Should Pa. ‘return to tradition’ of Monday deer season opener? House panel tees up discussion.

Pennsylvania’s controversial change to when firearms season opens for white-tailed deer is going back before state lawmakers.

The state House Game & Fisheries Committee is scheduled to meet Monday for what’s labeled as an “informational meeting on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s 2019 decision to change the opening day of the regular antlered deer hunting season,” plus other business.

That Game Commission decision moved opening day to the Saturday from the Monday after Thanksgiving. It’s divided hunters between those who welcome the additional weekend hunting opportunity and those who support the Monday start that was practice for some 60 years.

The committee meeting comes as some lawmakers continue to push legislation to establish by law the Monday opening day. State Rep. Brian Smith, R-Jefferson/Indiana, has already introduced House Bill 70 in the new 2025-26 legislative session to do just that, calling it a “Return to Tradition” in a co-sponsorship memo to House colleagues.

Smith serves on the House Game & Fisheries Committee, while the Senate counterpart has state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, as its newly appointed minority chairwoman. She sponsored a bill of her own, Senate Bill 708, during the last legislative session that also sought to “permanently move the opening day of Pennsylvania Deer Rifle Season back to the Monday after Thanksgiving.”

Monday’s meeting starts at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to be live-streamed at pahouse.com/live.

The Game Commission argues that by moving the opener for 2019 and every year since, more hunters can take part in the start of Pennsylvania’s biggest hunting season.

The move came amid a decline in hunting license sales, though the commission last fall cited positive changes in license sales patterns since the Saturday opener, which they believe may be directly tied to the change. An independent survey conducted after the third year of the Saturday-opening season found 60% support for the change, 27% opposition, and 13% with no preference, according to the commission.

“We will be in attendance and look forward to the discussion and helping to answer any questions the committee might have,” Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau told lehighvalleylive.com on Thursday.

Monday-opener advocate Randy Santucci said he’s scheduled to present during Monday’s hearing. He points to surveys prior to the change showing two-thirds of respondents favored the Monday opener.

“There’s a lot of misinformation flying around about it that we’re going to address that hopefully will help the legislators,” said Santucci, southwest regional director for Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.

Santucci suggested that the state could declare the Monday after Thanksgiving a “hunter’s holiday,” which would align with school calendars in four out of five Pennsylvania districts, according to a lehighvalleylive.com analysis published last Thanksgiving week as part of the Misfire special project that delved into the Monday-versus-Saturday-opener divide.

Messages seeking comment on Monday’s hearing were not immediately returned by committee Chairwoman state Rep. Anita Astorino Kulik, D-Allegheny, and the Republican chairman from Berks County, state Rep. David Maloney Sr.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.