Doe permits: Time to apply
By V. Paul Reynolds
Yes, there is, I know, a perfectly good legal reason for it, calling does antlerless and bucks antlered, but my old school inclinations are hard to shake. For me, they are still does and bucks, and will be until my last breath. Bucks and does is a lot easier to say and to spell than “antlerless and antlered deer.”
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has officially opened the application period for you to apply for your annual doe permit, oops, antlerless deer permit.
Applicants have until August 1 at midnight to apply for their doe permits. The lottery drawing for the issued permits will be held August 15. As has been the case for a few years now, applications can only be submitted online at the MDIF&W website: www.fishwildlife.com.
This year about 128,000 permits will be issued, which is an increase of almost 20,000 over last year. As usual the southern and coastal Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) will receive a higher percentage of antlerless deer permits than the rest of the state. No permits will be issued in the WMDs in northwestern Maine.
In 2022, which was the first year of the two-deer option ( you could harvest both a buck and doe if you held a doe permit), there was a record harvest of 43,787 deer. This compares with a lower deer kill last fall of 38,215. This two-deer option is quite an opportunity for the dedicated deer hunter, for it means that you can take a doe for the freezer in the issued WMD, say in Rockland, and later hunt bucks in the big woods of Piscataquis County, for example.
Archery hunters, including crossbow hunters this year, may harvest a doe in most WMDs without a special doe permit and may not take an additional bow buck unless they hold a doe permit.
Hunters who are awarded an antlerless deer permit in the lottery will need to claim their permits online and purchase them for $12, plus a $2 agency fee.
If past is prologue, not all of the doe permits will be applied for in some of the deer-rich WMDS in southern Maine. When these permits are left over, the state will conduct another round of bonus permit purchases. According to the Bangor Daily News, the leftover lottery for the unclaimed permits will begin Sept.17 and offered on a first-come, first- served basis. The newspaper also reported that in 2023 there were 21,664 doe permits that were not purchased! Given this fact, that in some WMDs there are more expendable does than there are willing hunters, why not simply allow the two-deer option for any licensed hunter in these WMDs without the lottery?
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.