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<p>We have a lot of time to hunt.</p><p>The thought crossed my mind when I heard about another effort from both legislators and sportsmen&#8217;s groups to lift the ban on Sunday hunting.</p><p>Lifting the ban would certainly give us several more days to hunt, but we have quite a bit already.</p><p>In the mid to late 1980&#8217;s, when myself and a lot of people I know began hunting, the season lengths were a little more conservative than they are today. Back then I hunted deer with a bow, flintlock and rifle, pursued turkeys in the spring, bears in late fall and small game in November and again after Christmas.</p><p>Add up the lengths of all those seasons and it totals 205 days. Granted that doesn&#8217;t mean 205 days out of the year, but it&#8217;s still a lofty total. The figure includes 24 days for the fall archery season, which in 1987 ran from Oct. 3 - 30, three days to hunt doe during the rifle season and 25 days to chase rabbits during the extra season from Dec. 26 to Jan. 23.</p><p>Today, when the lengths of those exact same seasons are combined it totals 277 days. The fall archery season is now 37 days - concluding on Nov. 14, including the early antlerless season for juniors and seniors, along with the fall muzzleloader and regular rifle seasons there are now 16 days to hunt doe, and winter rabbit season continues for 56 days - all the way to Feb. 29.</p><p>We have a lot more opportunities to hunt today than we did just a few decades ago, and that&#8217;s significant in a number of ways.</p><p>Topping the list, in my opinion, is there&#8217;s more hunting pressure exerted in the resource than ever before. Sure, there are fewer hunters today than there were in 1987, but we still have more than 900,000 license buyers.</p><p>And from Oct 3 to Feb. 29 there&#8217;s an open season for at least one species, and there are very days off.</p><p>Just Christmas and every Sunday.</p><p>That&#8217;s a full five months out of the year when we can hunt either deer, bear, turkeys, grouse, rabbits, pheasants or squirrels. It&#8217;s a lot of opportunity for a long stretch, and in during it all wildlife get a break only one day each week.</p><p>Should that be taken away?</p><p>Proponents of Sunday hunting contend that it would create more opportunities for hunters and kids during a time when many people work six days a week and other activities occupy our youth. Allow hunters to hunt on Sunday - a day when just about everyone has the time to do it, and it could very well increase the hunting ranks, supporters have said.</p><p>But it shouldn&#8217;t be about us.</p><p>At least not first and foremost.</p><p>I have been passionate about hunting my entire life, and when anything proposal surfaces that would change the sport I love, my first question is how will it benefit the resource?</p><p>Is this change good for wildlife and the species we hunt?</p><p>That&#8217;s what needs to be considered with Sunday hunting.</p><p>And I&#8217;m not the only one who feels this way. The Pennsylvania Game Commission shares the same viewpoint, at least according to the agency&#8217;s new strategic plan. Listed first among the plan&#8217;s five core values is &#8220;put wildlife first.&#8221;</p><p>We already have more time to hunt than ever before and the complaints of too few deer are still voiced loud and clear by concerned hunters.</p><p>I don&#8217;t disagree with that concern, but I am puzzled when hunters who criticize the PGC for allowing too many deer to be harvested also support adding another day - Sunday, when hunting pressure will be high and even more deer will be shot.</p><p>Show me how Sunday hunting benefits the resource and I&#8217;ll support it. Until then, I feel hunters, including myself, have enough days to enjoy the sport we love while wildlife needs a few days off.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Venesky </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Venesky-11.jpg</photo0><caption0>Venesky </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Outdoors with Tom Venesky: Put wildlife first in Sunday hunting debate