The Pennsylvania Game Commission has modified the antlerless deer license sales schedule, and additionally is guaranteeing most resident hunters will get an antlerless license in the wildlife management unit of their choice, as long as they do so before sales to non-residents begin. 

Antlerless licenses again will be sold over the counter and online. But when 2024-25 general hunting licenses go on sale to Pennsylvania residents at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, June 24, antlerless licenses for only three Wildlife Management units 1B, 2C and 3A will be sold. 

For three days, antlerless licenses only will be available for these units, which typically sell out the fastest and drive much of the customer demand seen at the start of sales. Licenses for these units will be sold on a first come, first serve basis until the allocated number of licenses is exhausted. 

On Thursday, June 27 at 8:00 a.m., licenses for the remaining 19 Wildlife Management units will go on sale to residents. Residents seeking licenses in any of these units won’t need to wait in line for them, they will be guaranteed to get one, as long as they buy before 7:00 a.m. on Monday, July 8, when the resident-only portion of sales ends. 

The non-resident portion begins at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, July 8 and all remaining antlerless licenses will be sold on a first come, first serve basis until the allocated number of licenses is exhausted. 

The PA Game Commissioners announced that they are increasing the number of antlerless deer licenses allocated statewide for 2024-25 by 91,000. The new allocation of 1,186,000 is about 8 percent more than the antlerless licenses allocated for 2023-24. 

The PA Game Commissioners also extended the antlerless rifle season from January 2, 2025, through January 20 in units, 4A, 4D and 5A. Disease management areas have been established in these units following the detection of CWD and prevalence rates have increased prompting the board to extend the season with the hope of harvesting more deer.

Andrea Korman, PA’s CWD biologist said, “The disease has spread faster than expected in the areas considered for an extended season. In Bedford and Blair Counties the sample prevalence of CWD positive deer was 8 percent in 2020 and it increased to 32 percent in 2024 in Wildlife Management unit 4A, there were three CWD detections in 2012, and today one out of every three adult deer harvested in the unit are positive. 

Commissioner Dennis Fredericks was asked whether the extended season would result in a significant increase in harvest, and if killing more deer would slow the spread of CWD, and he admitted it would be a challenge.