The second round of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s new system of settling antlerless deer licenses went much smoother than its debut a month ago, which was marked by waits of eight or more hours online and long lines at issuing agents.
“We didn't really have any issues to speak of. Online sales were routed to a waiting room first thing this morning,” Travis Lau, a commission spokesman said Monday, when round two began.
Lau said he checked on the system about 10 a.m. and there were about 33,000 people ahead of him. A month ago when he did the same check, about 130,000 people were ahead of him.
By 12:15, no one was ahead of Lau.
Lancaster County Treasurer Amber Martin, whose office also sells doe tags, said round two was better.
"We currently sold a total of 29 over-the-counter antler-less deer licenses for the day. A far cry on the volume that we used to process (my office always processed the most doe licenses in the state prior to online sales). I would say that Round 2 went much smoother!” Martin said in an email Monday afternoon.
A month ago, hunters kept coming into Martin’s office because of long wait times. The new system allows license issuing agents to sell to in-person customers ahead of those who choose to buy online. Even so, the day the new system debuted, Lau said an inadequate cloud computing set up meant issuing agents couldn’t access the sales system for about two hours.
On Monday, commenters on the Game Commission’s Facebook page were largely pleased with round two.
“Simple, effective. Easy to use. I like the new system. Even with the waiting period it’s still a million times faster than the postal service and county treasurers,” one commenter posted.
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P.J. REILLY | Staff Writer
Under the old system, hunters had to mail applications to county treasurer offices because under a now-changed state law, they were the only people who could sell doe tags.
One man said he did a bunch of chores while waiting. A woman said she canned beans.
Logan Eshleman, assistant operations manager at Lancaster Archery Supply, also reported no issues.
“We haven’t seen a crazy crowd. The system seems to be working,” Eshleman said. About 20 hunters had been in to buy licenses as of around 11 a.m.
Of the game commission’s 23 Wildlife Management Units, six were sold out of tags as of Monday. As of late afternoon, WMU 5B, which includes Lancaster and parts of surrounding counties, still had more than 21,500 of its allotted 60,000 antlerless licenses.
Lau said hunters may still encounter wait times when round three sales open Aug. 14. That’s because hunters can also apply for Deer Management Assistance Program permits, which allow hunting in designated state forests and state parks.
“Each one of these rounds are a little bit different,” Lau said. Out-of-state hunters were able to apply in round two.
One thing the game commission learned, Lau said, was that despite the wait times in round one, there was more supply than the initial demand.
“I think the system looks a lot better going forward, but that said, we’re going to look to make some improvements where we can,” Lau said.
