The long, long battle for Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania may finally be coming to an end.
On July 1, House Bill 1431 reached the desk of Governor Josh Shapiro after passing out of the House and Senate. The bill would lift the ban on Sunday hunting during all hunting seasons in the Keystone State.
Currently, Pennsylvania only allows the hunting of foxes, coyotes, and crows on Sundays. Since 2019, they have added three other Sundays to the fall hunting season: one during archery deer season, one during rifle deer season, and one during rifle bear season.
But Pennsylvania has some of the country’s most avid hunters, and they’ve been calling for a full repeal of the ban for more than a decade, led by Chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee, Senator Greg Rothman. Rothman said, “It’s an idea whose time has come.”
As we’ve covered in the past, adding this one day to the weekend would double most working people’s time in the field. With participation in youth sports now at an all-time high, many kids with games on Saturday have missed out on hunting opportunities altogether until now. Adding one more weekend day would also significantly boost hunter recruitment and retention in a state where the Game Commission depends on nearly $60 million in hunting license sales every year.
The ban has also hamstrung the hunting industry in Pennsylvania, as out-of-staters have been reluctant to travel for a three-day weekend if they have to sit one of those days out.
HB 1431 wouldn’t automatically open every Sunday to hunting–the Game Commission would still need to approve adding specific days to the season—but it removes any barrier to the commission’s decision-making.
Opponents often cite the possibility that bird-watchers, dog-walkers, and the like might stay out of the woods out of fear if the ban were lifted. Brook Lenker of the Keystone Trails Association told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, “We just feel that additional Sundays open to hunting has the potential to erode quality hiking opportunities on Pennsylvania’s trails … a lot of hiking occurs on weekends.” But accidents involving non-hunters on weekends have been virtually non-existent across the country.
If Governor Shapiro signs the bill, the only two remaining states with total bans on Sunday hunting would be Maine and Massachusetts. But who knows? Maybe the Keystone State will be the domino that makes those remaining two fall.
Pennsylvania’s blue laws against hunting have their genesis in the Quaker founding of the Commonwealth, when church leaders believed that Sundays should be reserved only for prayer.
But prayer takes different forms for different people. In 2024, pastor and hunting advocate Rye Bailey told the news outlet The Bradley Era, “God has given us the outdoors and hunting to enjoy his creation and that is meant to be enjoyed each and every day of the week. I once hunted before church, shot a deer, left the woods to go to church, then went back and recovered the deer after church.”
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