I believe that the current GC number is much closer to accurate. Chuckie thinks 70% of us are cheating and avoiding the GC system, because the numbers aren't lining up with the elusive survey numbers. But I never believed those SWAG survey numbers anyway. I don't believe we have the millions of deer that ALFA and AWF would like you think we have. And I don't believe we're killing a half million a year either. Just like I don't believe Auburn's predetermined study that suggests coyotes kill 70% of our deer herd annually. It's all politically motivated bullschit. I think the vast majority of hunters are in compliance with the laws and the GC numbers are very close to the accurate accounting of deer kills. Whatever that's worth, knowing how many we kill kill, without knowing how many we got.
With the survey we THOUGHT we knew fairly accurate numbers as hunters. Now with GC we don't know what's right, GC or survey. Are the vast majority of hunters in compliance or not? Well, how many tickets have been written for non-compliance AFTER a kill? I'm not talking about hunting without a harvest record but actually killing a deer and not reporting it.
Let's say Outback is correct which I have no idea if he is or isnt. Last year's number was about 81,000. What if that is 81% compliance meaning the actual kill is 100,000. That is about 150,000 less than the estimate kill which should reflect on a lot lower deer population than was thought. Ok, now what?? Cut days or weeks off the season? Cut limits?? Like it or not, $$$ is one driving factor in deer season and people start losing money (like our Lt. Govenor) there will be some serious discussions to be had.
