Break out the brush pants, your favorite shotgun and, of course, a fluorescent orange hat and vest. Pennsylvania’s pheasant season is winging its way closer.
Saturday, Oct. 10 marks the start of the junior pheasant season, and the statewide season follows close behind, opening on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Pennsylvania’s pheasant hunters this year will enjoy expanded hunting dates, with all 21 Sundays falling within the season now open (up from 6 open Sundays during the 2025-26 season). In addition, pheasant hunting will remain open during the overlap with the statewide firearms deer season, providing an additional 2 weeks of opportunity.
All told, the Game Commission plans to stock approximately 232,000 birds incrementally through early January, with most releases occurring on public land.
About 17,000 pheasants will go out for the junior pheasant hunt, open to all junior hunters and mentored hunters of any age. The junior season runs from Oct. 10-18. Visit the pheasant hunting page at www.pa.gov/pgc for junior season stocking locations. Stocking follows for the regular season, which runs Oct. 24 – Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 – Feb. 28,2027.
“Pheasant releases will occur weekly from late October through late November,” said Ian Gregg, chief of the Game Commission’s Wildlife Operations Division. “A mid-December release will bolster hunting opportunity prior to the holidays, and many sites are also scheduled to be stocked twice shortly after Christmas for late season hunting. Results from last year’s game farm pheasant harvest rate study indicated that these post-Christmas releases, initiated in 2021-22, are well-used by hunters and should be continued.”
Gregg noted that a mid-February stocking is also tentatively planned, provided that the primary breeder flocks at the agency’s chick supplier remain healthy through mid-winter. A final decision will be made and communicated in early February.
Pheasant hunting is open statewide, except in Pennsylvania’s two Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas (WPRAs) – the Central Susquehanna WPRA in Northumberland and Montour counties, and the Franklin WPRA in Franklin County. No pheasant season will occur in either WPRA this year. While the Game Commission in recent years has authorized a youth pheasant season within the Central Susquehanna WPRA, and regulations were amended in 2024 to allow hunters of all ages to participate if a season was established, springtime pheasant crowing surveys in these areas were below the population estimate trend at which hunting would be authorized.
Elsewhere in the state, hunters may harvest either male or female pheasants. Both are released by the Game Commission, at a ratio of about three males for every female.
Although protecting hens is an important aspect of wild pheasant management, survival of propagated pheasants is too low to support sustainable populations, even without hunting mortality. Therefore, hunters are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to harvest hens.
Each pheasant hunter needs a general hunting license, and most hunters need a pheasant permit, as well. Pheasant hunters must, at all times, wear at least 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined. A fluorescent orange hat and vest will satisfy this requirement.
Hunters must abide by a two-pheasant daily limit and six-pheasant possession limit.
Pheasant permit requirements
All adult hunters and some senior hunters who pursue pheasants are required to purchase a pheasant permit in addition to a general hunting license. The permit costs $26.97 and is available through HuntFishPA or from any license issuing agent.
As with a general hunting license, hunters can store a digital pheasant permit on a smart device to carry when hunting. Paper licenses and permits must be signed when carried afield.
Senior lifetime resident license holders who acquired their licenses prior to May 13, 2017 are exempt from needing a pheasant permit.
Junior hunters and mentored permit holders under 17 need a free permit.
Although pheasant-permit revenue is not earmarked specifically for the propagation program, and does not completely offset the costs of raising and stocking pheasants, it is important in ensuring the financial sustainability of the program. Permit revenue for the 2025-26 license year was over $1.5 million.
“Over 75,000 pheasant permits are issued each year, and the fact that recent sales trends have been stable to slightly increasing seems to indicate Pennsylvania pheasant hunters are finding good value in the expanded winter releases and other aspects of the Game Commission’s pheasant propagation and stocking program,” Gregg said. “The nearly 30 additional pheasant hunting days on the 2026-27 calendar will further increase the return on their permit investments.”
Finding pheasants
Because pheasant hunting in Pennsylvania relies on the release of propagated birds, hunters are wise to focus their efforts on the time periods and locations where the Game Commission stocks birds.
To increase awareness of where and when pheasants will be stocked, the agency publishes an allocation table and interactive stocking locations map online. Both of these are available on the pheasant hunting page at www.pa.gov/pgc.
When using the allocation table, click on a region to see the number of male and female pheasants planned for stocking in each county for each release, as well as the range of dates for each release, and a listing of each property to be stocked.
The interactive map shows more than 220 properties that are scheduled to be stocked. Click on a pheasant icon to see the property name, the number of releases, and number of birds released last year to get an idea of large versus small release areas. Users can also zoom in to see pink highlighted areas representing areas of best pheasant hunting habitat where birds are most likely to be found.
As a reminder to hunters in these areas, it is unlawful to discharge a firearm within 150 yards of a Game Commission vehicle if its occupants are releasing pheasants.
For those new to hunting pheasants, the Game Commission offers online resources to help inexperienced hunters find success. Various pheasant-hunting resources are available on the Learn to Hunt Program page at www.pa.gov/pgc.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu, has been present in Pennsylvania’s wildlife since early 2022. The Pennsylvania Game Commission provides disease information and recommendations to the public on how to promote human, domestic animal, and wildlife health at pa.gov/agencies/pgc/wildlife/wildlife-health/wildlife-diseases/avian-influenza. Sick or dead wildlife should always be reported to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Centralized Dispatch Center by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD (742-9453). Any sick or dead domestic birds should be reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture at 717-772-2852, while any human health concerns should be communicated to your primary care physician or the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 1-877-724-3258.
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