According to the rule book enforced by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners, hunters in the Keystone state are unable to hunt with the help of any electronic devices, with a few exceptions.
Rangefinders, hearing aids, lighted sight pins and electronic calls for bobcats, coyotes, raccoons and the like are all fair game for hunters in Pennsylvania. However, those nestled along the waterways in search of ducks have been clamoring for rule changes for a number of years now with regards to electronically operated decoys.
Known as e-decoys by many, these duck decoys are backed by the good folks at Duracell and can be seen spinning their wings for hours on end, giving the appearance to incoming ducks of fellow ducks settling in on the water below. The avoidance of adopting the technology by the Commission is said to be rooted in the fear that if these products were available to hunters, surely all the ducks would be killed.
For the uninitiated, they only would need to look to the neighboring states surrounding Pennsylvania where these types of electronic decoys have been in use for a number of years. And yes, there are still ducks.
Preliminary approval was granted by the Board on Monday that would see these decoys and other electronic devices built for the outdoors legalized. In addition to the decoys, products such as Ozonics scent eliminator systems and electronic scent dispensing apparatuses should all be in use this fall in the deer woods of Pennsylvania.
