A few ducks before the storm

I had heard recently that there was a movement going on to repeal the No Sunday Hunting laws in Maine.... how is that progressing? I went to school for year up there, loved every minute of it except for Sundays in the fall because I couldnt hunt!
 
We see a bill in the legislature to open Sunday hunting every couple of years, but there is never a lot of support for it.

I kind of like our season the way it is--it stretches out our season and helps prevent divorce.
 
I cant quite understand why hunting is still illegal in Maine on Sundays... that law is rooted in the blue laws of many decades past. If a guy works Mon-Fri, he only gets to hunt one day a week? Why isnt there more support?
 
There's a movement from time to time in VA for sunday hunting but untill someone can tell me how it will effect duck season I won't support it.
 
Same thing where i grew up in PA. Really sucked when you had only one day a weekend to even think about hunting.

Last time PA talked about changing it, a lot of landowners said they would pull their lands from public hunting access, so PAGC didnt mess with it.
 
Nice photos.

NJ doesn't have Sunday hunting either. Last I recall, ME was considering trying Sunday hunting but was looking to start with Sunday hunting for Upland game only. The story I got was that there wasn't enough support from the hunting community as some felt that they wanted all or nothing. . .rather than looking at it as a trial and perhaps it would eventually open Sunday hunting to all. Jeff can correct me if I have the facts or Urban legend wrong.

NJ did something similar this year, in that archery hunting is permitted on Sundays this year. We will see how that eventually translates for the rest of us.

I do agree, kind of stinks to get only one day a week to hunt with swapping shifts, working Sunday or taking time off.
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This has been tossed around a bit wtih NJ as Chad mentioned. I wouldn't doing the upland on Sundays. I have a lot of friends who even work 6 dyas a week and have to use vacation days to hunt. Opening Sundays to ducks would cause the season to be shorter which is what we certainly dont want. I am told that years ago, the Sundays were counted as season dates even though you couldn't hunt them. Thankfully, that has changed.

Many guys feel that Sunday hunting would put too much pressure on the ducks. I don't believe it. The ducks have a lot of safety areas here in Jersey and there are other states that offer Sunday hunting so what does it really matter. I think that if NJ were to be open for Sundays that you may draw more commercial guys here for the weekend which is what most don't want to see.
 
We have Sunday hunting here in Montana , our season runs Sept 29-Jan 7 this year.
No reason every state cant do it!
 
The southern part of the state is largely private land owner access. A lot of the large land tracts down here are not posted and the land owners belong to a group, SWOAM, small woodlot owners assoc. of Maine. Their voice is very clear that many would post their property if Maine were to adopt Sunday hunting. This in turn has The Maine Guides Assoc. backing them to try to ensure that those parcels remain open. It's not worth one day.

The state has looked at abstract regions and proposals such as up north and only for small game...

Certainly not holding my breath and N.H. is only a 20 minute ride for me if I want to hunt Sundays.
 
I always thought it was kinda ironic that all the "bible belt" states allow Sunday hunting, and the only states that don't are all in the northeast.
We still have dry counties but we can hunt on Sunday!
 
There's a movement from time to time in VA for sunday hunting but untill someone can tell me how it will effect duck season I won't support it.
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Some counties in Ontario still prohibit Sunday hunting and they are rewarded with an extra season in mid-winter for geese. When we went to Sunday hunting they had to adjust the season to ensure we didn't go over the maximum number of days.
 
Yep....Benton County in Arkansas is a dry county were I used to live. We drove 5 miles to the Missouri line to buy our beer and hunted Sunday. Of course up here in the Land of Lincoln we hunt AND buy our beer on Sunday! Then you have Minnesota that sells NO Sunday liquor and even some towns that sell no liqour at all like Sparta, Wisconsin or Ephraim, Wisconsin but they get to hunt on Sunday. So there is some worthless information for a Monday morning.....Good Day!
 
Hey Ed, we in Minnesota don't want to be another Iwsconsin so we limit alcohol sales on Sundays. I'm a better man because of it.

Thank goodness I live less than 10 miles from the nearest WI liquor store. You should see the number of MN plates in the WI parking lot on Sundays. Especially Sundays when there is bad weather.

Mark W
 
Comments above pretty much summed up the Maine status. Although I started this by complaining that I couldn't hunt yesterday, I wouldn't change Maine's laws. Once in a great while we get a cosmic day that falls on a Sunday, and I can dream . . . . .

Frankly, if I could have hunted yesterday I'd probably have come home with one black duck instead of a dozen decent photos. It was pretty cool watching all those birds work us. If we stayed still and didn't move the camera to take a picture, they'd settle right in the decoys within 15 yards or so. But they noticed every movement and were airborn as soon as the camera moved.
 
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