Hunting & Trapping Digest 2008-2009 - (Page 20) GENERAL HUNTING REGULATIONS Licenses Required: It is unlawful to hunt or trap wildlife without first obtaining required hunting or furtaker licenses. While afield, in addition to their license, sportsmen are required to have in their possession additional cards or papers that must be shown to an officer or landowner upon request to confirm identification. Possession Limits: It is unlawful on the opening day of a hunting season to 1) possess more than the daily limit; 2) thereafter possess more game than may be legally taken in two days. A Field Possession Limit is the maximum number of legally taken wildlife of a species that a person may legally possess or transport between the place of taking and the person’s permanent place of residence. Roadkilled Deer/Possessing Wildlife: It is unlawful at any time to possess live wildlife, except foxes for which a permit has been issued, or animals, or parts of animals, killed on highways. Pennsylvania residents may possess deer killed by a motor vehicle for personal consumption only if they secure a permit number from the Game Commission within 24 hours after taking the deer; call the appropriate region office. It is not legal to kill “put it out of its misery” any injured wildlife; again, call the region office. It is unlawful to give the whole or edible part of a deer killed on a highway to another person. Holders of a valid furtakers license may possess a furbearer killed on a highway, except for bobcats, fishers or river otters. Persons taking possession of any furbearer killed on a highway during the closed season for taking that furbearer shall within 24 hours contact any Game Commission region office to make notification of said possession. Safety Zones: It is unlawful to hunt for, shoot at, trap, take, chase or disturb wildlife within 150 yards of any occupied residence, camp, industrial or commercial building, farm house or farm building, or school or playground without the permission of the occupants. It is unlawful to shoot into a safety zone, even if you are outside of the zone. Driving game, even without a firearm or bow, within a safety zone without permission is unlawful. For comparison, think of a safety zone as about one and a half football fields. Hunting on hospital and institutional grounds, and in cemeteries, is also prohibited. It is unlawful to discharge a firearm within 150 yards of a Game Commission vehicle whose occupants are releasing pheasants. The safety zone for archery hunters statewide is 50 yards. This also applies to crossbows during any season where they can be used. Archery hunters carrying muzzleloaders during any muzzleloader season must abide by the 150-yard safety zone regulation. Around playgrounds, schools, nursery schools or day-care centers, the safety zone remains 150 yards. Safety Clothing: See the 2-page Fluorescent Orange Requirements section elsewhere in this Digest and the species specific pages for more fluorescent orange requirements information. Waterfowlers, furtakers hunting furbearers (some exceptions with coyotes), dove, spring turkey and crow hunters, and hunters participating in the after-Christmas flintlock muzzleloader deer season, are not required to wear any fluorescent orange. Archery hunters carrying a muzzleloader during any muzzleloader season must meet the fluorescent orange requirements of the muzzleloader season. Unlawful Firearms & Devices: 1) Automatic and semi-automatic (autoloading) rifles and handguns; 2) air or gas operated rifles and handguns. Loaded Firearms - Vehicles: A firearm is considered loaded when there is live ammunition in either the chamber or attached magazine. It is unlawful to 1) have a loaded firearm in, on or against any motor vehicle, regardless of whether the vehicle is moving or stationary; and 2) have a loaded firearm in watercraft under power, or shoot from a powered watercraft until the motor has been shut off and the craft has come to a complete stop. Holders of License to Carry Firearms permit are exempt, but keep in mind that most sporting firearms are not authorized by the permit. It is prohibited to have any muzzleloading firearm that has a live charge of ammunition in its firing chamber and a primer, flash powder or a battery, whichever is applicable, properly positioned in the firing mechanism of the firearm rendering it capable of discharge, in, on or against any conveyance propelled by mechanical power. Any crossbow that has been cocked and has a bolt affixed onto the string or positioned into the firing mechanism of the device is prohibited in, on or against any conveyance propelled by mechanical power. For complete safety, a muzzleloader and crossbow bolt should be fired into soft ground before those devices are transported in a vehicle. Firearms - Magazine Capacity: It is unlawful to hunt small game, furbearers, turkeys, waterfowl or crows with a manual or autoloading shotgun unless the magazine is limited to a two-shell capacity. A plug must be a one-piece filler installed so it cannot be readily removed without disassembling the gun or magazine. Firearms - Handguns: A Sportsman’s Firearms permit or a License to Carry Firearms is required to carry a handgun, or have in a motor vehicle. Licenses to Carry Firearms permits are issued by county sheriffs or the Philadelphia Chief of Police. The License to Carry Firearms permit only entitles bowhunters or spotlighters, for instance, to carry firearms that fall within this classification. County treasurers issue Sportsman’s Firearms Permits. A person holding a Sportsman’s Firearms Permit may not carry a concealed handgun or a loaded handgun in a vehicle, and may not carry a handgun while bowhunting or spotlighting. Electronic Devices: It is unlawful to hunt with any electronic contrivance or device except: 1) Electronic callers may be used to hunt bobcats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and crows. 2) Lighted pins on bow sights and scopes with lighted reticles may be used as long as they don’t cast a beam. Any device used as a sight or scope on any firearm, bow or crossbow that projects a light beam of any kind onto the target is unlawful. 3) Portable, two-way radios and cell phones may be used for general communications with another hunter, but may not be used to direct or alert another hunter of the presence or location of live game or wildlife. The use of electronic communication devices to alert hunters to live game is not only a violation of the Game & Wildlife Code, but violates the concept of Fair Chase. The use of portable radios does not satisfy the legal requirement of accompanying a junior hunter. The accompanying adult must be close enough to give verbal instructions without the aid of an electronic device. 4) Electronic sound amplification devices that are incorporated into hearing protection devices and completely contained in and or on the hunter’s ear may be used to hunt or take wildlife. The following devices may now be used to hunt or take wildlife: Any manually operated firearm that uses an electronic impulse to detonate the primer or main powder charge of the ammunition, unless such firearms are a specifically prohibited device. Electronic illuminating devices that are affixed at the aft end of a bolt or arrow and used solely for the purpose of locating or tracking bolt or arrow flight after being launched from a crossbow or bow. Road Hunting: It is unlawful to 1) hunt from a vehicle; 2) shoot at wildlife on a public road or right-of-way open to public travel; 3) shoot across a road unless the line of fire is high enough to preclude any danger to road users; and 4) alight from a vehicle and shoot at any wildlife until the shooter is at least 25 yards from the traveled portion of the roadway. NOTE: These provisions do not prevent an individual, who may not qualify for a Disabled Person’s Permit, but who has health concerns or problems to sit in or near a legally “parked” vehicle and watch for game. Loaded firearms may never be placed in, on or against any motor vehicle at any time. NOTE: It is unlawful to dig out or take any wild bird or animal from its den or place of refuge.
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