I agree with Vanilla and the AAA. The more feedback the better. We all get stuck sometimes thinking that everyone thinks the same way we do (until we voice that opinion and get feedback). I am not sold on the success rates being due to scopes because many guys I've seen in the field, myself included, still don't have scopes on their muzzy and the data isn't separated by whether the hunter is using a scope or not. Obviously, I don't care one way or another on the scopes for me, but I would lean toward leaving it be as is.
I know I am asking to get blasted by some for posting this, but I'm pretty curious about what others would think of this idea concerning the research study portion of the proposal.
When a season is shortened, instead of putting all the hunters in the field at the same time could you make two seasons and keep total tag numbers equivalent?
Instead of doing a single 2 week archery hunt, 5 day muzzleloader hunt, and 5 day ALW hunt with all the tags in their respective season, I would suggest making 2 hunts that each have half of the tags.
For example lets say a unit currently has 1,000 archery deer tags, 1,000 muzzleloader deer tags, and 2,000 ALW deer tags.
Archery season 1 - Similar Start Date to current structure - 2 Weeks - 500 of the total 1,000 tags
Archery season 2 - starts the day after season 1 ends - 2 weeks - 500 of the total 1,000 tags
Muzzleloader season 1 - Similar Start Date to current structure - 5 Days - 500 of the total 1,000 tags
Muzzleloader season 2 - starts the day after season 1 ends - 5 Days - 500 of the total 1,000 tags
ALW season 1 - Similar Start Date to current structure - 5 Days - 1,000 of the total 2,000 tags
ALW season 2 - starts the day after season 1 ends - 5 Days - 1,000 of the total 2,000 tags
This would provide the exact same number of tags, the overall seasons for each weapon type would be almost exactly the same days that they currently are, still limit the individual hunter to the shorter season, yet provide an experience that would be 50% less crowded in the field.