This record does not carry 3 regulations the state has. The declarations below are the record's own words.
kind: cross-references — description: **Which Wildlife Management District a hunter is in is not carried.** Rows are scoped to WMDs — "Designated areas only", and the bag rule names WMDs 21-25 and 29 specifically — and the map defining them is published separately by MDIFW.
kind: cross-references — description: **Antlerless deer permits are named and not carried.** The block's own limits say additional deer may be taken only by hunters holding antlerless deer permits or expanded-archery permits; the allocation, the lottery and the per-WMD quotas are elsewhere. **A season date here is when a hunter may hunt, not how many deer they may take.**
kind: cross-references — description: This is the SUMMARY of laws and rules, published by MDIFW as a two-page season table. The full hunting law book carries methods, hunter-orange requirements, tagging and registration, none of which is in these rows.
in season now Expanded Archery — Maine deer runs through 2026-12-12 derived as of Sep 23
Do not take our word for it. The document every row on this page was read out of is one tap away, and checking us against it is exactly what the citation, the sha256 and the source lines under each row are for.
Open the source document → https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/26-MDIFW-6-Hunting-Season-2026-27.pdf#page=1If that document says something this page does not, the document is the regulation and this page is wrong. The copy we read is the one whose sha256 is above; if the publisher has replaced the file since 2026-08-08, yours will not match ours, and that difference is the thing worth knowing.
September 12, 2026 – December 12, 2026
open now ends 2026-12-12 · derived as of Sep 23
2026-09-12 → 2026-12-12 derived
| closes | December 12, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Expanded Archery |
| opens | September 12, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | Designated areas only |
October 3, 2026 – October 30, 2026
opens in 10 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-10-03 → 2026-10-30 derived
| closes | October 30, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Regular Archery |
| opens | October 3, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | All |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
October 23, 2026 – October 24, 2026
opens in 30 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-10-23 → 2026-10-24 derived
| closes | October 24, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Youth Deer Hunt |
| opens | October 23, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | All |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
October 31, 2026
opens in 38 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-10-31 → 2026-10-31 derived
| closes | |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| footnote | *A non-resident who owns 25 or more acres of land in Maine and leaves land open to hunting, holds a valid hunting license, and is not otherwise prohibited by law, may hunt deer on the Resident only day, anywhere in the state. A verification form must be completed and can be located on our website. |
| hunt | Maine Resident Only Day* |
| opens | October 31, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | All |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
November 2, 2026 – November 28, 2026
opens in 40 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-11-02 → 2026-11-28 derived
| closes | November 28, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Firearms Season |
| opens | November 2, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | All |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
November 30, 2026 – December 5, 2026
opens in 68 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-11-30 → 2026-12-05 derived
| closes | December 5, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Muzzleloader Statewide |
| opens | November 30, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | All |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
December 7, 2026 – December 12, 2026
opens in 75 days derived as of Sep 23
2026-12-07 → 2026-12-12 derived
| closes | December 12, 2026 |
|---|---|
| date_scope | All dates are inclusive except that hunting is prohibited on Sunday. |
| hunt | Muzzleloader |
| opens | December 7, 2026 |
| wildlife_management_districts | 12-18 and 20-29 |
These are the pages the adapter read for the whole state. This row was not narrowed to a page of its own.
| value | Only 1 antlered deer may be harvested annually Exceptions: • For 2026, in WMDs 21-25 and 29 during the firearms and muzzleloader seasons, or statewide during the regular archery and youth hunt seasons, hunters may harvest one deer, either antlered or antlerless, under the author- ity of their big game hunting license. This deer counts as the hunter's one deer for the year. If a hunter wants to take additional deer, an antlerless deer permit is required. • A dditional deer may be harvested by hunters possessing antlerless deer permit(s) or during the expanded archery season with appropriate permits. |
|---|
That is the direction that ends in a citation, or in a hunter on ground the state has closed. Read the signals below before you use any row on this page.
Derived by rule from this record's own declared gaps, its own integrity fields and its own rows. It is not a score and there is no confidence number: the counts below count signals, nothing more.
overOVER: a restriction/requirement this record does not carry [limit_or_quota='quota']; the gap ALSO names an opportunity it does not carry [extra_allowance='additional deer may be taken'], so it errs both ways and the dangerous direction is reported
overOVER: the gap names a restriction, requirement, closure or supersession the record does not carry [obligation='requirement', visibility='hunter-orange', tag_check_report='tagging']; a row read without it is broader than the regulation
unknowncannot be determined: the gap carries regulation but its description names neither a restriction nor an opportunity in terms this rule can read (kind='cross-references'). Boundary, map and definition gaps land here and belong here — not knowing which unit you are in cuts both ways
unknown1 page boundary/boundaries beside the cited range were never inspected. A table that continues past a citation loses whole rows — the missing rows could be further seasons (under) or the restrictions on the ones published (over), and this is the check five states went OFFLINE for skipping.
carries_regulation flag at face value. A gap mis-declared as non-regulatory is a silent miss.Current through — the document this record was read from, and nothing later than it:
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 2026-27 Maine Hunting Seasons (Summary of Laws & Rules), the DEER block
We fetched it on 2026-08-08. That is our retrieval date, not a publication date. This record carries no date on which its publisher issued, adopted, amended or last revised that document, so this page states none. Any effective, issue or adoption date the document states of itself is inside the citation above, in the publisher’s own words — nothing here lifts it out or restates it as a fact of ours.
derived Maine declares 3 gaps, of which 3 are regulation this compilation does not carry.
cross-references
**Which Wildlife Management District a hunter is in is not carried.** Rows are scoped to WMDs — "Designated areas only", and the bag rule names WMDs 21-25 and 29 specifically — and the map defining them is published separately by MDIFW.
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Maine’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/26-MDIFW-6-Hunting-Season-2026-27.pdf#page=1Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
cross-references
**Antlerless deer permits are named and not carried.** The block's own limits say additional deer may be taken only by hunters holding antlerless deer permits or expanded-archery permits; the allocation, the lottery and the per-WMD quotas are elsewhere. **A season date here is when a hunter may hunt, not how many deer they may take.**
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Maine’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/26-MDIFW-6-Hunting-Season-2026-27.pdf#page=1Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
cross-references
This is the SUMMARY of laws and rules, published by MDIFW as a two-page season table. The full hunting law book carries methods, hunter-orange requirements, tagging and registration, none of which is in these rows.
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Maine’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/26-MDIFW-6-Hunting-Season-2026-27.pdf#page=1Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
100.0% of visual lines across the season summary — the DATA rows of this table are not drawn, only its headings are
derived: this percentage is over the units named above, on the pages this record cites. It is not a percentage of the state's regulation. The gaps above are what a full percentage would have to count and cannot.
These are not gaps.
The Booklet is not the law and is not an official edition of any state’s regulations: no state agency writes, reviews, publishes or approves it, and where a page here differs from the agency document it cites, the agency document is the regulation and this page is wrong.
It is an editorial compilation of state agency regulation documents: every row is carried verbatim out of one named document, cited by title, identified by the sha256 of the exact bytes we read, and printed beside the source lines it was read from.