LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) – Last year was the first major change in decades to the process for buying hunting licenses in Pennsylvania. It didn’t go well.

“We did have significant wait times on the first day of sales last year,” Travis Lau, the communications director with the PA Game Commission, said.

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A year later, there are more changes for the sale of antlerless licenses.

“There’s a staggered start this year that so far has worked well to manage crowds,” Lau said.

License sales went live in three Wildlife Management Units (WMU’s) on Monday for more of the hot bed areas to hunt in the state. One of those WMU’s have already sold out of licenses. Another is expected to sell out in the near future.

“I do think that the three Wildlife Management Units that went on sale Monday will alleviate some of the pressure that’s going to be tomorrow,” Randy Montgomery, the general manager at Kinsey’s Outdoors in Mount Joy, said.

Lau believes the online system for purchasing licenses has improved. He says getting doe tags won’t be a race this year.

“Those three WMU’s were first come, first serve, and the rest are guaranteed to resident hunters for 11 days,” Lau said.

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The deadline is 7 a.m. on July 8. The Game Commission isn’t worrying about overselling licenses.

“Even if we were to sell more than the allocated number, we’d continue to sell them, over sell that total,” Lau said.

Adjustments can be made next year depending on the deer population Lau explained. 164,000 antlerless licenses were purchased on opening day last year.

Even with the changes, Kinsey’s is preparing for a large crowd.

“We’re going to implement a number system,” Montgomery said. “I’m going to go out in the morning about 7:30 before we open at 8 and hand everyone a number.”

The purpose of the number system is to allow customers to check out items in the store while they wait instead of having to stand in a physical line for an extended period of time.

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