FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Sunday Hunting

[Birdconsv@xxxxxxx]

I strongly support the post asking to keep this civil and not turn it into a 
pro/anti-hunting forum.  I am both a life-long birder and a life-long hunter 
(and I have been shot while hunting by another hunter).  As in so many areas of 
policy debate, there may be a compromise here.  I haven't thought this 
through very much but it might work to allow Sunday hunting in those limited 
circumstances where a particular hunting season is very short, but not in 
others 
where it lasts many weeks or months.  The best example is the regular firearms 
season for deer in most counties west of the Blue Ridge.  It is only two weeks 
long and typically includes only two weekends.  Eliminating Sunday is a 
singnicant curtailment of an already very short window of opportunity, 
especially for 
those hunters who don't have the kind of jobs that permit them to take off 
during the work week. Throw in weather (always dicey in the mountains in late 
Nov-early Dec) and random family obligations, illness, etc., and it becomes 
rather easy for a hunter to miss a substantial part or even all of the season 
in a 
particular year.  Having another day or two (i.e., Sundays) during that short 
period provides some additional flexibility, but would have little effect on 
other forms of outdoor recreation.

For long seasons like small game, I'm less convinced that Sundays are needed, 
so perhaps such a compromise could be worked out.  For the record, I grew up 
in Illinois which had Sunday hunting, and I went nearly every Sunday (and 
many/most other days) for the roughly 5 months that the various seasons 
encompassed.  It never seemed an issue then and there, but that was neither a 
time nor a 
place where birding was an issue (as it may be now).  I'm retired now, so I 
really don't need the Sundays myself, but I remember how much I would have 
liked to have that one or two extra days for deer hunting when the combination 
of 
work, family obligations, etc., sometimes restricted my opportunity to only a 
few days during the two-week season.

Happy New Year

Dave Davis
Arlington