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After the historic passage of Senate Bill 464 in the Virginia Senate last week by an overwhelming, bipartisan 29 to 11 vote, Sunday hunting legislation now faces a decidedly tougher challenge in the House of Delegates. Assigned to the Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, House Bill 921 will first be considered by the Natural Recourses Subcommittee on the evening of Wednesday, February 1. Please contact members of this subcommittee as well as members of the full Committee TODAY and urge them to protect Virginia’s hunting heritage by supporting HB 921. The seven members of the subcommittee will, for all intents and purposes, determine the fate of this legislation that will decide the future of hunting in the Commonwealth.
Currently, Virginia is one of only six states in the country that strictly bans hunting on Sunday. This prohibition threatens the very future of our hunting heritage by discouraging hunter recruitment and retention. In addition, this antiquated ban harms Virginia’s economy. Due to increasingly demanding work, family and extracurricular schedules, older and younger hunters alike often have only Sundays available to hunt. The ban keeps them from remaining or becoming hooked on hunting. There is a reason that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a radical group whose ultimate goal is to end all hunting in America, is one of the most active advocates of maintaining the ban. Hunting license sales in Virginia have decreased from 500,000 to 300,000 in little more than two decades, while the Commonwealth’s population has increased by millions. Our opponents know that the future of hunting is at stake and you should too.
At a time when the economy is struggling and too many Virginians are out of work, legislators must not continue to refuse the enormous economic benefits associated with allowing hunting on Sundays. Comprehensive research from the National Shooting Sports Foundation shows that allowing hunting on Sundays would generate a total annual economic impact estimated at $296 million and create 3,927 jobs. All of this would be spurred by simply eliminating words from state statute books (the current prohibition), not spending taxpayer dollars on some pie-in-the-sky scheme. HB 921 is likely to be amended to conform to the Senate-passed SB 464. The Senate bill eliminates the comprehensive ban and allows for Sunday hunting on private lands and public waterways. Additionally, the bill does not allow the hunting of deer with dogs or hunting within 250 yards of a house of worship on Sundays. While the bill does not achieve everything desired by those concerned about our hunting heritage, it is an enormous and necessary step in the right direction.
Expanding hunter opportunities is crucial to protecting Virginia’s hunting heritage. If we can’t increase or at least sustain the number of license sales in the state, future generations may miss out on these cherished traditions. After you have contacted the Subcommittee members listed below, please call or e-mail other members of the full Committee as well as your own Delegate and respectfully urge him or her to help guarantee Virginia’s proud hunting traditions for future generations by voting in favor or HB 921. To locate your Delegate and his or her contact information, please click here.
Natural Resources Subcommittee:
Delegate Tony Wilt (R-26) 804-698-1026 deltwilt@house.virginia.gov Delegate Matt Fariss (R-59) 804-698-1059 delmfariss@house.virginia.gov Delegate Lee Ware (R-65) 804-698-1065 dellware@house.virginia.gov Remaining Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee Members:
Delegate Mike Webert (R-18)
804-698-1018
DelMWebert@house.virginia.gov
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It's been a couple weeks since any of us tagged a deer, but the boys and I have definitely covered a lot of ground in pursuit of those rascals.
Nick, Jake and I made a one-day trip--2.5 hours each way--to King William County on Saturday to hunt with my Uncle Jim and his club. None of us shot anything, but one of the club members knocked down a big buck while we were there, and Nick really dug the deer dogs.
Meanwhile, Brett has been, to a large extent, left out of the hunt this year. He and I drew horse feeding duty at Camp Cowboy this evening, so I decided to take him out for the last 45 or so minutes of daylight.
We didn't see anything, but I'm pretty sure Brett is hooked!
My son Jake has paid his dues as a deer hunter. He started hunting with me four years ago at the age of six and has experienced many of the highs and lows of our great sport. But all his hard work paid off on Saturday when he knocked down this beautiful eight-point Loudoun County buck!
Jake was unarmed on our hunts for what seemed like forever and he took his first shot at a deer (a clean miss) in September of 2010. On the youth deer hunt in September of this year he connected on a doe. His hunt for a buck began a couple weeks ago with the start of the Virginia muzzleloader season.
To my surprise, he passed on a couple of four-pointers early in the muzzleloader hunt then didn't take what would have been a pretty easy shot at a doe last week.
"I'm not gonna shoot him," he told me when another four-point appeared on the dry pond we were hunting over Saturday afternoon.
"You can if you want," I said. "It's your first buck."
But somehow this young man knew that something better would come along. The eight-point emerged at 5 p.m. When he was clear of the tall grass at 65 yards, Jake aimed, squeezed the trigger and let the Thompson Center Impact do the rest.
We were fortunate to have some great friends with us to enjoy the moment. Mike (aka the Captain) and his son Kyle were on hand, and the four of us fanned out at the spot where the buck had disappeared into the cedars. It was a quick tracking job.
"You want your deer?" Mike asked, after about a three-minute flashlight search.
There it was, wrapped around a cedar about 50 yards from where it had been hit.
Jake didn't jump up and down; he didn't hoot and holler. If he had been a football player who'd just scored a game-winning touchdown, I would say he just handed the ball to the official.
What a great moment! And Jake made it even better on the way home by talking about how much he wants to help his brother Nick to get one now.
I told him how proud I was and at the same time tried to put it into perspective.
"I mean, I know there are more important things in life than deer hunting," I said.
"Yeah," Jake replied. "But not that many things."
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