Spring hunt success for states

[joey46]

For a long time FL went the survey route. Most thought it worthless.  Glad for at least an attempt at mandatory reporting.

[Dougas]

Texas just started making harvest reporting mandatory last year. I'm very curious to see the data when it comes out. I'm betting harvest will be much lower than most people think. Not sure how they'll determine success rates either. We get 4 tags on a license, doesn't matter if you turkey hunt or not. You only fill out all the harvest reporting information and questions if you kill one. They'll have great data on those that log kills, but no data on anyone that hunts but doesn't kill, or people that have licenses but don't turkey hunt. Can't determine success rates if they're missing half the dataset.

In Oregon we have to report kills. But also report.on un filled tags and report if didn't hunt on the tag, which units we hunted, number of days hunted in the units, sex of the bird, juvenile or adult, private or public and weapon used.

[jhoward11]

The reason for the extra tags and licenses is simply money. The agency receives a percentage of the money for each Tag/license sold. The more they can sell or come up with that you have to purchase, the more money they receive. I also think the percentages of birds harvested will never be close to correct due to those people who shoot birds and never report. In a 3 bird state, they may report the first one killed, but forego the other two. Which happens a lot more than you think. So it's always going to be skewed to a degree.

[Dougas]

We have to report on each tag if we got  a bird or not and for each tag not reported on by a certain date, has a $25 fine attached to it and must be paid off before we can purchase a new hunting license.

[joey46]

I assume that can all be done on line.  Seems a bit extreme at first glance but basically a good idea especially if quota areas are involved.  Down here in Florida there is often suspicion that anti-hunters apply for and draw hunts that are never used.  Might slow that down some.  Wouldn't hurt.

[Dougas]

I assume that can all be done on line.  Seems a bit extreme at first glance but basically a good idea especially if quota areas are involved.  Down here in Florida there is often suspicion that anti-hunters apply for and draw hunts that are never used.  Might slow that down some.  Wouldn't hurt.

Yes, it can done on line or called in to an automated questionnaire on the phone. Living in Oregon, a very blue state, I am sure anti hunters do apply for tags and then trash them all they have to do is report that they didn't hunt on the tag. No quotas for turkeys and they post the harvest results so that one can see which units produce the most kills, has the most hunters and an age population.

[Neill_Prater]

In my opinion, hunter success rates are pretty much meaningless to anyone other than the individual hunter himself, because they don't take into account any data other than the hunter/harvest ratio.

Now if you have accurate information comparing the number of man days hunted to the kill numbers, that can give you a better picture of the actual situation. I might have a tough year, but still tag out because I'm in the woods every day compared to striking out because I only hunted a couple of mornings.

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[Dougas]

In my opinion, hunter success rates are pretty much meaningless to anyone other than the individual hunter himself, because they don't take into account any data other than the hunter/harvest ratio.

Now if you have accurate information comparing the number of man days hunted to the kill numbers, that can give you a better picture of the actual situation. I might have a tough year, but still tag out because I'm in the woods every day compared to striking out because I only hunted a couple of mornings.

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That is what Oregon is doing. How many days hunted, how many days in each unit you hunted and so fourth.

[idgobble]

Take a look at the "Surveys are going out" topic for opinions on surveys.

[Meleagris gallopavo]

In my opinion, hunter success rates are pretty much meaningless to anyone other than the individual hunter himself, because they don't take into account any data other than the hunter/harvest ratio.

Now if you have accurate information comparing the number of man days hunted to the kill numbers, that can give you a better picture of the actual situation. I might have a tough year, but still tag out because I'm in the woods every day compared to striking out because I only hunted a couple of mornings.

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That's pretty much how I look at it.  Makes me feel kinda bad when I do.