Yes, it is legal to shoot beavers in Pennsylvania, but only during the furbearer season set by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and only if you hold both a general hunting license and a furtaker license. Beavers are classified as furbearers, which puts them under a separate set of rules from deer or bear, with their own season dates, approved firearms, bag limits by Wildlife Management Unit, and protections for beaver dams and lodges.
When the Season Is Open
Beaver season runs on a statewide schedule. For the 2025–26 license year, it opened December 20, 2025, and closes March 31, 2026.1Pennsylvania Game Commission. Final 2025-26 Seasons Adopted Dates shift from year to year, so check the current Hunting and Trapping Digest before you go out.
Bag limits depend on your Wildlife Management Unit. Some WMUs allow higher seasonal totals than others, and the Game Commission adjusts those numbers based on population data. On opening day you cannot possess more than one day’s limit. After opening day you cannot possess more than two days’ worth. If the Commission does not set new limits in a given year, the prior year’s rules carry over automatically.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 34 Chapter 21 – Section 2102
Licenses You Need
Taking a beaver legally requires two licenses: a general hunting license and a furtaker license. A resident adult hunting license costs $20.97, and a resident adult furtaker license is another $20.97. Nonresidents pay $81.97 for the furtaker license. Both are available through the HuntFishPA system or at an authorized license-issuing agent, and the license year runs July 1 through June 30.3Pennsylvania Game Commission. License Types
First-time hunters born on or after January 1, 1987, must complete a state-approved Hunter-Trapper Education course before buying a hunting license. The course covers safe hunting practices, firearm handling, and wildlife conservation. Pennsylvania’s mentored hunting program can waive that requirement for hunters accompanied by a licensed adult, though mentored permits carry their own restrictions.4Pennsylvania Game Commission. Licenses and Permits
Firearms You Can Use
The approved firearms for furbearer season include manually operated or semiautomatic rifles firing single-projectile ammunition, manually operated handguns, muzzleloading rifles or handguns, and shotguns of 10 gauge or smaller loaded with single-projectile ammunition or buckshot no larger than #4. Centerfire shotguns are limited to a two-round magazine capacity and three rounds total.5Legal Information Institute. 58 Pa. Code 141.67 – Furbearer Seasons
The rules tighten when the beaver season overlaps with the regular or special firearms deer season. In that window you may only use a rimfire rifle or handgun of .22 caliber or smaller, or an air rifle or air handgun between .177 and .22 caliber firing single-projectile pellet or bullet ammunition. BB ammunition is not authorized.5Legal Information Institute. 58 Pa. Code 141.67 – Furbearer Seasons
Automatic firearms, explosives, and poisons are always prohibited for hunting in Pennsylvania. If it is not on the approved list, leave it at home.
Where You Cannot Shoot
Pennsylvania’s safety zone rule applies to beaver hunting the same as any other hunting. You cannot discharge a firearm within 150 yards of any occupied home, residence, camp, barn, farm building, school, or playground without advance permission from the occupant. For bowhunters and falconers the residential zone shrinks to 50 yards, but the 150-yard zone around schools and playgrounds still applies. Shooting into a safety zone is illegal even if you are standing outside of it.6Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 34 – Section 2505
A first-offense safety zone violation carries a fine of $200 to $500. A second or subsequent violation within two calendar years brings a fine of $500 to $1,000.6Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 34 – Section 2505
Beaver Dams and Lodges Are Off-Limits
This is where hunters and trappers quietly get themselves in trouble. Destroying, disturbing, or interfering with a beaver dam or lodge is unlawful under the Game and Wildlife Code. You also cannot place, check, reset, or tend a trap or snare on an established beaver dam or beaver house, or within 15 feet of either structure. The 15-foot distance is measured from directly above the trap, across the water, ice, or land, to the nearest point of the dam or lodge.7Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. 58 Pa. Code 141.62 – Beaver and Otter Trapping
Even if beavers are flooding your property, you cannot tear out the dam on your own. That falls under nuisance control, which has its own permit process.
Nuisance Beavers Outside the Season
Beavers cause real damage. Their dams flood roads, destroy timber, and saturate farmland. But outside of the regular season, you cannot simply shoot or trap a beaver on your own property.
Pennsylvania law is explicit: landowners and homeowners may not trap beavers themselves. Beaver control requires prior approval from the District Wildlife Conservation Officer in your area.8Pennsylvania Game Commission. Nuisance Wildlife9Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. 58 Pa. Code Subchapter T – Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator
Contact your regional Game Commission office. The officer may authorize a licensed nuisance wildlife control operator or a licensed trapper to deal with the problem. Approved methods for nuisance control include foothold traps, body-gripping traps, cage traps, nets, and snares. Any beaver killed during nuisance control must be reported to the Game Commission. Animals captured alive may not be kept, sold, or given away, though they may be relocated to a natural setting.8Pennsylvania Game Commission. Nuisance Wildlife
Penalties for Getting It Wrong
Most furbearer violations are summary offenses, with severity tied to what you did. Unlawfully killing, taking, or possessing a furbearer triggers penalties under Section 2307(d) of the Game and Wildlife Code. Other regulatory violations, such as using the wrong equipment, are summary offenses of the fifth degree.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 34 Chapter 21 – Section 2102
Each animal counts as a separate offense, so three beavers over your limit can mean three separate fines. Serious or repeat violations can also cost you your hunting and furtaking privileges through revocation. And if you take a beaver illegally and then move or sell the pelt across state lines, federal charges under the Lacey Act are also on the table, since that statute prohibits interstate commerce in wildlife taken in violation of state law.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 USC 3372 – Prohibited Acts