Pennsylvania Landowner Tags
Pennsylvania's DMAP has no acreage minimum, but acreage drives the allocation: one permit per 5 acres of documented crop, fruit or vegetable damage and one per 50 acres otherwise. DMAP hands the landowner coupons rather than tags, and hunters redeem them for permits that are issued without regard to quota limitations, valid only on the printed DMAP area and outside the hunter's personal antlerless limit. Charging for a coupon is expressly unlawful. Elk has no landowner component at all.
Checked against Pennsylvania Game Commission rules, October 20, 2026. Where the rule is silent or its sources disagree, the line says so.
Deer Management Assistance Program · Landowner antlerless licence
contiguous, deeded and other tests apply
with an exemption
Hunting Your Own Land
34 Pa.C.S. 2706(a) exempts a domiciled person who, as a primary means of gaining a livelihood, is regularly and continuously engaged in cultivating the soil, plus their family, household and regularly hired help. This is an agricultural-livelihood exemption, not a landowner exemption - a hobby landowner is not exempt - and antlerless deer still requires a separate licence or DMAP permit (source: pa_34_pacs_2706).
Deer Management Assistance Program
Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), 58 Pa. Code 147.671-676
no acreage test
none for DMAP itself; permits sit outside the WMU...
not addressed in the rule
Who Qualifies
| Species | Deer (DMAP is antlerless deer only. Elk has no landowner component: 155 licences (80 antlered, 75 antlerless) by public draw with nonresidents capped at 10 percent.) |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | No minimum acreage, but acreage drives the allocation: one permit per 5 acres of documented crop, fruit or vegetable damage, and one per 50 acres otherwise. An approved deer management plan is required for above-standard requests, for sub-threshold acreage, or for an area within one air mile of another DMAP area.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Deeded✗ Agricultural use within the property |
| Nonresident owner | Not addressed in the rulesNot addressed in the rule. 58 Pa. Code 147.673 lists owners, lessees, hunting clubs and government agencies as eligible applicants without a residency word, so nothing bars or confirms a nonresident enrolling. |
| Who may hunt it | Any hunter with a valid Pennsylvania licence who is given a coupon, or anyone in coupon-free units. Nonresidents may hold DMAP permits at $35.97, but it is unlawful for a nonresident to hold a resident DMAP permit. |
| When to apply | DMAP applications and renewals must be postmarked or submitted before Jul 1, by three routes (regular paper, online renewal, paper renewal). Re-enrolment instructions go out in early March. |
What You Get
| The tag | Coupons, not tags: the landowner distributes coupons and hunters redeem them for permits. Permits are issued without regard to quota limitations, are valid ONLY on the printed DMAP area, and do not count against a hunter's personal antlerless limit.Sources conflict: 58 Pa. Code subchapter R: four DMAP permits per unit where the landowner issues a coupon versus 58 Pa. Code subchapter R: two DMAP permits per unit where no coupon is required |
|---|---|
| Set-aside | none for DMAP itself; permits sit outside the WMU antlerless quota entirely |
| Transfer or sale | No. Charging or accepting any fee or consideration for a DMAP coupon is prohibited (section 147.676(7)), as is lending or transferring a permit in any manner whatsoever. |
| Enrolled properties | Agency list |
Eligible applicants include owners, lessees, hunting clubs and government agencies, so DMAP covers public land too. Published data is the best of the 21 states: a participating-properties dashboard, a DMAP units ArcGIS map, the DCNR map and per-WMU antlerless allocations published annually.
Landowner antlerless licence
Landowner antlerless deer licence, 34 Pa.C.S. 2706(c)
contiguous and deeded tests below
Allocated from the county quota ahead of public availability
not addressed in the rule
Who Qualifies
| Species | Deer |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | 50 or more contiguous acres that must be open to public hunting; leased land does not qualify.3 |
| Land test | ✓ Contiguous✓ Deeded✗ Agricultural use within the county |
| Nonresident owner | Not addressed in the rulesNot addressed in the rule. 2706(c) issues the licence to a named deed-holder of 50 contiguous acres open to public hunting and says nothing about the holder's residency. |
| Who may hunt it | The named deed-holder. |
What You Get
| The tag | An antlerless licence allocated out of the county quota ahead of public availability, to one named deed-holder. |
|---|---|
| Set-aside | Allocated from the county quota ahead of public availability |
| Transfer or sale | No. Non-transferable by construction - it is issued to a named deed-holder. |
The threshold and the quota mechanics are established; no application window specific to this licence is published.
Also on the Books
- Resident Landowner Hunting License: 80 or more contiguous acres farmed under a conservation plan and enrolled in a Cooperative Public Access Program. Not detailed here.
- Agricultural Deer Control (Red Tag): A depredation programme for agricultural damage; the agency names it without giving an acreage or enrolment test. Not detailed here.
General Season or Limited Draw?
Antlered (general) deer is over the counter statewide on the general licence, while antlerless is allocated by WMU - 1,469,000 licences for 2026-27, up from 1,312,000, with 2C at 117,000, 4D at 120,000, 5C at 101,000 and 3A at 21,000. Every resident is guaranteed one antlerless licence in the WMU of their choice if bought Jun 22 - Jul 13, then it is first-come until the WMU sells out (rounds two, three and four on Jul 27, Aug 10 and Aug 24, personal limit six). Nonresidents become eligible for antlerless at 8 am on Jul 13 in WMUs with licences left. Elk is by draw with nonresidents capped at 10 percent. The geography is WMUs 1A-5D for antlerless, statewide for antlered, DMAP areas as a property overlay, and elk zones whose boundaries changed for 2026.
Per-unit classification: FINAL 2026-27 Hunting Seasons Approved carries the per-WMU antlerless allocation table, read with the annual Hunting and Trapping Digest; DMAP dashboards cover the property overlay..
Check a parcel on the map →
Click the ground or paste a listing's coordinates: the unit for every species (21 Pennsylvania units mapped), and whether the acreage clears the floor.
Pennsylvania draw odds →
Every species, unit and hunt code, with the odds at each point level, fees and deadlines.
Things That Trip People Up
- DMAP permits are valid only on the printed DMAP area and sit outside the WMU antlerless quota, so a WMU answer understates what is available on an enrolled property.
- DMAP permits do not count against a hunter's personal antlerless limit.
- The licence exemption is agricultural-livelihood, not landowner: a hobby landowner is not exempt, and antlerless still needs a licence or DMAP permit.
- The landowner antlerless licence requires that the 50 contiguous acres be open to public hunting.
- Elk has no landowner component at all - landowners draw like everyone else.
- 58 Pa. Code gives two different DMAP ceilings per unit - four with a coupon, two without - and the conflict is live.
Sources
- 1. Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin · 58 Pa. Code 147.671-676, Deer Management Assistance Program · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 2. Pennsylvania Game Commission · Deer Management Assistance Program (PGC landowner resources) · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 3. Pennsylvania General Assembly · 34 Pa.C.S. 2706, resident landowner and agricultural exemptions · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 4. Pennsylvania Game Commission · Participating DMAP landowner properties dashboard · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 5. Pennsylvania Game Commission · DMAP units ArcGIS map · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 6. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources · DCNR DMAP map · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 7. Pennsylvania Game Commission · FINAL 2026-27 Hunting Seasons Approved (per-WMU antlerless allocation table) · retrieved 2026-10-20
This page summarizes agency rules for orientation. The statute, commission rule and the current year's application booklet govern; check them before buying land or applying.