by Brian McCombie - Friday, August 15, 2025
Pennsylvania hunters celebrated a huge win when Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) signed House Bill 1431 into law which repealed that state’s long-running ban on Sunday hunting.
Now comes news of another potential win. Recently, Pennsylvania state Sen. Daniel Laughlin (R-Dist. 49) and Rep. Charity Krupa (R-Dist. 51) announced their plans to soon forward bills to their respective houses that would, if passed, allow Keystone State deer and bear hunters to use semi-automatic firearms.
As Sen. Laughlin explained on his official state website: “Currently, the Pennsylvania Game Commission authorizes the use of semi-automatic rifles for small game, but prohibits their use for big game hunting, despite widespread acceptance and use of these firearms in other states. Many hunters already use semi-automatic shotguns for turkey and waterfowl hunting with a 3-shell limit. This proposal brings parity and clarity by applying the same 3-round standard to rifles for hunting game such as deer and bear.”
Representative Krupa’s proposed bill will be much the same, though it will allow semi-automatic rifles with six rounds total, with five in the magazine and one in the chamber. “This proposal brings Pennsylvania in line with the states that already allow responsible use of semi-automatic firearms for hunting large game—typically with magazine restrictions similar to the one proposed here,” she noted on her official website. “These states have seen no measurable increase in safety concerns or negative wildlife impacts as a result.”
Krupa added that the state’s abundant deer herd was another factor in her decision to promote the use of semi-autos.
“Pennsylvania’s deer population continues to grow and has increasingly become a nuisance in many areas, contributing to agricultural damage, vehicle collisions, and ecosystem imbalance,” she wrote. “Allowing hunters to use modern, effective tools—including regulated semi-automatic rifles—can help the Game Commission better manage overpopulation and meet harvest goals.”
The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s “Hunting and Trapping Digest 2025-2026” explains that for general firearm deer and bear seasons, the only firearms allowed are, “Manually operated rifles and handguns chambered for straight-walled centerfire cartridges, [or] muzzleloading long guns, .44 caliber or larger … ”
The exception is Philadelphia County where a hunter can use only bows and arrows, including crossbows.
For small game, hunters can use manual or semi-auto .22 caliber or smaller rimfire rifles. However, for some reason, those same hunters can use only “manually operated .22 caliber or less rimfire handguns … ”
Neither Laughlin nor Krupa mentioned this apparent rimfire arms discrepancy in their announcements. Both, though, stressed that their bills would make semi-automatic firearms legal for big game hunting, not fully automatic arms.
State hunters have for some time offered significant support for allowing the use of semi-autos. TRIBLive noted that members of the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League, Beaver County Sportsmen’s Conservation League, Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania and the Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action had written a letter to the Game Commission director and commissioners in early August 2025 requesting just such a rule change.
“I think we, as Americans, should have the option to use whatever gun we choose,” said Klint Macro, president of the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League, in 2023.
The letter to the commission noted that states bordering Pennsylvania, including Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia, allow their hunters to use semi-automatic firearms for big game hunting, and have not seen any indication that this type of firearm had caused any noticeable problems for hunter safety or wildlife conservation.
Representative Krupa agreed.
“It is time for Pennsylvania to modernize its hunting laws and bring them in line with the practices of most other states,” she wrote.
She added, “Many hunters already own semi-automatic rifles for sporting, self-defense, and recreational shooting. Denying their use for lawful hunting is an outdated policy that fails to reflect modern sporting practices or respect the rights of lawful gun owners.”
Travis Lau, communications director for the Game Commission, told Pennsylvania Outdoors that the commission of course knew of the proposed bills but that drafts of the legislation had yet to circulate.
“So, at this time, we are neutral on it,” Lau noted. “So, we will evaluate it further when it’s introduced but for the time being, we’re staying neutral.”