PA might come out of the 19th Century!

[JRS]

This is one of those rare occasions, when LH Smith and I agree completely.

Matt: If you want to see an abundance of deer during season, also before and after, you need to look no farther than my yard ;D

 

[40X Guy]

Most farmers around here are Religious and reserve Sundays for Church, Family and rest. I believe Sunday hunting would close a lot of hunting land. In almost all of our public land we don't need anymore pressure. There are areas where you can drive for miles 3 days after a snow and can't see a track. The days of seeing 20 or more deer till 9:00 AM opening morning are gone. Most people I talked to that quit hunting, quit because they got tired of seeing few or no deer. How can you get the youngsters interested in hunting when you sit for hours in the cold and see nothing. Matt

Exactly right! I moved back home to Pa. in 1990 and the deer were plentiful still. Usually saw at least 15 -20 deer by 9 AM in the morning and sometimes 40-50 in an entire day while stand hunting. Last year in 4 hard days of hunting i saw 7! It is very very tough to get young kids whose attention spans are nil to get interested when they might see 2 deer in 16 hours of hunting. Started going downhill about the time the concurrent deer seasons started. Doe season used to be 2 days following the 2 week buck season. Gary Alts plan was not well liked here in region "1B" and a buck with a good gene pool is gonna get big no matter what or how the seasons are. I have seen way too many button bucks killed during the course of the deer season's the last 15 years.

Frank

 

[potatoe]

But isn't that an issue with bag limits though? Not talking about shooting the BB, the lack of deer.

 

[dreever]

I've lived in Pennsylvania all my life, sixty seven years worth and have never had a problem with not hunting on Sundays. In fact I'm all for the Lords day of rest. We also share the woods with hikers and mountain bikers and Sunday picknickers leaving them one safe day a week to enjoy their hobby.
As far as semi auto's go I'm with Captain Mal on that one. I only see crippled game as a result. I sure as hell don't want to have a deer, rabbit, or anything else running full tilt between me and two or three wannabe commandos with AR's opening up in my direction.
Old School, yep that's me, like our forefathers had to do it with one well placed shot. The only humane way to kill in my opinion.
As far as Pennsylvania being backward....Thank God for that. It's still one of the best places to live in my opinion.

Danny

 

[potatoe]

So muzzleloaders?

 

[dkhunt14]

This is one of those rare occasions, when LH Smith and I agree completely.

Matt: If you want to see an abundance of deer during season, also before and after, you need to look no farther than my yard ;D

You might be right. The only places we seem to have any amounts of deer is in suburbs or where land is posted. When you get up in the mountains of our state forests there are miles and miles of land with no deer. I talked to gangs where they had 20 guys and drove 4 days of bear season and saw only a handful of deer. Now this is before deer season. Most of those gangs stopped shooting does years ago because they knew it was hurting the herd. Matt

 

[dedeadeye]

I agree with LH and Matt. Nix the Sunday hunting and hunting with any type of Ar platform is BS. I have hunted in PA for 68 years and have never seen the deer numbers as low as they are now. Try and start a young hunter today, they soon get bored of sitting in a tree stand all day and seeing squat. Roger Gower

 

[dedeadeye]

Well said Danny. Roger Gower

 

[fredo]

Oh, and when I left PA the most poplular deer rifle was the Rem 760...which is one darn fast shooter. Hardly any different than a semi.

I never saw the sense in the "no rifles" thing here...and even in NY they finally figured out how dumb that was. I recall my early years in PA hunting in what could be called the suburbs...often within 150 yards of houses with a 30-06. never heard of any issues because we were careful and aimed at known safe deer. When I came here I tried the 1100 Remington deer drive thing...once. After that firefight i walked away and got a TC, built a very high tree fort and killed nearly all 19 deer from it, from up high where I was out of the line of fire! Guys who hunt with rifles are now much more safety aware than when they shot short range slug guns that bounced lead all over the fields.

Ab-so-friggin-loot-lee!!!
Slug gun drives by the local farmers here in CNY were insane at times! Back when we were still "shotgun only", I got me a .50cal muzzleloader, climbed a tall tree, and stacked deer like firewood with that sucker...

When rifles became legal, I sure did use ARs to whack deer, just for the experience of it! But now that they're liquidated, hunting with a bolt rifle is equally wonderful! I enjoy the heck outta whackin' deer with a precision bolt gun...

As a travelling non-res, "NO SUNDAY HUNTING" in PA kinda sucks. I hope you guys get the opportunity to hunt 7days a week, and the option for semi-autos, too. Heck, the fun button still only makes one BANG per pull. And I've seen/heard guys rattle off their 'turdy oh 6' pumps in PA fast enough to impress any black rifle aficionado...

Good luck, dudes!

 

[potatoe]

^+1 I've been in more danger from being flanked by fudds as any of those commandos.

 

[JRS]

I've been here in PA for almost 2 years. Love it here! Extremely rich in history. People are genuine, friendly, and accommodating. Many businesses continue to accept paper checks in lieu of plastic. I have also found that a handshake is as good as a written contract with most I have dealt with. A rare occurrence in most other parts of the country.

 

[MrMajestic]

Is a Semi necessary? No but is giving the Anti's fuel to outlaw AR's by saying you can't hunt with them necessary? Remember also we are not talking Deer. As an FYI, I use a Bob Sled due to the generous throat/leade on all my AR uppers making it a single shot.
I am very concerned about some posting their land if disrespectful and illegal, must be granted permission to hunt private property, hunters encroach on farms that don't want them there on Sunday!

 

[savagedasher]

Here is my thoughts. A semi auto is the same no matter what platform it is on . Remington, Browning or AR
Any body that says a AR is different is the same as the anti gun bunch. All 3 shoot only one bullet with one trigger pull. Do I like AR the answer is No. But many will out shoot bolt guns. Why anybody need more then one shot to kill is beyond me.
But to stop someone on how the gun looks is not right. More then half of the gun sales is AR type.
Our military shoots 250,000 round per kill. Would I expect after the first shot would the out come would be much different. NO.
Killing isn't hunting also. When I first started hunting I would only get one shot a year. Their was a one limit on deer.
Pa is making the right decision. For allowing AR type.
Larry

 

[Ohio Varmint Shooter]

But part of the problem, which I think others have mentioned...is that certain people want an AR to make up for a lack of marksmanship. You can find many youtube vids where people are blasting away at an animal with a semi auto. (and most of the time, not hitting anything despite several shots.) Not to mention the whole "I get to look like a guy in the movies" thing.

I learned on a single shot, my dad learned on a single shot, I'm making sure my grandson is learning on a single shot.

learn to shoot first....

 

[potatoe]

I'm beginning to not like anti's or gun guys. "Everyone with an AR is a movie guy or wanna be commando" give me a break.

 

[LHSmith]

All you have to do is ask the farmer and let him tell you yes or no to sunday hunting. A farmer that closes all hunting will not have a good crop next year.

The farmers in my neck of the woods "take care of business" before the crop damage gets out of hand......with the blessing of the PGC.

 

[MrMajestic]

An AR does not make an ethical hunter unethical. It is an individual problem. We call the pump rifles "Amish Machinguns"! I have hunted with semi's(in NC), pumps, levers, bolts and break opens. I enjoy the mix and disregard the phrase "beware of the one gun shooter" ;D Let me reiterate, this law is not for game animals only varmints and furbearers. Hell Crows aren't even included!

 

[savagedasher]

But it is a step in the right direction from outlawing semi auto loaders Larry

 

[CatShooter]

Hell Crows aren't even included!

That's cuz you can already shoot crows on Sunday.

 

[MrMajestic]

CS, sorry for the confusion as we really have two topics here. I was referring to semi's.