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Expanded Sunday hunting days set

Once the 150-year-old ban on Sunday hunting was finally repealed, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has wasted no time in greatly expanding Sunday hunting opportunities for the 2025 fall hunting seasons. On June 11, House Bill 1431, which fully repealed the so-called Blue Law prohibiting ...

Pennsylvania Game Commission OKs 13 days for hunting

The Pennsylvania Game Commission voted unanimously Monday to allow Sunday hunting on 13 dates this year. The move comes weeks after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Act 36 into law, repealing the state’s 343-year-old Sunday hunting ban. The move to roll out additional Sunday hunting opportunities ...

Non-native species have done well in North America

The view from the kitchen window of my second-floor apartment isn’t all that grand. Just a look at part of a parking area and an alley on one side and the back corner of the building beside my building. Protruding from the side of that building is a short section of a vent pipe three or four inches in diameter. Since early spring, a male house sparrow has made that pipe its home. At wasn’t long before I realized that I never saw a female around the site. Apparently, that pipe was just a bachelor pad. I don’t recall having seen the little bird for the last week or two, either ...

Sunday hunting closer to reality

Once again I received a dose of “calendar shock” this week as I noticed the Fourth of July is next week. It seems like Memorial Day was just here. Can summer really be going that fast? I suppose so. Besides being the two popular summer holidays, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July have another thing in common. Both are Fish-For-Free days in Pennsylvania. when no fishing license is required to fish on any waters of the state. If your plans for the holiday weekend include spending time outdoors near the water, a Fish-For-Free day is a great time to introduce a friend or family member ...

Doe licenses go on sale this Monday

Hunting licenses for 2025-26 go on sale at 8 a.m. this Monday along with the first round of antlerless deer (doe) licenses. This will be the third year doe licenses can be purchased directly through the electronic licensing system rather than the cumbersome process of mailing applications in ...

Commissioners set seasons, allocations

On April 12, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners gave final approval to the 2025-26 hunting seasons and bag limits. With a few exceptions, the new seasons and bag limits are fundamentally the same as last year. The statewide archery bear season will be shortened from three weeks to one week and will run from October 18-25. WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D will continue to have their longer archery bear seasons. Those WMUs comprise the cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and their suburbs. Of interest to hunters in our region, the extended firearms season for antlerless deer will ...