PA Game Commission finalizes 2025-26 seasons, bag limits
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has finalized everything, including a few changes from last season. Among the changes are two to the after-Christmas firearms season for antlerless deer, one to statewide archery bear season, and one to the season limits for snowshoe hares.
Bedford County native announced as state park manager
After-Christmas extended firearms season
The extended firearms deer season will be open on all Deer Management Assistance Program properties statewide from Dec. 26-Jan. 24, 2026, with participating hunters needing a valid permit for the property.
An extended firearms deer season to run Jan. 2-19, 2026 will be held in Wildlife Management Unit 4C, where Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was recently detected.
Bear archery season
The archery season (and only the archery season) will be shortened to one week. The season this year will take place from Oct. 18-25. The only exemption is for WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D which will retain their longer formats.
Snowshoe hare trapping limits
There will be a season limit of three hares per hunter. The reduction protects against overharvest in isolated segments of the hare population.
Along with the changes the Game Commission announced that there will be 1,312,000 antlerless deer licenses available for the 2025-26 season, which is an increase from the previous year. There will also be 140 elk licenses.
A full list of bag limits and dates for this year's hunting and trapping can be found on the Pennsylvania Game Commission website.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Penn Cambria freshman places first in state shooting competition
CRESSON, Pa. (WTAJ) — A Penn Cambria freshman placed first in the Pennsylvania State High School Clay Target League competition in the Female JV division. Kendall McConnell was one of two Panthers to place in their respective divisions, with sophomore Isabella Weisinger placing fourth overall in the varsity category. Penn Cambria finished 11th in the total team standings. For McConnell, she grew up around trap shooting from a young age. She drew that inspiration from her father. 'My dad was a coach, and I would always come down here, and I just started shooting,' McConnell said. Kendall and her dad, Tom McConnell, spend most of their time either at the Cresson Sportsmans Club shooting at the range or in the woods of Central Pennsylvania hunting for deer and pheasants. The company came as a surprise to Tom. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Centre County celebrates 79th home build 'I was excited,' Tom said. 'It's not very often you get a daughter that will partake in the outdoor sports as deeply as she has.' The Penn Cambria Clay Trap Shooting team started up in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by McConnell and Vickie Wirfel, the team started with rough ground due to social distancing and the construction of a new shooting range field. Regardless of the changes, Kendall was always found at the range with her father, joining the rest of the team in target practice. 'She wasn't eligible yet to shoot for the team, but she helped us build it and shot alongside our kids just for sport,' Wirfel said. 'And that was a beautiful thing.' Kendall soon got her shot as a member of the team during her freshman campaign in the Spring of 2025. Her season had a rough start due to her gun's calibration and choke being off. 'I experienced a lot of roller coasters because my gun,' Kendall said. 'We kind of figured out how to adjust it correctly. So I wasn't shooting the best scores.' 'She had a very big struggle with trying to break 16,' Tom said. 'There were weeks that she shot below 16, and it was very disheartening to her.' They got her gun fixed by the time the state competition rolled around. Once she got to the tournament, she felt determined to up her game. 'My thought was just to not give up because you never know,' Kendall said. 'It's a hard game, and I just tell myself to shoot for fun.' She took her shot, managing to shoot 24 out of 25 clay targets in her first outing, en route to an 86 out of 100 in the competition, which was good enough to place first in the female JV division. 'I was very proud of myself for getting that far and shooting well and like, being above everybody,' Kendall said. 'It's crazy to see how hard she worked the last couple of weeks going into states, get back up on top of things and be able to pull it off,' Tom added. She now has a medal to remind her of her accomplishment, which comes at a price heading into her sophomore year. With a big target on her back, she plans to keep her eyes down her sight to stay at the top of her game. 'I always tell them to shoot this bird that they're going to shoot like it's the only bird they have to shoot all day,' Tom said. 'When you get in your head, it really brings your scores down,' Kendall added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Beach at Raystown Lake closed until further notice due to E. coli levels
HUNTINGDON COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — Tatman Run Beach at Raystown Lake will be closed to swimmers after the most recent testing showed higher levels of E. coli. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Raystown Lake, a recent water sample that was taken from the swimming area showed that there was a high level of E. coli bacteria present. Due to this, the beach will be closed until further notice. It will reopen once the bacteria level is back within the 'lower 'safe' levels. The boat launch and picnic area will remain open, along with the beach itself. However, swimming will be off-limits. The engineers added that the bacteria levels fluctuate daily and can vary greatly from place to place. They also believe that heavy rain and the runoff it causes most likely played a role in the high levels of bacteria. Safety inspections and water tests are conducted weekly at Tatman Run Beach and Seven Points Beach. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
SCASD settles lawsuit with parochial students who were barred from extracurriculars
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) —The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has confirmed that the State College Area School District has settled a lawsuit claiming that it discriminated against children from parochial schools. Court documents show that the district and the board of directors were being sued over accusations that extracurricular activities and education programs provided by the school to students, homeschool students and charter school students were not open to students from parochial schools. However, on June 10, the district agreed to settle with the students and guardians who were suing. Along with the announcement, court documents showed that several things were agreed upon and will be in place moving forward. Penn Highlands Community College's dual enrollment program helping local students The district agreed to make extracurricular activities and programs available to all eligible students in the district while also imposing student selection criteria. However, parochial students whose schools sponsor interscholastic sports will not be eligible to participate in the same sports at the State College Area School District. Similarly, the same rules will apply to any after-school program or club. If the parochial school offers the program itself or one of a similar nature, then the student will only be eligible for the one offered by the parochial school. WTAJ reached out to the State College Area School District for comment on the settlement, and the school solicitor gave the following in response. 'In the context of the issue of whether students who reside in the school district and attend parochial schools can participate in school district sponsored sports activities and teams, the school district had always believed that the school district could not permit such participation because, among other reasons, PIAA disfavored it. Through the litigation, the school district determined that this is not always the case. Because PIAA's position on this subject is not clear, the Consent Order provides essentially that PIAA must first approve of parochial school student participation on school district sports teams before there is any obligation on the part of the school district to permit the participation,' Scott Etter said. They also noted that when it comes to sports, if the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) declares a parochial student ineligible, then the school may also declare them ineligible without violating the agreement. The court also ordered the school district in the next 30 days to pay the 'agreed upon sum' and that the case is now closed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
