Small Game Numbers

[steve863]

And don't forget the attack Labs that roam there too!

Thanks for the reminder, Doe. Those no doubt can scare off 30 or 40 deer any given day!

[phade]

Phade, I think you need to give Growalot a statistical analysis of exactly how many deer she will see this year from all of her 224 tree stands and 43 food plots and maybe she will start believing some of things you are saying. LOL Of course you have to take into account the trespassers that rampage her land and might be scaring some of the deer off of it. LOL

Do I have to account for any talking she does while in the stand?

Sorry, grow...just a friendly joke.

[steve863]

Do I have to account for any talking she does while in the stand?

Sorry, grow...just a friendly joke.

I don't know if she does any talking in there. She's all business when it comes to hunting. Maybe some snoring if that counts, since I think she once told us that she occasionally goes into her stand the night before and sleeps in there until the next morning. Dang, she must make some really comfy treestands! More comfy than some one room apartments in Manhattan. LOL

[growalot]

Well you took ....once again ...what was a friendly discourse Steve and Doewhacker and turned it into a nasty little tirade...why does that not surprise me...now taking into account of course, the number of times you two have done this in the past...Statistically speaking there was a 86.8 % chance this would be your course of action .....

Well you took ....once again ...what was a friendly discourse Steve and Doewhacker and turned it into a nasty little tirade...why does that not surprise me...now taking into account of course, the number of times you two have done this in the past...Statistically speaking there was a 86.8 % chance this would be your course of action .....

Edited August 22, 2012 by growalot

[Doewhacker]

Nasty little tirade? What are you smoking?

[steve863]

Well you took ....once again ...what was a friendly discourse Steve and Doewhacker and turned it into a nasty little tirade...why does that not surprise me...now taking into account of course, the number of times you two have done this in the past...Statistically speaking there was a 86.8 % chance this would be your course of action .....

Only 86.8% chance??? Wow Doe, I think we are slipping. Our average used to be around 98% as confirmed by Phade's analysis a while back.

Trust us Growalot, we mean NO malice with our jokes. Most of us absolutely love the many, many stories you tell us, thus we love to bring some of them back life!!

[Doewhacker]

Honestly Grow we have a lot of respect for you. You hunt your ass off, kill deer, care about wild life, grow food plots, construct stands on your own, and on and on. You are more of a hunter than most. Just a little quirky some times, I try not to pick on you out of that respect but once in a while a joke here and there can't hurt no matter who it is. Now come here and give me a hug.

[Doc]

Look, I know that our technocracy has made a lot of people into almost devoted religous believers in all things scientific. But I also see plenty of evidence that all this unquestioning belief in the infallibilty of science and numbers is often misplaced. Anyone who has closely examined the history of antlerless deer permit allocations can pretty easily spot the years when massive adjustments were required for corrections of population mis-estimates. These always came after the fact and not as a result of some predictive statistical model. Also, it has not escaped my notice that with all these mystic number-crunchings, small game bag limits and seasons have remain absolutely stagnant and unchanging for decades, showing that there is and awful lot of useless numbers manipulation that never seems to have made it into hard changes. I think it's nice to be able to believe in the infallibility of statistics or to receive some sort of comfort from the belief that there is a safety net of numbers that watch over us all. But everyday observations show us that science and math are not always infallible, and they do not provide all the solutions to everything. Used properly, they are a great tool for progress. Used or applied deceptively, fraudulently or just plain incorrectly can be a dangerous at worst and useless at best. It's also useful to consider that there are some things that do not lend themselves to reliable statistics. There is also the old "garbage in-garbage out" (GIGO) principle. My thought here is simply, do not take everything for granted simply because it has a statistcal label hung on it. If something sounds totally unbelievable, it probably is. The statistitians will definitely try to convince us to relax, sit back, and let them take care of all the world's woes. I think they need to be questioned and watched and periodically evaluated for proper application and use and results. And here in this article are some prime candidates for some close scrutiny and evaluation.

[Doewhacker]

I don't know it how it could relate but in western states they drive around counting birds on the side of the road to come up with numbers for an area. I can't imagine NY having the money to do such a thing concerning small game so to me any numbers related to small game in NY are meaningless any how.

[growalot]

But it's not really...for when ppl... some...read stuff like this.... if they are small game hunters and conservation oriented may take statements like that as a sign not to go out.... or take much less than they would have...You don't see the DEC lowering bag limits on the heels of such a statement do you?...Then what are the possibilities?

1 . a real increase in things like rabbits , squirrels raccoons ect

a. Causing crop damage ..that has a real possibility on being blamed on what?...deer of course..which then does what? increase farmers nuisance permits

2. Gives coyotes an ever expanded food source ...that in turn increases pup rearing and what? increase yote problems

3. depleats natural food sources that effects every thing right down to nuisance bear ...

Now this is just a few hypothetical..but possible out comes in showing a type of domino effect these situations can have....

[Paula]

stop

Edited August 23, 2012 by paula

[Paula]

i forgot how to work this stuff lol

Edited August 23, 2012 by paula

[growalot]

Ha...some who got it....lol

[crappyice]

On a personal level, I know my small game hunting is going to be dramatically decreased due to the Oct 1st bow opener. My 8 year old Brittany is pissed. When I first got the dog, we would small game hunt most weekends until gun season opened. Then i picked up the bow and his hunts were cut down considerably due to the increase in scouting and procuring lands to bow hunt. he still had many early season hunts from October 1 to mid October. Now what? I hope the DEC will take my lack of hunting this year into consideration when they run the numbers...jk

But seriously, there seems to be a push to get people small game hunting through the publications, but moving the bow opener is only going to decrease the number of small game hunters...I ain't complaining but my dog IS!

[growalot]

Crappyice....That's just incentive to tag out on a great buck early...and you have your little hunting buddy rooting for ya...Good Luck