Along with lower DMPs also remember that lisence sales were down quite a bit. I think 9% is not bad at all considering the two factors. I still like the idea of having figures like I posted before(% of deer -buck- taken for the number of licenses sold and number of doe per DMP issued). That could generate numbers like this: 50,000 bow lisences sold - 15,000 deer taken (30% success); 600,000 buck tags issued - 280,000 bucks taken (46% success), 400,000 DMPs - 200,000 does (50%). These numbers are not "real" but they wouldn't be hard to crunch out by the DEC. This would give a better represenation of hunters success in a given year and would be "consistent" from year to year even when lisence and DMPs fluctuate. Saying the take was down 9% (or even up 9%) can be misleading because of many variables from year to year.