HigHligHts

DMAP to be made available on leased hunting land:

Lands where hunting rights have been leased and where a fee has been charged for hunting will be eligible to enroll in the Deer Management Assistance Program, commonly known as DMAP.

With the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners' final vote today, leased hunting land no longer is excluded from the program.

That means in 2023, leased lands will be eligible for the program, which enables public and private landowners

to better address their own deer-management goals for properties. The application period for landowners runs from April 1 to July 1 each year.

Lands enrolled in DMAP are allotted a number of antlerless deer permits that can be purchased by hunters. Landowners can make the permits available directly from license-issuing agents, or they can choose to issue coupons that then are redeemed for permits. In either case, DMAP permits cost $10.97 each. Hunters can obtain no more than four permits each for properties where coupons are issued, and no more than two permits each for other properties. Each DMAP permit can be

used to hunt and harvest an antlerless deer during any established deer season.

The adoption by the board won't have major impacts on the DMAP program, but will make a significant difference for landowners who had been excluded.

The Game Commission has determined only about 5% of hunting lands are leased. On those properties, however, the only tool landowners and lessees presently have to address deer-population concerns is WMU-based antlerless licenses allocations, which might not be enough.

Applying the same rules to leased lands and private lands enrolled in DMAP makes

sense because public access isn't required to enroll in the program. Additionally, restricting DMAP to certain lands to encourage public access historically did not lead to significantly more public access or the prevention of leased lands. Leased lands still exist and are part of the Pennsylvania landscape. Muzzleloaders using captured powder charges considered:

Legal definitions presently prohibit hunters from using muzzleloading firearms that accept breech-loaded, captured-powder charges.

That could change, based on a measure the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners

preliminarily approved today.

As their name suggests, muzzleloading firearms typically are loaded from the muzzle. And present law prohibits any muzzleloaders that accept cartridge ammunition, most of which contain both powder and projectile. Some modern muzzleloaders accept charges that are similar to cartridges, but contain only powder. The captured powder charges are loaded from the breech while the projectiles are loaded from the muzzle. Those muzzleloaders presently are prohibited because of the prohibition on cartridge use in muzzleloaders.

The commissioners

said the prohibition on cartridge use in muzzleloaders originally was intended to restrict modern firearms that accept cartridges containing both projectile and powder. Amending the law to allow muzzleloaders that accept captured powder charges would preserve that original intent.

Hunters using captured powder charges in appropriate firearms also might find greater convenience in the ability to more easily unload their muzzleloader without firing it.

The measure will be brought back to the September meeting for a final vote and, if approved at that time, could be in effect beginning in 2023.