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HARRISBURG (AP) -- Deer hunting season in Pennsylvania will be starting on a Saturday rather than a Monday beginning in November.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission voted 5-3 Tuesday to move opening day of deer rifle season to the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Rifle season for hunting deer in Pennsylvania has kicked off the Monday after Thanksgiving since 1963. The change expands the firearms season to 13 days, adding a third Saturday.
Supporters hope a Saturday opening will bring back people struggling to find time to hunt and help high school and college hunters who don't get opening day off from school. Opponents said the change would interfere with hunting camp traditions and complicate travel during the Thanksgiving weekend.
To accommodate the expanded deer season, the late November turkey hunting season has been reduced by two days.
The commission Tuesday also approved:
¯ expanding the mid-October muzzleloader and special firearms deer seasons to include bears;
¯ an expanded two-week archery bear season;
¯ expanding the bear season from four to seven days in most wildlife management units;
¯ expanding the late archery and flintlock deer seasons by more than a week, to end on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday; and
¯ establishing a September archery season and a January antlerless season for elk hunters.
The board gave preliminary approval to the proposals in January.
In recent months, the Game Commission received and reviewed a plethora of public comment on the issue, and hunters' opinions clearly were split. Many of those supporting the move to a Saturday opener said they are unable to hunt on a Monday opener because they are unable to take off work or school to do so. Many of those who supported sticking with a Monday opener cited logistical concerns with traveling to their hunting camps during the Thanksgiving weekend.
The commissioners also were split on the issue.
Commissioner James Daley, who represents the Game Commission's District 1, made an amendment to retain the opening day as the Monday after Thanksgiving, Dec. 2. And Commissioners Tim Layton, District 4, and Michael Mitrick, District 6, voted with Daley in support of the Monday opener.
The rest of the board voted for the Saturday opener. The final list of 2019-20 seasons and bag limits that included a Saturday opener was approved by 7-1 margin, with only Daley voting against.
Commissioner Brian Hoover, who represents District 8 and who voted for the Saturday opener, said that the level of support or opposition to move varied from one part of the state to the next. Hoover said, in his region, there was little opposition to the move, and Commissioner Stanley Knick Jr. said the same of Region 7.
Hoover said he also feels a Saturday opener in which more hunters can participate is good for hunter recruitment, which is a big part of why it was proposed in the first place.
"We need to look to the future concerning our hunters and bringing in more youth," Hoover said.
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Some information in this story is from a Pennsylvania Game Commission press release.