The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners met Saturday and looked at antlerless deer license limits and seasons.

The board gave preliminary approval to a measure that would remove the three-license limit for antlerless deer hunters statewide.

If the measure is adopted, hunters will continue to mail antlerless license applications to county treasurers, as required by law. Application would follow the same schedule where residents, and later nonresidents, are permitted to apply for a license in the opening round, and in each of two successive rounds for any Wildlife Management Unit where licenses remain. Then in early September, over-the-counter sales would begin, and hunters could pick up a fourth antlerless license in any WMU where licenses remain, either by going to a county treasurer’s office to purchase the license or sending an application by mail.

Once a hunter obtains four licenses, the hunter could not purchase additional licenses without first harvesting deer and reporting them. At no time would a hunter be able to possess more than four unfilled antlerless licenses.

But there would be no limit on the total number of licenses a hunter could obtain in a license year. A hunter without an antlerless deer license could purchase four licenses at a time over the counter; a hunter with two unfilled licenses could purchase two at a time.

During the discussion on this proposal, Commissioner Kristen Schnepp-Giger commented that, for the vast majority of hunters, this change will not have direct impact, as they already are able to purchase antlerless licenses within the initial rounds of the antlerless application process, prior to the WMU of their choice selling out. But under the proposed change, those who hunt in WMUs that have leftover licenses available will have the opportunity to buy up to four licenses, instead of the previous limit of three.

Antlerless seasons

The board gave preliminary approval to a slate of deer seasons for the 2021-22 license year that will allow for concurrent hunting for antlered and antlerless deer through the duration of the firearms deer season in all Wildlife Management Units. By expanding the number of WMUs with a concurrent season, the board responded to hunters who requested this change in order to be provided with more opportunities to harvest antlerless deer, and to reduce confusion regarding which WMUs are open for concurrent seasons.

Licenses

Pennsylvania’s new hunting and furtaker licensing system, HuntFishPA, is expected to provide hunters and trappers electronic versions of the licenses they buy, and the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners started the process of allowing hunting and furtaking eLicenses to be carried afield as an alternative to carrying certain paper licenses.

Harvest tags would continue to be issued in physical form on durable stock. No electronic versions of these documents would be issued or authorized for use, and durable-stock harvest tags would need to be carried in the field when hunting in big-game seasons or trapping in seasons where harvest tags are used.

But for other hunting and trapping opportunities, eLicenses would be a permitted substitute for hunters and trappers to carry in the field, based on the measure preliminarily approved by the board.

If adopted, hunters and trappers buying licenses online would continue to be mailed all durable-stock license panels, including harvest tags, and would also be given access to eLicenses. Those buying licenses from an issuing agent would be issued harvest tags at the time of purchase and would have the opportunity to have digital licenses provided through email.

All proposals will be brought back to the April meeting for a final vote.