Game Commission adds 10 Sundays to fall hunting seasons

Pennsylvania hunters can now spend 13 consecutive Sundays in the woods this fall.

In a unanimous decision at its Monday meeting, the Pennsylvania Game Commission voted to instruct its executive director to open up 10 Sundays for hunting starting Sept. 14 and ending Dec. 7.

That’s in addition to the three Sundays that had been set aside for hunting before the vote.

The vote comes after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bill this month that lifts the state’s age-old ban on Sunday hunting.

Though he called the move “unusual” since the schedules for the 2025-26 season already had been set, Game Commission Executive Director Stephen Smith said the meeting was “historic.”

“Quite frankly, I think we’ve realized our hunters have been waiting long enough,” Smith said.

Hunters still won’t be able to hunt migratory bird species on Sundays this fall, however. That includes species like geese, ducks and doves.

Before the vote, the commission heard testimony from several state officials and researchers about the potential effects of the change.

Wild turkey biologist Mary Jo Casalena said the state’s turkey population could handle the additional 10 days this fall, but she said she would not recommend additional Sundays be added to the spring gobbler season. She said turkey population studies in collaboration with Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania are ongoing.

Commissioner Kristen Koppenhafer said the agency is taking a “soft, calculated approach” to Sunday hunting, considering the opinions of those who are seeking more expansive hunting availability and those who would still prefer to see the day restricted.

“This is a decade or more in the works for us to even be able to sit up here and talk about this,” she said.

Commissioner Robert Schwalm took a harder line, saying the additional Sundays are a new opportunity to boost hunter participation.

“Let’s make this a golden opportunity and do Sunday the way it needs to be done,” Schwalm said. “We need to recruit; we need to reactivate; we need to retain.”