The Monday after Thanksgiving was hunting’s holy day in Pennsylvania. Some want it to return.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2019, hunters across Pennsylvania woke up in the early morning darkness and headed into the woods to bag whitetail deer.

It was the first time since 1963 that opening day was not the Monday after Thanksgiving. In a state steeped in hunting traditions, that change — a mere 48-hour difference — has provoked ongoing debate. Earlier this month, State Rep. Brian Smith (R., Punxsutawney) said he would introduce legislation to return opening day back to Monday. On Facebook, the group Pennsylvania Hunters Against The Saturday Deer Opener has grown to 3,400 members, most of them urging the Pennsylvania Game Commission to restore the Monday tradition as well.

“They don’t want to admit they made a mistake,” said Randy Santucci, a hunter from Allegheny County who’s been vocal about restoring opening day.

Travis Lau, a spokesman for The Pennsylvania Game Commission, cited a study, released in January, that found that 60% of hunters supported the move to Saturday. Other polls conducted on the Pa. Senate Game & Fisheries Committee Facebook page have been closer. One favored the Monday hunt by 58%.

The game commission has said the change could allow more people time to hunt without having to miss school or work. The agency also hoped more people would take up hunting. Sales of general hunting licenses in Pennsylvania peaked in 1982 at 1.1 million and have decreased ever since. Prior to the change, in 2018, approximately 855,000 general hunting licenses were sold in the state. That number inched higher in recent years, but many attribute that to the COVID-19 rush to be outdoors.

Before opening day moved, hunters would typically travel to their camps, rentals, or hotels on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving and settle in. All over Pennsylvania, fluorescent banners hang outside bars around that time with “Welcome Hunters” emblazoned across them. Hunters would eat out and visit local groceries, businesses, and sporting goods stores. Santucci, 62, also said fire departments and other first responder units would hold fund-raisers that weekend, when rural areas were flush with hunters.

Now, both men argue, hunters have a hectic Thanksgiving and have to rush to their camps to be hunting by dawn on Saturday. Once hunting begins, there’s little time for anything else. Smith, in an interview with Lancaster Farming, said he hoped to restore the balance.

“In doing this I hope to bring back harmony between hunting season and the success of small businesses during the weekend after Thanksgiving,” he said.

State Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie) is chair of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee and supports the Saturday hunts, telling GoErie.com it “gives more people with families and busy schedules time to get out and actually enjoy the woods and potentially get younger people involved in hunting.”

Laughlin could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He told GoErie.com that hunters can still travel to their camps as they always had, frequent locals businesses, and simply begin hunting on Monday as they did in the past.

“There’s nothing preventing them from doing that,” he said.

Hunter Jonathan Wright, who owns a hunting camp in the Poconos, disagreed. The deer would already be scared off by then, he said.

“Monday is my vote,” he said. “It’s good for people to get to camp on Saturday and Sunday to develop a strategy,” he said. “I think it’s better for the taking of deer and that’s what we’re talking about.”

Wright, 36, said most dedicated hunters would make Monday a priority and take a few days off work for that.