Longer deer hunting season proposed for Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is being asked to extend the firearms deer hunting season by a few days. Credit: Metro file photo The Pennsylvania Game Commission is being asked to extend the firearms deer hunting season by a few days.
Credit: Metro file photo

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is being urged to extend the state’s deer hunting season by a few days beginning this fall.

At its annual winter meeting in Harrisburg last weekend, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau cited a “tremendous amount of deer damage” to crops in asking that the commission consider moving the start of the firearms deer hunting season to the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, as opposed to the historic opening date of the Monday after Thanksgiving, Lancaster Newspapers reports.

A northwest Pennsylvania businessman also asked the commission to allow hunters to kill more antlerless deer next season.

“We are seeing an increase in deer-car collisions,” said Ed Carter of Collins Pine Co., who also asked that the firearms anterless season be extended from one week to two weeks.

The board will vote Tuesday to propose the slate of hunting seasons and bag limits for the 2014-15 hunting year, then hold the final vote at its next meeting in April.