From a deer hunters perspective, the issue is this. Maine's annual deer kill runs about 30 to 35,000 per year, give or take. The Saturday kill in Maine is a very strong spike on the deer kill chart every week, along with the two holidays in November. Maine closely controls their deer kill and only want a certain number shot, and generally can manipulate the kill to within a couple thousand with doe permits IF the weather cooperates. There are five Saturdays in the deer season. Now throw in Sunday hunting. Now throw in the added pressure of hunters coming up from out of state because a quick weekend hunt is more doable. You've doubled the weekend days, and at least doubled the weekend deer kill. Maine isn't one of these states that doesn't care if the kill fluctuates by a huge margin like some states. They want to keep the kill within a very tight window. If they give us Sundays, they need to take away elsewhere to keep the kill right where they want it. That'll make for a short, short deer season.
If I remember correctly, the Saturday spike is 4x the weekday kill. Sunday would give the same 4x kill most likely...probably more, as weekend hunts would be more popular. That means that for every Sunday they give Maine hunters, they will have to take away four regular days of hunting to keep the kill at the current level. I can't do the math, but my guess is that the Maine season would be two weeks long if Sundays were allowed, instead of the current four week season.
Don't forget folks, Maine only kills 35,000 deer out of a population of around 250,000, give or take. We're not talking about a state that kills 250,000. They have specific numbers in mind for a kill.
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