PORTLAND (AP) – With the number of junior hunters in Maine apparently on the rise, youngsters can get a jump on deer season Saturday during the state’s second annual Youth Deer Day.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which seeks to encourage young people to hunt, scheduled the special day so that license holders aged 10 to 15 get a chance to hunt deer before the season opens for adults.

On the first Youth Deer Day last year, junior hunters tagged 553 whitetails. If this year’s total is higher, organizers say it will suggest that more Maine young people are becoming interested in big game hunting.

Sales of junior hunting licenses declined for a decade before rising a couple of years ago. The number of adult hunters has been dropping in Maine and nationwide.

In 1992, more than 182,100 residents bought hunting licenses, while in 2002 just over 171,200 did.

However, while fewer than 16,000 Mainers aged 10 to 15 bought a hunting license throughout much of the 1990s, sales climbed in 2001 to 16,325 and last year to 17,503.

Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman Mark Latti said nobody is certain why numbers have increased, but the state has focused efforts in this area, including Youth Deer Day.

Some sportsmen interested in increasing the ranks of hunters say it’s not enough to recruit more hunters into the field.

George Smith of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine said the alliance has tried at least four times to have a bill passed that would put hunter education programs in public schools, but to no avail.

The participation rate of junior hunters in last year’s Youth Deer Day is unknown, and nobody knows how many of Maine’s junior hunters tagged a deer later in the fall, Latti said.

But young people who did hunt whitetails on Youth Deer Day certainly had an easier time than they would have had on opening day of deer season, when adults were in the field.

The deer season for adult residents opens Nov. 1, while all other firearm hunters will start stalking whitetails in Maine on Nov. 3.

On Youth Deer Day, junior hunters can hunt a deer of either sex by firearm or bow and arrow, as long as they are under the supervision of a parent, guardian or a qualified adult.