From staff reports
Although the opening of firearms deer season will begin on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving this year, officials will determine whether the same will hold for the 2020 season.
According to a news release from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, some who have been unable to hunt on opening day due to work or school commitments strongly supported the change from the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
Concerns that resulted after moving the opener to Saturday prompted state House of Representatives Game and Fisheries Committee Majority Chairman Keith Gillespie, R-York, and Minority Chairman Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny, to meet with Tim Layton, president of the Board of Game Commissioners, and other board members.
The commissioners, the release said, will look for evidence that the Saturday opener increased hunting license sales and hunter success, and will gauge opinions of hunters who will have taken part in the state’s first Saturday opener in decades.
Layton also said when the Board of Commissioners selects an opening day for the 2020 firearms deer season, it will take all findings into consideration to arrive at a decision that provides the most benefit.
