New Hunting Regs for Pennsylvania

Two major regulations will come into play for Pennsylvania’s fall 2017 hunting season.

First, as announced earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners (PBGC), adults and seniors, including those with senior lifetime licenses, who want to hunt pheasants this fall will need to purchase for $25 a pheasant permit. Junior hunters, however, are exempt from the new requirement. (This news comes shortly after the PBGC said it was closing two of four pheasant farms in the state that stocked birds for hunting purposes; the closures were due to budget cuts.)

The second change affects legal methods of take. This fall, hunters shall be able to use semi-automatic rifles to pursue small game and furbearers; however, hunters still cannot use semi-automatic rifles for big game. While the state passed a law last November permitting the Pennsylvania Game Commission to regulate the use of semi-automatics for hunting, the consideration by the Board wasn’t voted on until April. Pennsylvania is the 49th state to allow semi-auto rifles for some type of hunting; Delaware is now the only state that doesn’t.