After much debate and deliberation, the Pennsylvania Game Commission gave final approval to move the opening day of deer rifle season to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The board gave preliminary approval to the measure in January but solidified it with a 5-3 vote on Tuesday.

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Rifle season for hunting deer in Pennsylvania has kicked off the Monday after Thanksgiving since 1963.

“Every day we create a new tradition," Region 8 commission Brian Hoover said. "Traditions are based on things we’ve done on the past. I think people will adapt as we have seen in the past to regulation changes and people will make new traditions.”

Supporters of the change believe a Saturday opener could bring back lapsed hunters that struggle to find time to hunt as well as helping high school and college hunters that do not get the day off from school for opening day.

“My focus has always been the youth,” Region 5 commissioner Charles Fox said. “When it came down to make the decision, that’s what tipped the scale for me. For me, it’s worth the risk.”

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Opponents of the change believe moving the opening day will interfere with hunting camp traditions and complicate travel during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Region 6 Commissioner Michael Mitrick voted for the Saturday opener back in January, but changed his mind when the final vote came around, citing new data and public reaction.

“We are really concerned about retaining hunters, and the Saturday opener sounded like a great idea," Mitrick said. "Then we did the internal poll and some numbers showed that the likelihood of lapsed hunter buying a license again was pretty low. That’s one of the reasons I backed away from it.”

Mitrick's region includes Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Junata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, Snyder and York counties.

He added that he hopes the decision doesn't come with an overwhelming level of backlash.

“I got approximately 1,000 emails and a big majority of them were heavily against the Saturday opener," Mitrick said. "Right now, we don’t need to have animosity towards the Game Commission. I hate to antagonize those people for whatever gain we might get from this.”

The change will take place immediately for the 2019 deer season.

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