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To apply online, visit www.mefishwildlife.com.
Online applications are due by 11:59 P.M. on August 15, 2018.
It is free to apply for the any-deer permit lottery. The
drawing will be held on September 7, 2018 and results will be posted on the
Department’s website.
For this coming deer season, a total 84,745 any-deer permits
are proposed for 22 of the state’s 29 wildlife management districts across the
state, an increase of 28%. Last year, there were 66,050 permits available to
hunters. 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, make sure you 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% but those with an any deer permit harvested a deer over 20% 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. You can find the complete numbers at https://www.maine.gov/ifw/hunting-trapping/any-deer-permit.html#permitallocations.
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% from 2016. Maine’s
deer hunt is broken down into several seasons for firearm hunters,
muzzleloaders and bow hunters. Most deer are harvested during the general
firearms season (23,288), which started on October 28th and continued until
November 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 in Maine provides many Maine families with wild
game meat that is high in nutrition, sustainable, free range, and organic. On
average, a 150-pound field dressed deer will provide close to 70 pounds of meat.
Deer hunting season (firearms) begins with Youth Deer Hunting
Day on Saturday, October 20, 2018. 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.
This year, Maine Residents Only Day is on Saturday, October
27, 2017 and regular firearms season for deer runs October 29 through November
24, 2017. Once again this year, 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.
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