OK, that time of the year where I start watching those numbers again. These numbers are suppose to be used to set seasons and bag limits. We have 3 data points so far with 3 years of numbers. But this 4th year data point will now include legalized baiting. Will it affect the number?? If so like I believe it will, how do we know by how much?? How will this data point be used with the three we have already have??

I'm not going to believe reporting jumps from around 35% as we've been told to 50% reporting on the first year of legalized baiting! We have stayed fairly consistent prior to the baiting law. So if the numbers jump this year.....

I doubt it will affect the number. Not by much anyway.

Jump during bow season....then level out after bucks spli up and get their wits about them.

I was set up on a feeder yesterday...the 1 deer i saw looked at the feeder and took a different path away from the feeder. I don't think its going to change the game a whole lot, especially in wide open food plots. They are mostly going to hit the feeders at night I think.

Ya'lls thought the number might not change leaves me thinking if that happens that baiting has not improved success rate or baiting was so prominent before it just legalized a common activity.

But the real question I was headed toward is IF the final number jumps what does it mean and how does that affect the data already gathered. The last three years numbers have came in around 80,000. IF this year it goes to 100,000, does that mean more people reported,.baiting increased success, or it was just a really good season?? How do we know?? How does that figure into the data for the past 3 years??

We will find out if these questions apply or not in about 3 1/2 months.

What is game check?

The numbers are not meant to make sense.....They're simply just to give the powers that be something they can use to bullchit the board with when they want to make changes. "Hey we want to change this.....finagle some numbers from GC to back it up"......The board has to have some kind of numbers or "data" in order to make changes and this is a way to get them. Did it increase because of baiting or did it increase because of hunter compliance?.....Which one do you need to be when we go to the board? That's how it will work.

Nope, because the majority of goobers already been baiting anyway.

There will be more deer killed for sure. I wish my club would do no does over corn just because I’m worried they are going to get massacred.

The bs about this is when they said this was to be a management tool . Lol

the number of deer killed this year will be much higher than in years past directly caused by baiting. The seed store near me is selling twice the amount of corn as this time last year, and stilll running out. The processor near me had twice the number of deer brought in the first week as last year. The numbers don't lie, more deer are being killed.

A lot of folks haven't been baiting that are now, and those that were baiting are doubling down on amount of bait now.

And yet, they wonder why people lose interest in hunting.
I've just about give up deer hunting because of all the morons and marketing gimmicks.

Yeah , making the last 3 years of data even more useless . Lol

With absolutely NOTHING to base it on I was GUESSING an increase in numbers reported by 10%-15%. That would be in the neighborhood of 10,000-15,000 deer. But how will we know it's baiting instead of a good season for Alabama hunters? Will it be claimed an increase in reporting even though the 3 previous years were fairly consistent?. What good are these 4 data points if this 4th one is from a different set of rules?

We won't , could be hunters hunted more . Could be a few things that aid the corn factor or hurt it .

Corn , good hunting weather , number of hunter hours up = high numbers of deer killed.

They sold this as a management tool and it simple is not . All that money wasted and pain for the hunters .

Gamecheck......................what a useless crock of chit and waste of people’s time.

All I know is the game check app worked flawlessly for me the other day, just as it has the 3 previous years.

What is gamecheck? Sounds like bs to me.