PGC explains hunting season changes

The changes to the fall turkey season were proposed in an amendment from PGC commissioner Ralph Martone of New Castle. The following are Martone’s reasons behind the season changes, along with his thoughts on the expansion of all-day hunting for the final two weeks of next year’s spring gobbler season:

Starting the fall turkey season a week later and add three days over Thanksgiving: “One issue for me we lost so many fall turkey hunters that there’s got to be something going on. It’s a combination of guys choosing to hunt archery during the rut over fall turkey. Thanksgiving was an opportunity to get those turkey hunters back involved.

“Also, I did talk to archers and they liked the idea of their Saturdays not conflicting with turkey hunters. They told me that so many of their Saturdays conflict with other season, and this (later start date) removes some of those conflicts.”

Shortening the fall season: “One rule that has to come to mind is to start conservative. Nobody can predict how those three days over the Thanksgiving holiday will affect the harvest. Looking at other states, the Thursday, Friday and Saturday around Thanksgiving add up to a lot more hunting time. They’re vacation days for a lot of people, especially kids in school.

“We’ll get a year or two under our belt with this and we can always start adding days if need be.”

All-day hunting for the last two weeks of the spring gobbler season: “That move was based on the recommendations of our turkey biologists and Bureau of Wildlife Management. It came out of the gobbler study that was finished last year. The hen nesting issue was never as strong as it was made out to be when they first came out with the spring gobbler season years ago.