The nearly 60,000 antlerless deer permits the state did not give out in its annual lottery can be purchased online beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17.
The $12 for the permit will be used mostly in northern Maine to acquire and manage deer wintering areas. An additional $2 agent fee will cover administrative costs.
The limit is one extra permit per hunter, although a hunter may purchase permits for three other hunters as well while online, as long as the transactions are finished within 25 minutes. If there are permits not purchased this round, the state may offer another chance in early November.
Hunters who did not apply to the lottery, who applied and were successful in the lottery or who applied but didn’t get a permit are all eligible to purchase one on Tuesday, first-come first-served.
The permits, totaling 59,661, are available in wildlife management districts 15 (937 permits), 16 (292), 17 (1,308), 20 (556), 21 (10,252), 22 (8,883), 23 (12,321), 24 (8,882), 25 (13,943) and 29 (2,287).
Permits are only available online in the extra permits section. If you enter the site earlier than 9:30 a.m., the computer system will put you in a virtual waiting room. At 9:30 a.m., those in the waiting room and people entering the site at 9:30 will be given random numbers and will be served in numerical order.
Those who enter after 9:30 will be served in the order in which they come in. Hunters should plan on some waiting time.
There is no advantage to getting online really early because number assignments given to those in the “waiting” queue are random, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Those seeking additional antlerless permits must have available their name and date of birth as they appear on your hunting license, MOSES identification number, at least two wildlife management districts in case your primary choice doesn’t have any permits left and credit card information.
Hunters will be able to see numbers of permits available in the WMDs in real time once they are in the permit site. Those waiting will be notified as WMDs sell out. Hunters do not need to use their first permit before purchasing a second.
Clear your cache or refresh your page if you don’t see the green “Purchase Permit” button after 9:30 a.m.
The state had 128,030 antlerless permits available when the lottery opened on Aug. 1, an increase of about 20,000 more than in 2023. A total of 69,870 permits were issued in the drawing on Aug. 15.
