Nearly 900,000 hunters are expected to take to woodlands and farms across the state for the 14-day white-tailed deer firearms season that gets underway this weekend.

The season begins Saturday, includes Sunday and continues until Dec. 11. One antlered deer can be harvested with the general hunting license and per hunting license year.

Does can be harvested with licenses for the appropriate wildlife management unit. A buck and doe can be harvested the same day, but must be tagged before the carcasses are moved.

Successful hunters who don't want the venison from their deer can donate it to Hunters Sharing the Harvest (HSH). The organization distributes the meat to food pantries, which provide it to needy residents.

Butler County hunters gave more than 15,000 pounds of venison last year, said Tom Rossman, who runs the county HSH program.

“Last year, 15,242 pounds were donated by Butler County hunters,” Rossman said. “That translates into 60,000 portions for meals.”

HSH distributed that venison to 31 food pantries in the county.

Statewide, 200,000 pounds of deer meat was donated last year, he said.

Through HSH, hunters have provided venison for the more than 1.6 million food insecure people in the state since 1991.

“Quite a few” deer have already been donated from the recently concluded archery season, October muzzleloader antlerless season and October special firearms antlerless season for junior, senior, disabled and mentored youth hunters, Rossman said. Deer processors haven't yet submitted the amount of venison they processed from those seasons, he said.

Five deer processors in the county prepare the meat for HSH. Donations cover the processing cost, so hunters don't have to pay to donate their deer.

Those processors are R&B Meats & Deer Processing in Herman, Bim's Boloney in Petrolia, McKruit's Meat Packing in Cabot, T.A. Giger Deer Processing in Valencia and Bob's Deer Processing in Prospect.

Rossman said donors across the state gave $300,000 to pay for processing last year.

Donations can be sent to Hunters Sharing the Harvest (HSH), 6780 Hickory Lane, Harrisburg, Pa. 17112.

Hunters harvested an estimated 435,180 deer in the 2020-2021 seasons, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. That was 12% higher than the 2019-2020 harvest of 389,431 and the highest harvest in 15 years.

Hunters took 174,780 bucks last year. That was up from 163,240 in 2019-2020 and 147,750 in 2018-2019, and the most ever in the antler restrictions era.

Rules regarding the number of antler points a legal buck must have on one antler vary by wildlife management unit (WMU). In most WMUs, a buck with three points to a side, counting the brow tine, is legal. But in WMUs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and 2D, a buck must have three points not counting the brow tine.

Most of Butler County is in 2D. The western part of the county is in 1A and a small portion in the southern part of the county is in 2B.

Hunters are required to wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent clothing on the head, back and chest combined at all times.

Semiautomatic rifles are not permitted, but semiautomatic centerfire shotguns that fire single projectile ammunition are permitted.

Hunting begins a half hour before sunrise and ends a half hour after sunset.

Hunters must report their harvest to the commission within 10 days. Harvests can be reported online at www.huntfish.pa.gov, by calling 1-800-838-4431 or by mailing in the postage-paid cards that are provided in the hunting digest.