If you’re in Connecticut this fall and find yourself craving Chick-fil-A on a Sunday, I’ve got some bad news.
You’re still out of luck.
But if venison will do, or rabbit or squirrel, Connecticut just gave hunters another option.
Connecticut hunters are entering their first full fall season under the state’s expanded Sunday hunting law, which allows Sunday hunting on private property for species with an open season and with legal hunting implements. Migratory birds remain excluded. (Honk!)
Connecticut previously permitted Sunday archery deer hunting on private property under more limited circumstances, so Sunday bowhunting itself isn’t entirely new. What’s different is the broader opportunity now available to hunters.
There are still rules hunters need to understand. For deer and turkey hunting, written landowner permission is required, and Sunday hunting isn’t permitted within 40 yards of a blazed public trail.
For hunters, that means Sunday can now be another opportunity to put wild game meat on the dinner table. For a lot of us, Saturday and Sunday aren’t simply two days on the calendar. They may be the only two days we have to hunt. Depending on work, family and everything else life throws at us, we might be lucky to get one.
On a broader scale, I think this is a big win for R3 efforts.
Why?
We spend a lot of time talking about recruiting new hunters, retaining the hunters we already have and reactivating those who have drifted away. Then we sometimes make actually going hunting unnecessarily difficult.
Someone working Monday through Friday has limited opportunity. Add shift work, kids’ sports, family obligations, military service, first-responder schedules or any of the hundred other things competing for our time, and a hunting season that looks long on a calendar can become surprisingly short in real life.
Taking away half the weekend certainly doesn’t help.
But heads up: Every additional hunting opportunity also gives us another opportunity to prove it works.
Respect the landowner who gave you permission. Know the property boundaries. Know where the trails are. Be courteous when you encounter hikers and other outdoor users. And remember that the person walking down a trail Sunday morning may have absolutely no idea Connecticut’s hunting laws have changed.
Connecticut also has an opportunity to collect some useful information.
How many hunters take advantage of the additional access? Does it increase participation? Does it help wildlife managers meet management objectives? Do landowners embrace it? Do conflicts with other outdoor users actually increase?
Those are questions worth answering because Sunday hunting remains a conversation in other parts of the country.
Access can take years to gain and one bad encounter to jeopardize.
So hunt safely, represent the rest of us well and, with a little luck, maybe you’ll come home Sunday evening with something considerably better than a chicken sandwich.
Chick-fil-A may still be closed on Sundays.
But the woods aren’t.
My pleasure ....
– Jay Pinsky