Pennsylvania Game News - July 2018 - 49

APRIL COMMISSIONERS MEETING

Final 2018-19 hunting seasons adopted

Archery deer season ends on Monday, hen pheasant hunting in new areas.
The Pennsylvania Board of Game
Commissioners in April gave final
approval to hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits for the 2018-19
license year.
The statewide archery deer season,
which will run from Sept. 29 to Nov.
12, is a day longer in 2018-19 and
will end on a Monday, which is the
observed Veterans Day holiday.
The statewide general bear season
will be Nov. 17-21. The statewide archery bear season is Oct. 29 to Nov. 3.
During the firearms deer season,
a split, five-day antlered deer season
(Nov. 26-30) and seven-day concurrent season (Dec. 1-8) format is in
place in most of the state.
A 12-day (Nov. 26-Dec. 8) concurrent season for antlered and antlerless
deer season will be held in WMUs 2B,
5C and 5D.
Spring gobbler season will open
statewide on April 27, 2019, with the
one-day youth hunt held on April 20.
Other modifications approved for
the 2018-19 seasons include eliminating the hen pheasant restriction in
WMUs 2A, 2C, 4C, and 5B; implementing a new four-day extended
black bear firearms season in WMUs
4A and 5A; increasing from four days
to six days the length of the extended
black bear firearms season in WMU
3A; extending hunting hours for
mourning doves from one-half hour
before sunrise until sunset in all season
segments; and opening WMUs 4B and
4C to fisher trapping.
JULY 2018

Other meeting highlights
* Semiautomatic centerfire shotguns that
propel single-projectile ammunition will be
lawful sporting arms in most of Pennsylvania's
firearms deer, bear and elk seasons in 2018-19.
For elk, the shotgun needs to be 12-gauge
or larger. The Game Commission historically has
permitted the use of semiautomatic shotguns
for deer and bear seasons within its special regulations areas near Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Such authorization now is extended to the
remainder of the Commonwealth, as well as to
the state's elk hunters.
* The Somerset Wild Pheasant Recovery
Area (WPRA) has been dissolved.
The Somerset WPRA was created by the
Game Commission in 2009 and received 964
trapped-and-transferred wild pheasants over
three years, but surveys showed the population
there failed to take hold.
With the Somerset WPRA dissolved, the
area will be reopened to either-sex pheasant
hunting and will be eligible for game-farm
pheasant releases.
* Landowners in the Southeast Special
Regulations Area no longer need to secure a
baiting permit before setting up a bait site to
hunt deer on private property.
While hunting over bait is prohibited broadly
in Pennsylvania, it is allowed conditionally on
private property within the Southeast Special
Regulations Area, where traditional hunting
and deer-control methods have proven ineffective, and a large deer herd frequently leads
to property damage.
Since the requirement to obtain a permit
has been removed, landowners and the persons
they permit to hunt need to ensure bait sites
comply with regulations that include limits
on bait used, when it is dispensed, and that
it is dispensed from an automatic mechanical
feeder, during hunting hours, no more than
three times a day.

Pennsylvania Game News - July 2018

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