MO releases harvest numbers, KS next?
Kansas
I just read Missouri's preliminary harvest numbers.
When will Kansas do the same? OH! That's right, they don't know. For all the money KDWPT collected this year, their herd and harvest numbers are still based on surveys.
No wonder just about everyone reports lower overall numbers in the state.
I know some who I respect greatly will say the survey method suffices, so no offense by this post.
You will never get an accurate number without some sort of a check station.
Maybe their surveys prove there is still plenty of the deer to go around. Maybe they do not need to know how many have died but more importantly how many are alive.
Think about it when you are in the business of selling tags and management of a resource it doesn't really matter how many actually died. What matters is the hold over and if the hold over is low then make adjustments. If you say yes to how many died well guess what reducing tags will not matter to all those dead deer.
Matte hit the nail on the head. KS doesn't want to know how many died just how many might be alive so they can issue more tags next year.
Mo doesn't know either. I'm sure there is a subcommittee somewhere that comes up with their numbers to fit whatever insurance lobby dictates.
Relax guys, about this time next year, KS. will be able to give you an estimate on 2017.
Well if this matters any I drove Wichita to Elkhart arrived in Elkhart around 6 pm then to Ulysses back roads through to Garden City then back. Took care of Mom and Dad's doctor appointments and 2 deer is all I observed. Pretty slim on Pheasants as well.
So Matte you saw 6 deer by kdwpt standards. It's called a cluster. When on survey if they see 1 deer they count 3.
I haven’t rec’d My survey yet
Know there are at least a dozen, they were all in my yard last night.
No I am saying all I seen were two. That was a real surprise as I checked several wintering areas that have held 40+ deer in the past. Troubling for me as this past Summer And fall there seemed to be abundant amounts of game. With the dry spell that us going on things may get even worse than the drought years as most areas had not fully recovered. It is sad for me as I grew up out there and deer numbers were always decent. The K State mule deer survey will be well worth the wait.
Hogthief, Missouri has mandatory check system unlike Kansas which has nothing
Missouri’s 2017-18 deer-hunting season ended on January 15, and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has reported a preliminary total harvest of 283,940 deer. Hunters harvested 263,834 deer during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season.
Deer hunting ended with the close of the archery season, and preliminary data shows hunters checked 51,722 deer during that season.
The numbers in MO aren't nearly as "mandatory" as when there were check stations. They tried a mail-in system for archery deer in the late 80's and the numbers of checked deer was cut in half. Too much cheating to publish accurate numbers for biological purposes. The number of deer "checked" is accurate. I think the numbers were far more accurate when there were check stations. MDC has a good program, staffed by good people, run by politicians that don't know as much as they should about how consumptive usage works.
