Hunting News

Any-deer permit lottery applications now online

Any-deer permit lottery applications now online

By Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

For the 2018-19 deer season, a total 84,745 any-deer permits are proposed for 22 of Maine’s 29 wildlife management districts across the state, an increase of 28 percent. Last year, there were 66,050 permits available to hunters.

It is free to apply for the any-deer permit lottery, and online applications are due by 11:59 P.M. on Aug. 15. To apply click here.

The drawing will be held Sept. 7, and results will be posted online.

Hunters who do not receive an Any-Deer permit are only allowed to shoot an antlered deer (with some exceptions during archery season and on youth day).

This year hunters must also apply for a bonus permit, as there are likely to be wildlife management districts where there are more any deer permits available than there are hunters who apply for them. In these districts, hunters can get a bonus antlerless permit for no charge if they apply and are selected. Last year, bonus permits were awarded in WMDS 20, 21, 22, 24 and 29 which are located in southern, central and coastal Maine.

Hunter success rates are much higher for those with an any deer permit. Generally, success rates for deer hunters in Maine hover around 15 percent but those with an any deer permit harvested a deer over 20 percent of the time.

Permit numbers are increasing in nine southern and central wildlife management districts, are decreasing in 11 WMDs and staying the same in nine WMDS. Hunters can find the complete numbers here.

The permit numbers reflect that the 2017-18 winter was more moderate in central and southern Maine, while up north the winter was a little more severe than years past.

The department uses the any-deer permit system to manage the white-tailed deer population in the state. The ability to enact change in the state’s deer populations derives from the ability to increase, or decrease, the number of breeding female deer on the landscape. By controlling the harvest of female deer in the 29 regional wildlife management districts throughout the state, biologists can manage population trends.

Deer hunters in Maine harvested 27,233 deer in 2017, the highest total in the last ten years and an increase of 15 percent from 2016.

Maine’s deer hunt is broken into several seasons for firearm hunters, muzzleloaders and bow hunters. Most deer are harvested during the general firearms season (23,288), which started Oct. 28 and continued to Nov. 25.

Bowhunters took 2,099 deer, and hunters took 970 deer during the muzzleloading season. Maine’s junior hunters were also very successful on youth day, with 876 youth hunters taking a deer this year.

Deer hunting season (firearms) begins with Youth Deer Hunting Day Oct. 20. Youth may take a buck statewide or an antlerless deer only in the wildlife management districts where any-deer permits will be issued this fall.

Maine Residents Only Day is Oct. 27 and regular firearms season for deer runs Oct. 29 through Nov. 24. A nonresident who owns 25 or more acres of land in Maine and leaves land open to hunting, holds a valid hunting license, and is not otherwise prohibited by law, may hunt deer on the Resident only day.

Copyright 2024 by Buckmasters, Ltd.

Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd