"Wow. That first statistic doesnt suprise me too much. Only because it rain in a lot of the state on opening day of rifle season and i would think about 55 percent of the bucks killed are on the first day. This should make next years harvest much better though."
Rain first day would simply mean more killed throughout the other "high harvest" days this past year. Thats what happened a couple of years ago. They said the harvest was down due to first day rain in 2007. We were predicted a super harvest the next year, and it was very slightly higher. If i recall correctly 4%. Although the decrease the year before was MUCH higher than 4%. Didnt even come close to making up the diff. Why? Because the weather on that one day had little effect and the herd was indeed smaller.