Gus
Six Pointer
Thanks for the update.
I would support Sunday hunting for waterfowl. It's a real PITA to drive a couple of hours to only hunt one day a week (Saturday). Believe it or not there are duck hunters out there that aren't filthy rich and have to work 5 days a week.
More convinced all the time that NC is NOT a Sportsman friendly state....
Additionally, HB 559 would remove the prohibition against hunting migratory birds contingent on authorization by proclamation or rules adopted by the NCWRC following the completion of a study conducted by the NCWRC that examines the biological, economic, social, and resource management impacts of allowing migratory bird hunting on Sundays.
Finally, the legislation would change the method by which counties could prohibit Sunday hunting by requiring that a majority of voters in a county-wide election approve by referendum.
I strongly opposed SH for waterfowl here in Virginia and after a few years of it being in place, I still very much feel the same way.
It condensed the season to the point that we now miss out on any December migration and it's expedited the demise of some of the historically good, higher pressured waters in the state. VA and NC (and the entire east coast for that matter) have too few ducks and too many duck hunters. Adding another high pressured weekend day to the season can do nothing but hurt the quality of the hunting.
Well, they could declare Tuesday and Wednesday as non-hunting days. That'll extend your season and take off hunting pressure from ducks for two days instead of one.
....Not quite. I know you're being a bit sarcastic, but that would count as a split, which the Feds limit.
Actually, I'm not being sarcastic. I generally find people that oppose SH for non-religious reasons to be people with flexible work schedules or retired folks who want more hunting to themselves. They have 5 days per week to hunt where as someone posted earlier there are duck hunters out there that aren't filthy rich and have to work 5 days a week. So if you cut 2 days from the middle of the week, the weekday hunters still have 3 days and the weekend hunters have 2 days. The ducks also benefit because they now have 2 days of not being shot at instead of 1. Everyone's a winner except for the weekday hunter that still has more hunting days than the weekend hunter. It's selfishness on the part of the weekday hunter. They want more days to themselves and more ducks for them to hunt.
I had not heard about the Sunday duck hunting, have some mixed feelings. Not totally for or against it. I too still work Monday – Friday. I have not hunted the four day October season in years but understand that some do. It is a good time to introduce younger hunters to the sport without the cold weather conditions. I also do not hunt the second spilt much due to the lack of ducks. The most ducks we saw last season were the two youth Saturdays. I would like for the 60 days to go into February in hope of larger waterfowl numbers. Not sure how that can happen by including an extra day to the hunting week.
Don
my .02 cents for what it is worth,,,,,,,
time to get with the rest of the world,,,,allow Sunday hunting,,,,,,,,
if the resource can't handle a weekend day of hunting, then shorten the season/bag limits like we had a while ago,,,,,,,,
but to not allow Sunday hunting because of the reasons I have heard is garbage (which all hover around "tradition" for the most part) - it's a day of the week and NC needs to step away from this one of the LAST vestiges of the Blue Laws,,,,,,
Reduction in bag limits would likely cause the Duck Dynasty crowd to decide its not worth the time, money and effort which would go a long ways to improving the sport for the rest of us.
As to Woodmoose's point the bag limits seem to be the same in states that allow SH and those that don't.
My point wasn't about bag limits,,,it was about folks worrying about the resource
The bag limit for waterfowl are set by the Feds by flyway,,,,states tend to follow
Wiping out the resource is not the issue. Pushing the resource off of huntable public water (onto refuges, private impoundments, deep into inaccessible swamps or just the heck out of this area) due to overpressure (jr commanders, skybusters, incessant callers, posted up everywhere you turn) for two consecutive days is the issue imo.
Who is talking about tradition or religion? Geez, this don't seem that complicated to me. Saturdays are an overcrowded circus on public waters. It seems logical that Sundays ( for half a morning, mind you, if that) will also be an overcrowded circus. Anyone with any degree of fowlin experience knows that consecutive days of heavy pressure moves out ducks. Doesn't matter what two days of the week, but mon-fri, naturally, are not the super high pressure days.
Every state is different. Is it possible that not having 2 consecutive,high pressure days per week all season helped keep higher numbers of ducks here, in turn contributing to NC harvesting more ducks than the other Atlantic Flyway states. Several of the Piedmont lakes are perfect examples of what happens to productive waters when overpressured.
If you disagree, fine, but don't try totell me I'm hiding some religious agenda.
You're duck hunting skills sound impressive indeed. Congrats
Wiping out the resource is not the issue. Pushing the resource off of huntable public water (onto refuges, private impoundments, deep into inaccessible swamps or just the heck out of this area) due to overpressure (jr commanders, skybusters, incessant callers, posted up everywhere you turn) for two consecutive days is the issue imo.