HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania’s hunting calendar is poised for a significant overhaul after the Board of Game Commissioners gave preliminary approval to the 2026-27 hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits, including expanded Sunday opportunities and a slate of rule changes that touch everything from spring gobbler limits to bear conflict zones, elk crowding, and new furbearer openings.
The board’s initial vote sets the stage for weeks of public comment ahead of a final decision at its April 10-11 meeting at the Game Commission’s Harrisburg headquarters, where commissioners are expected to finalize seasons and bag limits and present antlerless deer license allocations.
In a pivotal move, the board rejected a proposal that would have shifted the firearms deer season one week earlier — a change that would have rippled through the firearms bear season and other big-game schedules. The board voted 6-3 to kill that plan and instead advance a proposal that largely mirrors last year’s structure, while still embedding major adjustments driven by the inclusion of Sundays.
Under the preliminary framework, Sundays that fall within a season’s start and end dates would be included, and seasons that previously ended on Saturdays largely would end on Sundays — effectively adding an extra day of hunting opportunity in many cases. The commission said migratory game bird seasons will be set later and are not included in the current list, and it has not yet been determined whether those seasons will include Sundays.
Even with the broader calendar largely holding steady, the board’s preliminary approvals introduced several notable shifts.
For wild turkeys, commissioners proposed a spring limit of one gobbler — a reduction intended to offset potential added harvest pressure associated with Sunday inclusion and to keep harvest levels within sustainable targets.
For white-tailed deer, the proposal includes minor adjustments to the date structures for extended firearms, flintlock, and late archery seasons, an effort officials said is aimed at reducing complexity while ensuring season lengths align with sporting arm efficiency and management goals.
For black bears, the board is proposing an expanded archery bear season in Wildlife Management Unit 3D that would overlap with the entire first segment of the archery deer season — a targeted response to high levels of bear-human conflict in that area.
For elk, the proposal adds a new early October firearms segment aimed at easing crowding and protecting hunter satisfaction as license allocations hold steady or potentially rise. The late firearms elk season, under the preliminary plan, would move later in January to avoid conflicts with major holidays.
Small-game hunters would see continuity through the state’s most prominent big-game window. The preliminary seasons would keep squirrel, ruffed grouse, rabbit, pheasant, bobwhite quail, and woodchuck open during the firearms deer season.
Furbearer changes could expand access and activity in multiple regions. Under the proposal, WMU 5A would open to bobcat hunting and trapping, and WMUs 2G, 3A, and 4C would open to river otter trapping — moves the commission said are supported by habitat and population data indicating those units can sustain harvest.
The season proposal includes detailed dates for small game, deer, bear, turkey, elk, and furbearers, along with junior and mentored hunting opportunities. The board said the public may submit comments on the proposed seasons and bag limits, as well as other actions taken at the meeting, between now and April.
Beyond seasons and bag limits, commissioners approved — and in some cases advanced — a broad set of policy changes that could reshape access, youth recruitment, chronic wasting disease rules, agricultural deer control, baiting in the southeast, and use of state game lands.
One of the most consequential shifts for recruitment and family participation would extend big-game tags to the youngest mentored hunters.
Beginning in the 2026-27 license year, all mentored hunters — including those under age 7 — would receive antlered deer and turkey harvest tags with their permits. Under the previous system, mentored hunters younger than 7 did not automatically receive those tags. If a child in that age group harvested an antlered deer or turkey, the mentor had to transfer their own tag, limiting the mentor’s ability to keep hunting and creating logistical challenges for adults guiding multiple children through the seasons.
Commissioners said the change aligns the program across all age groups and avoids forcing mentors to sacrifice their own tags to validate a mentored youth’s harvest. The board voted 8-1 to approve the measure, with Commissioner Michael Mitrick voting no.
Mentored hunters under 7 would be eligible to obtain one antlerless deer license and one Deer Management Assistance Program permit. The board also voted unanimously to specify that mentored hunters under 7 may not hunt bears, either by purchasing a license or receiving a transferred tag from a mentor.
Commissioner Bob Schwalm of Bethlehem, a vocal advocate for youth hunting, argued the change could help recruit lifelong hunters before competing activities pull kids away from the outdoors.
The board also advanced rules that could expand the Certified Hunter Program, launched last year in the Southwest Region and expected to grow statewide. The program connects hunters with landowners seeking help addressing crop damage by facilitating harvest of antlerless deer under defined qualifications and reporting requirements.
Under the preliminary regulations, Certified Hunters would have to have held a hunting license in at least four of the past five years and complete a specialized course. The proposal would require annual background checks and disqualify applicants with recent Game and Wildlife Code violations or certain other crimes. Hunters would be required to report deer harvests electronically within 24 hours, unless they are out of service.
The board also moved toward simplifying Pennsylvania’s elk license application system by consolidating bonus points accumulated since 2003. Under the proposal, hunters would retain their points but submit only one application per year, selecting up to five options for season, hunt zone, and antlered or antlerless preference. If drawn, a hunter’s bonus points would reset to zero. A separate previously adopted rule taking effect in the coming license year would ensure that hunters drawn for antlered elk licenses are never again eligible for an antlered elk license.
In disease management, commissioners preliminarily approved changes to chronic wasting disease regulations that would eliminate a prohibition on transporting harvested deer — including high-risk parts — between any two locations. In exchange, the proposal would impose a statewide disposal requirement: hunters would have to discard high-risk parts through commercial trash pickup and would be prohibited from disposing of them on the landscape.
The board also reviewed a rule change eliminating the commission’s regulatory ban on cervid urine-based attractants in outdoor settings, noting state law has already changed to make such attractants legal. Another proposed change would give the commission’s executive director discretionary authority to establish targeted restrictions on feeding deer and other wild cervids as needed to respond to disease risks.
Commissioners also advanced a proposed change for the Agricultural Deer Control Program, known as Ag Tag, that would allow permit holders to use any devices authorized for deer hunting during the regular firearms season, even when Ag Tag hunting overlaps with other seasons. Under current practice, Ag Tag hunters must follow the sporting arms allowed for whichever deer season is open. Landowners would retain authority to restrict methods on their own property.
The board also adopted a measure removing limits on the number of Ag Tags a hunter can receive and eliminating a remaining logistical limit that prevented hunters from possessing more than four permits at one time.
In another procedural shift, commissioners preliminarily approved a regulation change that would remove the calendar-driven antlerless license sales schedule from regulation, replacing it with a structure still expected to use rounds but designed to avoid varying round lengths created by the calendar. Officials said details on the new structure are still being determined, including whether resident hunters can be guaranteed an antlerless license for their WMU of choice for the 2026-27 season — a question tied to the 2025-26 estimated deer harvest and the allocation numbers to be announced at the April meeting.
The board also preliminarily approved changes to baiting rules in the Southeast Special Regulations Area — Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties, along with Tyler and Ridley Creek state parks and other publicly owned lands — where baiting is permitted on private land. The proposal would eliminate minimum spacing between bait sites, allow bait to be placed on the ground or in a feeder, and expand allowable bait beyond shelled corn and protein pellets to include apples and other natural agricultural products intended for human or livestock consumption, while still prohibiting mineral blocks and mineral supplements.
The proposal would also extend baiting permission to federal lands within the special area and require a tag or label at the bait site listing the full name and address of the landowner, or a person authorized by the landowner to administer the bait. The existing cap of no more than 5 gallons of bait at a site would remain.
For public safety and consistency, the board preliminarily approved changes affecting non-hunting recreation on state game lands. Non-hunting riding of non-motorized vehicles, conveyances, and animals would remain permitted outside peak hunting windows, but the prohibition periods would explicitly include Sundays — a change reflecting the end of Pennsylvania’s old Sunday hunting restrictions. The board also advanced a related change requiring non-hunting users during certain periods to wear blaze orange, matching the same general windows.
Trappers could gain additional tools under measures approved for consideration, including increasing allowable size limits for body-gripping traps for beavers and river otters to accommodate more trap designs, and permitting enclosed snap traps outside watercourses for weasel trapping, based on recognized best management practice testing.
The board also preliminarily approved a move to lift the prohibition on Sunday hunting in commercial areas of privately owned regulated hunting grounds — a separate system from general public hunting — after a request from the Pennsylvania Game Breeders Association.
In Philadelphia, commissioners adopted a measure renaming State Game Lands 339 as Poquessing Creek Wildlife Management Area, elevating it to special wildlife management status alongside Middle Creek and Pymatuning. The plan would allow public archery deer hunting by permit only, awarded by drawing each August, with limited permit segments between September and January. Officials described the 17.88-acre parcel, just off U.S. Route 1, as rare green space in a dense urban environment where deer populations remain high.
The board also approved a package of real estate transactions — eight acquisitions and five land exchanges — that could add more than 1,125 acres to state game lands and create the first state game lands in Delaware County. Officials cautioned that the additions are not final and some depend on third-party funding or other contingencies.
Commissioners also reorganized leadership for 2026. District 4 Commissioner Haley Sankey of Tyrone was elected president, District 5 Commissioner Allen DiMarco of Allenwood will serve as vice president, and District 9 Commissioner Bob Schwalm of Bethlehem was elected secretary.
Public comment on the season proposals and other board actions will remain open until the April meeting, when final adoption is expected.