lost horn

Antlerless deer licenses in shorter supply this season

Pittsburgh Post
By Ben Moyer
Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has put some excitement back into the antlerless deer license application process. Getting a tag for some Wildlife Management Units will not be a sure thing this year, especially for sportsmen who like to hunt the forests and mountains of WMU 2C, 2F and 2G. The Game Commission reduced the allocation in those units by 29 percent, 32 percent and 44 percent, respectively. Hunters who desire a license there will need to have their applications and yellow envelopes stuffed, stamped and ready for mailing this coming weekend.

As usual, the Game Commission will begin accepting applications from Pennsylvania residents on Aug. 1. Since it's doubtful that the popular units cited above will have any unsold tags remaining, hunters with those destinations in mind need to get their applications in the mail early for the first round of sales.

"With reductions in the allocations of many WMUs, hunters should give serious thought to which WMU they will apply to during the regular antlerless deer license round, because some WMUs may likely run out of licenses earlier in the process than in previous years," Game Commission executive director Vern Ross said.

A good strategy is to mail the envelopes late on Friday or early Saturday. That gives your envelope a good chance to be in Harrisburg first thing Monday, without the possibility of arriving so early that it will be disqualified.

This year there are no significant changes to the application procedure. Some hunters, though, are apparently still having difficulty with the pre-addressed adhesive labels that are used to route the application to the post office box for the correct Wildlife Management Unit. Each license buyer gets a complete set of bar-coded address labels for every Wildlife Management Unit in the state. It is necessary to look at the labels carefully, detach the specific one for the desired unit, and affix that label to the envelope. In past years, some hunters assumed all the labels were identical and sent their application to the Philadelphia suburbs when they wanted to hunt in the Elk County mountains.

Hunters should make sure the label is securely affixed to the envelope before mailing it. If it appears that the label is not attached properly, the U.S. Postal Service allows applicants to place transparent tape over the label to secure it. Just in case the label does fall off, hunters also should write the Wildlife Management Unit they are applying for in the lower left-hand corner box on the envelope. This enables the agency to continue processing the envelope without having to open and check the application's Wildlife Management Unit designation and then re-sealing the envelope for shipment to a county treasurer.

Other popular Wildlife Management Units in Western Pennsylvania will have the same number of tags available as last year. County treasurers in WMU 2A, for example, will distribute 55,000 licenses this year, the same as in 2004. The 2005 allocation for WMU 2B also remains unchanged at 68,000. No units were allocated increases over last year.

Non-resident applications will be accepted through the mail Aug. 15. The Game Commission will begin accepting resident and nonresident hunter applications through the mail for the first round of "unsold licenses" Aug. 22. The second round will be accepted through the mail beginning Sept. 12.

Over-the-counter applications will not be accepted by county treasurers until Nov. 7, except in Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D, where county treasurers will begin accepting over-the-counter applications Sept. 19.

Regular and first round unsold antlerless licenses will be mailed to successful applicants by county treasurers well before the Oct. 1 opening of archery season. Second and subsequent rounds of unsold antlerless licenses will be mailed to successful applicants by county treasurers no later than Oct. 1.

License allocations

Following is a listing of the antlerless deer license allocation by Wildlife Management Unit. The number in parenthesis is last year's allocation.

WMU 1A
40,000 (48,000)

WMU 1B
27,000 (33,000)

WMU 2A
55,000 (55,000)

WMU 2B
68,000 (68,000)

WMU 2C
53,000 (75,000)

WMU 2D
56,000 (58,000)

WMU 2E
21,000 (23,000)

WMU 2F
30,000 (44,000)

WMU 2G
29,000 (52,000)

WMU 3A
27,000 (32,000)

WMU 3B
41,000 (48,000)

WMU 3C
32,000 (37,000)

WMU 3D
38,000 (50,000)

WMU 4A
35,000 (43,000)

WMU 4B
35,000 (49,000)

WMU 4C
39,000 (44,000)

WMU 4D
40,000 (55,000)

WMU 4E
38,000 (38,000)

WMU 5A
28,000 (32,000)

WMU 5B
56,000 (64,000)

WMU 5C
71,000 (71,000)

WMU 5D
20,000 (20,000)

rile1564

Good thing I hunt 5C and 5D.. Lots of doe tags there. Too bad the land to hunt in 5D is severly limited.

deerslayer223

i hate living in 2c. I hope i get my tag [&:]

PABowhntr

That may have worked before they went to the WMU system but now the only thing that happens when you mail it in on Friday or Saturday morning is that it is the first to arrive and subsequently goes on the bottom of the pile in Harrisburg to be sent out to the county treasurers.


I am sending 4C first this year then follow up with 3D for the second round and 5C for the third. I live in one and the other two are less than 10 minutes from my house.

Thanks for posting this reminder. I try to do it each year a few days before the due date.

BTBowhunter

What amazes me is that the areas with the lowest deer densities, the ones we hear compaints about, will be the quickest to sell out. And not just because the numbers have been lowered this year, those areas sold out quicklythe last several years.

I'll send for 2D first, and I dont expect there will be many unsolds for the second round. If I get a tag for the ANF area, it'll be a DMAP and then there's always 2B.

Jason N

Nothing amazing about it, BT. The two areas that will be the first to sell out are 2F and 2G....it's no coincidence these two WMU'shold the majority of PA's public lands and are the traditional deer hunting grounds. Lot's of people with camps in these WMU's and lots of land to hunt make a lot of hunters come here. Hey, you come here too!

PABowhntr

Just bumpin' this to the top as the date is getting closer and close. I filled out 41 licenses last night between 3 pm and 7:30 pm.

missed_another

BTBowhunter i know for the last couple of years more and more guys up have been buying doe tags and throwing them in the garbage. just so they will not be used. it's like our own deer control in this area. and many of the guys are doing this with more than one tag.

PA GOBBLER

i will be sending for mine.. i will only use mine on private land w/ high deer numbers. i wont be using mine on SGL's.. i need to touch base w/ some farmers that let me hunt doe last year and see if im still okay to hunt this year..

BTBowhunter

I've heard that, and although I think it may be an insignificant number, it may well be true.I realitythose guys areonly helping their cause in the short term.What they do in the long run is reduce the success rate of tags issued in their WMU and that can actually cause more tags to be approved and issued in the future

Jason, Yes I still come there. As you said, I have a camp there. But I see more and more camps staying empty there but the demand for tags seems to not be affected.

Maybe we'll bump into each other one day. I hunt around Tionesta Lake, Buzzard Swamp, Hearts Content Hickory creek, Yellowhammer and the Muzzette area. Do ya get to any of those areas?