Hunting on Sundays

[qwazse]

Our state has a ban on hunting on Sundays, which some sportsman are lobbying to lift.

 

I hike and camp year-round and have not given much thought to hunters in the woods. (Occasionally when a gobbler is courting at 5 AM, I say a special prayer of guidance for any nearby hunters. ) I simply am more judicious of where I hike, and have my youth put on orange and stick to designated trails.

 

However, I know a lot of folks who won't go out this time of year 'cept on Sunday. Lifting the ban, they feel, would remove the only opportunity for a 'safe' hike in the winter.

 

Opinions? Especially form those of you where no such ban is in place?

[Beavah]

Yah, I think most hunters are pretty responsible folks. Never had an incident with hunters in a lot of years in da field, on or off trail.

 

I think da real issue, especially for scouts, is a courtesy issue, eh? I'm not sure a game animal will ever be found within a couple mile radius of a boy scout troop. We should be courteous to other land users, especially those whose use of the land is limited to only a few weeks a year (some of whom might be countin' on baggin' their limit to help feed the family).

 

Beavah

 

[packsaddle]

This web site is useful for this topic: http://www.nraila.org/issues/factsheets/read.aspx?id=174&issue=021 The map is really useful.

When I was a boy I hunted all around my home. There was plenty of open land and woods. I often wondered why it was legal to fish on Sunday but not hunt. It's still allowed only in limited cases. Later when I asked about the reasons, I got a jumble of answers ranging from religious sensitivities to 'courtesy' issues, I always assumed it had to do with noise. No one could tell me why fishing was exceptional - that seemed like it ought to be as objectionable at least on the basis of religious sensibiliities.

Anyway, I never heard a suggestion that there was a safety issue, at least not one that applied more to Sunday than other days.

[Engineer61]

When I was a kid, if you weren't hunting, you stayed home during hunting season.

 

Too many hunters and too many beers out there. My brothers duck decoys got buck'ed every year.

 

Digging a crosspoint arrow outta your backside was considered something to avoid.

[noname]

We live in the country on a dirt road with 25 acres of posted land. Just about every one of the signs has been shot up. We also live in a non sunday hunting state. It is the only day we can work and play outside without concern of getting shot at legally.

 

[packsaddle]

Noname, I sympathize. I own about 130 acres of forest way out in the country. It's also posted. ATV trails, deer stands, trees cut, every last one of my cherry trees were girdled for the bark a few years back, trash dumped, one barrel of waste sludge, old tires. Not all of that is hunters but someone routinely just leaves whole deer carcasses behind to rot. Does mostly. I report this stuff to the sheriff. They write the report and do nothing, they're spread too thin already trying to keep a lid on the wife beaters and meth labs. Needless to say, I have a dim view of so-called 'sportsmen'.

[OldGreyEagle]

The ones doing that Pack have as much claim to the title "Sportsmen" as the units Basement Dweller came upon on the Applachian Trail have claim to the title "Boy Scouts"

[Scoutfish]

"Yah, I think most hunters are pretty responsible folks."

 

And I agree with you. but it's the "non most" who are the problem!

 

Last year, at one of our council campouts, we were told to be extra careful as the weekend of camping was also the first weekend of hunting for .....something. Could have been turkeys, deer, bear, or wild dragonfly for all I know.

 

DD said that if we saw any hunters,call him or the ranger immediately due to past issues with the hunters.

 

The past issue? The hunters decided they were gonna hunt on the council property and that the had the unalienable and God given right to do so since their prey ran onto camp property while they were pursuing it.

 

Got ugly enough that the law was called and threats were made and somebody arrested.

 

And that is the problem in our area:

 

The "non most" hunters feel that they have the right to hunt wherever the hell they want. They will tear down fences, tear up land, trash posted signs, and will even try to intimidate landowners.

 

Of course, the majority of hunters are in fact responcible people who are the leaders of local land stewardship, conservation efforts, restoratin efforts and most of them support higher hunting fees

" IF " it is actually used for wildlife managment, enforcement and education & training classes.

 

 

[hiker67]

Sunday hunting is prohibited on Sundays in Connecticut State Forests; I haven't heard of any major effort to repeal it. Most hunting accidents in New England I have heard of typically involve hunters shooting other hunters; I haven't heard of a hiker being shot in New England.

 

Blaze orange is required by all users of state hunting lands, including hikers and bikers, in Connecticut and Rhode Island during deer season. Rhode Island also requires blaze orange during the spring turkey season.

[Basementdweller]

Labels

 

Everything and everyone gets a label.

 

As a young man with my parents, we went to the driving in movie occasionally. one night we sat in our car and watched a guy clean out his car into the drive in movie lot. I am going to say the pile was a foot deep at every door. Of course that was 45 years ago.

 

People are people. I think a small percentage are completely self centered. In a city of a million people say 1% are irresponsible and self centered, dumping polluting, shooting. that is like 10,000 people being nasty.

 

Well you have the same element in the county. Once your property becomes one of the dumping, atv, hunting and general abuse areas, it is near impossible to stop. Other than living their for about 6 months. Had a friend put a trail camera on the drive way into his and it collected all of the coming and going. he printed the pics got with the sheriff and the problems slowed way down.

[BartHumphries]

I really Lake Perris State Park down here (well, I really like climbing there, occasionally I'll camp). It's also open to hunters -- mainly rabbits but I think they might be able to hunt other things as well. I've never had a problem with hunters, or heard about a problem or seen anything in the newspaper or anything. I've heard the hunters shooting before, but I've never actually seen anyone carrying a gun openly.

 

I think hunters are as well behaved as Boy Scouts. By and large, we're all pretty great people, but it's the very few that act like jerks that give the larger group a bad name in some quarters.

[qwazse]

I am told the original law in PA was more for religious reasons.

 

But religious or not, everyone's used to it now. I kinda buy into that "let the land rest" sentiment a little. And like, noname, there are folks counting on that one day a week to be able to run around and not get shot.

 

I think some beasts count on it too. Last year I was out with my crew on the last weekend of deer season, and Sunday morning it was something to hear all of the dear whistling -- almost to say "hey guys, they stopped shooting!"

 

Of course I get that the idiot hunter is as likely to be out on a ban day and shoot a hiker as he is to be out during regular season and shoot a regular hunter. So, I'm still on the fence trying to figure out which side to come down on.

[CalicoPenn]

Illinois doesn't ban Sunday hunting - but Illinois' gun deer hunting season is incredibly short - one of the shortest I've seen. Illinois also closes some state lands to non-hunters during the gun deer hunting season (and yeah, I know there are other seasons but when it comes to hunting, unless you are a hunter, you think deer hunting, and you're thinking gun hunting). Now if Illinois had a longer hunting season, like Maine's (which is nearly a month long and closes on Sundays due to an old Blue Law), and were closing state lands (as Maine does as well during the season), I'd want to have a ban on Sunday hunting just so that the lands are open up to everyone at least once per week. I don't mind losing a couple of weekends to hunters but not a whole month.

 

I've read one of the pro-Sunday hunting arguments is not allowing people to hunt on public lands on Sunday's turns hunters into second class citizens because they can't use the public lands they way they want - yet that argument fails to recognize that many states close at least portions of public lands to non-hunters during the hunting season - no one ever closes state lands for birdwatchers, skiiers, fishing, etc so I find that argument rather spurious.

 

Pennsylvania? Well your hunting seasons are more complicated than a military recipe for fruitcake but there is an antlerless hunt that's about a month long.

 

 

[nldscout]

Here in the Northern Tier section of New York Hunting season starts with early bear on 15 September and we Just closed late muzzleloader on the 11th of December and we have been hunting all the way through that time. Sundays are not off limits, hunting is allowed 7 days a week.

 

When I was the SM, we went out camping during hunting season, we were just careful and was aware of the surroundings.

 

The problem is not the hunters its the IDIOTS who think they are hunters.

[OldGreyEagle]

Hey, no matter what you say about is folks in Pennsylvania about our hunting seasons, we do love our guns and bibles...