STROUDSBURG, Pa. — Deer season may be months away, but hunters inside Dunkelberger's Sports Outfitter on Main Street in Stroudsburg aren't wasting any time getting their antlerless deer license applications.
The first set of doe licenses is now on sale.
"The rush is on. Guys are anxious to get the tags in and get their doe tag," said Jere Dunkelberger, the owner of Dunkelberger's Sports outfitter.
Dunkelberger says nearly all of the northeastern part of the state saw an increase in antlerless deer licenses.
"The allocations have been highly increasing. Our wildlife unit, which is 3D, has 41,000 doe tags for our area," said Dunkelberger.
This year the state allocated 948,000 antlerless deer licenses statewide. That's up from last year, which only saw 925,000.
Gerald Kapral with the Pennsylvania Game Commission says there are several reasons for the increase.
"What will the habitat support, so that's the biggest thing. Other driving factors are how many deer are the general public willing to accept and put up with? And how much damage? You know, whether it's damage to shrubs or their habitat or whatever. Car-deer collisions obviously play a big part in this too," Kapral said.
The license limit was changed last year. Hunters can hold up to six antlerless licenses at once.
As each tag is filled, a hunter can purchase another as long as tags are still available.
But because hundreds of thousands of licenses are out there, it doesn't mean that many deer will be killed or that all the licenses will be sold.
"In 2021 wildlife management unit 3B, we had 7,600 Antlerless deer killed by our estimates," Kapral said. "But we had 30,000 licenses issued. People panic when they see those numbers. They think, 'Oh, my gosh, they're going to kill 30,000 or whatever the number.' It's simply not the case."
Non-residents can submit their first application on July 18.
The first round of unsold bonus tags will start on August 1.
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