18 YEA's REPEALING SUNDAY HUNTING PROHIBITION IN PENNSYLVANIA - HB1431 PASSES OUT OF COMMITTEE.

CONTACT: Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

TELEPHONE: 717-350-6741

EMAIL: huntersforsundayhunting@gmail.com

WEBSITE: facebook.com/HuntersUnitedForSundayHunting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/DISTRIBUTION 

YEA VOTE FOR REPEALING SUNDAY HUNTING PROHIBITION IN PENNSYLVANIA - HB1431 BY PA HOUSE GAME AND FISHERIES COMMITTEE. 

  

The Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee on June 3, 2025, advanced PA House Bill 1431, Repealing Sunday Hunting Prohibition in Pennsylvania, with a vote of 18YEA, 8NAY.

The vote was consistent with the Democratic majority voting favorably, along with four Republican minority members supporting.  

View the PA House Game and Fisheries Committee meeting and voting here. The advancement of this legislation is important in helping hunters and farmers.  Over the past years, hunter-conservation identified their number one issue as removing the prohibitive blue law restricting hunting on Sunday.  Agriculture identified its number one issue as being economic, locally and as a whole, through losses associated with crop damage.  

HB1431:

• Removes the blue law prohibiting hunting on Sunday and provides the Pennsylvania Game Commission with full regulatory authority to set seasons and bag limits seven days a week. 

• Provides for a member of the Board of Pennsylvania Game Commissioners who represents the interest of agricultural commodities that pertain to normal agricultural operations and wildlife. That applicant will now have to meet the criteria of being knowledgeable in the area of wildlife management as well as actively engaged in a normal agricultural operation as defined in the Right-to-Farm Law.

• Directs the labeling of natural deer urine for the use of hunting.  The urine must have adequate labeling and testing to ensure they are free of Chronic Wasting Disease. 

• Guides the reporting of harvested animals for crop damage. 

• Strengthens private property trespass rules. 

Statement from Kevin Askew, Executive Director, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting:

“ Hunter-citizens of Pennsylvania have been asking for an update to the blue law for over 50 years.  I would like to thank legislators for demonstrating their trust in the Pennsylvania Game Commission to do as they are charged and manage PA’s wildlife resources for generations now and future.  Your ongoing courage to change and remove the archaic blue law that prohibits hunting on Sundays will have a lasting effect for current and future hunters.”

“I want to also recognize the efforts of our partnerships with Hunter Nation-PA, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and Representative Mandy Steele (D), Allegheny Co.  Without legislative cooperation, we would not be at the point of ending the 343-year-old blue law and the 50-year benign seven-day-a-week hunting issue.”   

HB1431 will now move to the Pennsylvania House for a full floor vote.  

For more information about this topic, please contact Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, Executive Director Kevin Askew at 717-350-6741 or email at huntersforsundayhunting@gmail.com.  View our Blog - https://huntersforsundayhunting.blogspot.com/ 

HUSH Mission Statement - Remove the prohibition of Sunday hunting in PA Title 34 Game Law through education, and influence legislatures to change the law accordingly.

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LETTER FOR JOINT PUBLIC HEARING OF PA SENATE FISH AND GAME AND AGRICULTURE, RURAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEES ON CROP DAMAGE

 

Letter of submission to and for the joint public hearing to discuss crop damage scheduled October 23, 2023

PA Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee

PA Senate Game and Fisheries Committee

Pennsylvania Game Commission

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau

PA Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and PA Senate Game and Fisheries Committee - as you all discuss what can be done to help the agriculture community with their crop damage concern it comes down to two options.  First is financial and second is a long-term and sustainable solution.  The financial solution involves helping secure funding for crop loss through the established United States Department of Agriculture crop loss Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP).  This is a federal program available to all farmers.  To secure this funding it involves a legislative commitment to bring it to PA farmers for use.  The second and long-term sustainable solution is sitting in the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee right now.   Senate Bill 67 would provide full regulatory authority to the Pennsylvania Game Commission to authorize seven-day-a-week hunting.  Just like yourselves, hunter-conservationists are busy with life and work.  SB67 would provide another tool for the PGC to use so hunters can help harvest animals in a sustainable manner to assist with the over $70 million loss yearly in crop damage situations.  Farmers are trying to help themselves ninety-one percent of Pennsylvania farmers allowed deer hunting on their farms,  Farmers and hunters are working together for the common goal of less crop damage.  The best way to legislatively assist is to provide full regulatory authority to the PGC to allow the most benefit of time and days when hunters are available.  Combine that with bringing and educating the agriculture community on the USDA NAP program you have the perfect storm and path forward to the ongoing economic crop loss concern of yourselves and agriculturalists.

Pennsylvania Game Commission - as you participate in this forum understand that hunter-conservationists are standing beside you knowing the sustainability of PA’s wildlife is always top of mind and top of mission for the agency.  There is no disputing wildlife causes financial loss not only in agriculture but in other industries as well.  What also is indisputable is how sustainable hunting practices and your agency having full regulatory authority for seven-day-a-week hunting will help.  Many lawmakers are under the misguided impression that seven-day-a-week hunting will be detrimental.  As wildlife managers and conservationists, we know better.   The bottom line is farmers need hunters and hunters need farmers  As reported fencing and shooting were the only methods rated as being at least moderately effective in helping with crop damage.  This falls directly in line with the goal of SB67 and full regulatory authority to provide additional time and opportunity for hunters to harvest animals on farms helping mitigate wildlife crop damage.  This is the time to bridge the legislative body and recognize where the real help will come from and how it can be implemented.

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau - hunters want to help with the crop damage issue.  Recognizing the value of SB67 and accepting its goal will go a long way in the viability of the solution moving forward. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.  Just add another spoke to it.   Combining SB67 with the USDA NAP program creates the perfect scenario for small and large farms alike that need assistance with crop damage.  It helps financially as well as provides a long-term sustainable option.   

Letter sent and endorsed by the undersigned organizations. To discuss this contact 717-350-6741. 

/s/ Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

/s/ Hunter Nation

/s/ Keystone Conservation Action

/s/ Pennsylvania Cooperating Conservation Organizations

References: 

University of Wildlife Damage to Agricultural Crops in Pennsylvania: The Farmers' Perspective Dated 1997 / Updated listing 2023

USDA Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) 

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 67

LETTER TO PA LEGISLATORS - I DON'T WANT TO WAIT ANOTHER 20 YEARS

 Submitted by Randy Stevens

Had a great couple of days hunting with the kids, Derrick Stevens Lyndsey Marie, and Brett Rote. It's been 20 years since Derrick, Lyndsey, and I spent time together hunting in Penns Woods.

Thanks for rekindling memories of the past and look forward to more time with you hunting in 

Penns Woods.

Thank you to the legislature for the passage of Senate Bill 147 but now it is time to pass Senate Bill 607. It just so happened that one of my kids, my son, only has off two weekends a month and if the opening weekend for whitetail here in Pennsylvania would not have opened when it did and he would've had to work, the opportunity for me to hunt with my son would've never happened.

I do not want to have to wait another 20 years of my life to have the ability to hunt with my kids and extended family members. It is time to get rid of this archaic blue law that prohibits hunting on Sunday with just a few exemptions in Pennsylvania.  It’s time to stop placating to the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and start listening to hunters on this issue.  It is time for the legislature to pass Senate Bill 607 and let the Pennsylvania Game Commission manage all of the 480 wildlife species here in Pennsylvania seven days a week every week of the year.

The opening weekend of whitetail deer rifle season was the best weekend for me in the last 20 years. Without the season opener on a Saturday and the ability to hunt on Sunday, I would not have been able to hunt with two of my kids. One is a schoolteacher and the other one only has off work two weekends a month. The corporate and labor workplace schedules are not commonplace Monday through Friday schedules in today's world.

If the opener for whitetail still would've been on Monday two of my kids and my son-in-law would not have had the opportunity to hunt together.  It just so happened that the opening day and the one Sunday of rifle season fell on my son’s scheduled weekend off.  I also had the ability to hunt with my son-in-law who is an electrician and very rarely does he have the ability to get off work because of his company's scheduled jobs.

Needless to say, I myself am self-employed and am an Allied health provider so it is very difficult for me to get off work. I used to have to take off work to hunt on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which would mean three days of not seeing patients and creating more of a backlog where my patients would have to wait.  But this year because of me being able to go back to work on Tuesday I only had to take off one day of not scheduling patients.

It is difficult for guys like me to understand what the problem is with passing a simple law like SB607.  We live in a society that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week conducting and participating in everything from politics to mail service.  But for some reason having the ability and opportunity to hunt on Sunday is something that you as the legislature believe you must control.  I and many others just don’t get it.  It is time to move SB607 and get it passed into law for guys like me and the many others out there.

Randy Stevens

Find your legislator here

SB147 LAW. NOW WHAT?

Message from HUSH Executive Director

I have had a lot of people ask me ‘now what’ since the passing of Senate Bill 147.  Henry Ford said it best, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

That’s exactly what we do - move forward. If we do not, then we are stagnant and ineffective. The fight remains the same, it hasn’t changed. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau remains opposed to hunting on Sunday and will continue their hypocritical efforts to infringe on hunter-landowner rights all the while asking for politicians to grant exemptions and other favorable programs to farmer-landowners.

There are more hunters in this state and more than likely more hunter-landowners than there are voting farmer members of the PFB. We as hunter-conservationists just simply outnumber them. That is why we must remain consolidated in our efforts to bring this archaic blue law prohibiting hunting on Sunday to an end.
 
Politicians have learned that we have organized. The PFB has learned their dynasty is coming to an end. Their ability to hide behind PFB enabling politicians and the long-running ill-fated excuses of ‘why not’ will no longer be tolerated.   It is time that Pennsylvania entered the 21st Century in regards to hunting and conservation.

The sky has not fallen in West Virginia. There the legislature has done the right thing and ignored the West Virginia Farm Bureaus opposition and opened the state for hunting on Sunday. West Virginia is benefiting from this. If West Virginia legislators can ignore their farm bureau and reap the benefits the same can and should happen here in Pa.  

As I have previously stated. We are just getting started. This fight to bring Sunday hunting opportunities is much larger than any person or organization. It is based on our principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

You have my commitment that Hunters United for Sunday Hunting will continue in our mission to bring full regulatory authority to the Pa. Game Commission. I ask that everyone stay engaged, involved and continue the journey with us.

Let’s make 2020 the year of real hunter-conservationist change in Pennsylvania. It’s time we take conservation out of the hands of politicians and Pa. Farm Bureau and place it fully where it belongs – Pa. Game Commission.

Sincerely,

Kevin B. Askew
Executive Director
Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

WHATS GOING ON WITH SENATE BILL 147? I HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING.

“What’s going on with Senate Bill 147?” I have been asked this question quite frequently since the September 10, 2019, Sunday hunting public hearing held in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Game and Fisheries Committee.
  
Currently, our national partners from the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation have asked if they can handle the continued negotiations. This is an agreeable request since these organizations have the resources, knowledge, and experts that understand all the legislative work that takes place.
  
As of this writing, Senate Bill 147 sits in the Pa House Game and Fisheries Committee. The current negotiations regarding whether the request for written permission from the Pa Farm Bureau will be added or not. The PFB is requesting SB147 be amended to include written permission on the Sundays stipulated in the bill. No other days are being considered to include written permission.
  
So essentially the PFB wants lawmakers to write a law for what we already have. Under our current posting regulations, a landowner can require or not require written permission to hunt on their property. If the landowner is comfortable with verbal permission, that is completely up to the property owner.
   
So the question becomes why do we need a law to do what we already can do legally at landowner discretion.

The NRA and NSSF are working through this. Neither has agreed or disagreed with the proposal. The negotiating team is working with lawmakers to understand why they think writing a law to do what can already be done makes sense or not make sense.
  
Now to the big question. Are we going to have the opportunity to hunt this hunting season? I wish I had a solid and straight answer but I don’t. I can assure you that HUSH, NRA, NSSF, and all the of the conservations organizations involved in the Pa Sunday hunting fight are doing all we can to get hunting opportunity as quickly as possible. We know and understand what the extra time afield means to everyone.
  
We are up against politicians and their willingness to act quickly for all the right reasons. As it stands the Pa House Game and Fisheries Committee must vote, SB147 then goes to the entire Pa House for a vote, then back to the Senate for a concurrence vote, and then to the governor's desk for signature. All indications are Governor Wolf will sign the bill into law.
  
The overarching and more pressing issue is: the longer the legislators choose not to take action. The longer SB147 is held up in the process. The timeline gets extended. 

This is why it is extremely important to continue calling and emailing legislators on SB147.

I get it, everyone has been doing that for the past 18 months. Please hear and read my words.  It is because of you, supporters of Sunday hunting opportunity that SB147 is where it is and the ‘needle moved’ further than it has ever been in the past 20 years. I am asking that you continue that momentum, keep those phones ringing and the legislator's email boxes full with SB147 and Sunday hunting messages. Continue making the hunter-conservationists voice heard. 

We are close, please stay in the fight. 

Sincerely;

Kevin B. Askew, Executive Director Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

LETTER TO PA POLITICIANS - I HAVE HAD MY FILL

Thanks Joe for providing us a copy of the letter you sent to Pa. politicians.  Your frustration is not lost on any of us.  We need more of these letter being sent to politicians in this state.   

Letter from Joe - Disgruntled Veteran & Hunter
To the politicians of Pennsylvania: 

I am an army combat vet who served in Baghdad from 2003-2004. I now own a home, land and have three kids. I want to pass on the family hunting tradition. My daughter is three and even at this young age, she knows daddy loves deer. It is not uncommon for me to work six days a week with Sunday being the day I have off. Being on commission based salary, Saturday is the day I make my money. 

I find it both ironic and pathetic that I can't use the very freedom I served to protect to hunt the land I own on the only day I have off [Sunday] with my children.  Especially since the Pennsylvania Game Commission supports hunting on Sunday as a game management option. 

I want to teach my kids how to hunt, but I also want to instill ethics and morals into their lives. With Senate Bill 147 not passing this year I decided to purchase a New York state hunting license. On Sundays, I will be spending my time there.   When my children turn 12 years old, I will be taking them there as that's the age they can legally hunt in NY. 

My plan for next year if SB147 does not go through is to purchase an acre or two in NY close to the state lands that I will be hunting. This will also allow me to take advantage of lower license prices for me and my family. 

I can assure all of you politicians if we do not have full inclusion of all Sundays by the time my kids are 12 years-of-age. I will refuse to spend a dime of my money in this state [PA] when it comes to hunting. 

I have also decided to not support dairy farms in Pennsylvania.  I will make sure any money spent on dairy products for my family will be on products that come from elsewhere. I understand how that sounds but I don't care, the Pa Farm Bureau claims to represent all these farmers that are dictating what I can and can't do with my children on my private land. I know that may not make much difference but I can't in good conscience support them [farmers] knowing that a portion of that money benefits the PFB in some way.  

Please understand I am not an unreasonable person but I have had my fill. To us, hunting is very important as a family and we should not have to make a choice between hunting or summer vacations or choose a different career path to get my kids hunting. 

Thank you for your time.

Joe - Disgruntled Veteran & Hunter

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE EDITORIAL... REMARKS THAT MISFIRED: NOT A GOOD REASON TO DERAIL SUNDAY HUNTING.

View Video of Sunday Hunting Testimony Here

Ego and wounded feelings should not stand in the way of  commonsense legislation.

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
September 25, 2019

Pennsylvania lawmakers should not allow ego and wounded feelings to stand in the way of a bill that would permit hunting on Sunday a few times a year. 

Passage of the Sunday hunting bill was expected to be smooth and swift until some unfortunate remarks were made Sept. 10 by the new executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen and Conservationists — a major proponent of the initiative that has been sought for more than a decade. 

Harold Daub, a former leader of Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, was at a legislative meeting with the Game and Fisheries Committee, meant to prime the state House about a Senate bill that would permit limited Sunday hunting. But Mr. Daub rambled into territory considered by some as rude. The Dauphin County resident rapped the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, urging lawmakers not to allow the bureau to “bully” them. He also made a sarcastic and dismissive remark about the Keystone Trails Association.

Mr. Daub was not diplomatic. Nor was he politically smart. But this bull-in-the-china-shop behavior shouldn’t derail a good move. 

A Sunday hunting ban initially was part of a package of “blue laws” aimed at promoting church attendance, a notion that fails. Many Pennsylvanians are not Christian and Sunday hunting and church-going aren’t mutually exclusive.

Pennsylvania is one of only three states that haven’t lifted a general no-Sunday-hunting ban. Some limited hunting in Pennsylvania — coyotes and crows, for example — currently is allowed. The compromise Senate bill passed in June would have allowed three Sunday hunting days.

A perennial concern has been the safety of walkers, hikers and those who want to otherwise play in the woods. But this is a concern that applies seven days a week. Other states with safety concerns engaged in a test run of Sunday hunting, found it worked fine and lifted their bans. 

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau has opposed Sunday hunting for a reason that applies to the other six days of the week as well: trespass. Some hunters (and others) illegally trespass on private land. For farmers, that can mean crops being trampled at certain times of the year. For them, six days a week of hunting is better than seven days a week. This concern was dealt with in the pending legislation by creating a new primary offense: Hunting trespass. It would be enforceable by police and the state Game Commission and would be punishable by high fines and the possible loss of hunting privileges.

Senate Bill 147 was expected to pass the House with little debate until Mr. Daub’s inappropriate comments. That’s not a good enough reason for lawmakers to derail a process that’s been in the works for many years.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette link:
https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2019/09/25/Pennsylvania-Sunday-hunting-remarks-Harold-Daub/stories/201909160022

LETTER OF APPRECIATION TO SENATOR JAKE CORMAN

The following joint organizational letter has been sent to Senator Jake Corman. To: Senator Jake Corman, Majority Leader

From:

Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationists

Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

Senator Corman; 

Please accept this letter in appreciation of the work you have done to get Senate Bill 147 through the Pennsylvania Senate with a vote 36 Yes and 14 No. We know this was no small task given the history here in Pa. and the tactics used by the Pa. Farm Bureau. Please extend our thanks to all of those Senators that see the value in providing additional hunting opportunities that SB147 brings. Is SB147 perfect? The answer is no. Does SB147 provide additional hunting opportunity? The answer is yes. 

The three-day stipulation is disappointing. That decision is definitely not based on any scientific evidence, nor what hunting conservation in Pennsylvania deserves. The full complement of Sundays is truly what is needed without question. The encouraging thing with the three days is that there is no question that you as legislators truly understand that the Pa. Game Commission has the expertise and knowledge to implement them.

All hunting conservation organizations involved in support of SB 147 have always supported the strengthening of trespass while hunting laws. We are glad that was not amended. The hope is the primary trespass language remains and is not compromised as SB147 moves forward. Hunting trespass laws have needed to be updated for many years. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau should be grateful that the Pa. Senate understands that and did not remove it like the PFB has been asking.

At this time last year there appeared to be no hope of Sunday hunting opportunities coming to Pennsylvania. But here we are moving in making hunting on Sundays a reality and taking steps toward removing the 337-year-old blue law that prohibits hunting on Sunday.  The Pa. Senators are truly making history.

For us this is not the end, it is just the beginning. Please keep this in mind. When these three Sundays are implemented and more opportunity has been provided to hunters; when the ‘nay-sayers’ sky did not fall; and you as politicians have had your fears and concerns marginalized; and all without detriment to game species; we as a hunting conservation community will be knocking on your door once again. This time with less patience and an uncompromised complete repeal of the Sunday hunting prohibition. There will be no more hiding behind ‘the-fear-of-the-unknown.’

The mission is not over and this fight will continue. Pa. Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationist, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting and the over 20 supporting organizations remain dedicated to our mission to remove the prohibition of Sunday hunting in PA Title 34 Game Law through education, and influence legislatures to change the law accordingly.

I hope that we continue to build our relationship and work hand-in-hand as conservationists and politicians to strike the needed balance between laws and regulations to do what is best for Pennsylvania’s wildlife.  Again, thanks for all the effort on Senate Bill 147. Looking forward to working with you in the future. 

Sincerely;

Harold Daub

Executive Director

Pa. Federation of Sportsman & Conservationists

Sincerely; 

Executive Director

Hunters United for Sunday Hunting