Is it just going to take a while for Sunday hunting to catch on in Pennsylvania or was yesterday more of a sign of the changing culture of firearms hunting generally in the Keystone State? This is the question I pondered while hanging out around Horseshoe Hills on a perfect morning for deer hunting. Typically once the gun season reaches the first weekend, hunters can start to become desperate and that’s when the bad guys are most likely to risk gaining an edge outside of the law, or more specifically, the boundaries of where they’re permitted to hunt. That’s largely why I was at the cabin on Sunday morning, to just be around and be seen. I was also just interested in driving around there area to observe how much hunting activity there was. The short answer is, not much.
On my way out I only observed one pickup truck along 119 that was clearly parked by a hunter. I didn’t see another parked vehicle or hunter until mid-morning when I took a drive around and saw that someone was hunting a neighboring property. There were a few vehicles at the nearest State Game Lands 262 parking area, and a couple others along the road. I then took a long trek through the Frye Cemetery Road section of the Game Lands and after passing three empty parking areas finally encountered a group that appeared to be putting on deer drives. It looked like at least eight but probably less than 10 hunters. After passing them I covered several miles and only recall seeing one more vehicle parked along the road.
Upon returning to the cabin after my long drive I finally saw a couple vehicles passing by but only one of them was a hunter. I never heard a shot, and I never heard from the neighbor that typically checks in. So where was everyone? Has Sunday hunting just not caught on yet? I have a few ideas about what I’ve observed so far after this season on Sundays.
- Sunday hunting just isn’t in the culture. I think a lot of people, despite now having the opportunity to hunt on Sunday, are still largely sticking to their regular Sunday plans. Those plans range from going to church, getting the groceries, or just sleeping in. This would be particularly true if you’re a relatively casual hunter that totes a gun into the woods a few times each winter without much thought about hunting otherwise.
- A lot of tags have already been filled. Obviously as the season goes on more tags are filled and once there’s a deer or two in the freezer, the motivation for many to keep going wanes. After a long archery season and nine days of firearms season that included two weekends, it stands to reason the weekend warrior types are largely satisfied with their effort and results.
- More people hunt during archery season than ever before. I’ve mentioned this in other posts but it’s worth reiterating here. A fair number of hunters that used to only hunt with a gun have either picked up a bow or crossbow and are finding success before winter. That means tags were filled earlier and even if that’s only true of 20% of hunters, that’s still noticeable.
- There are less hunters overall. To further the previous point, not only are there less people hunting during gun season because of archery hunting, there are less hunters overall and the effort today’s hunters put in just isn’t the same. I have to believe if hunting on Sunday was allowable 20-30 year ago, it would look a lot different than it does now.
- This and that. It’s worth noting that the Amish don’t hunt on Sundays so at least for my local area, this has an impact on hunting pressure. Also, people like me are part of the problem. Being primarily an archery hunter and as someone who is hoping to have a few mature bucks around each season, I’m not too interested in being out in the woods with a gun. I just don’t get much enjoyment out of it and I’d rather not push bucks to properties where they’ll likely be shot. I have four antlerless tags left but didn’t even have a gun with me yesterday.
I recognize my observations and subsequent opinion on the lack of Sunday hunting participation is anecdotal, but it aligns with what I’m hearing from others. To be clear, I’m not insinuating that there’s anything wrong with fewer hunters in the woods on Sunday. What matters most is hunters have the choice to be out there, and I guess that’s the point. I’m just a little surprised that people don’t seem to be taking advantage of it like I imagined they would.