Pennsylvania hunting regulators cast a preliminary vote on keeping the Saturday after Thanksgiving as the opening day for the regular firearms season for white-tailed deer.
A final vote is scheduled at the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners’ next quarterly meeting April 10-11.
Commissioners meeting Saturday in Harrisburg listened to public comment from about 55 people over four and a half hours before the preliminary vote. The 6-3 decision rejected, at least for now, a proposal to move the deer opener to the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
Many of those who took time to address the board in person, as a major snow and ice storm bore down on Pennsylvania, said moving the deer opener before Thanksgiving is going in the wrong direction. Several speakers Saturday at Pennsylvania Game Commission headquarters in Harrisburg argued to return opening day to the Monday after Thanksgiving. The board adopted the post-holiday Saturday opener in 2019.
Some speakers criticized the Game Commission for announcing the proposed opening day shift on Jan. 15, just eight days before the first quarterly meeting of 2026 opened on Friday at the commission’s offices.
Commissioner Michael F. Mitrick rejected any claims of a lack of transparency around the proposal.
“Yes, this is a proposal, and there was still three months after that to discuss it before it would possibly become a final decision,” he said. “Seven years ago, this board moved the cherished rifle deer season opener from a Monday to a Saturday. The hopes at that time were to hopefully stem the loss of hunters.”
Pennsylvania hunting license sales have dipped from over 1 million as recently as 2005 to an estimated 837,791 in 2025, commission officials said Friday.
“Saturday is the right day,” Commissioner Scott H. Foradora said. “It’s just a question of what Saturday.”
Part of the goal with the earlier Saturday is to try recruiting more youth hunters, commission officials said, since students could take more advantage of time off for Thanksgiving to hunt. Mitrick argued those concerned about the loss of hunting camp traditions with the move away from Monday could take off from work the Thursday or Friday the week before Thanksgiving to settle in ahead of that weekend.
“I know it’s a change and it’s inconvenience to this one, it’s inconvenience to that one,” Commissioner Robert Schwalm said, echoing some of the arguments he’s heard. “But what would you be willing to do to be able to keep hunting in our future and pass it on to all the young people?”
Never opening a can of worms means never starting a dialogue on change, Commissioner Kristen Koppenhafer said.
“And I think to not do anything, to not continually try new things, is just burying our head in the sand and not facing the truth that we’re constantly dealing with new and different challenges,” board Vice President Haley J. Sankey said. “And to not do anything is not going to help us.”
Voting against the earlier Saturday start, Sankey, Foradora, Koppenafer, Commissioner Dennis R. Fredericks and board President Stanley Knick Jr. each added a qualifier like “for now” or “at this time.” Secretary Allen J. DiMarco was a flat no. Voting for the change were Schwalm, Mitrick and Commissioner Todd Pride.
As one of the final public comment speakers, Kelly Wagner of Pine Grove stressed the importance of getting youth hands-on experience in hunting, and said the addition of more Sunday hunting beginning in 2025 supports that goal. Under the proposed 2026-27 seasons and bag limits to be finalized in April, most seasons that previously ended on Saturday would now end on Sunday to provide one additional day of hunting opportunity. Wagner said the real key to building youth interest in hunting lies with management of the state’s deer herd to boost sightings while out in the field or forest.
“Kids will go hunting regardless when their families and mentors say opening day is or regardless what the rule book says,” she said. “They’re going to go hunting whether it’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving or the Monday after. What’s going to keep that interest is when the youth see deer running through the woods around them.”
Blaine Toy, 88, of Kittanning, labeled the proposed Saturday shift “a bad faith proposal to attempt to distract us from the mistake PGC made six years ago when they moved it from Monday to Saturday.”
Steve Shuster, of Landenberg, said introducing the major change about a week prior to a vote is “a travesty,” noting “80% of schools are not closed on the Friday before Thanksgiving as they are for the traditional Monday opener.”
“Members of my camp, I don’t know about yours, but we hunt the whole first week and that change would require them to leave early to spend Thanksgiving with their family,” he said.
“This proposed change from this Saturday to the one before Thanksgiving is really out there,” said Dave Longenecker, of Mount Joy. “It’s out there pretty far.”
Colton White, of New Holland, emphasized the importance of tradition to Pennsylvania hunters.
“But is it time to evolve?” he said. “Is going before Thanksgiving good? Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. … We just made a huge thing this year by opening up Sundays.”
Several speakers Saturday also voiced opposition to a land swap they say benefits plans for a data center in Montgomery County.
The board voted 6-3 to transfer ownership of 55 acres of State Game Lands 234 in Limerick Township to Limerick Town Center LLC, in exchange for 60 acres nearby along the Schuylkill River, plus 377 acres in Berks County and 177 acres that would create the first State Game Lands ever in Delaware County.