The Costly Abandonment of Mentors

The Pennsylvania Game Commission changed the structure of our rifle deer season opening day weekend which was successful for over 60 years! The season opened Monday, 4 days after Thanksgiving, providing a palpable buffer. It was the most popular and participated Pennsylvania hunting weekend of the year. 5 of 8 PGC Commissioners ignored massive opposition from hunter surveys, hunter outreach, staff reports, and even legislators.

Sound irrational? You bet it does.

Add to that, the commissioner that originally proposed moving it earlier to Saturday, pulled his proposal in response to massive hunter opposition. He ultimately resigned over this issue. His parting statement: “I see that continuing to push for the Saturday opener will cause long term irreparable damage to the PGC“….. How right he was!

So why did the commissioners go against the data and dig in on this issue? Was it politics or a misguided attempt to pursue an unconfirmed youth hunter demographic.?

Regarding politics: Were they in the background, or at the forefront? A Saturday opening day would have helped influence the legislature to approve SB147, the bill allowing 3 Sundays open for hunting. What is the connection? If the PGC opened the rifle deer season on Saturday, the season could not be closed the very next day, henceforth the ‘need’ for one of those SB147 Sundays. The sponsor of SB147, Senator Dan Laughlin, showed up at the PGC commissioners meeting in April 2019 just before the commissioner’s final vote, he testified support for the Saturday opener. Coincidence? Was the successful Monday opener bargained away in an effort to get the camel’s nose under the tent for Sunday hunting? The PGC strongly supported Sunday hunting, and were on record stating: “The Saturday opener would be a good segue to Sunday hunting”

Regarding youth: The board gave several unresearched perceptive reasons to change the Monday opener, one was it would help college students. One commissioner gave his personal family situation as an example, ignoring the college student data previously researched by their staff. They surveyed 18-to-24-year-old hunters, which included full and part time college students including those in the work force. You guessed it…. They chose the Monday opener over other suggested opening days, which included the current Saturday! “We’d miss class for a lesser reason than the deer opener”.

Today: Changing to Saturday has disenfranchised and inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania hunters and their families. Their long-standing culture and traditions that always had time to unfold that weekend, were cancelled! Having only one day after Thanksgiving, ignoring all the needed preparation and travel time for many hunting families, and that one day being Black Friday, defines the meaning of “Rushed”.

Negative socioeconomic impacts also came with the Saturday opener. Two bipartisan legislative bills to return the Monday opener have been sponsored in each the house and senate. They have bipartisan co-sponsorship. A hearing on this issue was held in 2020, and another is being scheduled.

Good decisions are gauged by results. Pennsylvania Resident and Youth hunting license sales have stayed in decline for the last 5 years of the Saturday opener, even when piggybacked with 4 Sundays. This validates the lunacy of attempting to solve declining hunter participation, youth or otherwise, by changing one day in one season.

At the April 2024 PGC commissioners meeting, board president Scott Foradora read a prepared statement, admitting changing to Saturday has “fractured our hunters” as they reached out to the legislature for help in solving this ongoing conflict.

Obviously, it is difficult for the PGC to admit they made a mistake.

If you believe the commissioners decision benefitted youth hunters, or the sport in general, chew on this.

Regarding youth involvement with hunting: Who in the hell do you think gets them involved? Mature hunters are the bank! We buy their licenses, provide equipment and ongoing hunter knowledge and safety training. We transport them to hunting locations or camps, feed them, and instill hunting traditions from fellowship interaction.

Our hunters were also victims of age discriminatory dismissive comments from the PGC board of commissioners in meetings. They identifyed Monday opener supporters as “the old guys”, while the reality of Pennsylvania’s average hunter age is 54-55! That seemingly meant nothing?

The agency accuses hunters that hate the Saturday opener, of living in a by-gone era, particularly camp hunters, but the truth is, the PGC is the one chasing rainbows here. Without recognizing and honoring the older and mature hunters, (by far the largest portion of hunters in Pa.), they have done much more than just “fracture” our Pennsylvania hunter base.

HB495 sponsor Representative Brian Smith, recently attended his first USP meeting. As strong support for the Monday opener was directed at PGC Executive Director Steve Smith in attendance, one participant identified his career with the great motorcycle company Harley Davidson. Rep. Smith later asked the question “If Harley Davidson wanted to attract more women bikers, and they sold only pink Harleys, what would that do to the company”? The gentleman’s answer was… it would destroy it.

The analogy intended here was clear. You cannot disenfranchise a large portion of your customers, hunter/mentors who had sound reasons to keep the Monday opener.

There are ways and means to attract hunting involvement, screwing with the most popular opening hunting day, and weekend, was certainly not one of them.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission also disregarded the people, families, businesses and non-profits that were hurt from shortening that Thanksgiving weekend, opening the season on Saturday rather than Monday. They themselves admitted changing to Saturday is a problem, yet refuse to reinstate the Monday opener that worked for 60 years.

Due to the ongoing support for HB495, Rep. Brian Smith will be reintroducing this legislation next session. I truly hope legislators take the information and data that will be testified at the upcoming hearing, and recognize it mirrors what was testified in 2020,…. now with 5 years of validation, this is not going away.

Randy Santucci

Dan Davila

Join the movement:

Facebook: Pennsylvania Hunters Against the Saturday Deer Opener

Coalition: Hunters to Reinstate the Monday Opener

Email: rsantucci2022@gmail.com or ddavila2112@gmail.com

Podcast: Opening Day Sportsman

Randy Santucci.Nov.8.2024.pdf

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