IN PENNSYLVANIA, IT’S ALMOST DEER SEASON

HARRISBURG, PA – It’s probably safe to say that most people, given the chance to trade their cellphone for a landline, swap out their vehicle for a horse and buggy, or replace their washing machine with a bucket, a bar of rough homemade soap and a 100-yard walk to the nearest river, would opt to keep their modern conveniences.

Tools offering efficiency, ease and comfort are hard to forgo.

There are exceptions, though. Bowhunters – who represent one of every two deer hunters in Pennsylvania overall – each year willingly go afield with stick and string, albeit often modernized, finding attraction in the challenge and intimacy of close-range encounters.

More than 350,000 bowhunters will pursue whitetails across Pennsylvania this fall, starting soon. Archery season begins in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 2B, 5C and 5D – those are the ones surrounding Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, respectively – on Sept. 21 and runs through Nov. 29, including two Sundays, Nov. 17 and 24, then comes back in from Dec. 26-Jan. 25. The statewide archery season kicks off on Oct. 5 and includes one Sunday, Nov. 17, before ending on Nov. 22. It reopens Dec. 26-Jan. 20.

“No other state has as many bowhunters as Pennsylvania,” said Game Commission Executive Director Steve Smith. “And it’s not hard to see why so many love the season. It’s a special time, with the chance to hunt in mild weather against a backdrop of amazing fall color early on and the promise of the whitetail rut later.

“Hunters appreciate what’s available and take advantage of it.”

They take deer, too. Last year, in the 2023-24 seasons, archers harvested an estimated 154,850 whitetails (83,370 bucks and 71,480 antlerless deer). That was about 36% of the overall harvest.

That matched the most recent five-year average and is in line with what’s occurring on a larger scale. According to the National Deer Association’s 2024 “Deer Report,” in the three seasons from 2020 to 2022, archers took, on average, about 34% of all deer harvested across what’s considered the Northeast region, a 13-state area stretching from Maine to Virginia.

Hunters who want the opportunity to fill a tag during archery season should hunt where deer want to be, said David Stainbrook, the Game Commission’s Deer and Elk Section Supervisor. That’s typically around food and cover. He recommends hunters scout for fresh deer sign around places rich in green browse and, later, hard and soft mast, which includes everything from apples and agricultural crops to acorns. If those places are close to thick escape and bedding cover, all the better, he said.

Often, though, the real key is just being out there. Deer have large home ranges, Stainbrook said, taking in hundreds of acres.

“So if I could give hunters one piece of advice, it would be to just hunt as much as possible,” Stainbrook said. “Putting more time in the woods is going to increase your odds of harvesting a deer.”

That’s true throughout the season. Every week of the 2023-24 archery season contributed at least 10% to the overall harvest, with some weeks accounting for as much as 25%.

Smith, for one, will be out there, enjoying the season for all sorts of reasons, just like so many others.

“Pennsylvania’s archery deer season is big on opportunity, and I wouldn’t miss it,” Smith said

 

Getting Started

The Game Commission’s YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/pagamecommission) offers several videos to help deer hunters.

There’s a two-part series on learning to archery hunt deer, along with another on the effective range of crossbows, one on tracking a deer after the shot in archery season, and another on deboning a deer in the field. There are also several videos on tree stand safety.

Search “learn to hunt” and “tree stand safety.”

Hunters might also want to check out the in-person and online versions of Pennsylvania’s “Successful Bowhunting” course and/or its online archery safety course. They’re available at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0913e52e0cda4e3e848328f2a516dc18.

Of course, bowhunters should also practice with their equipment before the season starts, shooting from the ground and/or an elevated stand, whichever mimics how they’ll hunt. After it starts, hunters should only take responsible shots – broadside or quartering-away shots at deer within their personal maximum effective shooting range – to ensure quick, clean kills.

As for equipment, archery hunters may use long, recurve or compound bows, or crossbows. Bows must have a draw weight of at least 35 pounds; crossbows must have a minimum draw weight of 125 pounds.

Illuminated nocks that aid in tracking or locating the arrow or bolt after being launched are legal, but transmitter-tracking arrows are not.

Tree stands and climbing devices that cause damage to trees are unlawful to use or occupy unless the user has written permission from the landowner. Tree stands or tree steps penetrating a tree’s cambium layer are unlawful to install or occupy on state game lands, state forests or state parks.

Portable hunting tree stands and blinds are allowed on state game lands, starting two weeks before opening day of archery season, but must be removed no later than two weeks after the close of the flintlock and late archery deer seasons in the WMU being hunted.

In all cases, tree stands on state game lands also must be conspicuously marked with a durable identification tag that identifies the stand owner. Those tags must include the hunter’s first and last name and legal home address, their nine-digit CID number, or their unique Sportsman’s Equipment ID number. Hunters can find their number in their HuntFishPA online profile or on their printed license.

Hunters who plan to be afield on private property on the Sundays open to archers must carry with them written permission from the landowner.

 

Safety Tips for Bowhunters

Make sure someone knows where you’re hunting and when you expect to return home. Leave a note or topographic map with your family or a friend. Pack a cellphone for emergencies.

Practice climbing with your tree stand before the opening day of the season, especially at dawn and dusk. Consider placing non-slip material on the deck of your tree stand if it’s not already there.

Always use a fall-restraint device – preferably a full-body harness – when hunting from a tree stand. Wear the device from the moment you leave the ground until you return. Don’t climb dead, wet or icy trees, and stay on the ground on blustery days.

Use a hoist rope to lift your bow and backpack to your tree stand. Trying to climb with either will place you at unnecessary risk.

Don’t sleep in a tree stand. If you can’t stay awake, return to the ground.

Keep yourself in good physical condition. Fatigue can impact judgment, coordination and reaction time, as well as accuracy.

Always carry broadhead-tipped arrows in a protective quiver, especially when moving. Cocked crossbows should always be pointed in a safe direction. Know how to uncock a crossbow safely, too. If you use a mechanical release with a vertical bow, always keep your index finger away from the trigger when drawing.

In all cases, check your equipment before every outing and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for using it.

 

Venison Care

While hunting in early fall often offers pleasant days afield, the warm weather also presents challenges for successful deer hunters.

One is making sure they wind up with high-quality venison for the table.

Deer harvested when the weather is warm should be field dressed quickly, then taken from the field and cooled down as soon as possible, preferably by refrigerating if temperatures are above 40 degrees.

Additional information on warm-weather venison care, as well as instructions on deer processing and other tips, are available on the white-tailed deer page on the Game Commission’s website, www.pgc.pa.gov.

 

CWD Regulations

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – an always-fatal prion disease impacting deer and elk for which there is no cure – continues to spread across Pennsylvania both geographically and in terms of the number of deer infected.

“This illustrates the urgency of doing something to manage this disease,” said Andrea Korman, the Game Commission’s Chronic Wasting Disease Section Supervisor. “Our deer herd requires protection from this threat, and I think we can all agree we do not want to stay where we are now.”

So this year, three Disease Management Areas (DMAs) – places with special rules in place to slow the human-assisted spread of CWD – have expanded. DMA 2 in southcentral Pennsylvania grew eastward; DMA 3 in western Pennsylvania expanded south; and DMA 8 in the southeast grew to the south and west.

Up-to-date boundaries for those and all DMAs are described at https://arcg.is/1G4TLr.

Hunters who harvest a deer within the boundaries of a DMA or the Established Area (EA) can take them directly to any Game Commission-approved processor or taxidermist anywhere in the state. That list is available at www.pgc.pa.gov/cwd.

Hunters who take a deer within a DMA or the EA may also leave the high-risk parts at the location of harvest, although this is not preferred, or they may take it home to process themselves so long as they also live within that DMA or the EA and dispose of the high-risk parts through a trash service. Hunters who live outside a DMA or the EA can quarter the deer to take it home, free of high-risk parts.

High-risk parts include the head (including brain, tonsils, eyes, and any lymph nodes); spinal cord/backbone; spleen; skull plate with attached antlers, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; cape, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; upper canine teeth, if root structure or other soft tissue is present; any object or article containing visible brain or spinal cord tissue; unfinished taxidermy mounts; and brain-tanned hides.

 

Deer Management Assistance Program

The Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) allows hunters to get permits good for harvesting antlerless deer – one per tag – on the specific property or area for which the permit was issued.

Once again this year, the Game Commission is offering DMAP tags on some state game lands, namely 41 spread across the Northwest, Northcentral, Northeast and Southeast regions. Combined, 7,000 tags were made available across 360,014 acres.

All game lands in DMAP have one thing in common: they have too many deer for the habitat to support. This year – for the first time in a while – Game Commission foresters are erecting deer-proof fencing in every region of the state around new timber cuts. If they don’t, overabundant deer eat the young seedlings so fast that the forest cannot regenerate a healthy habitat. DMAP can mitigate the need for that by targeting hunting pressure in areas where it’s needed.

The Game Commission is also offering DMAP tags in places with CWD. There, the goal is to “increase CWD sampling through hunter harvest to determine the extent and sample prevalence of the disease,” Korman said. Biologists would like to get 250 deer per DMAP unit, a target that hunters have hit in several units previously.

There are seven CWD DMAP units this year – three less than last year – though two of those that remain, DMAP units 6367 and 6396, are larger than before. Details on licenses per unit are listed at the same link as other DMAP tags.

For information on DMAP properties of all kinds, visit https://www.pgcapps.pa.gov/Harvest/DMAP.

 

Deer Seasons to Follow

While deer hunting in Pennsylvania kicks off with the archery season, a full slate of other opportunities follow.

The muzzleloader season for antlerless deer runs Oct. 19-26. During its last three days, Oct. 24-26, the season overlaps with the special firearms deer season, in which junior and senior license holders, mentored permit holders, active-duty military and hunters with a permit to use a vehicle as a blind may hunt antlerless deer with additional sporting arms, including approved rifles and shotguns. The October muzzleloader and special firearms seasons also are open for bear hunting.

The statewide regular firearms deer season runs Nov. 30-Dec. 14 and includes a day of Sunday hunting on Dec. 1.

And aside from after-Christmas archery deer hunting opportunities, properly licensed hunters may participate in flintlock deer season, which runs Dec.26-Jan.20 statewide and Dec. 26-Jan. 25 in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D. There’s also an extended firearms deer season for antlerless deer, which run Dec. 26-Jan.25 in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D, and Jan. 2-20 in WMUs 4A, 4D and 5A.

Each hunter receives an antlered deer harvest tag as part of a general hunting license. An antlerless deer license or DMAP permit is needed for each antlerless deer harvested. Valid licenses or permits must be possessed to lawfully hunt deer, and valid paper harvest tags must be carried afield while deer hunting, then attached to the deer’s ear before the deer is moved.

Licenses, including remaining antlerless licenses and DMAP permits, may be purchased online at HuntFishPA.gov, but those who plan to hunt soon after purchasing a license likely are better off visiting a license issuing agent, a list of which is available on the Licenses and Permits page at www.pgc.pa.gov.