Hunters flock to State Game Land in Clay Township following late-season release of pheasants

February 22, 2025 Last Updated: February 21, 2025 11:37 PM Pennsylvania News

Duane Sheasley with the Pennsylvania Game Commission releases pheasants on hunting land in West Sunbury to help provide additional hunting recreation in the last weeks of pheasant hunting season on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Morgan Phillips

Pheasant hunters in Butler County were given a rare late-season hunting opportunity, as a batch of about 300 pheasants were released at State Game Land 95 in Clay Township mid-last week — about two weeks before the end of pheasant-hunting season on Friday, Feb. 28.

Ethan Biehl, a land manager for the Game Commission, says late-season mass pheasant releases like this don’t happen very often, with “stockings,” as they’re also called, taking place sporadically as early as October and as late as mid-January.

However, Biehl said this hunting season was a special case.

“The farms we get our pheasants from had extra birds they needed to get rid of, so the Game Commission got ahold of them for a late season stocking,” Biehl said. “Normally we don’t have one this late, so that’s why it was only up for a few game lands throughout the state.”

Biehl said this unusually late allocation of pheasants has drawn the largest crowds of pheasant hunters he’s seen all year.

“We’ve really seen a heck of a lot of people,” Biehl said. “There was actually more people there the other day than what I’ve seen all season. So it seemed like people knew what was happening and came out from all over to go hunting.”

According to Biehl, pheasant hunting in Butler County takes place at State Game Land 304 in Clearfield Township as well as Moraine State Park, in addition to State Game Land 95. However, only No. 95 received pheasants in this allocation.

Morgan Phillips

Duane Sheasley with the Pennsylvania Game Commission releases pheasants on fields in West Sunbury to help provide additional hunting recreation in the last weeks of pheasant hunting season on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Morgan Phillips

About 300 pheasants were released by the Pennsylvania Game Commission in fields around West Sunbury on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Morgan Phillips

Kevin Lash with the Pennsylvania Game Commission keeps track of the pheasants being released on fields in West Sunbury during the release of about 300 pheasants to help provide additional hunting recreation in the last weeks of pheasant season on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Morgan Phillips