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.
“An increasing deer herd in southern and central Maine, and favorable hunting conditions contributed to the best deer hunting season in ten years,” said Nathan Bieber, Maine deer biologist.
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.
Adult bucks comprised the vast majority of the harvest, with hunters taking 18,255 antlered bucks. With 66,050 anterless permits issued, hunters harvested 8,978 antlerless deer.
According to surveys, on average Maine deer hunters spent 37 hours hunting deer during the season, averaging 4.3 hours afield each trip.
That’s a welcome sign.
I do all my hunting in the North and its been pretty consistent over the years. Not many deer, I believe it’s something like 3 to 5 deer per square mile. So its tough hunting but if you get in a good area with lots of fresh sign you’ll give yourself a good chance to “see a deer”… Notice I said see a deer… Not a buck but a deer… After 28 years hunting the Big Woods I can guarantee I’ll be in deer, buck and doe all week. Killing a buck in a week is a big accomplishment for any seasoned hunter. Killing a big buck is a world class accomplishment…
The North did have lots of snow still on the ground late and cold temps but many a deer were spotted this spring. so I don’t think they had a big winter kill.
I’m looking forward to another week chasing big bucks up N-Maine come 3rd week in November…