It may be about even with 04 but its up 5% from 05.....34,465 vs 32,740

I guess not: per the PGC, general license sales are acutally down 9% as of the 31st of August, so your "rough snapshot" is 80% off (5% vs. 9%).

Let the spin begin...

What's the reporting rate from vendors MJ??

No idea--this is from an official document the PGC publishes on the 15th of each month detailing sales figures to date with a comparison to the previous year accounting for the cash received. It is a .pdf file so I can't post it but it breaks down all the various types of licenses and permits.
I'm sure the reporting rates from vendors are not 100% at this time of the year, but they probably weren't 100% in previous years either. There is no way of knowing whether or not this year's rate is different from any other year, but I will let others spin this.

Nope, not until the end of sales.

with everyone leaving the state and not wanting to hunt isn't this a good thing... means more deer for me lol joking but won't that bring the deer pop back up with less hunters

many dcnr employees are going to ohio to hunt this year for deer, pheasants,grouse.they said they are seeing very few deer in 2g ,so off to ohio. does ohio have deer and other game as these dcnr people are saying?

That's exactly what will happen and nothing good will come of it except a more customer-friendly PGC. You will be able to take advantage ofyour predecessors'folly the same way I do whenI hunt in NJ.

Sproulman,Ohio is a great state to hunt but don't expect to see more deer there because in most cases,they have a lower deer density per square mile.Public land is also scarce and getting access to private land is very tough to do in many cases.If you'relooking for a big buck,Ohio is a great choice but don't expect to get run over by deer.I hunted private land in Ohio last year during the rut.I killed a buck and a doe but I only saw 6 deer the entire time and I hunted from dawn till dusk for three days.Those were prettytypical deer sightings according to thelandowners.Never heard him complain though.

Last year the figures were used year to date.In other words they compared the August sales to the August sales of previous years.If I remember right figures were down 13% for that particular month compared to 05.Things rebounded and the decrease ended up at about 6 % I think.
Two things to think about here,why are hunters buying a license later?Maybe losing interest?Economics?
Also we bucked the national trend last year which actually saw an increase in license sales.
I can only relay information from people I talk to in my little world but I expect a bigger decrease this year then even last year.And when the price of a license goes up we'll see an even bigger drop in license sales.
This kid will still be hunting but I talked to quite a few fellers who said they'd call er quits.I hope that's not the case.