POTTSVILLE, Pa. — Bob Troutman of Pine Grove says hunting is a sport all about waiting.
But instead of waiting for a shot at a doe, he stood in line for hours before finally getting his antlerless deer license at the Schuylkill County Courthouse.
“I went over to Walmart and the line was phenomenal. It looked like a four or five-hour wait over there. It was all wrapped around the all store there,” he said.
For decades, the only way for Bob and others to get an antlerless deer license was to mail a pink envelope to a county treasurer's office. This year, he's showing up in person.
A new law gets rid of the pink envelopes and offers hunters a choice of going online, going to the county treasurer, or going to a sporting goods store.
“Every year they had to rush on the pink envelopes for the doe license so that should take some pressure off,” Troutman added.
Aaron Earlosky from Schuylkill Haven also said the treasurer's office was his last resort after waiting at Walmart and Cabela's all morning.
“Chaos and they all had to wait. that's what it was. All you could do was wait,” he mentioned.
And just when he thought the line was moving, the system became overwhelmed. Making hunters wait in Schuylkill County and across the state.
“Now we've opened this online to the Game Commission, other authorized vendors and now you got so many more trying to tap into that software and that program, that it was just overloading,” Linda Yeich, Schuylkill County Treasurer, explained.
“It was just because of the amount of volume of sales it slowed everything down,” Gerald Kapral, PA Game Commission added.
“The Wildlife Management Units are not going to sell out on day one. They never have, they never will, and they really have all week to get this done,” Yeich said.
Despite the delays, when we asked some hunters if it was worth the wait, they said yes.
“I got everything in one day and I got nothing to worry about,” mentioned Earlosky.
And for those who didn't spend hours waiting in line, the Schuylkill County Treasurer's Office will be open for the rest of the week for hunters to get their antlerless deer licenses.
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