CONTACT:
Linda Verville: (603) 271-2461
Kristine Rines: (603) 744-5470
June 21, 2019

CONCORD, NH — The adventure of a lifetime is in store for 49 people who have been offered permits to hunt moose in New Hampshire this October. They are the lucky winners in the state’s 32nd annual moose hunt lottery drawing, held this morning at New Hampshire Fish and Game Department in Concord.

Hunters whose names were selected in today’s drawing will be notified by mail. Lists of successful applicants and alternates are available at www.huntnh.com/hunting/moose-winners.html; at Fish and Game headquarters in Concord; and at the Department’s regional offices in Durham, Keene, Lancaster, and New Hampton.

An enthusiastic audience was at Fish and Game to hear the drawing results in person. They enjoyed doughnuts and swapped backwoods stories, all hopeful they might hear their name called this year.

“I’ve spent my life hunting and fishing in New Hampshire, and look forward to being in the woods or by the river,” said Al Lescord of Newport, who was at the lottery. “This was the third time I put in for the moose lottery, and it was exciting to come down for the drawing even though I didn’t get picked. I was looking forward to scouting on the way home today, but I’ll just have to wait until next year.”

A full list of the names of the 2019 winners and alternates are available on the NH Fish and Game website at www.huntnh.com/hunting/moose-winners.html.

Winners were selected from a pool of 5,875 applicants. In addition, over 1,170 people submitted an application for a bonus point only, but were not included in the lottery. The bonus point system improves the chance of winning for each consecutive year entered and not selected. The overall odds of being drawn this year were 1 in 77 for state residents and 1 in 341 for nonresidents. In addition to many New Hampshire residents, permit winners hailed from Wisconsin, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Winners are offered permits to hunt moose in a specific Wildlife Management Unit during the 2019 New Hampshire moose season, which runs October 19-27. Each permit winner is assigned to one of 22 Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) in which he or she can legally hunt. Winners are allowed to enlist a guide and one friend or relative to help on the hunt as a “subpermittee.”

Last year (2018), New Hampshire hunters harvested 41 moose, for a statewide success rate of 77%. New Hampshire has had an annual moose hunt since 1988, when 75 permits were issued for a three-day hunt in the North Country.

For more information on hunting moose in New Hampshire, visit www.huntnh.com/hunting/moose.html.