Pennsylvania Hunting Regulations & Seasons
Hunting has been a part of Pennsylvania's outdoor history for generations. Every year, outdoor enthusiasts travel to Pennsylvania to hunt the variety of species. To regulate the hunting seasons, the Pennsylvania Game Commission releases a regulations booklet with the seasons for each species that every hunter is responsible for following, including the 2009-2010 season.
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Regulations
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Regulations are set by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to keep hunters safe while promoting wildlife conservation. Bag limits are set to control the harvesting of each species. For example, the bag limit on pheasants in two daily and the bag limit on spring turkeys is one daily and two per season. Legal weapons that can be used include archery equipment--longbows, re-curve bows and compound bows--and firearms--muzzle-loaders and shotguns.
Big-Game
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Antler-less deer seasons help to control the deer population. Several big-game species inhabit Pennsylvania, including elk, deer, black bear and turkeys. The deer and elk seasons are broken down into antler-less and antlered to control the number of harvests of bucks and does. The statewide archery season took place from Oct. 3 to Nov. 14 and Dec. 26 to Jan. 9. The statewide antler-less deer season is a three-day season from Oct. 22 to 24. Elk season, antlered or antler-less, is between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7. Black bears are another popular big-game species with a statewide firearm season from Nov. 23 to 25. Only bearded wild turkeys may be harvested in the spring season from May 1 to 31. The fall turkey season allows harvesting a male or female from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.
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Small-Game
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Woodchuck hunting is popular in Pennsylvania. Small-game species include squirrels, rabbits, ruffed grouse, pheasants, bobwhite quail and woodchucks with seasons that take place during the fall and winter. Rabbit, pheasant and bobwhite quail seasons take place from Oct. 24 to Nov. 28. The squirrel and ruffed grouse season has several different open seasons, including Oct. 17 to Nov. 28 and Dec. 14 to 23. There is no closed season for woodchucks.
Waterfowl
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Waterfowl--ducks and geese--regulations and seasons are broken down into four zones--north, south, northwest and Lake Erie. The duck season for the North Zone is from Oct. 10 to 24 and Nov. 17 to Jan. 9. South Zone season takes place from Oct. 10 to 17 and Nov. 16 to Jan. 15. Northwest zone has a season from Oct. 10 to Nov. 28 and Dec. 14 to Jan. 1. Lake Erie season is from Oct. 26 to Jan. 2. Regulations allow harvesting six ducks daily with 12 in possession, 15 snow geese daily with no possession limit and five Canada geese daily in the Resident Canada Goose Zone.
Licenses
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Every hunter--youth, resident or nonresident--must purchase a valid hunting license before hunting small-game. For big-game, a tag for the appropriate species must be purchased. A federal waterfowl stamp is required for hunting any waterfowl.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit wild turkey image by Bruce MacQueen from Fotolia.com alert whitetail deer image by Jorge Moro from Fotolia.com woodchuck image by Kevin Chesson from Fotolia.com
