CASCO — Two deer hunters were shot in separate incidents Friday, according to the Maine Warden Service.

Mark Mattson, 60, of Portsmouth, N.H., was shot in the stomach while he was target practicing in the woods at the north end of Thomas Pond in Casco at about 2:30 p.m., Maine Warden Service spokeswoman Edith Smith said in a news release. Mattson, who was listed in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center on Friday night, was shot by Travis Wood, 29, of Windham, who was hunting with a partner at the time, Smith said.

Officers from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, the Raymond Fire Department and other emergency personnel responded to the scene, carrying Mattson out of the woods on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance. Mattson was taken to the hospital in Lewiston via LifeFlight medical helicopter.

A second man, Steven Hutter, 26, of Hebron was shot in the leg in Oxford, Smith said.

Hutter was tracking a wounded deer with hunting partner Linton Thompson, 47, of Oxford, near Thompson’s property at 316 Allen Hill Road, when Thompson shot Hutter in the lower leg, Smith said.

Hutter was also taken to CMMC in Lewiston. He was in surgery at 8:30 p.m., Smith said.

The incidents are being investigated by the Maine Warden Service. They are the first injuries of this year’s regular deer hunting season, which opened Oct. 29, Smith said. A 12-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the foot in Waterboro on Oct. 22, Maine’s Youth Deer Hunting Day.

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