SATURDAY IS OUR DAY OF WORSHIP. SUNDAY WE COULD HUNT.

Daniel Bowers and his son share a day making memories while hunting. 

Story submitted from/by Daniel Bowers, Seventh Day Adventist; Saturday is a day of worship.

The ability to enjoy outdoor recreation is something everyone should have access to.  Fisherman, boaters, and hikers have the opportunity to choose from any of the seven days a week without regard to their religious affiliation.  For some reason, hunters are limited to only six days and not allowed to hunt on Sundays. 

As a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, my family observes Saturday as our day of worship.  This means we do not hunt Saturday and are left with only Monday through Friday.  The outdoor lifestyle is a large part of our recreation.  From the time hunting seasons end, we are busy preparing for the next year.  This includes land improvement, habitat management and planting crops.  All of this we can do during the five days of the regular work week (evenings of course...have to pay the bills and attend school) and Sunday but still observe our Saturday religious beliefs.  In order for us to hunt together, we maximize our time afield with short evenings or arranging work and school schedules to take the day off because we cannot hunt on Sunday.

Having Sunday hunting would be a game changer for us...we could hunt together without worrying about work or school schedules.  It would also allow us to further enjoy time in the outdoors that we work so hard on to prep for the hunting seasons.

I think this is also true for anyone that doesn't observe the same faith as our family.  Families can hunt full weekends at their camps instead of just one day.  As an avid outdoorsman for 30+ years, being involved with coaching archery for 25+yrs and having teenage hunters of my own, I can see NO downside to allowing Sunday hunting.

Story submitted from/by Daniel Bowers, Seventh Day Adventist; Saturday is a day of worship

WHY SUNDAY HUNTING IS IMPORTANT

Derek's story - In a country where we are supposed to free. Hunting opportunities are held back.

Sorry, it took me a few days to respond but work keeps me very busy during the week. I will try and keep this short but informative. When I posted on your page I was actually enjoying a great morning archery hunting with my wife, whom I got into hunting about four years ago. Because of our busy schedules, we don’t get a lot of quiet time together. During the week she doesn’t get off work at 6 pm and has an hour commute. She gets home just after 7 pm, by the time we shower and have our dinner we are laying our heads down to start the next day over again. 

Come Saturday’s in the fall we are sitting next to one another in a tree stand hoping one of us gets a shot but never upset if we don’t. It’s just nice to spend time together in the woods. As many people know Pennsylvania weather is often unpredictable in the fall. So many times over the last year we have lost one or both of the hunts we are able to enjoy together during the one day [Saturday] we have an opportunity to hunt. I have found it extremely difficult to get a deer in range for my wife on one of the seven days we get to hunt together during the season. She was actually becoming somewhat discouraged until last year when she was able to harvest her first deer. 

My wife isn’t a gun nut so she only hunts archery. It’s disappointing to us both that we only got to spend one day a week in 2018 in the woods together hunting. In a country where we are supposed to be so free, we are having opportunities held back by people, many of them that don’t even hunt or understand it. 

Most of our hunting takes place at our cabin that is two hours away. To think we drive two hours every weekend to only get two hunts is very upsetting. How can we expect to get more kids and more people in general interested in hunting when our legislators are holding back opportunities. I hope this helps although I have all but given up hope for Sunday hunting in my lifetime. 

Derek
A disgruntled sportsmen