It will be only with a bow and on private lands or via falconry on public or private land, but there will be hunting on Sundays this fall.
The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned Saturday morning without having enacted bills that would block the new rules, which were originally approved by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in March 2009. The new rules will officially go into effect on Aug. 1.
"Our goal is to provide as much opportunity as we can for our sportsmen and women," said Wes Seegars, a commissioner from Goldsboro. "I've heard from fathers and mothers that can only hunt on the weekends. They're so happy that they're going to have another day every week to take their sons and daughters hunting."
Opposition to the rule change, which allows bow hunting only on private land, centered around Sunday as a church day, but a House bill that would have blocked the change died in committee, said Kate Pipkin, rules biologist with the commission's Division of Wildlife Management.
"There are a number of other activities allowed on Sundays," said Rev. Mark Creech, the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc. "Many of these activities already perpetuate an environment that undermines the valuable influence of the Christian religion. ... Sunday bowhunting is just one more thing. It is drawing away from what we're trying to do."
Hunting has been prohibited in the state on Sundays since 1868. Only a handful of states across the country ban hunting on Sundays.
Creech said the majority of the public doesn't support Sunday hunting, despite public hearings with numbers of hunters supporting the rule change last year.
"A public hearing is not scientific," he said.
Opposition to Sunday hunting on public lands has also been debated as a safety issue, with opponents stating they like having a day every week where they don't have to worry about being shot while walking in the woods.
Ken Merwitzer of Carolina Outdoor Sportsman, a fishing and hunting shop with an indoor archery range in North Raleigh, said his customers are happy about the change.
"Everybody I've talked to is excited about having 15 or 16 more hunting days," he said. "Those that don't like it don't have to hunt on Sunday."
He said he has heard from a few people who opposed another rule that will allow hunters without disabilities to use a crossbow. Currently, only the disabled could use crossbows during the archery season. A permit from a sheriff's office is still required to purchase or possess one of those weapons.
The commission initially approved the Sunday hunting rule last year, but the state's rule-changing procedure required the rules, which were among 15 changes to the state's hunting and trapping laws, to be referred to the General Assembly because of a provision that is tripped when there are at least 10 letters of opposition.
Without those letters, it wouldn't have gone to the General Assembly and the rule could have gone into effect last year.
"A lot of people were really disappointed," Seegars said. "But that's now behind us."
Mallory Martin, the commission's deputy director, said he wasn't surprised that the rule made it through.
"This is the outcome of a process," he said. "It involved legislative review. If you've been around the legislature, you're never surprised one way or another."
The commission, which has authority over hunting by bow, does not have authority over hunting with firearms, which is controlled by the legislature. Attempts to open up hunting with guns on Sunday have failed in recent years.
Creech said it's only a matter of time before hunting with firearms on Sunday will be allowed.
"This is not going to stop at bowhunting and falconry," he said.
