In 2005, 23,951 hunters applied for permits and everyone was given a permit (due to a bill introduced into the Legislature that increased the number of permits), compared to 24,039 hunters applying for 15,600 spring turkey permits in 2004, and 26,505 individuals applying for 12,000 permits in 2003. For the second year permits will be unlimited in spring 2006.

2006 Spring Season

Hunting hours:
1/2 hour before sunrise until 12:00 pm (noon).

Unlimited permits allocated: permits divided evenly between A & B seasons by year of birth (even year - A Season, odd year - B season)

Youth Day: April 29, 2006 (open to all permit holders age 10-15)

Season A:
May 1, 2006 - May 6, 2006
May 22, 2006 - May 27, 2006
May 29, 2006 - June 3, 2006

Season B:
May 8, 2006 - May 20, 2006
May 29, 2006 - June 3, 2006

Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) open to hunting: 10-18, 20-26* (* Note that WMDs 10 and 11 have been added and WMD 27 has been eliminated from the 2006 turkey hunting zone, however, the boundary of WMD 26 has been expanded in an easterly direction; see the 2006 hunting laws and rules for descriptions of new WMD boundaries)

2005 Season Dates: October 18 - October 29, 2004

Fall Turkey Hunt in Wildlife Management Districts 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26

Bag Limit: One wild turkey of either sex, any age per permit holder.

Legal Hours: 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset

Legal Weapons - Only bow and arrow may be used to hunt wild turkey during the fall wild turkey hunting season.

This year, 2005, on the 19th anniversary of the modern hunt, every hunter who entered the lottery - exactly 23,951 - got a permit after Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill revoking the unnecessary lottery system.

After 20,300 permits were issued in the lottery this winter, the remaining applicants, in the end, were given permits because of the bill signed in April.

Danny Martin, commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said the bill Baldacci signed revoking the lottery proved "wild turkeys have returned to Maine."

The hunt's expansion has increased in step with a turkey population that has fanned out across the state.

Since the bird was successfully reintroduced here in 1977, it has, with the help of biologists, spread throughout Maine well beyond its historic range, said state biologist Gene Dumont.

This winter, wild turkeys were captured and released for the first time in southern Aroostook County, in the towns of Orient and Hersey, said Dumont, the state's wildlife management supervisor.

Birds also were released deep in the western mountains in Kingfield and Madrid, he said.

Historically, wild turkeys in Maine lived west of the Penobscot River drainage, around Belfast; as far north as Bangor; and only 40 to 50 miles inland from southern Maine, Dumont said.