Sunday Hunting in Virginia

[donnyt01]

Please voice your opinion on Sunday Hunting in Virginia.

[Bowhunters]

I'm from Kansas and its even in the bible that we should have dominion over all the animals and to harvest them, there's no way IMO that it shouldn't be legal to hunt on Sunday if its based on religious concerns.

[donnyt01]

Come on people, if you read the thread, Vote!

[cjg]

I lived in Virginia for awhile and thought it sucked with no Sunday hunting, but was used to it because we also have it here in Maine. The biggest gripe here to stop it is giving people a day they can go out in the woods without the "fear" of getting shot. Bunch of B.S. if you ask me, but they have proposed it a few times in the last few years and land owner oranizations have gotten together saying they will post their land No Hunting if they legalize Sunday hunting. Most of our hunting here is on private land with the majority of it not posted, you can pretty much hunt wherever you want as long as it isn't posted. They even tried a Sunday hunting, small game only, in northern Maine where it's sparsly populated or no people at all and it still got shot down. Im sure they will keep trying,Sunday hunting would be great, but i don't believe it will happen.

[donnyt01]

I believe that non hunters already have 7 or 8 months out of the year that they can walk the woods without fear of getting shot. I don't believe for a minute that private land owners would endure the damage of an uncontrolled deer population for long. We need to be good neighbors on the days we are able to hunt and then it should be less of an issue.

[BrownDown]

100% hunting rights for Sunday. Let the game have a break during the off season. If its brown, its down. Good luck this season!

[GettinBowedUp]

Please voice your opinion on Sunday Hunting in Virginia.

It was brought to the state office twice, the first time is was shot down saying it was for the church, so it was asked if hunting start after noon, the second with the change for after noon, they came back and said it would cost more to have check in people work on sundays. So now that you check in your game over the phone it MIGHT be a good idea to try again.

[bones13usa]

It is time that a group banded together to get this law recinded. It is extrememly difficult to travel to an individual hunting club for the opening of the season which is always a Saturday and then have to take Sunday off. It affects the average working man as well as any friends from out of state that must travel and then get back to work...They only get one day of hunting?? Come on Virginia, get with the program.....Ward Burton is heavily involved...He raced every Sunday, Golf, football, baseball, fishing...Why no hunting.

[donnyt01]

If the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries went to the state and said that if we open up Sunday hunting it will increase $$$ to the state through additional hunters and additional spending on hunting equipment, then the state would likely revoke this out dated blue law.

I would think that we could find enough state senators to get this into a bill and into committee but unless the DGIF is onboard, it won't go beyond that.

[BukHunter]

The ban on Sunday hunting is definately tied to religion in Virginia and has no merit today. The ban should be lifted once and for all.

The law dates back to an era when everyone was expected to go to church. For as long as I lived in Virginia, since the mid seventies, the law was always linked to church going. When ever we asked why we couldn't hunt Sundays the response was always to allow people to go to church.

Arguements like Sundays allow non hunters to feel safe in the woods, has no merit either. How many non-hunters do you see in the woods on Sundays? Most of the hunting in Virginia is on private land and trespassing is illegal, so unless the non hunters own the land, they would be breaking the law entering most places, and if they do own the land, then they can close their porperty to hunting and enter whenever they like.

Not only would Sunday hunting boost the hunting gear sales, it would also benefit the camping gear sales. If a hunter could leave Friday night and stay through Sunday evening at his favorite hunting grounds, then he would likely purchase camping gear to make that trip comfortable. Each weekend a hunter could fit in two days of hunting nad camping.

Just My Opinion,
Buk

[iraqandback03]

bones13usa, I agree we need to band together. I have started a group on facebook calle Legalize Virginia Sunday Hunting! Show your support and join the group. We can keep eachother informed of what is going on and who are the stumbling blocks, like Delegate Lingamfelter for Prince William and Faquer counties.

We do need to band together, there are strength in numbers.

[bterrell]

I think the majority of the hunterw in VA hunt mostly during rifle/shotgun season, and as we saw this year if you didn't take off all season you only were able to hunt maybe 7 to 8 days due to weather. If you are a blue collar working man/woman it is very hard to hunt like we would like to and need too. I would propose if they won't allow hunting on Sundays for it to be put under consideration to legnthen our regular gun season.

[baysider]

This came up in another post so i thought id give this one a bump.

I have one question for those oposing the Sunday hunting. If the law was passed to hunt Sundays...would you sit on your couch or hunt on Sunday?

[cut_un]

Think I should have the choice as to whether I hunt on Sunday or not.....I can fish, play golf or any other sport ,why not hunting...simple as that.

[Powhatan]

im all for it!

[elkstalkr]

I personally don't see how it is constituionally legal to keep this law around. Regardless of all the excuses to keep it, we all know where this law stemmed from........religion.

I live in Nebraska, so it doesn't really effect me, except when I come to VA occassionally to hunt.

[scruggs123]

I was on the game and inland fisheries website earlier. They are proposing license fee increases. You can go on their link and comment. Here is my 2 cents to the state.

"It would mean more money for the state to fund, maintain, and possibly acquire more public land. It would also allow for state employees to potentially work on Sundays as needed for game checking purposes and to hire more Game Wardens to cover the additional day of hunting. Since, in the past, that has been one of several objections to Sunday hunting (lack of funds for state employees). The increase of $5 a year seems fair in that regards. I guarantee you will attract more hunters and could possibly even raise the fees by more if they are allowed more time in the woods".

[merk47]

Many Virginians leave the state during hunting season and spend their $$$ in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Maryland where Sunday hunting is allowed. This restriction in Virginia only punishes the working guy who can't lollygag off from work during the week. I was retired for 3 years and loved hunting throughout the week. I'm back working again and it is just a poor situation to restrict hunting on Sundays.