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HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission board wasted no time approving the use of semi-automatic rifles for hunting during Tuesday’s quarterly meeting.
By unanimous vote, the board gave preliminary approval to allow semi-automatic rifles for varmints, small game and big game such as turkey, bear, elk and deer. The measure limits magazine capacity to five rounds and includes a sunset provision that expires in 2020, allowing for another review of the issue. A final vote will be held during the board’s next quarterly meeting on March 27-28, and if it passes it will become effective July 1.
The move comes a little more than two months after Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law legislation that gives the PGC the ability to implement semi-automatic rifles for hunting. While some board members said they were initially skeptical about allowing the rifles for big game due to safety issues, research conducted by staff alleviated such concerns, they said.
“There have been concerns about semi-automatic rifles for big game, but staff found no correlation between the way a weapon is loaded and hunting accidents,” commissioner Timothy Layton said. “I was skeptical at the start, but education is invaluable.
“We don’t need to overreact.”
In 2015, PGC executive director Matt Hough told legislators that, once the legislation became law, the agency would likely allow semi-automatic rifles for coyotes, foxes and woodchucks first and wait on big game.
That didn’t happen on Tuesday as commissioners said they felt it was best to go with an all-inclusive approach and see how it works.
Commissioner Dave Putnam noted that Pennsylvania is the last state to allow semi-automatic rifles for hunting and staff research found no safety issues in other states.
“We were the last holdouts,” Putnam said. “Most of us thought to do this incrementally, but then we decided let’s just do it and be done.”
Board president Brian Hoover said the five-round magazine limit was added to quell concerns about hunters firing a barrage of shots at game. He added the agency did receive a lot of comments on the matter with blanket support for allowing semi-automatic rifles for varmints and small game.
Opinions were more diverse for big game and most of those opposed were senior hunters, Hoover said.
In his home district of southeastern Pennsylvania, Hoover said, semi-automatic shotguns are allowed for deer hunting and, despite the urban population, safety hasn’t been a problem.
“It’s not about the way we load the gun. That’s not what causes accidents,” he said.
In addition to the five-round magazine capacity, fully-jacketed bullets are prohibited for deer and bear hunting and semi-automatic rifles used for small game are limited to .22 caliber or less. Rifles, including semi-automatics, are permitted for the fall turkey season but not for spring gobbler.
“Semi-automatics have been around for 100 years,” commissioner Charlie Fox said. “This creates an opportunity for us to examine how it’s going to be accepted. We still emphasize the importance of one-shot kills.”