Pennsylvania lawmakers push to change rifle deer season opening date

Lawmakers want to require Pennsylvania’s rifle deer season to open the Monday after Thanksgiving, reversing a 2019 change made by the Game Commission.

Several Pennsylvania legislators are looking to take away the decision of when rifle deer season opens from the state’s wildlife agency.

Two senators are proposing legislation and there are two House Bills that would require the hunting season to open on the Monday after Thanksgiving. One bill actually creates two openings day for different parts of the Commonwealth.

Since 2019, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has had the two-week rifle deer season open on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which gives hunters two additional days to hunt. Before then, the season opened for about five decades on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The change was aimed at creating more opportunities for those who work or are in school during the week.

In preliminarily setting this year’s seasons and bag limits, the agency’s commissioners considered moving the season up a week to the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but opted to keep the season opening on Saturday, Nov. 28, and ending Sunday, Dec. 13.

In July, the legislature removed the entire ban on Sunday hunting and gave the Game Commission full authority to decide how many Sundays should be included in hunting seasons. For the past six years, only three Sundays were permitted for hunting throughout the year. The 2025 change allows this year’s rifle deer season to end on a Sunday, giving hunters four more weekend days than when the season opened on a Monday before 2019.

However, Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican, and Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Democrat, announced Feb. 13 in a news release they intend to introduce legislation that would require the season to open the Monday after Thanksgiving.

“Moving rifle season to a Saturday has crushed rural communities,” Yaw said in the release. He serves Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties.

“Small businesses, fire companies, local grocery stores and hunting camps rooted in tradition have all suffered. It’s time to bring rifle season back to where it belongs, support our sportsmen and women and invest in rural Pennsylvania.”

“It remains unclear whether moving opening day delivered any real benefit,” Boscola, representing Lehigh and Northampton counties, said in the statement. “What is clear is the toll it has taken on families and communities across Pennsylvania. I’ve heard firsthand from families with generations of hunters how devastating the change has been (to) Pennsylvania’s rich hunting tradition, as well as the small businesses that sustain rural areas.”

According to the two legislators, the Monday opener was not just a date on the calendar, but a community event. Schools traditionally gave students the day off, government offices often operated on a reduced schedule and families planned gatherings around the start of the season.

House bills on opening day

The House also has bills to legislate the opening day of rifle deer season that are in front of the House Game and Fisheries Committee. House Bill 70 introduced by Rep. Brian Smith, a Republican from Indiana and Jefferson Counties, on Jan. 14, 2025, would make the opening day the Monday after Thanksgiving.

House Bill 1659 introduced on June 24, 2025, by Republican Eric Davanzo of Westmoreland County would create two opening days in Pennsylvania. For northern districts, the season would open on the Monday after Thanksgiving. For districts in southern Pennsylvania, the season would open on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Route 80 would be used in determining the north and south opening days.

The Game Commission plans to finalize the hunting seasons and bag limits for the 2026-27 hunting year at its April 11 meeting.

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