Sunday hunting? State legislator says maybe
Sunday hunting is back on the legislative agenda, but it’s different this time. Reintroduced last month as state Senate Bill 147, the proposal to expand Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania has moved beyond the committee level for the first time in 20 years and will be presented to the full Senate.
Unlike past iterations, the focus is on compromise, said co-sponsor Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, who represents parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The bill would authorize the Game Commission to expand the Sunday hunt to just a few days per year. It would significantly increase penalties for hunting-related trespass and enable game wardens to enforce that law. Mr. Brewster, a lifelong hunter and longtime supporter of Sunday hunting, said the bill, co-sponsored by state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, was written with a focus on satisfying the needs of farmers.
“A lot of them don’t want people bothering them on their day off, or walking past their [trespassing] signs and trampling their fields. They want to be able to shoot the deer that are eating their crops. And they’re not wrong,” said Mr. Brewster. “This is such an innocent thing. Let’s get this started and not bicker over who makes the final offer. We want this to be accepted by the Farm Bureau, bikers, runners, walkers
and mainstream society as well as hunters.”
Hunting crows and furbearers such as coyotes is currently legal on Sundays. Farmers are required to request permission to rid their fields of excess deer and are issued Deer Management Assistance Program permits or given red tags to distribute to hunters under the Agricultural Deer Control Program.
Mr. Brewster said trespass fines are low and identical for hunting- and nonhunting-related trespass. He’d like to see hunters who intentionally hunt where they’re not allowed to be “penalized enough that it hurts. They make it bad for the rest of us.”
Under SB 147, huntingrelated trespass fines would be directed to programs that research and control chronic wasting disease, which Mr. Brewster says is “common ground shared by hunters, farmers and the general public.”
If the bill is approved by the Senate, it would move to the state House.
Coyote hunting
Reader John Bianco of Allegheny County wrote in with some good questions regarding the coyote-hunting story that ran Feb. 3.
“What is the best caliber to hunt coyote in Allegheny County?” he asked. “Anything larger than a .22 is not legal in the county, and ... any shot larger than No. 4 is also not legal. Rifled slugs seem like overkill but No. 4 shot seems too light. Can coyote be hunted with a .22?”
Patrick Sickles, game warden supervisor and information officer for the state Game Commission’s Southwest District, said his Allegheny County wardens know coyote hunters who hunt in WMU 2B.
“Overwhelmingly most use a .22 mag,” he said. “Coyotes can be hunted with a .22-caliber and if using a shotgun, no shot size larger than No. 4.”
Furbearer guide and author Michael Huff said he recommends the .17-caliber Winchester Super Magnum and .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire. A .22 mag cartridge has a casing that is larger in diameter, length and thickness than the standard .22 Long Rifle.
Return of Turtle Creek
Last spring’s record-setting rain and snowmelt pushed excess water and toxins through abandoned coal mines, causing odd color shifts and chemical changes to regional trout streams weeks before the opening of trout season. As a result, Turtle Creek on the Allegheny-Westmoreland county line was not stocked in 2018. Barring another water quality issue, the popular suburban stream will be back on the stocking schedule with rainbows expected to be delivered March 30, April 24, May 4 and Oct. 23.
Little J trout
The Fish and Boat Commission has terminated trout stocking on a 0.7-mile stretch of the Little Juniata River in Blair County based on confirmation of reproducing wild brown trout. Pre- and in-season stockings have been suspended from a point northeast from Bellwood downstream to an unnamed tributary south of Fostoria. Fish scheduled for stocking on those waters will go to nearby Canoe Creek Lake.