Your opinion and experience on hunting on a Sunday?

[HuumanCreed]

I was a little surprised when I found out recently that Maryland was on a short list of states (11) that did not allow for hunting on Sunday. Left over of 'blue laws' that wanted to encourage church attendance. Well for the most part, recently the state has allowed for some private and public areas open for certain Sundays. Most of the states are north eastern, which make sense in a historical and demographic point of view. I'm not trying to open a debate if its wrong or right, just wanted to see who does and their experience on it.

So based on the assumption that most of the nation allow hunting on Sundays, do you do it?

If so, is there anything different about a Sunday hunt compared to Saturday? I assumed its more pressured than a weekday in general, but is it MORE than Saturday?

Specific question. I live in Maryland near the PA border but never crossed it to hunt, PA open 3 Sundays a year for whitetails, I am thinking about participating on a Sunday. Is this a bad idea because it's going to be 'orange army' X10 due to how rare a Sunday is open?

 

[Exhumis]

I live in NOVA (hello neighbor!) and often hunt sundays as both my kids have soccer so my Saturdays are shot. We’ll attend the Sunday church service and I’ll hunt Sunday morning. I mostly hunt private land so take for what it’s worth but I know guys that hunt public. My experience has been Sunday mornings are a bit quieter due to what I suspect are a couple reasons: folks are in church, folks may be driving to/from activities and sports. The times I’ve hunted Sunday afternoons I’ve seen more traffic ie vehicles on the road and folks in the woods(my parcels border other parcels that are hunted) both hunters and just folks doing woodsie type things. I will say when I’ve dropped off deer at my processor there’s been waaaay more traffic on Saturday than Sunday. Especially in the afternoon and especially firearm season.

 

[Mschmeiske]

I hunt Sundays and it can be as pressured as a Saturday, or sometimes more mild. My opinion is I hope all states allow Sunday hunting sooner than later for those who want to hunt!

 

[bsites9]

Virginia was one of those states until fairly recently. We can still only hunt private ground on Sundays. So I can't really answer your question regarding pressure. My guess is, it would be less than Saturdays but more than the middle of the week. My opinion is, Sundays should be open for both private and public.

 

[NimbleTimbo]

I hunt VA every year for early muzzleloader and appreciate having that extra time as a non-resident. Sometimes I have connected that last Sunday morning before heading home. I have found it slightly less pressured than Saturday. In PA, since it is new and only 3 Sundays, it is still pretty busy, but still maybe 90% of the Saturdays crowd (at least where I hunt). I still find archery to be far less crowded than rifle season in PA, so that November rut Sunday is worth it.

 

[Gator]

I grew up in Florida so I was shocked when I moved north and heard of no hunting on Sunday. So yes I hunt on Sunday. As already mentioned, VA has recently started allowing Sunday hunting which is the number one reason for me to keep my lease as its the only place I have to hunt on Sunday. I hunt frequently and have flexible hours so I can hunt during the week so it never really bothered me not being able to hunt on Sunday but for the weekend warriors it takes away half of their days to hunt.

 

[THill202]

Sunday hunting is new in PA and we're only given three sundays a year. I try my best to get out for them but my hunting grounds are 2.5 hours from home and I've got 2 young kids and a working wife. Sudnay is like laundry, grocery, cleaning, getting ready for the week type of day in our house. Getting home at 9 pm on a Sunday or not being there Monday morning is a challenge so generally I'll only hunt the AM. Right now it's easier on the family if I leave thursday and come early Sunday but I am all for it and hopeful that when the kids get a little older we'll have some more Sunday hunting opportunities and I'll be able to get out more.

 

[GCTerpfan]

I was a little surprised when I found out recently that Maryland was on a short list of states (11) that did not allow for hunting on Sunday. Left over of 'blue laws' that wanted to encourage church attendance. Well for the most part, recently the state has allowed for some private and public areas open for certain Sundays. Most of the states are north eastern, which make sense in a historical and demographic point of view. I'm not trying to open a debate if its wrong or right, just wanted to see who does and their experience on it.

So based on the assumption that most of the nation allow hunting on Sundays, do you do it?

If so, is there anything different about a Sunday hunt compared to Saturday? I assumed its more pressured than a weekday in general, but is it MORE than Saturday?

Specific question. I live in Maryland near the PA border but never crossed it to hunt, PA open 3 Sundays a year for whitetails, I am thinking about participating on a Sunday. Is this a bad idea because it's going to be 'orange army' X10 due to how rare a Sunday is open?

I sometimes forget that there are Counties down east that still don't allow Sunday hunting. For the most part Sunday hunting is allowed on almost all Sundays on all private and almost all public in Western MD.

Our public land doesn't have a lot of pressure in bow season so it's hard to say if there are more/less hunters on Sunday versus Saturday. I rarely run into anybody in the woods on either day. I have noticed that during rifle season there are fewer hunters in the woods on Sunday then Saturday, especially opening weekend. That's probably due to a couple of reasons. A lot of more casual hunters just hunt the opening Saturday and maybe the Saturday of doe season. Also, since we are only allowed one buck in rifle season, anyone that killed a buck on the first Saturday is tagged out until the last weekend when they can shoot a doe.

I can't speak to what PA will be like but, I can remember when they first started opening up Sundays in Western MD. It started with just a few Sundays on private ground then they slowly added more Sundays and eventually started adding some public. I can never remember a time, even at the beginning where more hunters hunted Sundays because of the novelty ore rarity of it. I seem to remember it catching on slowly as there were a lot of people that kept with the tradition of not hunting Sundays.

 

[Hall17]

Growing up and living in Pennsylvania I got used to NOT hunting on Sundays. Having the job I do I am able to hunt mostly weekdays which is really nice however I do try and take the opportunity to hunt a couple of the Sundays that they allow Sunday hunting. I can't tell if there was less pressure or not on Sundays but it was busy no doubt. I like that it opened because it affects the guys that can't hunt during the week. It allows them another day on the weekends to get out and enjoy their passion.

 

[bowhuntr09]

Virginia was one of those states until fairly recently. We can still only hunt private ground on Sundays. So I can't really answer your question regarding pressure. My guess is, it would be less than Saturdays but more than the middle of the week. My opinion is, Sundays should be open for both private and public.

That bill is in the general assembly now.

 

[bsites9]

That bill is in the general assembly now.

Yeah...fingers crossed.

 

[tarafrost]

A lot of counties in Ontario (Canada) allow Sunday hunting. Locally, it's only archery hunting that is allowed on Sundays, and I do take advantage of that in the county forests near my place. Not very pressured during the bowhunting season from what I've seen, so it's great. Up north, the moose gun hunt goes across a Sunday and so we hunt that day as well.

Not being a religious man, I don't think that should be a valid reason to ban hunting on Sundays. And if I was, then I could think of no better way to "worship" than to be out in the forest hunting.

 

[bigmike23]

In the year 2022, living in PA, it astounds me that other than the 3 lousy Sundays we get, prohibited Sunday hunting is still a thing. How asinine and archaic

 

[BuckTown]

VA resident here. I don’t hunt Sundays but also don’t have issue with it. I am glad that VA law does prohibit dog hunting on Sunday. That helps cut down on the traffic/pressure since that’s the majority of the hunting style here in central VA where I’m at.

 

[slonstdy]

Here in NY you can hunt seven days a week and twice on Sundays, lol.
I'm fortunate to have a work schedule that gives me plenty of days off during the week so I rarely hunt on weekends. In my mind, serious hunters plan when to hunt and make the time to do so regardless of the day of the week. Weekend warriors are the type that want to impress their social circles by calling themselves hunters... I've got a couple of "friends" that are in this category and have met a few other "hunters" who never get out and actually hunt.
I say ban Sunday hunting, hate on...

 

[Gator]

That bill is in the general assembly now.

Is it to allow dogs on Sunday as well?

 

[bowhuntr09]

Is it to allow dogs on Sunday as well?

Dogs aren't allowed on Sunday for private or public if this public portion passes. The Va Dog Hunters alliance was actually against Sunday hunting and actively lobbied against it on private several years back.

 

[HuumanCreed]

Dogs aren't allowed on Sunday for private or public if this public portion passes. The Va Dog Hunters alliance was actually against Sunday hunting and actively lobbied against it on private several years back.

Interesting,

What were the argument against it?

 

[bowhuntr09]

Interesting,

What were the argument against it?

https://vahda.org/PDFs/SundayHuntingPositionPaper.pdf

 

[elk yinzer]

The 3 Sundays here have been I would say 1/2 the pressure of Saturday but still a few times more than weekdays.

Been nice to get a taste but can't wait for full inclusion. It'll happen eventually, there is a bill in committee now but I've heard it may take some time yet. I would hunt many as Sunday is mostly our family day and when we get stuff done around the house. But it sure would be nice to flex that to Saturday for those inevitable weekends when it rains all day Saturday and Sunday is perfect.