A little-touted fact come fall in Maine: It turns out hunters here stumble upon an average one to two decomposing bodies in the woods each deer season.

So three is a lot.

Officials say they can’t in recent memory recall hunters finding three in one season, and there’s still four days of firearm hunting left.

“This is my 21st fall as a game warden. Every year it seems like it’s two. Usually we know who the person is because they’ve been missing, ‘Oh that’s so-and-so,’” Major Gregg Sanborn, deputy chief of the Maine Warden Service, said Tuesday.

“It surprises me every time we find one because the state’s so big — I’ve also learned that nothing really surprises me anymore.”

First, hunters found a man in Stacyville on Nov. 4, along with clothing, a briefcase and a hat with the name “Chris.” On Nov. 15, they found a body in Vassalboro later identified as 60-year-old William Stein. Then on Nov. 20, hunters found a third man in Belmont. He was identified Tuesday as 68-year-old Charles Springer, who had wandered from home.

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said it’s likely Stein, a convicted child molester due to serve prison time, died in June; that Springer likely died in May 2008; and that the unidentified Stacyville man likely died in September.

None of the deaths have been labeled suspicious.

Ground searches were launched when both Stein and Springer were first reported missing, McCausland said.

“The Stacyville case is different in that we do not know who the victim is and did not know he was missing, so there was no search. That one, it was a surprise,” he said. “We did have an excellent lead, we thought it might have been a missing man in Millinocket.”

His name was Chris, but police discovered that man had since died and been accounted for. They’re left working other leads and asking the public for help.

Two weeks ago, a hunter did find a fourth man in the woods in Kingfield shortly after that man had gone out for a walk. His cause of death is still pending.

“In my time I don’t recall having this many remains recovered,” said Lt. Gary Wright, a commanding officer in the State Police’s criminal investigation division.

Calls, he said, typically come in from hunters to the Warden Service, which scouts the bones to verify animal or human, then alert police, who collaborate with the Medical Examiner’s Office.

“Certainly for the family of these victims, it’s been very fortunate,” Wright said. “It certainly helps them at least close a chapter knowing their loved ones have been located and do what they need to as far as the proper burials.”

His best guess as to why so many: Good weather has brought and kept the hunters out this season, maybe encouraging them to stray farther afield.

“Last year was a really mild winter so there’s a few more deer in the woods,” Sanborn said. Typically, by now “it wouldn’t be terribly unusual to have 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground; (that) would severely limit the number of bodies found.”

Of the three men found so far, a spokeswoman at the ME’s office could only confirm the cause of death for one, Stein, shotgun wound and suicide.

According to McCausland, about 100 people have been reported missing in Maine over the last 30 years, but, “That does not mean they’re all in the Maine woods.”

He said he’d be surprised if the last few days of firearm hunting brought more discoveries: “I think three is enough for this deer season, frankly.”

On Tuesday, a man walking his dog on Thompson Road in Rockland discovered a woman’s body. Police there had been looking for 47-year-old Katrina Windred, missing since Sunday, but did not yet have a positive ID.

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