After more than two decades of lobbying by advocates, the General Assembly has approved bow hunting of deer on Sundays on private land.

The Senate voted 28-8 on Wednesday to approve the bill allowing bow hunting on Sundays, following approval in the House of Representatives 113-32 last week. David Bednarz, spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said the governor’s office is reviewing the language of the bill before the governor decides whether to sign it.

The bill would allow bow hunting in deer management zones where Department of Energy and Environmental Protection determines there is an overpopulation of deer.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, a leading supporter of the bill, said in a news release that there are 13 deer management zones in the state, 11 of which are overpopulated with deer, with more than 20 deer per square mile.

“This is a simple piece of legislation that provides many private landowners and other sportsmen with the ability to hunt with a bow on private property on a Sunday,” she said. “It has the support of the Nature Conservancy and a number of other environmental groups since it encourages wise land management. In eastern Connecticut, where many people hunt to put food on their table, this bill is a very important mechanism for them to continue doing that.”

Bob Crook, executive director of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, said he expects the governor will sign the bill, based on Malloy's support for the measure during his re-election campaign. Crook said his group finally succeeded this year in convincing the legislature to lift the Sunday bow-hunting ban, one of the last vestiges of the state’s Blue Laws, because it had backing from a wider variety of groups than ever before.

In addition, one of the main opponents of the measure in past years, former state Sen. Don Williams, is no longer the Senate president, he said. Three years ago, the state lifted its long-standing ban on Sunday liquor sales, leaving the hunting ban as one of the few remaining Sunday restrictions.

“We had a lot more help, grass-roots help, this year,” Crook said. “It’s a common-sense bill.”

The bill, if signed by Malloy, would allow archers to hunt with a bow and arrow or crossbow on Sundays on private land with written permission of the owner. The hunting would have to take place at least 40 yards from a blazed hiking trail. It would take effect on Oct. 1. Bow-hunting season for deer is Sept. 15 to Nov. 17.

The measure was supported by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which argued that more opportunities for hunting are needed for those who work on Saturdays, and that Sunday bow hunting would help reduce the deer population to manageable levels.

The Nature Conservancy and the Connecticut Fund for the Environment also supported the bill. Animal rights activists and the Humane Society opposed it.

Crook said allowing Sunday bow hunting “is also a landowner rights” issue, because owners are currently not allowed to hunt on their own property on Sundays. He added that there have been no cases of nonhunters being injured by bow hunters since passage of the Deer Management Act in 1974.

Archery hunting has been growing in popularity in recent years, Crook said, because of advances in equipment and because it can be done on property as small as an acre. Rifle hunting is only allowed on land 10 acres or larger.

Last year, about half of the 11,400 deer harvested by hunters were killed by archers, according to testimony submitted by DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee.

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy