Thank you, GMMAT. Very cool graphic. Has that been scaled down in size to fit for uploading? I'd realy like to get a good zoomed-in look at the county-by-county distribution here in VA.

What is the website address of the source?

rubo....when did AR's come into effect?



Chart dates end in 2001.

It did decrease somewhat, but it looks like the surrounding states have had an improvement. It went from being a few selected states to even more states with greater numbers. I think it should be something to be happy about.

I believe it was 02. Would be interesting to see how its improved since then.
BUT, your map shows just how ridiculous things were here, and that something needed to be done. To have nearly all other known hunting states improve and yours goes down compared to them, something is surely wrong.

Unless your in the UP

Maybe since 1980 it became less important to be happy with the deer you killed and more important to get it in a record book? How many tv shows were there in 1980 showing "record book" bucks being killed on every hunt? How many are there today? I wonder what % of hunters pre-1980 were just happy with deer hunting and what % hunters post-1980 aren't happy unless they get a "record book" buck?

Numbers without any supporting information can be construed to mean anything. It all depends on what you want them to mean and what your agenda is .

Good point, Bruce.

The timeframe is also an issue (I didn't realize that the record books went back to 1830!). I know that in Virginia from the late 1800's through the firstcouple ofdecades of the 1900's whitetail deer were practical extinct in Virgina (only a few hundred deer in the entire state). Ironic, since the whitetail deer's scientific name is "Odocoileus virginianus", which I believe is because this species of deer was first sighted in Virginia. They were re-introduced in a large, fenced preseve in the early 1900's and then the fences were taken down. Now there are almost a million deer and they're actually a nuicance in many counties.

BTW: There is very little deer quality management in Virginia.

Interesting data..... I think the QDMA has an updated poster. Check on their website QDMA.com

Hunter numbers factored in?????

Very interesting graphic, BUT...

In many areas of the country the whitetail was all but extict by the early 1900's. Reintrocdustions were made all across the country by pulling from the areas that still had them. Most peolple really do not realize how many reintroductions were made and where the deer in their area really came from. Very interesting topic if you ever dig deep into it. Fact of the matter is, there were still quite a few areas that did not have huntable populations even up into the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's.

To me, an extremely interesting graphic would be to see it broke into 10 year increments starting about 1920 or so.

Another very good point being made was about public perception and the "need" to get the trophy into the book. Statistics can be interpreted in many different ways.