Maine’s antlerless deer permits finally go on sale Tuesday
By Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News Staff
Perhaps you have been out deer hunting and had a nice one step out in front of you at close range. But when you squeeze the trigger, the rifle jams — or it fails to fire because of a faulty round — and the deer bounds away.
That sums up how the folks at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife likely felt last Wednesday. The state had prepared for the first time to initiate the sale of available antlerless deer permits when technical issues rendered the system inoperable.
It has announced that the technical issues have been rectified, and that the sale now will take place starting 11 a.m. Tuesday.
The system malfunction caused considerable consternation among Maine deer hunters, many of whom had set aside time from work or other activities specifically to obtain a permit.
“The antlerless deer permit webpage issues on October 5 were disappointing and frustrating to all of us, and we thank you for your understanding as we navigate this new permit system,” the wildlife department said.
Despite expecting and testing for the highest volume of traffic the state has ever experienced, unprecedented demand resulted in the landing page being shut down.
The state is making available for sale 38,048 permits that will give hunters the opportunity to harvest an antlerless deer in a specific Wildlife Management District, in addition to a buck statewide.
All hunters — including those who did not apply for the antlerless permit lottery held on Sept. 1, those who received a permit through the lottery, and those who applied to the lottery but did not receive a permit — are eligible to buy a permit online on a first-come, first-served basis.
Permits cost $12 each, plus a $2 agent fee.
The bulk of the available permits are designated for areas across southern and midcoast Maine — specifically WMDs 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29 and subunit 25a.
Starting at 11 a.m. Tuesday, users entering the purchase site will be entered into the queue. The system will release customers from the queue in the order they joined to ensure the purchase site can manage the number of active users.
One in the queue, hunters will be given an expected wait time and will have the chance to buy a permit when their turn comes up. To purchase a permit online, users will need to go to this website and click “Purchase Permit” under the “Over the Counter Permit” section.
Proceeds from the new antlerless permit system, which was implemented in the hope of encouraging more hunters to actively pursue antlerless deer in an attempt to help the wildlife department meet its statewide harvest goals, benefit the sale and management of deer wintering areas in northern, western and eastern Maine.