28% Rise in Deer License sales from 2019

The auto insurance companies will love this.

 

I'm afraid you may be right. Every recreation and game area near heavily populated regions are going to be hunted a lot harder than the already crazy pressure they see. However, the newbies lacking skill will likely push a lot of deer to adjacent private land.

So far, I don't see any more bow hunters in my region than normal, perhaps even less.

 

It may indicate greater interest in brown its down hunting, in areas that previously had limited antlerless


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Well not being able get beef might be a reason. Not long ago you couldn’t buy chicken! Can’t find a chest freezer to buy. I think people are trying to stock up on meat in case there is another shut down or panic buying. I’m waiting for a 1/4 beef I ordered last month. Butcher is booked until January. Last year I took two deer and ran out of venison in May. I plan on taking four this year.

 

I wish I had a job that allowed me to work from the treestand like all these new mugs must have. If the license structure hadn’t been changed I would count the increase sales as a great thing for all of us. It should pump lots of money into conservation. But a double whammy of this nature has me concerned especially for the northern public woods.

 

My speculation is, like swampbuck, that folks that could not get firearm antlerless permits are now buying licenses because they can use a combo or single license to do that. Having available time is certainly also a factor. Thus far stop and go traffic moving through my county is the only indication that I have of increased hunting.

 

I took my money else were....I don't seem to care about what the numbers are anymore. I just spent 2.5 weeks in the back country archery DIY elk/black bear hunt in September tagged out on the 5 th day and never came across another sole... It was truly amazing. And it was cheaper to hunt out of state. What I spend on all the drive time, days off work, food plot prep, scouting, hanging stands public and private land here in michigan, just to get on good deer just to have Billy Bob and his brother walk in on opening day and blast what ever is brown. No thanks, I'm out.

 

Look for slightly used hunting equipment on Craigslist in the spring is what I'm predicting.

 

From the mouth of a N MI regional deer bio, the DNR justified going to firearm doe harvest on combo tags because hunter numbers had declined to a level where they did not believe it would have a big impact on the herds, while creating more opportunity for new hunters. Just like everyone else they did not see covid coming, and now have a big problem on their hands IMO, at least for northern Michigan public land. The change won't impact private at all, but it is going to decimate public land herds in the short term. The counties that have already had the rule change in place because of CWD are not good comparisons because they are largely private land where there had always been plenty of doe tags. I have made my peace with it, it will correct buck to doe ratios and in the longer term lead to a decrease in pressure as guys quit from lack of success. For those who actually know how to hunt, it won't be a problem. Until of course the DNR debuts their next hunter recruitment ploy, who knows what that'll be. My money is on a longer (and earlier) firearm season.

Also just addressing the reg simplification the NRC keeps talking about - it is straight up absolutely not born out in any hunter survey results I've been able to find. The most recent survey showed a majority of hunters were just fine with the complexity (MI regs are not even close to the complexity of some western states anyway). The fact that they latched onto the complexity thing as justification for changing regs to drive tag sales is pretty disingenuous. It was a revenue move, pure and simple.

 

I noticed last night coming in from fishing how many power and sail boats are still in the water down here. A indicator of how many people are still working at home. A bigger factor and the most critical for the additional sales; What zip codes are seeing the most increase of sales from the past?

 

Good thing they can’t bait, be a bb slaughter fest, is that what your saying?

 

At Belle Maer they have to out by the end of the month and probably at most Marinas. Mine's coming out tomorrow. Got caught too many times with my pants down waiting until the last minute. In defense we did get robbed for a month due to the virus.

 

Thanks brother, and congrats to you...I know it's not all bad but it just seems like Michigan slips further and further away every 6 months with regulations that don't seem to have a solid background of facts supporting the changes.

 

Wont even need to look for head gear this year.


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