HARRISBURG — If you haven’t yet purchased your 2020-21 Pennsylvania hunting license, now might be the time.
The new license year began July 1, meaning new licenses are required when hunting. And without a 2020-21 general license, hunters are unable to apply for 2020-21 antlerless deer licenses, which will go on sale soon.
Pennsylvania residents are given preference in applying for antlerless deer licenses, and resident hunters may apply for their first antlerless licenses beginning Monday, July 13.
Nonresidents may submit their first applications a week later, beginning Monday, July 20.
Resident applicants need to make checks and money orders payable to “County Treasurer” for $6.90 for each license they seek. The fee for nonresidents is $26.90 per license.
A list of participating county treasurers and their addresses can be found within the 2020-21 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, which is provided to all license buyers and available to view online. However, the 2020-21 digest incorrectly lists the address for the Luzerne County treasurer. The correct address for sending antlerless deer license applications to the Luzerne County treasurer is 200 North River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711.
Applications that are incomplete or sent without proper remittance will be rejected and returned to the applicant. Applications received before the Monday start of any round also will be returned to sender.
In any WMU where antlerless licenses remain, resident and nonresident applicants may apply for a second license beginning Aug. 3, and a third license Aug. 17.
Applications during these rounds are accepted by mail only, and must be mailed with proper remittance in an official pink envelope, which ordinarily is provided by the license-issuing agent at the time a general hunting license is purchased.
In most parts of the state, hunters are limited to purchasing a total of three antlerless licenses.
However, in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D, there is no limit to how many tags a hunter may acquire until the total allocation has been exhausted. Each hunter may apply for only one license per round in those WMUs until Aug. 3, when an unlimited number of applications can be submitted. Only three applications can be mailed in each envelope.
If licenses remain, over-the-counter sales are slated to begin Aug. 24 in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D, and Oct. 5 in all other WMUs, though over-the-counter sales could be affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
State law requires antlerless licenses be issued by county treasurers.
For the first time this year, participants in Pennsylvania’s mentored hunting program who are at least 7 years old can apply for their own antlerless deer licenses and Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) permits, which can be used to harvest antlerless deer on specific properties. In years past, mentored hunters could harvest antlerless deer, but only if their hunting mentor held a valid antlerless license or DMAP permit and transferred the permit to the mentored hunter following harvest. Mentored hunters under 7 cannot apply for their own antlerless tags and must continue to receive them by transfer.
As is the case with hunting licenses, mentored hunters over 7 must have valid mentored hunting permits before applying for antlerless licenses or DMAP permits. Qualifying mentored hunters may purchase no more than one antlerless deer license.