Angus74

Well like nodog said I too like to go to the checkstations, and as a kid when I started hunting, taking an animal in was very exciting to get it checked. As some others have said, the new call in is very convenient, all you do is call a 1-800 number and type in a couple answers and your done. But in my area Id say only one in 5 deer are actually checked, and now it will be worse. A lot of guys around here only put their tag on a deer in case they got stopped before they got home, now once they get home it will go in the freezer and never checked. But my biggest concern is trophy bucks, a lot of the locals around here wont even bother hunting with their bow anymore, they will simply hunt with a gun, and possibly even a spotlight, then call it in as a bowkill, possibly entering it into P/Y or B/C clubs, making it very unfair for the ones of us who pride ourselves in doing it right and legal, just my opinion.

IL-Cornfed

I'm concerned with the number of immature bucks that will be shot and not repeorted so that the "hunter" can continue hunting for yet another OR a larger animal. I feel that many will NOT respect the limits this way.

Arthur P

We've never had check stations in Texas, except for certain public lands. Yes, we've got a poaching problem, but no worse than anywhere else. As said already, poachers and other game violaters don't go to check stations anyway. I'd rather see the fish and game departments take the funds it takes to staff and run the stations and use the money to track down and catch the bad guys.

IL Rancher

Illinois Archery check stations were never staffed by the state so elimination of them will not save any money for the state. I just wonder how the heck they are going to monitor CWD in this state. I think there will be some undereporting of harvest of bucks. I doubt that poaching itself will go up any but I do think some bucks will go reported as does.

TXhighrack

I think the idea of state wide check stations is silly. Alot of the managed private ranches in Texas have there own check stations set up and the information they collect is extremely important. But when you have check stations on a state wide level its kinda pointless because the information you get isint going to be very accurate. Alot of people dont report the animals that they kill and even if they do, most of the people who work at check stations dont know how to properly record the data. I've heard of several check stations in different states that had high school kids recording the data and even aging the deer brought in. To me thats just plain dumb. If you do not have quailified workers then the state is simply wasting money and the hunters are wasting there time.

I doubt that the number of poaching cases will increase due to the lack of state wide check stations. Most poachers arent going to take their deer to check stations anyway, so I really dont see what difference it makes. The best way to prevent poaching is to have extreme punishment for those who do the poaching. Take Texas for example, poaching down here is considered a felony. If a poacher gets caught then hes going to jail and most of the people will have to file bankrupcty because they can not pay the fines that they will recieve. Plus they loose everything that they had on or with them at the time they committed the crime ex. guns, boats, atvs, trucks. I think the best "poaching law" in Texas is the fact that you dont have to kill a deer on somebody elses land, but if you are caught on somebody elses land with a gun/bow then you are considered poaching and will face the same charges if you had killed a 200" with a spotlight off of a county road. Tough punishment is the best crime deterrent.

greg-dude

I from MO as well and will miss the atmoshpere of the the check stations.

The original purpose of check stations was to gather information on deer health and deer kill numbers. The check station system started back when they reopened the deer season back in the 40's or 50's here in MO. With the new system, deer numbers can still be monitored. Deer health information (with the exception of CWD) is of minimum importance, since it basically has been studied to death as it deals with the entire population. I have heard the cost of the check stations is over a million dollars/year. The deer population and turkey population are both high here in the state. They account for a certain percentage of harvest as being unreported or unchecked.

So with everything I mention above being true or preceive to be true, why would anyone be surprised by the elimination of check stations?


It will make poaching or filling other tags easier, but with all time high populations, who cares? It will only be a small increase of cheating percentage wise. Sooner or later enough of these people who cheat will get caught to set examples. Those of us who are ethical, will abide by the laws.

Arthur P

Somebody staffed them and, I assume, footed the bill for it, IL Rancher. Who was doing it and paying the bills, if not the state? Not jumping your case, understand, I'm just curious.

MOTOWNHONKEY

Hopefully they will use the money to buy more public land for hunters and manage the game. It will go good, we don,t have check stations in Kansas and all is well.

IL Rancher

Most bow hunting check stations were at Archery shops and manned by the shop owners. Some were at larger stores (Farm stores) Shotgun check stations were different and were mainly, in this area at least, manned by college students from a University's biology department. There was one that had official DNR there but not usually. Maybe in Southern Illinois it is different. And you were talking 2-3 check stations a county for Shotgun (I think one even has one and I am sure some have 4. It's been a while, I have to drive 20 minutes to mine in a cOunty that takes 35 minutes to drive across) . Archery, I think there were a Dozen+ in my county. So I think you might seem a decrease in sales tax revenues from the 1 out of 10 people checking a deer who realize they would like a dozen arrows made up too or hey, I'll try those broadheads. Impulse buys you see. Now, maybe 75% of those people will still buy instate at a latter date but many might just go the cabelas route. Just not smart IMO.

I will not deny that this might save some money in data entery time, automation you see, but I think the initial investment at a time the DNR is slashing jobs because of lack of funding and investing in an automation system might not be wise. You are looking at a state that barely has enough money to fund CPO's and is grossly understaffed in that department during hunting seasons. The DNR is so mismanaged that I just see this as another mistake Arthur.

Don't worry about jumping my case, legitimate question as every state does things differently.

Oh, as far as data collection of age, probably meaningless really, the information gathered (This was only done during Shotgun but realize that 2/3rds of the deer killed in Illinois a year are shotgun and Shotgun is what, 7 days with most of those deer being killed in the first weekend of the season). I do wonder how they are going to do CWD monitoring however. Maybe roadkill or maybe they will get samples at lockers, still someone has to be there to pick them up. I just see the potential for problems by eliminating them.

Dairy King

The archery check station here is the local gas station. The cashier handed out the orange thingies, and recorded if it was a buck or doe. On occasion whenever I was in there, she would just ask them what it was without even going out to check it.