Pennsylvania

A general hunting license is the base. It covers one antlered deer in the license year. Antlerless deer, except for one specific use of an unused antlered tag in the flintlock season, take an antlerless license, a Deer Management Assistance Program permit, or an agricultural deer-control permit. One antlerless deer per license or permit. The antlerless license works only in the Wildlife Management Unit named on it.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

The license year is July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. General licenses went on sale June 22, 2026. Sundays that fall inside a deer season are hunting days. Migratory game birds are the exception the digest keeps closed on Sunday, and a few southeastern state parks still limit Sunday hunting to November 15, 22, and 29.Source: PGC, licenses and permits; PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

The archery add-on is what lets you hunt the archery deer seasons, unless a combination license or a mentored permit already includes archery. The muzzleloader add-on is required for the October antlerless muzzleloader season and for the flintlock season, again unless an exemption applies. A general license is still required underneath both.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest; PGC, license types and fees. Checked November 7, 2026.

Online orders can take 10 business days, and up to 20 in a busy stretch. HuntFishPA can email a digital copy. Harvest tags are not included in that digital copy. Hunters who need a paper tag immediately are told to buy a replacement over the counter. Check the mailing address before you pay.Source: PGC, licenses and permits. Checked November 7, 2026.

Resident hunters were guaranteed one antlerless license in any WMU if they bought it between 8 a.m. on June 22, 2026 and 7 a.m. on July 13, 2026. Nonresidents could start buying at 8 a.m. on July 13, with no guarantee. Further rounds opened July 27, August 10, and August 24. Those dates are in the past as of November 7, 2026. If a unit still has licenses, they are sold under the later-round rules. This page cannot see what is left.Source: PGC, antlerless deer license; PGC, 2026–27 license sale announcement. Checked November 7, 2026.

• Most hunters may hold up to six unfilled antlerless licenses. In WMUs 5C and 5D the personal limit is 15, and the fourth round is when hunters may add licenses in those two units on top of the six elsewhere.Source: PGC, antlerless deer license. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Mentored permit holders are limited to one antlerless license for the year.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Once you are at your cap, reporting an antlerless harvest through HuntFishPA or 1-800-838-4431 can make you eligible to buy another, if any remain. A mail report does not unlock the next purchase until it is logged.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• DMAP permits are for a specific enrolled property. They are not a second statewide tag. Agricultural deer-control permits are a landowner coupon redeemed for a permit that works only on that property.Source: PGC, final 2026–27 seasons; PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Landowner antlerless licenses have their own acreage, residency, and “land stays open to public hunting” rules, and they are sold at county treasurers. Disabled-veteran and armed-forces antlerless licenses are sold at Game Commission offices and county treasurers, not at every agent.Source: PGC, antlerless deer license. Checked November 7, 2026.

First-time hunters must complete Basic Hunter-Trapper Education before they can buy a Pennsylvania hunting or furtaker license. The in-person course is free for students 11 and older and includes some reading ahead of time. The course page also lists a $49.95 interactive online course for residents 11 and older, a $34.95 online course for residents 16 and older, and a free NRA online course for residents 11 and older. Passing score is 80 percent.Source: PGC, hunter-trapper education courses. Checked November 7, 2026.

Another state’s hunter-education card is accepted for firearm hunting. The Game Commission says Pennsylvania’s course may not satisfy a state that requires a separate bowhunter or trapper certificate, and the reverse can be true. Mentored hunting permits let a new hunter, including adults, hunt with a licensed mentor before finishing the course. Mentored hunters are exempt from the archery and muzzleloader add-on fees.Source: PGC, hunter-trapper education courses; PGC, get started hunting; PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

Use the season filter for the arm you plan to carry. A crossbow is grouped with archery season in Pennsylvania, and it is also listed among lawful arms in the regular firearms season. That does not make every crossbow legal. Read the draw-weight note.

• Archery season: long, recurve, or compound bow, minimum 35 pounds, or a crossbow, with a broadhead at least 7/8 inch wide and no more than 3.25 inches long. Scopes and red dots are allowed on crossbows. No firearm in possession, aside from the narrow License-to-Carry exception the digest says does not cover most sporting arms.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• A 125-pound minimum crossbow draw weight is printed in the regular-firearms arms list. The archery-season bullet does not repeat it. Confirm which line applies before you hunt.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Regular firearms: manually operated centerfire rifles, handguns, and shotguns with all-lead or expanding single projectiles; semiautomatic centerfire shotguns with single projectiles; muzzleloaders at .44 caliber or larger for long guns and .50 or larger for handguns; and bows or crossbows with legal broadheads. Buckshot is not legal except on certain controlled hunts with a special permit.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• October muzzleloader season is published as antlerless and describes a single-barrel muzzleloader. Flintlock season is flintlock ignition only, no telescopic sights, peep sights allowed.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Special Regulations Areas have extra firearm limits. They are summarized in the digest, not on this page. If you hunt in the southeast or another marked special area, read that section before you choose a rifle.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

Dates below are the 2026–27 deer seasons the Game Commission approved. The filter shows the window for a method, and it also shows firearms windows where that method is listed as lawful equipment. A row with a narrow “who” line is not a general opener. Checked November 7, 2026.Source: PGC, final 2026–27 seasons; PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

Fill out the deer harvest tag in ballpoint and attach it to an ear before you move the deer. Do not attach the license itself. The tag stays on the ear until the deer is processed or mounted. If you submit the head for CWD testing, the completed tag stays with the head. The barcode is meant to be scannable near the ear tip.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

Mentored hunters must report an antlered deer or turkey within 10 days, at HuntFishPA, on the digest card, or at 1-800-838-4431. Separately, hunters report antlerless harvests through HuntFishPA or that phone number in order to buy past their personal cap when licenses remain. This guide did not find one sentence that sets a single reporting deadline for every deer taken under every license. Use the harvest page and the digest section that names your license. Do not treat the mentored 10-day line as if it had been copied onto every tag.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest; HuntFishPA harvest report. Checked November 7, 2026.

Antler rules are not one statewide number. The digest says junior license holders, mentored youth, disabled hunters with a vehicle-blind permit, and resident active-duty military may take an antlered deer with two or more points on one antler, or a spike at least three inches long. Senior license holders follow the regular restrictions. A point is a projection at least one inch long. The main beam tip counts regardless of length. An antlerless deer has no antler three inches or longer.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

The digest prints two adult standards side by side. In WMUs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, and 2D the standard described is three points on one side. In most of the rest of the state the standard described is “three up”: three points on one side, counting the main beam and excluding the brow tine. The layout is a tight graphic. Confirm your unit on that figure before you hunt. This sentence is a reading of the graphic, not a substitute for it.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.

• The firearm safety zone is 150 yards. Archery, including crossbows, is 50 yards, except 150 yards around playgrounds, schools, nursery schools, and day-care centers.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Baiting is unlawful, including residue from the past 30 days. Normal farming and food plots on game lands are distinguished in the digest. Hunters are responsible for checking the ground.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• State Game Lands are managed first for wildlife and lawful hunting. From October 1 through January 31, people on those lands who are not hunting, trapping, or fishing under a rule that skips orange still have to wear it. More than 1.5 million acres are in the system. The map for each tract is the boundary, not a pin on this website.Source: PGC, State Game Lands; PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Purple paint, in counties other than Philadelphia and Allegheny, can mark private land: vertical marks at least 8 inches by 1 inch, 3 to 5 feet off the ground, no more than 100 feet apart.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• CWD transport rules for Disease Management Areas and Established Areas are in the digest and are easier to violate than a season date. The Commission points hunters to current CWD maps rather than an old pamphlet. This guide does not redraw them.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Elk hunting is a limited separate license. Deer hunters near the elk range need to tell the animals apart. The digest, not this summary, has the elk map.Source: PGC, 2026–27 Hunting & Trapping Digest. Checked November 7, 2026.