When I hear other hunters arguing pro and con “for Sunday hunting to be permitted in Pennsylvania” I’m a little confused.

There’s a fundamental misconception that must be made clear: We already have Sunday hunting. On Sundays, we can hunt coyotes year-round, and we can also hunt fox and crows (given specific dates).

From the non-hunting general public – who are largely unaware that limited Sunday hunting is already allowed - there is strong opposition to Sunday hunting because most people believe two things: that Sunday hunting is not allowed in Pennsylvania, and that hunters want to add Sunday hunting so that they have more days to hunt deer.

Neither belief is correct.

“There is no ban on Sunday hunting,” said Harold Daub, a Schuylkill County hunter who spearheads a grass-roots effort to improve Sunday hunting opportunities. Check out Hunters United for Sunday Hunting on Facebook, and PA Sunday Hunting Working Group. “I just want to see some expansion.”

“If you peel the onion of resistance to find out what’s at its base, the root of the resistance is opposition to deer hunting,” he added. “That’s where the non-hunting public witnesses the most activity, and what they may think Sunday hunting means.”

“I’m just kind of a voice in support of adding more species to the list of game we can hunt on Sundays, such as pheasant, squirrels, rabbits,” he added. “I’ve been bewildered my whole life by the whole thing; even as a young boy I asked why we couldn’t hunt on Sundays.”

Daub said that the arguments and doubts over various groups of people using public game lands are largely baseless. He told a story about being out with archery equipment during bear season, seeing a bear, but having the bear run off as a mountain biker rode up a trail. On another day, he was turkey hunting and a hiker’s dog strolled up to him.

“I hear people like mountain bikers, hikers, just other people who also love the outdoors say that they need a day (Sunday) to enjoy the outdoors,” Daub said. “But I believe there can be compromise – we already share so why can’t everybody else?”

Daub surmised that outdoor aficionados who aren’t hunters are worried that they could become injured somehow by a hunter. But, he said, statistics show that is extremely unlikely.

“It is more likely that someone in the outdoors would be struck by lightning than be injured by a hunter,” he said.

Daub is a proponent of an expansion of Sunday hunting opportunities to include small game such as squirrels, rabbits, and pheasant.

“Let’s get some kids out there,” he said. “One way to do that is to make another weekend day available, so that busy families can fit everything they want to do into their schedules.”

“Hunter numbers are hemorrhaging,” he added. Daub said that just checking spring turkey hunting stats, the number of hunters who got permits was roughly 224,000 in 2007; in 2017 the number of people who got permits was 161,000. “I believe that expanding Sunday hunting opportunities will help save our hunting heritage.”