Practice and Public Land: Pennsylvania Game Lands Ranges
Pennsylvania hunters have somewhere to sight in that does not cost a club membership. The Game Commission keeps public rifle, pistol, shotgun and archery facilities on State Game Lands across the state, and the rules for using them are simple once you know them. This guide covers the permit, the hours, what the ranges have, and the separate question of where you may shoot on public land away from a range. General information, not legal advice, current to September 2026.
Who may use a game lands range
Either a current Pennsylvania hunting or furtaker license, signed by the holder, or a State Game Lands shooting range permit. The permit costs $31.97 and is now valid for 365 days from the date you buy it rather than following the license year. You can buy it online through the state hunting and fishing portal or from any license-issuing agent, a regional office or headquarters. You do not have to display it, but you must have it on you along with a second form of identification.
Each license or permit holder may bring one guest. Anyone under 16 has to be accompanied by someone 18 or older. That combination makes the ranges a workable place to teach a new shooter without buying two of everything.
Hours
Rifle and handgun ranges run from 8 a.m. to sunset Monday through Saturday, and from noon to sunset on Sundays, unless a particular range posts otherwise. On the Sundays immediately before and inside the regular firearms deer and bear seasons, the Sunday opening moves up to 8 a.m., which is exactly when you want it. Archery ranges are open dawn to dusk and need no range permit at all. Hours do vary by site, and ranges close for repairs, so check the Game Commission range page before a long drive.
What the ranges actually offer
There is no single template. Most sites are a 100-yard rifle line with a short pistol bay. A handful go further:
- Long rifle distance out to 300 yards on the Cumberland County and Carbon County game lands, and out to 200 yards in Centre, Forest and Lackawanna counties.
- Shotgun patterning boards, which matter for turkey and buckshot work, in Carbon, Centre, Erie, Indiana and Lehigh counties.
- Designated clay bird areas in Centre, Lackawanna and Lehigh counties. Clay shooting anywhere else on game lands is prohibited unless it is signed as permitted.
- Walk-through archery courses out to 50 yards at a number of sites, plus standalone archery complexes in Montgomery, Lancaster, Berks, Pike and Northampton counties.
Facilities are plain. Expect a covered firing line, wooden target frames and a gravel lot. Bring your own targets, a staple gun, a spotting scope if you want one, and eye and ear protection for everyone on the line.
Conduct on the line
When more than one shooter is present, the group designates a range officer to call the line hot and cold. Take your targets away with you, leave the site clean, and do not pick up brass while the line is live. The Game Commission asks shooters to be considerate of people waiting, which in practice means not monopolizing a bench on the Saturday before the deer opener. The agency accepts no liability for injuries, so the safety discipline is yours to keep.
Shooting on game lands away from a range
This is where people get into trouble. Target shooting on State Game Lands outside an established range is lawful only if you hold a valid signed hunting or furtaker license, and even then it must be done so as not to endanger people or property and not in areas posted closed to it. Discharging anything that is not a lawful device for hunting game is prohibited except on an established range. Clay birds may be thrown only in signed areas.
The Game and Wildlife Code narrows it further statewide. Target shooting is lawful when it is done on property you own or as a guest of the owner, within 200 yards of a camp or headquarters where you are quartered or an invited guest, or at an established range. The target has to be backed by a natural or artificial barrier so a bullet or arrow cannot travel more than 15 yards past it. During open deer and bear seasons it is unlawful to shoot at any target other than legal game, so the week of the rifle opener is not the week to sight in on a hillside.
The orange rule that applies to everyone
From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, and again from Apr. 20 through May 31, anyone present on State Game Lands who is not lawfully hunting, trapping or fishing must wear at least 250 square inches of fluorescent orange on head, chest and back combined, or an orange hat, visible from every direction. People using the shooting ranges are exempt from that requirement. Hikers, dog walkers and photographers are not.
Other public land
State forests are a different landlord with different rules. Pennsylvania has more than two million acres of state forest, hunting is permitted on almost all of it, and Sunday hunting is open on state forest ground. Ground blinds and tree stands may be placed within the limits the forestry bureau sets. State parks are more restricted, and Sunday hunting is limited in parks and preserves inside Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties to a handful of November dates.
The Allegheny National Forest is worth a note for anyone in the northwest. It has no designated target shooting area at all. Recreational shooting is allowed on national forest ground if you are at least 150 yards from a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation area or occupied area, not shooting across or on a forest road or an adjacent body of water, not shooting into a cave, and not exposing anyone or anything to injury or damage. Hunters near Bradford, Kane and Warren normally drive to the Game Commission ranges in Elk or Forest county rather than improvise.
Getting ready for a season
Sight in three weeks before the opener, not three days. Confirm zero with the ammunition you will actually hunt with, shoot from a field position as well as a bench, and pattern a turkey or buckshot load at the distance you expect. If you need optics, rings, a bipod, a chronograph or a bulk case of practice ammunition, the catalog and the store pages carry them, and ammunition ships to the door. For the rules on which arms are legal in which season, see the Pennsylvania firearm law overview, the turkey guide and the waterfowl guide.
Permit price, hours and conduct rules above come from the Game Commission shooting range page and the 2026-27 digest, read in September 2026. Check the range page for temporary closures before you travel.
General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.
