![]() Another license-less week passed before I emailed a complaint to some folks I know at the Pennsylvania Game Commission who told me they would follow up on it. I explained my concerns and he promised to take care of the problem. I then called the phone number listed on the website and ended up chatting with a very polite and professional HuntFishPA representative who was working out of Austin, Texas. While I received my duck stamp through the mail a few days later, the other licenses and tags failed to show up in the weeks that followed. I offer this cautionary tale after I attempted to buy my own hunting licenses and federal duck stamp online from HuntFishPA way back on July 12. However, I’ll add that my personal experience with purchasing licenses through that website has not been encouraging. Allowing for antlerless license sales through HuntFishPA will address those issues. Given all that, the pink envelope system was seen by many as a barrier to hunting participation, especially when it comes to recruiting new hunters. There were, in short, a lot of variables in play, and that occasionally led to problems with hunters getting licenses or not. It was a lengthy, tedious, sometimes confusing process. They had to do so according to a set schedule with various deadlines based on state residency and rounds of sales, using a self-addressed stamped envelope and paper checks, something increasingly foreign to some hunters. ![]() Until now, hunters applied for antlerless licenses via mail, sending those familiar pink envelopes to county treasurers, the only entity permitted to sell them. Modernizing how we sell antlerless licenses helps us achieve both.” “Our mission here at the Game Commission is twofold, to manage and protect wildlife and their habitats, but also to promote hunting and trapping for current and future generations. “We thank Pennsylvania’s legislators, and in particular Chairman Laughlin, for tackling this issue and look forward to implementing a system that provides great customer service to our hunters,” Burhans said. PGC Executive Director Bryan Burhans agreed. ![]() While a few of the PGC’s recent moves such as changing opening day from Monday to Saturday for the firearms deer season and legalizing some limited Sunday hunting opportunities have met with controversy and criticism from some circles in the hunting fraternity, it’s unlikely that anyone will complain about the change in how antlerless licenses are distributed. The PGC, hunting organizations including the National Deer Association, Pennsylvania Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen and Conservationists, the United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania and others, and everyday hunters supported the bill, championing it as the final step to fully modernizing license sales. When it takes effect in the 2023-24 license year, antlerless licenses will be available for purchase online or in person at any license issuing agent. That’s because Senate Bill 431, which would allow hunters to buy antlerless licenses through the HuntFishPA automated licensing service, was signed into law last week. A welcome change is coming and the way hunters apply for Pennsylvania antlerless deer licenses is about to be totally revised for the first time in decades. ![]() ![]() We’re talking about the machinations Keystone State hunters were forced to endure for countless years in pursuit of those coveted doe (aka antlerless deer) licenses. The question Pennsylvania deer hunters may want to pose to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a simple one: What took you so long? ![]()
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