tim629
Active member
The PA game commission has been having some meetings recently and it seems as though yesterday they got into the elk discussion quite a bit. I think april is when things will get approved but I suspect everything i've been reading will be approved.
Bull will become once in a lifetime for anyone
Non-Residents will be capped at 10%
You will need a valid license to enter the points.
PA offers preference points so your chances aren't ever 0 unless you put in for the point only. In the past few years they have added a late season elk hunt & an archery only elk hunt as well as the regular season. Because of the early archery season they have moved the drawing to july instead of august, opening the application window for the elk lottery before they open that license sales up for the year. I was confused how that would work but their wording is you must have a valid license to apply so the PGC commissioners said if you have a 24/25 license you can apply for the elk drawing for fall of 25, that means if you're a NR and still want to apply you can game the system a little bit. Buy your 25/26 license at the end of june and apply for the elk points (11.97/season point so 36 for all 3 if you wanted + the 100ish non-resident license) then in spring of 26 you can apply for the 26 elk points because you'll still have a valid license. june of 2027 do the same thing. so cuts the license fee to 50/year if you're just wanting to apply.
The NR cap generally won't change much, it was below 5% for quite a while, the past i think 5 years it has averaged at 11% so it is enough to make some people quit crying but it isn't going to change the odds that much. I think the must posses a valid big game license will be the bigger detracting factor.
lifetime limit for bull elk. If you're like me buying a license every year anyway, as a NR I might switch my choices to cow only and then enter the Keystone Elk County Alliance more than just $100/year for 6 tickets to be entered in one of the 2 governors tags offered. I figure it would suck to win that tag and not be able to use it. If you're a NR and don't want to buy a NR license because you're just entering in the off chance of getting a tag, enter the KECA raffle instead, the points reset to zero every year but being a bonus point not a preference point it isn't the absolute end of the world to be in a smaller raffle with 0 than a larger raffle with 10.
Just my 2 cents, i'll be curious to see what other people do for strategies for PA applications
Bull will become once in a lifetime for anyone
Non-Residents will be capped at 10%
You will need a valid license to enter the points.
PA offers preference points so your chances aren't ever 0 unless you put in for the point only. In the past few years they have added a late season elk hunt & an archery only elk hunt as well as the regular season. Because of the early archery season they have moved the drawing to july instead of august, opening the application window for the elk lottery before they open that license sales up for the year. I was confused how that would work but their wording is you must have a valid license to apply so the PGC commissioners said if you have a 24/25 license you can apply for the elk drawing for fall of 25, that means if you're a NR and still want to apply you can game the system a little bit. Buy your 25/26 license at the end of june and apply for the elk points (11.97/season point so 36 for all 3 if you wanted + the 100ish non-resident license) then in spring of 26 you can apply for the 26 elk points because you'll still have a valid license. june of 2027 do the same thing. so cuts the license fee to 50/year if you're just wanting to apply.
The NR cap generally won't change much, it was below 5% for quite a while, the past i think 5 years it has averaged at 11% so it is enough to make some people quit crying but it isn't going to change the odds that much. I think the must posses a valid big game license will be the bigger detracting factor.
lifetime limit for bull elk. If you're like me buying a license every year anyway, as a NR I might switch my choices to cow only and then enter the Keystone Elk County Alliance more than just $100/year for 6 tickets to be entered in one of the 2 governors tags offered. I figure it would suck to win that tag and not be able to use it. If you're a NR and don't want to buy a NR license because you're just entering in the off chance of getting a tag, enter the KECA raffle instead, the points reset to zero every year but being a bonus point not a preference point it isn't the absolute end of the world to be in a smaller raffle with 0 than a larger raffle with 10.
Just my 2 cents, i'll be curious to see what other people do for strategies for PA applications
