New Pennsylvania bill aims to make hunting season start on first Monday after Thanksgiving

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by Matthew DuckworthFri, April 3, 2026 at 10:53 AM

New Pennsylvania bill aims to make hunting season start on first Monday after Thanksgiving

Updated Fri, April 3, 2026 at 6:34 PM

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Pennsylvania lawmakers will introduce a bill to return the start of firearm hunting season to the first Monday after Thanksgiving, according to a legal memo. (Getty)

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• Pennsylvania
• Hunting season
• Firearm hunting
• Thanksgiving
• Senate Bill 1244
• Rural economy
• Pennsylvania Game Commission
• Legislation

PENNSYLVANIA (WHP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers will introduce a bill to return the start of firearm hunting season to the first Monday after Thanksgiving, according to a legal memo.

Senate Bill 1244 will be introduced by Sen. Gene Yaw (R-23) and Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-18) to affect the “devastating economic effect” of moving opening day to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

In the memo, Yaw and Boscola claim that rural businesses like taverns, restaurants, small grocery stores, gun shops, and volunteer fire departments have been negatively impacted by the Saturday start date, as hunters are not spending their weekend in a small hunting towns.

“The traditions associated with going to hunting camps in anticipation of opening day created a concentration of economic activity unique to rural Pennsylvania,” the memo noted.

“It definitely takes away from the businesses,” said local hunter Darrin Shaffer. “And then the mountains always say, you know, that’s they rely a lot and they’re the hunters. And coming up spending that whole weekend out about, you know.”

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Rural businesses flourished and benefited from the economic bump needed to survive the winter, while volunteer fire departments held special hunter-oriented fundraisers.

Hunters were on either side of the aisle with this issue, with some hoping to move the season earlier than Thanksgiving weekend, others said it should go back to the Monday after Thanksgiving.

“I’m old school,” said Shaffer. “I like the, coming in Monday.”

Lawmakers said the decision to return opening day to the Saturday after Thanksgiving came in response to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s suggestion to move opening day before Thanksgiving.

What that proposal did was rekindle the absolute rejection of the current opening day among our constituents and throughout rural Pennsylvania in general.

The bill claims that the scope of the decision goes beyond just managing and protecting the Commonwealth’s wildlife resources. Lawmakers claim in the bill that the PGC’s decisions impacts the livelihood of its constituents, it becomes a legislative concern.

It is time to move the first day of firearms deer season in Pennsylvania back to the first Monday after Thanksgiving to revive traditions long held by our sportsmen and women and invest, once again, in rural Pennsylvania.

The bill was referred to a game and fisheries committee in the Senate on March 23.

In a statement to CBS 21, Senator Boscola wrote:

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“It remains unclear whether moving opening day delivered any real benefit. What is clear is the toll it has taken on Pennsylvania’s rich hunting tradition, as well as the communities that rely on it.”