State Rep. Brian Smith, R-Punxsutawney, and Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem, have both announced plans to introduce legislation to move the opening day of Pennsylvania’s rifle deer season back to its traditional Monday after Thanksgiving. These legislators and others have recognized through considerable constituent contacts from hunters and businesses that moving the deer opener has had significant negative hunting and economic consequences.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission moved the opener to the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2019. That weekend of Black Friday and Small Business Saturday is important for rural small businesses. Many hunters (840,000 statewide) previously used that weekend to travel and make final preparations, which brought money in.
Hunting license sales since the change have not significantly increased as was anticipated by the game commission. In fact, since the anomaly hunting license upward spike in 2020 resulting from covid, general sales have dropped a stunning 42,432 licenses.
Many fire departments and churches utilized the mass influx of hunters into their communities that weekend to hold fundraisers. Some rural counties have more hunting camps than permanent residences. Hunter dollars are very important.
Finally, having only one day after Thanksgiving, the most traveled family holiday of the year, took away important social time from families.
The move to Saturday was a mistake. The original Monday rifle deer opening day was indeed well thought out by our forefathers.
Randy Santucci
McKees Rocks
Dan Davila
Boardman, Ohio
The writers are founders of Hunters to Reinstate the Monday Deer Opener and Pennsylvania Hunters Against the Saturday Deer Opener.