Hunting Harvest Data across the country

[fletchny11]

Interesting information some of you might enjoy.

https://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/2024/01/deer-hunting-by-the-numbers-how-did-last-years-hunting-season-stack-up.html

https://deerassociation.com/2024-deer-report/

 

[dbHunterNY]

i'm not really special but my free hard copy i think is probably coming in the mail. it's great information and interesting read. if anyone wants any older stats to compare I can look. I have a lot of them. Might even have an extra copy if we didn't purge some really old. digital available online though.

[Bucksnbows]

How can they determine the age of bucks taken in self-reporting states?  Seems a serious flaw in data gathering for this story. NY numbers come to mind right away. 

[ATbuckhunter]

9 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

How can they determine the age of bucks taken in self-reporting states?  Seems a serious flaw in data gathering for this story. NY numbers come to mind right away. 

I think they visit deer processors and take inventory from there. They use that ratio and apply it to the data. I would assume they understand its a very gross approximation, but its the best thing they can do (aside from mandatory check in stations) 

[dbHunterNY]

the data comes from the state wildlife agencies. they all gather harvest data slightly different. many use a combination of on sight verification at processors, taxidermists, and voluntary check-in of deer. last there's the self reporting that collect various harvest data like antler points, weight, spread, beam length, etc depending on what state you're in. for example here when you report antler points, based on region there's probability that it was yearling, 2.5, or 3.5+. how they pull in the data and weight it compared to other data is the dark magic they never really give you a straight answer about. a lot goes into it though to explain to someone off the cuff.