A new law taking effect on Sept. 7, 2025 removes the prohibition on Sunday hunting that long existed in Pennsylvania statute. With the change, the Game Commission will be able to include Sundays when setting hunting seasons – something that previously wasn’t an option, save for a handful of exceptions. In the current 2025-26 hunting license year, the Game Commission has taken action to add Sundays to already-established seasons, providing new opportu-nities soon after the new law takes effect. The first of these additional opportunities will occur on Sept. 14, 2025, and the final on Dec. 7, 2025.
For 2025, Sunday hunting days have been added
Within this span, Sundays that occur within an established season have been included into the season and are open to hunting. Sundays must fall between the established opening and closing days of a season to be open to hunting. If a season has been set to close on a Saturday, the next day is not open to hunting. The firearms deer season, for example, still will end on Saturday, Dec. 13
Migratory game birds may not be hunted on any of these Sundays. Migratory game bird seasons are the only 2025-26 hunting seasons that were not adjusted to include Sundays between Sept. 14 and Dec. 7. That’s because migratory game bird seasons are set through federal frameworks, and opening any Sundays at this time would result in a net loss of hunting days in 2025-26. The Game Commission this year will be surveying hunters to gauge their preferences for including Sundays in future seasons, given some hunters have expressed preference for leaving Sundays out of migra-tory game bird seasons, which allows seasons to stretch deeper into the year, when more birds might be migrating through. Per federal rules, once a state opens Sundays to migratory game bird hunting, it’s irreversible, so whatever Pennsylvania opts to do will have lasting impacts.
In addition to these new Sunday hunting dates, the previously approved Sundays for foxes, coyotes and crows remain in place for the 2025-26 seasons.
On Sundays open to hunting, hunters on private land are required to obtain written permission from the landowner. The permission slip should be signed by the landowner, and should include the hunter’s name, address and CID license number, and the landowner’s name, address and phone number. Providing contact information for the landowner is the quickest and easiest way for a game warden to verify a landowner has granted permission to a hunter. For the 2025-26 season, Sunday hunting within state parks will be limited to Nov. 16, 23, and 30. State forests will continue to permit hunting on all Sundays approved by the Game Commission.
