If you had told me when I was a kid growing up in this state that we would someday have an elk hunting season, I would have said you were crazy.

We actually don’t have a single elk season, but we now have four different seasons when elk can be hunted in Pennsylvania, and 155 elk tags will be awarded.

In 2024, 140 elk tags were offered, including 65 for bulls and 75 for cows. The same numbers were offered the following year, but the numbers have now been moved up to 155, including 80 bull tags and 75 cow tags.

In 2009, I was one of those very fortunate ones to be drawn for a bull elk tag, and back then there were only 20 bull tags and 39 cow tags being offered. On the second day of the hunt, I was able to drop a nice 8×8 bull that weighed 800 pounds. While that was one of the better bulls taken that year, there have been a pretty good number of bigger ones taken since then.

Pennsylvania’s elk herd is actually doing pretty well both in numbers and in size. I believe that when I got my elk tag, the herd was estimated at around 1,000 animals, but today’s estimated numbers are at about 1,500 elk, and if it continues at that pace, it could hit 1,700 by the year 2032.

Cows are believed to weigh up to 600 pounds, and bulls may weigh as much as 1,000 pounds.

I know a lot of people want to go out west on an elk hunt, but your chances of taking a bigger bull are probably greater here in our state. Here, of course, because of the very limited numbers. The problem is getting that elk tag.

An additional elk season was added this year, and from what I understand, the purpose of adding that season was to further spread hunters out over broader areas and to cut down on congestion.

Like a lot of other hunters, I like to have a lot of room, and I don’t want other hunters messing up my hunt, so fewer hunters in any given area is a plus. Without that new season being added, there could have been as many as five bull hunters in any one hunting zone, but now with the added new season, only three or maybe only two other hunters may be in the same area.

There has been another interesting change to the elk hunting regulations.

In the days to come, any hunter who has never drawn a bull elk tag and gets one can never apply for another bull elk tag; they may, however, continue to apply for a cow elk license. This new rule goes into effect this year; however, it is not retroactive, or in other words, hunters who got a bull elk tag before this year are still permitted to apply for bull elk tags each year. That means I am still able to apply for a bull tag here in Pennsylvania. To be honest, after I got my bull, I never again applied for another tag.

I realize the chances of getting drawn are pretty slim, but it’s well worth the effort, and once you have that tag, your chances of bagging a nice bull are no doubt much greater than a hunt out west somewhere.