Sending in a report card if you've killed a deer is an ethical hunter's obligation. Trying to skew the system only hurts everyone. If it were manditory for everyone to report regardless if one killed a deer or not we could put to rest the accusations that the PGC is fudging the numbers.

In reading the report I do take issue with these particular statements:

1. This year, less than 40 percent of hunters who harvested a deer sent in their harvest report card.

How much less than 40 percent? Surely the agency must know?

2. Although the current reporting rates reduce the precision of harvest estimates, they do not affect the validity of the results or procedures.

Does anyone really believe this statement?

3. Harvest figures for the Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), which enables landowners to target hunter pressure where needed, are not available at this time, and were not included in these harvest results.

The agency (PGC) removed this requirement from DMAP requirements, why? Don't they want accurate figures, or as accurate as is possible?

Statements such as theseplace the PGC under greater scrutiny. The truth is, their failings are many, much like their "Magical, Mystical" Deer Harvest Formula.