No, I'm not trying to be blasphemous with the title of this post, but who doesn't love to take a monster buck on a beautiful fall Sunday morning? That's right, as for myself (living and hunting in Preston County) and the other 35 of 55 counties in West Virginia, I would love to have that chance, but its not an option. Sunday hunting is not permitted; from what I've read and understand this is not going to change in my county any time soon. This is a huge can of worms to open, I know. There are many people that believe this is blasphemous or that the deer and hunters need a chance to rest. Then on the other side of things, you have my argument: I work five days a week, get very little time off, and yet I am only legally allowed to hunt one day a week. What about the fathers who have young children in school and are trying to share their love for the outdoors? They only have one day to hunt because they can't be removed from school. This discussion has the possibility to go on forever, so as for now let me digress to explain how this mini-rant came about.
During the middle of last week I was reading Mike Hanback's blog and he posted about "
Virginia: Sunday Hunting Shot Down (Again)," being a neighboring state and a blog I read regularly, I agreed with his more current thoughts on this topic. I thought about blogging that next day about the very same topic, but my better judgement took over and I realized, on this blog I keep things very light-hearted and loose, there was no need to open this can of worms, plus no need to regw. But at last, I was wrong. I was catching up last night on a local West Virginia newspaper related outdoors blog,
Woods and Waters (you can also find this in my BlogRoll), when I came across this post from this past Monday, "
Fourteen-point buck justifies archer’s tenacity," it was talking about how a bow hunter took a 168" Green-Scored buck (see photo on right). This was a great story on how perseverance, proper scouting, a little luck, and time on stand paid off to take an amazing buck. As I was reading this, this great idea for a blog past started taking place about West Virginia's ability to produce
Pope & Young quality whitetail deer, while the general population hadn't considered hunting this area. I know a little far-fetched, but it was going to be an interesting post and still may very well be, but as I continued to read, a more glaring fact came about in this article, it was the fact that he saw the this buck on Thanksgiving and then proceeded to chase this deer until it was harvested on Sunday of the same week. That's right, SUNDAY of that week! After I read the article last week about Sunday hunting and then restrained myself from writing a post on this, then to read a post less than a week later about a hunter harvesting a "buck of a lifetime" in my home state on a Sunday in one of the few countries that allowed Sunday hunting!
I took this as a sign, or an just an excuse to cover a more serious topic for once. Either way this is sure to generate some interesting opinions and conversations, but as you can read this is the first of a two part post. The first part, yes you are reading it now, is my rant, initial reaction, and some back information of where this idea and topic came from. This weekend I will post the second part of this series, which will include my personal pros and cons on the topic and more thoughts, opinions and facts. Please feel free to leave your opinions below and I will try to answer/respond to any questions or opinions left on this post with the second part this weekend.
I've been able to Sunday hunt since I started hunting. When I moved to NC, I was shocked that Sunday hunting, except for bow (which I do for the majority anyway), is illegal. I have a major problem with this. The government shouldn't tell me when I can or cannot hunt. It's ridiculous. Uncle Ted has an awesome rant about it on one of his shows that I wish I could post but can't find. Anyways, hunting on Sundays should be legal- if our forefathers told citizens that they couldn't hunt on Sundays, they would've starved. Doesn't make any sense to me.
ReplyDeleteHLYH
There literally is no valid argument against sunday hunting - at least on private lands. Don't want it on your property? Don't let hunters come in on sundays. Those who say it's faith based (killing on the sabbath) are the same who can be found putting fish in the livewell on sunday afternoons. It goes on and on.....
ReplyDeleteIf the states want to generate more hunters (which they do - for revenue alone), they will have to adapt to the 21st century reality that dads and moms can't take their kids out hunting on most saturdays. Kids are involved -and WANT to be involved - in activities that are all scheduled for saturdays.
Want to grow the next generation of hunters (and voters who won't vote against hunting and gun issues)? Allow sunday hunting. Stop thinking the world is going to rewind to 1955, because it's not.
Sadly we can't Sunday hunt here in Connecticut. They have talked about changing that but no luck yet.
ReplyDeleteWhitetail Woods Blog / Deer Hunting and Blackpowder Shooting at it’s best.
It's hard to say "the government shouldn't tell us when we can or can't hunt." It's actually hard for me to understand the thought process behind that - no offense, but the government already tells you what weapons you can use, when you can hunt what type of game, how you can hunt it, where you can hunt it...etc. That said, I don't think the government has any business telling you that you can't hunt on Sunday or Tuesdays or any specific day. THAT said, I don't think the government has any business telling us ALOT of things that we've let them tell us over the last 30-50 years.....and it's up to us to stand up and demand that common sense be used, and that the laws of the State be the will of the People of that State. ( and that the Feds keep their nose out of State business as much as possible.)
ReplyDeleteIn Georgia you can hunt whenever you like, as far as days of the week go. However, don't forget that the government still controls how, what, where, when...etc. I can't see why they'd need to also tell you what day of the week you can or cannot legally hunt game.
WV ain't to far from the TN that I call home. Although you can hunt on Sunday in TN, MS, and AR (the 3 states where I spend my outdoor time), if you couldn't it would be a result of the Bible belt nature of the region. As it stands, you can't buy beer before noon on Sundays and it wasn't too long ago that you couldn't open any store of any sort on Sunday. My personal religious views aside, this is a strange mingling of church and state in my opinion. The laws are clearly a result of Christian observance of the Sabbath. I imagine in WV and VA it's all about making sure that the sounds of gunfire don't disrupt any worship services. It's absolutely ridiculous. I don't think Christians should have any monopoly on peace and quiet for their worship. Other religions (and even certain denominations) observe the Sabbath on Saturday, but they apparently don't get any special treatment. Until a group like the ACLU starts representing hunters on the constitutionality of this law, it isn't likely to change. That's a pretty crazy thought... the ACLU representing hunters over a matter of separation of church and state.
ReplyDeleteThat's often my response as well. If you believe wildlife need a "day of rest" (a biological fallacy if ever there was one), then how about Tuesday? We all know why it's Sunday and it's pretty amusing watching the anti-Sunday folks (who are 50% curmudgeonly hunters and 50% animal rights activists) talk about why Sunday is a totally legitimate day for hunters to be out of the woods.
DeleteThat's often my response as well. If you believe wildlife need a "day of rest" (a biological fallacy if ever there was one), then how about Tuesday? We all know why it's Sunday and it's pretty amusing watching the anti-Sunday folks (who are 50% curmudgeonly hunters and 50% animal rights activists) talk about why Sunday is a totally legitimate day for hunters to be out of the woods.
DeleteI live in Delaware. I think it is ridiculous that we can't hunt on Sundays either....but can go buy booze on Sundays.
ReplyDeleteAnd what really gets me steamed is that some of the local schools in DE allows your kid to skip school for up two days for HUNTING. Sooooo, it is okay to miss two days of school for hunting... when if we could take them on Sundays, they wouldn't have to miss ANY school. I will NEVER understand that one.
And your state sounds more screwed up than mine...some WV counties CAN hunt on Sunday but other WV counties CAN'T on hunt on Sunday? Oh my. That's like one county sticking its tongue out at the other county...nanny nanny boo boo ;)