in favor of it myself, if I was sure they would all leave on Sunday. lol
We used to call the one day, last Saturday buck hunters, who stayed over till Monday for a doe,
(The Trans Am Group).
That because of all the clean white Trans Am's with orange coats hanging in back that showed up at the bars on Friday.
I can hear somebody asking, whats a Trans Am? is it a kind of a Beemer? lol
 
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