Metro

Once the 150-year-old ban on Sunday hunting was finally repealed, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has wasted no time in greatly expanding Sunday hunting opportunities for the 2025 fall hunting seasons.

On June 11, House Bill 1431, which fully repealed the so-called Blue Law prohibiting Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania, passed the state House of Representatives. The bill was then passed by the state Senate the following week and sent to the governor after a final concurrence vote in the house on June 30. Governor Shapiro signed it into law on July 9 as Act 36 of 2025.

The new law officially takes effect on Sept. 7. To consider what additional Sunday hunting days could be added this fall, the Board of Game Commissioners moved their regularly-scheduled quarterly meeting from July 11 to July 28. At that meeting, the Commissioners deliberated on a slate of Sunday hunting days to be added and adopted a resolution directing Game Commission Executive Director Steve Smith to add the new Sunday hunting days by executive order.

The executive order was necessary because such an action through the Board would have required votes at two consecutive board meetings. The timing of that would have made it impossible to add more Sundays until well into November after many of the fall hunting seasons were over.

There will be 13 Sundays authorized for hunting in 2025. They are Sept. 14, Sept. 21, Sept. 28, Oct. 5, Oct. 12, Oct. 19, Oct. 26, Nov. 2, Nov. 9, Nov. 16, Nov. 23, Nov. 30 and Dec. 7. This includes, of course, the three Sundays (Nov. 16, 23 and 30) that were already scheduled for this fall.

Sunday hunting for crows, foxes and coyotes during the previously approved seasons for those species remain in place. Because the seasons for migratory birds are established within guidelines set by the federal government, there will be no Sunday hunting for ducks, geese, woodcocks or mourning doves during the 2025-26 hunting seasons.

None of the hunting seasons scheduled to end on a Saturday will be extended to end on Sunday. That includes the October muzzleloader and special firearms deer seasons, the November turkey seasons and firearms deer season.

Sundays that fall between the established opening and closing days of a season will be open to hunting this fall. That will provide extra hunting days during the small-game seasons, the fall turkey seasons in those WMUs that are scheduled for two- or three-week season and second Sunday of the firearms deer season.

“Hunters have sought expanded Sunday hunting for decades, but state law limited the opportunities we could provide,” Smith said. “Now, with the action taken by the General Assembly and the Governor, those restrictions finally have been lifted, and the Game Commission is prepared to offer additional Sunday hunting opportunities throughout the fall hunting seasons. We’ve carefully reviewed these expanded season dates and are confident they will not jeopardize our healthy and abundant wildlife populations. We will closely monitor the impact of these additions to help inform future season dates.”

For now, the expanded Sunday hunting opportunities will just be through the regular firearms deer season. That means no Sundays during the late small-game seasons, the extended firearms deer season in selected WMUs, the flintlock season and the spring turkey season.

This initial framework is likely to change in future years. The Board of Commissioners will meet in January to establish the 2026-27 hunting seasons. At that time, they will have the option of adding Sundays to the various seasons when those extra hunting days fall in line with wildlife management goals.

The repeal of the Sunday hunting ban has been a large story this summer and justifiably so. Now that it has become a reality, it almost has some folks wondering why it took so long to make it happen. As someone who has watched all the politicking involving that issue for more than 50 years, I’m glad it’s over. Or at least I hope it is.

Deer licenses

One other bit of summertime hunting news is the third round of antlerless deer license go on sale at 8 a.m. this Monday.

The start of the third round of antlerless license sales allows an individual hunter to buy a third antlerless license or up to a total of three for those hunters who have bought none or only one so far. At my deadline, the antlerless license allocations were sold out in four WMUs and were below 10,000 in only two others. To track how many licenses remain in each WMU, go online to the Antlerless Deer License Quota page at HuntFish.PA.gov.

Monday is also the day that the first opportunity for hunters to pick up their Deer Management Assistance Program permits takes place.

DMAP permits can be used to harvest an antlerless deer on the specific property for which the permit is issued during any open deer season. An extended firearms season for antlerless deer will be open on all DMAP properties from Dec. 26 through Jan. 24.

An antlerless license can only be used in the extended firearms season within WMUs with an open extended firearms season. On DMAP properties outside those WMUs, a hunter needs a valid DMAP permit for the property they’re hunting to take part.

For some properties, DMAP permits are available to purchase directly, online or at an issuing agent, and hunters may purchase up to two permits per property. For other properties, a hunter must first obtain between one and four coupons from the landowner, then redeem them to purchase their DMAP permits.