Question for you guys.
If you look at the ratio of tags sold to deer harvested it has staying preety flat for many years up until last year.
Is the change last year due to less deer or the change in the check-in system?
I guess my question is were the fears expressed last year about poachers playing the system by no longer needing to take a deer to a check station leading to more deer being killed and the guys not putting their tags on them but saving them for the next deer?
I think we all agree there are less deer but are less deer being tagged with the new checkin system?
I don't think they're checking any less than before.. But I will say they need to go back to the 8m the following day rule and get away from the 24 hour thing. Reason being that 8pm always stuck out in peoples heads. It was a constant number. A memorable deadline. But now time varies based on when you shot the deer. Some guys might forget and remember the next day past the time required. Then they feel it may be better if they just keep their mouth shut.
One reason there might be a drop in % of sucess is guys might have been caught with antlerless tags when gun season rolled around.
I think one of the recent articles by the DNR referenced deer hunting in the 80's
Just for fun I looked up a few numbers
1979 - tags sold 193,764, deer killed - 34,874, 1 in every 5.6 tags sold
1989 - tags sold 284,909, deer killed - 91,236, 1 in every 3.1 tags sold
1999 - tags sold 361,125, deer killed - 126,770, 1 in every 2.8 tags sold
2009 - tags sold 624,908, deer killed - 261,260, 1 in every 2.4 tags sold