Moose hunting is an annual tradition in Maine, with families going on trips that create stories told for generations.
Yet thousands of Maine hunters have missed out on that opportunity because they came up empty in every state-sponsored moose permit lottery for more than a decade.
Additional Photos
But that’s about to change.
Last year, the Legislature improved the odds for hunters who have tried but haven’t won a moose permit since 1998, when the state began a system allowing hunters to buy extra lottery chances.
“In the next five or six years, there will be very few people who have applied every year and not won,” said Mark Ostermann, a computer specialist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Over the past seven years, the number of permits in the moose lottery has increased while the number of people applying for them has decreased dramatically.
Despite that, there still are 3,586 regular applicants who have not won a permit since 1998 or earlier.
It didn’t seem appropriate to announce the changes at last spring’s moose lottery, said John Pratt, wildlife division supervisor for the state agency. As a result, many hunters don’t know about the change.
When told about it recently, several approved.
“I think it’s a great thing. Lots of people pay taxes and buy hunting licenses that pay for fish-and-game work. I think they deserve it,” said Jerry McLaughlin of New Sweden, founder of the Aroostook County Conservation Association.
Roger Lambert of Strong, who gives moose hunting seminars at the Maine Sportsman’s Show every March, said the changes were significant.
For years, Lambert has heard hunters at his seminar at the Augusta Civic Center complain about never winning a permit. Now that outcry will end.
And Lambert said most Maine hunters will want to “give someone else a chance.”
“It has advanced the opportunity for people who are devoted and dedicated, and I think that’s wonderful,” he said.
“The result of the weighting will be huge. Those changes, in my mind, will bring a lot of people back to the lottery and rejuvenate it, and give them a chance to go on a world-class hunt.”
He said, “we used to have 95,000 applicants, now we have 45,000.”
Maine’s moose hunt has been held annually since 1982, with permits allotted through a lottery to applicants who pay for chances.
Since 1998, the lottery has given hunters the option of buying as many as six chances.
Last year, the extra chances cost hunters a total of $22 for six or $12 for three, compared with $7 for just one chance.
Still, 3,586 hunters who bought the maximum number of chances every year in the bonus-point system have never been drawn, Ostermann said.
This year’s lottery will be held in the second week of June.
Ostermann said it is expected to be held in Rangeley, a departure from the recent trend of using commercial venues like L.L. Bean in Freeport, Cabela’s in Scarborough and the Kittery Trading Post.
Last year, 49,887 hunters applied and 3,862 permits were issued.
This year the department is proposing 3,840 permits, 10 percent of them allocated to nonresidents.
The lottery changes will favor longtime applicants, Ostermann said.
In the new system, each applicant will be allowed to buy only one chance.
But Maine residents who have bought the maximum of six chances every year since 1998 will keep the 28 bonus points they have accrued.
That will make them 28 times more likely to be drawn than a first-time applicant, Ostermann said.
The actual odds of winning can’t be predicted until the number of applicants is known.
The change does not affect nonresidents, who can continue to buy one, three or six chances, since their lottery for 10 percent of the permits is held separately.
In addition, permit winners this year and in future years will have to sit out three years before they can buy another chance, again improving the odds for resident applicants who have never been drawn.
Most of the longtime bonus point applicants have the maximum number.
Those with fewer points tend to skip a year, Ostermann said — another factor that will give the longtime unsuccessful applicants an edge.
Not everyone is a fan of the new system.
David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and a state senator who served on the legislative committee that worked on the new law, doesn’t like the change.
“For me, you take your chance and hopefully you get drawn. I am sympathetic to those who get older, when your health is deteriorating, and you don’t get a moose permit. But ultimately, it no longer becomes a lottery if it is weighted so strongly that people are guaranteed a permit,” said Trahan, who has been drawn twice.
Some hunters remain skeptical.
Jim Doody of Caribou has purchased chances most years since the lottery began 30 years ago.
He doesn’t believe the lottery will ever work.
“I don’t trust the way it’s drawn,” he said.
“How can you trust it when two and three and four people in the same family get it? I see it all the time. It discourages a lot of people.”
Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at: dfleming@pressherald.com
Twitter: Flemingpph
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.