AUGUSTA – With robust wild turkey populations in Androscoggin, southern Franklin and southern Oxford counties, turkey hunters will get an extra opportunity to hunt gobblers.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has scheduled a new fall shotgun season that will run from Oct. 13 through 19 in certain wildlife management districts.

“These are places where wild turkeys are well-established and would not be affected by a fall hunt,” department spokesman Mark Latti said recently.

A fall hunt in northern Franklin and northern Oxford counties won’t happen, because wild turkey populations are still growing. Such a hunt could affect the population, Latti said.

Hunters must buy a permit to hunt wild turkey during the fall season. There is a one-turkey bag limit for each fall turkey permit holder. Latti said only shotgun gauges 10 through 20, using shot sizes 4 through 6 inclusive, may be used to hunt wild turkey during the special season.

The first modern wild turkey hunt was in 1986 when the department issued 500 permits through a lottery and nine turkeys were harvested. The lottery system continued, Latti said, until 2006, when the spring turkey hunt was opened to all licensed hunters.

A limited fall archery hunt was instituted in 2002. In the four seasons since, interest in the fall archery hunt has grown along with the turkey population.

Reduction of forestland and unrestricted hunting are the two main reasons for the disappearance of wild turkeys in Maine in the early 1880s. Since then, much of Maine’s farmland has reverted back to forest, Latti said.

“The reintroduction of wild turkeys in Maine is an unqualified success story,” Latti said.