You can not be an honest ethical hunter if you don't us GC, kill more than 3 bucks etc etc. no diffrent than spotlighting, hunting out of season or any other game law you make a effort not to follow.

Possibly signature worthy.

nothing because pancakes dont have bones

All this talk about deer numbers, I think the numbers
Of around 18,000 being checked is closer than most hunters
think . I have hunted pretty much every day since season started.
I have seen a lot of does most with twin fawns.But I have only heard
a hand full of shots.I hunt a really good area near Maplesville.I also
hunt near Billingsley another popular hunting area. With that being said
I have yet to see any trucks with deer on back . It could be not as many
hunters as in years past with all these new laws, is really ruining our sport.

I think the majority are being reported also.

Matt, I used to process all of my own deer, without exception. Now, I have found a processor I like, so I take all my deer in now, it's just so much easier and they do a pretty good job.

I can only speak for our club, but 100% of our deer are taken to a processor. We have as many or more deer on our property than we've had, at least since I've been in the club (7 years) but we are killing fewer. We are becoming more selective in the deer we kill. I sat on a 1 acre greenfield last week, which I don't often do, but I saw 16 deer in one evening, 9 does/little ones and 7 bucks (4 with racks), and I never raised my gun. There were 11 deer on the field at one time (7 bucks and 4 does).

I pay to be in a club with low pressure. If you look at GC numbers, ours are not that great. We killed a LOT more deer when we had more members. Now that our membership is less than half of what it was, we don't kill that many. As more and more private land is being managed for quality and quantity of deer (I know those two are somewhat at odds with each other), I think the GC numbers may not accurately reflect the deer densities.

Maybe we are atypical, but we use GC to report our deer, we take all our kills to the processor, and we are killing fewer deer than we did in the past, out of choice. Even if the limit was raised, that would not affect our kills. In our case, I'm not sure if there is any useful data being obtained through GC???

Questions for you: Does or has the cost of processing been a deciding factor into whether or not to shoot a deer? What's about average cost of processing?

I’d guess that compliance is very low……Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the GC police and don’t care if you report it or not…….but I rarely ever see anyone record their deer or even mention anything about calling it in after we find them. Maybe they do later on but I doubt it. They’ll never be anywhere close to full compliance. If you believe that then you’re out of touch with a portion of the hunters of this state. I figure after about 5 years or so the percentage of people who are going to report their kills will level out and you’ll likely get close to the same compliance year after year. At that point you could probably start comparing trends after another 5 years but what if compliance continues to tick upwards?? . It’ll likely take a decade at minimum before anything of value comes out of it.

Processing cost is not a factor for us as far as I know. Just for standard processing, including letting them skin and gut the deer, costs about $75 or so for a doe and maybe $10-15 more for larger deer. Of course, specialty items can drive the price up. My limiting factor is how much deer I eat. Now that we are empty nesters, we eat fewer deer. I plan to kill 3 or maybe 4 deer this year. I have killed 2. We have several members that probably won't even kill one.

You may be right, but who really knows? I helped a lady this past week find her 1st buck and she recorded it without me even knowing. Later she mentioned has quick and easy GC was. If they've called you in, and you find their deer, I'm sure GC is the last thing on their mind. I even forgot till I was on the way to the processor's with one of my deer and I pulled over and completed it. Look, I hunt with a few, for lack of a better term, rednecks, and was surprised when they checked theirs in.

I am guessing, but I bet that compliance is very low for people who hunt their own land or non-club private or family land, especially if they process their own.

OK, I WAY misunderstood this. That's why I was so astounded. I read it as 3% OVER 18,000 not 3% OF 18,000. I knew 3% OVER 18,000 at one processor was unrealistic.

I think you nailed it with that last sentence. I was amazed at the number of people who didn't have a way to record their buck kills, even years after the buck limit had started.

So,is compliance still very low??? As some have read in a different thread, there has been a conversation on restocking deer. I have quoting from a DCNR book published in 1965. Here is a quote about restocking but may apply to any laws.

"Laws without public support are practically useless and in spite of seasons and bag limits, the deer population continued to decline throughout most of the state."

So, in 1965 the DCNR knew laws without public support were practically useless. Would GC fall under this??

What book have you got? That sounds like one I would like to read. Is there anything in there that talks about the need for the dcnr to work in partnership with landowners? That used to be mentioned often in dcnr material. I haven't heard it mentioned at all in probably 20 years.

Go to General Forum. Find Virginia deer vs. Michigan. That thread itself is pretty good but Swampfever posted a cover shot of the book. And, yes, it talks about individuals buying deer for the state to release and how the landowners were a driving force in restocking. Also, Google the Marty Roney article I mention. He uses this book for his article.

And in the book we got over on Texas BIG TIME!! We swapped them our beavers for their deer.

PCP I sent you a PM

This is the way I see it. First of all, ask the question: What is the real reason for having Game Check?
Is it some type of game harvest enforcement method placed upon the hunters, or is it some attempt to count dead deer and speculate on a population?
If it's enforcement, is it working, can it work? If it's scientific methodology, is it working, can it work?

In my opinion, it isn't working, it cannot work, it is a flawed attempt to accomplish both enforcement and science. It is simply the wrong way to do either.

The State must find a way to do deer population surveys in order to set hunting seasons for a sustainable population. This ain't it.

Then, enforce the law with boots on the ground, not some voluntary method that requires hunter participation.

We need a fresh start from the top down and somehow get the politics out of hunting regulations and laws.

Midday on Monday we have in GC this many deer reported -- 18,162

As of midday Friday the reported number of deer was about - 15,000 +/-


In three days, roughly, on the holiday weekend when a ton of people go deer hunting and are able to take their kids hunting, only 3,000 +/- deer were reported?

This could be an accurate number but who knows..... I do know that on one 1500 acre lease in Mobile County there has only been two deer killed since the first day of bow season. That is the only numbers I am sure of at this point ......oh and zero killed off my 96 acres too lol