HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania is gearing up for its “second opening day” of the firearms deer season.
In most parts of the state, Saturday, Dec. 3 marks the beginning of antlerless deer hunting during the firearms deer season. That means, statewide from Dec. 3 through the season’s closing day on Saturday, Dec. 10, properly licensed hunters may take either an antlered or antlerless deer.
Antlerless deer hunting opened in five Wildlife Management Units – WMUs 2B, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D – on the season’s opening day, Nov. 28, and the concurrent hunting of antlered and antlerless deer is permitted in those WMUs for the duration of the firearms deer season.
Maps and boundary descriptions of all 23 of Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Management Units can be found on the Game Commission’s website or in the 2016-17 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, which is issued to hunters at the time they purchase their licenses.
Rules regarding the number of points a legal buck must have on one antler also differ in different parts of the state, and young hunters statewide follow separate guidelines.
For a complete breakdown of antler restrictions, Disease Management Area boundaries and other regulations, consult the 2016-17 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest.
TAKE A BUCK, TAKE A PHOTO
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is asking deer hunters to take two good shots this hunting season – one with their rifle or bow, the other with their camera.
Through Friday, Dec. 18, the Game Commission is accepting photos of bucks taken during the 2016 firearms and archery deer seasons.
The Buck Harvest Photo Contest is free to enter.
Photos should be emailed to pgc-contest@pa.gov.
Game Commission staff will narrow the submitted photos to a group of contenders to be posted on the agency’s Facebook page, where users will determine the winning photos by “liking” the images. Those submitting the images of the winning archery and firearms bucks will win trail cameras.
All submissions must include the first and last name of the hunter and other people in the photo, the hunter’s hometown, and the county where the deer was harvested. Submissions also must indicate whether the deer was harvested with a bow or a rifle.
The Game Commission has the right to use all submitted images.
For more information about the contest, visit the Game Commission’s website.
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