Here are some tips to remember for archery deer season in Pennsylvania

Bowhunter's column reviews everything you need to know

• By P.J. Reilly/LNP | LancasterOnline

Pennsylvania’s 2025-26 deer season opens this weekend with a full two days of hunting, now that Sundays are open to general hunting.

Archery deer season opens Sept. 20 in Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D. WMU 5C includes two tiny slivers of northeast Lancaster County. One is the land west of Route 10 in Caernarvon Township, and the other is the land west of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and south of Route 222 in Brecknock Township. Beyond that, WMU 5C covers large swaths of neighboring Chester and Berks counties, among others farther to the east. WMU 5D covers land in Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks and Philadelphia counties, while WMU 2B is in western Pennsylvania.

Archery season opens in the rest of Pennsylvania on Oct. 4.

WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D have the longest deer seasons in the state, since they cover largely urban and suburban areas around Pittsburgh – WMU 2B – and Philadelphia – WMUs 5C and 5D – where the deer are plentiful, but hunting opportunities are limited.

Archery season in these three units runs from Sept. 20 through Nov. 28, and then again from Dec. 26 through Jan. 24, 2026.

Last year, all hunters in WMU 5C shot 7,700 bucks and 17,000 antlerless deer, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

In WMU 5D, hunters took 2,300 bucks and 7,700 antlerless deer.

Bowhunters in WMU 5C accounted for 5,510 bucks and 8,330 antlerless deer, while WMU 5D bowhunters shot 1,990 bucks and 5,500 antlerless deer.

As you can tell by all of those numbers, bowhunters account for most of the deer taken in 5C and 5D.

That makes sense, given that it’s much easier and much safer to hunt with archery gear in urban/suburban areas, than it is to hunt with a gun.

Also, there are plenty of places in these units where you can’t legally hunt with a firearm, due to safety zone rules.

To hunt with a firearm, you must be at least 150 yards from any building – unless you have the landowner’s permission to violate that safety zone.

With archery gear, the safety zone is only 50 yards.

And did you know the safety zone rule doesn’t just mean you must hunt at least 150 yards or 50 yards away from any building?

It also means you can’t shoot into that zone, regardless of how far away you are, nor can you walk through the zone to push game out of it.

Over the years, I’ve often heard hunters say they’ll just leave their weapons behind and walk through a safety zone to drive deer to their buddies.

That’s illegal.

A safety zone prohibits any hunting related activity within that area around a building.

WMU 5C has the highest antlerless license allocation – 98,000 – in Pennsylvania for the 2025-26 hunting season.

As of late last week, there were still over 8,000 tags remaining for sale.

WMU 5D has an allocation of 39,000 tags, with over 4,000 remaining.

Remember, in these two units, the personal tag limit is 15 this year.

That means you can hold up to 15 tags from these units alone, or you could have up to six tags for anywhere else in the state, plus whatever number of 5C and/or 5D tags needed to get to a limit of 15.

Why so many?

The Game Commission recognizes that there are areas within these units where deer numbers are high, but where hunter access is severely limited.

So they increased the personal tag limit to 15 to give those hunters who do have access to deer in these units the ability to take a lot of deer.

There are places in WMUs 5C and 5D where landowners either give permission to someone they know or they give permission to no one.

I’ve heard hunters say “no one needs to shoot 15 deer.” But the reality is, either one hunter shoots a lot of deer on certain properties, or no one shoots any deer there.

In 2021, members of the Board of Game Commissioners reduced the per-hunter tag limit in WMUs 5C and 5D in hopes that landowners there would allow more hunters on their lands to increase the deer harvests, but that didn’t happen in many places.

With over 8,000 tags remaining in WMU 5C and over 4,000 in WMU 5D, there are opportunities for bowhunters this weekend to tag does and then buy more tags.

The personal limit only refers to the number of tags a hunter can hold at one time.

Technically, there is no limit on the number of tags a hunter can buy during the season. But an individual can hold no more than six or 15 tags at one time, depending on whether or not they have any for WMUs 5C and/or 5D.

As a hunter fills an antlerless tag, that hunter can buy another to replace it, as long as there are still tags available for sale.

In most WMUs, this replacement rule is moot, because the allocations are gone.

Currently, 14 of the state’s 22 WMUs have no antlerless tags left for sale. WMU 5B, for example – which covers all of Lancaster County that’s not in 5C – is sold out.

After Gov. Josh Shapiro this summer signed into law a bill that repealed the general ban on Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania, bowhunters in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D on Sunday, Sept. 21, will be the first to hunt deer in the state on a Sunday without any special permission.

For the last several years, the Game Commission was allowed by state law to add three Sundays of general hunting to the calendar of open hunting dates.

But starting this year, Sundays are like any other day of the week when it comes to hunting all game, except waterfowl. Sunday hunting of waterfowl is still not allowed this season in Pennsylvania.

I know some people – hikers, bikers and equestrians, primarily – are concerned about now having to share certain public lands with hunters seven days a week.

But they already share those lands six days a week without any real safety issues. Statistics indicate there isn’t likely to be an increase in problems just by adding a seventh day.

Many studies have been done over the years illustrating that hunting is safer than many much more popular sports.

This is especially true when it comes to hunting with archery gear.

There were 350,656 bowhunters licensed in Pennsylvania last year – which is the most recent for which the Game Commission has data.

There was one hunting related shooting incident last year involving a bowhunter, where one bowhunter shot another by mistake. It was a non-fatal accident.

Since 2010, there have only been four hunting related shooting incidents involving bowhunters in Pennsylvania, according to Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau.

I bowhunt public lands where hikers, bikers, equestrians and dog-walkers regularly pass within 15 yards of me and they never even know I’m there.

It’s true, Sunday was the one day where nonhunters could go out and use the woods in the fall without having to even think about hunters, and now that’s gone.

I get it.

If you’re concerned about being out there around hunters, just wear something orange. That’s what hunters have to wear during firearms seasons to keep them safe, so it’s a color they know to look for and avoid.