ORIGINAL: Dr. Trout

Come out of your cave Dr Trout ! Many gallons of gasoline used at many of my friends and family's places during hunting season. First is several trucks that get poor mileage. Then you have the use of UTV's and ATV's. Gas is also used to mow and care for food plots. Fuel for the lawn mower and the tractor to get wood. You have to fuel the saws and also the log splitter.

And NONE of that has a thing to do with being able to hunt on Sunday.. nice try though




Many of the camps around here come from Pittsburgh area. and almost all of them come up for week-ends .... very few make it a one day trip...I doubt many would think it was worth the expenses to come for just a one day stay.. let alone the 4 hours of driving time...many also complained about not being able to come as often now that gas is so high...

sorry I'm just not buying millions of dollars just because they could hunt on a Sunday ..

will guys come up for a Saturday hunt as usual and stay and hunt Sunday CERTAINLY... but that by itself is not going to add millions....

 
Is there an eye doctor in your neck of the woods?  If so, go see them about your myopic condition when looking at other's posts.
 
I have never been a member of a camp.  I would wager most PA hunters are not either.  Comparing your narrow experience with camp hunters therefore holds no water in the bigger picture.
 
I drive to where I hunt and with the exception of when I only have an hour and walk across the street, I drive a minimum of 70 miles round trip to hunt deer and my main deer hunting area is over a 100 mile round trip.
 
My pheasant hunting (remember, this isn't just about deer) is again a minimum of 70 miles round trip.
 
So just for giggles, let's say I hunt that extra day for deer (being a gun hunter, that is all I would get -- archery an muzzleloader hunters could add many more days).  Let's also say that I hunt four extra days for pheasants.  That is five extra days.  Let's also take my shortest trip of 70 round trip miles.  That would be 350 hunting miles I would not normally travel.  I get 16 mpg in my hunting ride, so that translates into just short of 22 gallons of fuel at $3.75 per or $82.
 
Extrapolating that to other hunters, maybe they hunt the extra deer day, maybe more; maybe they don't hunt the extra pheasant days, but they hunt extra turkey days; maybe they hunt extra archery deer days; maybe they hunt extra watefowl days; whatever, they hunt extra.  Maybe they don't have the 70 mile round trip, some are much shorter, some much longer.  Some get better gas mileage, some much worse.  So to come up with a SWAG (Super Wild **** Guess), let's reduce the $82 to $75 and only apply it to approximately half of the hunters or 400,000.  That works out to $30 million in fuel costs alone.
 
Is that accurate?  Probably not.  The actual figure may be much higher or much lower, but in any case when talking a figure that may be in the tens of millions of dollars it is not something to be dismissed as nothing or no impact.
 
Of course, that does not even touch on stopping for food, which may be extra sandwich fixings bought and made at home, a stop at Sheetz for a MTO, or a sit-down restuarant meal.  What about candy bars, bottled water, energy bars, etc.?  Would this food be eaten anyway?  Some of it.  But there is an impact, an impact that is atrributable to extra hunting days.
 
As for sporting goods sales, will there be a whole lot extra bought?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  With respect to deer, extra ammo might not be a factor, but for small game it will be.  What about disposible hand warmers?  what about wearing out clothes or boots quicker because they are getting more use?
 
Can any of this be be calculated to the last cent?  Obviously not.  But the magnitude, which is in the millions of dollars if not tens of millions of dollars at a minimum, can be understood. 
 
All you need to do is pull your head out of the sand, put on some glasses that you can see further than your pine grove, and do a little math.
 
I guess that is asking too much.

ORIGINAL: dpms

I think the biggest thing that is missing from the recent discussion is that our PGC is the agency responsible for regulating hunting in this state. 

All of the economics, land closures, deer decimation etc.. are all speculative.  What is real and factual is that we have politicians telling hunters and our game agency what we can hunt on what days in this state. 

 
I fully understand that.
 
I was just pointing out that a little bit of money spent by a large number of people adds up and does provide a significant impact.
 
One thing that I left out was that the single highest sales day for Sheetz is the 24 hour period starting before and concluding with the first day of rifle season in PA.

ORIGINAL: Dr. Trout

looking into a crystal ball...

I knew it.

From the Humane Society page Bing posted:


The current laws are intended to balance the interests of hunters and other recreationists, but expanding Sunday hunting will lead to more conflicts among property owners and user groups. Shouldn't wildlife watchers, hikers, campers, and horseback riders have at least one day a week when they can venture outdoors in safety?

The current law written in 1873 was to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, not to "balance interests of recreationists". If Peta, the Humane Society, Doc Trout, communists, etc. think game animals need a day to rest and relax, lets make it Wednesday.

In my book,
if you are against Sunday Hunting expansion, you are an anti-hunter. End of story.

You do realize you are putting approx 50% of PA's hunters and 80% of PA's hunters who are landowners in the anti-hunting catagory. That may be a wee bit over the top.

How about the freedom not to have to count points.

Did you happen to read the other thread on the same topic. Besides, if you don't like my numbers feel free to document some of your own.

Regardless of the poll you use or article you read it is obvious that the hunters are fairly evenly divided on the issue.

When the PGC's own survey as discussed at the BOC meeting found the top two reasons for hunters leaving the sport were lack of game and lack of places to hunt I fail to see where Sunday hunting will do anything but make the situation worse.

S10, your numbers(not that mine are correct) are from 2005 and supplied by the PA farm bureau.

and the Wildlife Management Institute

Ugh.

if you are against Sunday Hunting expansion, you are an anti-hunter. End of story.

.

Think id like to kill a buck in velvet, a snowshoe hare at midnight in may under a spotlight and a Gobbler in August.... and my fellow sportsmen deserve that opportunity. No reason why our rights should be infringed upon or restricted, and the fact we cannot hunt all the time, anytime is an atrocity. Having said that, Im sure noone will have a problem with supporting my proposal for 24/7/365 "All game" season. Or are you one of those anti-folks? lol.

ORIGINAL: S-10

In my book,
if you are against Sunday Hunting expansion, you are an anti-hunter. End of story.

You do realize you are putting approx 50% of PA's hunters and 80% of PA's hunters who are landowners in the anti-hunting catagory. That may be a wee bit over the top.

How about the freedom not to have to count points.

 
And 70% of the American people were against Obamacare, but it passed any way.  I am sure that Spoonie can explain why it doesn't matter what the people want when it comes to government doing something.

As for the SH polls, most of them I have seen show 60ish % of the readers of that particular outlet support expansion of SH

As I said, feel free to post those big polls.

Your comments: Should Pennsylvania allow hunting on Sundays?

Published: Wednesday, July 06, 2011, 7:01 AM Updated: Wednesday, July 06, 2011, 8:03 AM

By lehighvalleylive.com staff
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Should Pennsylvania join 43 of its fellow 50 states and allow hunting on Sundays? That's not the conclusion reached by lehighvalleylive.com readers.

Deer hunters case their guns after hunting opening day of firearm deer season (Mark Copier | The Grand Rapids Press)

In a poll accompanying a story outlining the contentious issue, 57 percent of readers didn't want hunting on Sundays.



As I said the public and particulary hunters are quite divided on the issue.

I have yet to hear how having more time to kill an already dimininshed game population or pizzing off the folks on whose land we hunt is going to improve anything.

There is no reason the PGC shouldn't have the authority to implement any game related action.

(in reply to S-10)

The PGC's own survey as discussed in the BOC's meeting showed that the number one reason for hunters quitting was LACK OF GAME. The number two reason was LACK OF PLACES TO HUNT

To counter those two issues the BOC wants to ADD more days to further deplete the game population and pizz off the landowners we rely on for places to hunt.

One could be forgiven for questioning if they are anti-hunting or just plain stupid.

Pa is a "traditional" hunting state and opening one more day to hunt will increase it's odds of it staying that way.

Pa is a "traditional" hunting state and opening one more day to hunt will increase it's odds of it staying that way.

Then add another monday to the end of spring gobbler.

Ha ha ha. Yeah right. Deer not on the radar. This is Pa remember? lol.

There is little indication that the majority of the board isnt of exactly the same mindset as it was 5 and 10 years ago. They had no qualms about signing off on ten bazillion antlerless allocation this past april as has become the norm.

They also have basically decided to "stay the course" in all aspects.

You also have no recourse if they decide deer ARE on the radar, and they have proven they are willing to do exactly what they want, when they want, and dont care who likes it.

I also wouldnt put much stock in what boc says. One stated that the allocation in my unit would be decreased along with split season. My units allocation then proceeded to INCREASE by 10,000 tags!! lol.

Sunday hunting WILL be for deer when it comes, and it doesnt matter if its year one or year three. I can only hope that legislators get "a set" and deal with the real problems before they are yet again magnified by something like sunday hunting, that in itself shouldnt be a problem for game populations at least if implemented properly by a trustworthy hunter friendly agency that was of a mindset that would ensure responsible rational decision making abilities.

ORIGINAL: wayne c

TUll says:

Most of PA's blue laws have been repealed on the premise they are unconstitutional. That is the difference

And based upon that alone, the old blue law should be gone....shouldve been long ago perhaps.

 
Agreed.  Why does everyone keep bickering about economics and regulatory control?  Let freedom ring.