06/20/2025
HARRISBURG -- Hunting and furtaker licenses for Pennsylvania’s 2025-26 seasons go on sale Monday, June 23, but there will be plenty of time for hunters to get them without waiting.
As in recent years, antlerless deer licenses will be available when general license sales open. But this year, all Pennsylvania residents are guaranteed to get an antlerless license for the Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) of their choice, so long as they buy it by 7 a.m. on Monday, July 14, the day license sales open to nonresidents.
That’s three full weeks for resident hunters to find a convenient time to buy and avoid waits.
Once sales to nonresidents begin on Monday, July 14 at 8 a.m., antlerless licenses no longer will be guaranteed, and all remaining sales will be on a first come, first serve basis until the allocated number of licenses is exhausted.
The second round of antlerless sales, at which time resident and nonresident hunters can buy a second antlerless license for any WMU where licenses remain, begins on Monday, July 28 at 8 a.m.
The third round begins at 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 11. Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) permits also go on sale when the third round begins.
During the fourth round of antlerless sales, which begins Monday, Aug. 25 at 8 a.m., hunters can purchase additional antlerless licenses for any WMU where licenses are available.
In most of the state, hunters may hold up to six unfilled licenses at a time. Once reaching that limit, they are not able to buy additional licenses until they use tags by harvesting deer and reporting them. There’s a higher limit, however, for WMUs 5C and 5D in southeastern Pennsylvania. There, hunters may hold up to 15 unfilled antlerless licenses at a time. In these highly developed WMUs where there’s less public land and limited hunting access, a higher limit helps hunters better seize opportunities to harvest antlerless deer.
All hunters can view the number of remaining antlerless licenses in real time at HuntFish.PA.gov by clicking on the Antlerless Deer tab, then Antlerless Deer Quota. As antlerless license sales progress, tracking sales gives a clear sense of how fast licenses for a given WMU are selling, and how urgent it might be to buy one soon.
But in the first round of antlerless sales, resident hunters know they have three weeks to make their purchase.