Pennsylvania Game News - November 2021 - 29

Sunday hunting, longer bow season matter
Surveys show new opportunities helped bring hunters back into ranks.
The addition of a seventh week to the statewide
archery season, which included a Sunday,
mattered to some hunters.
Even if they didn't kill a deer, then or earlier.
Coren Jagnow, chief of the Game Commission's
Research and Education Division, surveyed
" lapsed " hunters: resident adults and seniors
who purchased a general hunting license and an
archery license in 2020 after at least two consecutive
years of not purchasing either. The goal was to
see what brought them back into the fold.
Pennsylvania, like many other states - 30 of
40 sampled in one national survey - sold more
licenses in 2020 than in prior years. General license
sales here increased by 25,152 over 2019, the
biggest single-year jump in almost four decades.
Archery sales climbed 9 percent.
Some wondered if the Covid-19 pandemic
drove that.
Eighty-two percent of lapsed hunters who
responded to the Game Commission's survey said
it didn't, Jagnow noted.
Instead, roughly 50 percent said the " primary "
reason they took up hunting again was because
they had more free time. A little more than 28
percent cited the seventh week of archery season
as convincing them to buy a license, while a little
over 21 percent said it was the chance to hunt
on a Sunday.
" Regulations matter, " Jagnow said. " These
changes that were made to the 2020 archery
season impacted their license buying behavior. "
That was especially true with younger hunters.
Jagnow's survey broke hunters down into two
groups, those younger than 49 and those 49 and
older. They were asked to rate the importance of
the extra week of archery season and the opportunity
to hunt on a Sunday in one of four categories:
very important, important, somewhat important
or not at all important.
Fifty-five percent of younger hunters said the
extension of archery season was extremely important
or important. Fifteen percent said it was at
least somewhat important.
Only 30 percent said the extra week wasn't
important at all.
Similarly, about 60 percent of younger hunters
said the chance to hunt on a Sunday was very
important or important. Twelve percent labeled it
somewhat important.
Only 28 percent said the Sunday wasn't a
factor.
Reactivated hunters 49 and older were less
NOVEMBER 2021
likely - but only a little - to be influenced by those
season changes.
Roughly 47 percent said the extra week of
archery was very important or important, with 17
percent calling it somewhat important. Thirty-six
percent said it wasn't important at all.
Forty-eight percent said the addition of a
Sunday was very important or important; 12
percent said it was somewhat important. Forty
percent said it wasn't important at all.
" This is very consistent with what we expect
and what we hear from our older hunters, " Jagnow
said. " They may have different sets of values about
doing anything, including hunting, on Sundays.
They're also more likely to be retired and may have
more than just weekends to go hunting. "
The survey looked at what brought lapsed
hunters back another way. They were presented
with 14 possible " reasons you returned to hunting
in Pennsylvania. "
The highest-rated answer was " I want to spend
more time outdoors. "
But the next three highest-scoring options
linked to last year's new opportunities. In order,
they were: " opportunity to hunt later into the rut; "
" extended length of the archery season; " and " first
time to hunt on a Sunday in Pennsylvania. "
The survey revealed another interesting tidbit
about lapsed hunters perhaps tied to the extra
opportunities.
" Twelve percent of them had never purchased
an archery hunting license before, so I think that is
somewhat encouraging, " Jagnow said.
Those bowhunting newcomers tended to be
younger - a shade younger than 42 - than either
those who occasionally buy an archery license (46
years old, on average) and or those who always
buy one (48 years old).
Almost 23 percent of those who said it was
their first time buying an archery license were
women. By comparison, women surveyed
accounted for roughly 11 percent of those who
occasionally buy an archery license, and about 7
percent of those who always buy one.
As for what those lapsed hunters carried in the
woods and how they did?
Forty-eight percent said they hunted only with
a crossbow, 42 percent only with a vertical bow.
Ten percent said they used both.
A little more than 14 percent harvested a deer
in archery season; about 86 percent did not.
- Bob Frye
29
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2021

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