Missouri deer regulations

[Ranger J]

Does anyone out there in Missouri think the changes in deer hunting regulations make any sense?  I am not talking about the antler restrictions although they are probably responsible for many well-fed coyotes.  What bothers me most is the check in system.  The MDOC has done away with all check in stations and now all you have to do is call your kill in or register it over the Internet.  Missouri is divided into different districts and the number of deer you are allowed to kill is determined by which district you hunt in.  In my district I am allowed two deer only one of which may be a buck.  In some counties above the Missouri river there are supposedly such an abundance of deer that you can kill all the ‘extra i.e. does’ that you want for $7 a whack. The idea is to reduce the size of the herd.  Unfortunately there is no way to restrict where a deer is coming from.  I can buy an ‘extra’deer tag that supposedly must be killed in one of these counties and really kill it in my county or one of the counties where you are not allowed any ‘extra’ deer and when I check it in I simply check one of the legal counties as there seems to be no way to check on this.
     In my section of the Ozarks we have a terrible pouching problem even in the best of times and now the MDOC seems hell bent on making it easy.  Talking with a local agent a couple of years ago he said that the Ozark counties are the only counties in the state that the habitat could support more deer and turkeys than they do at present.  He said that many of these areas could support three times the numbers of deer and turkeys and the reason for this is rampant pouching.  I don’t know what is going on at MDOC but the rumors is that they hired some ‘expert’ that used to work in PA and he is trying to implement the same sort of program that they have there.  My bet is that the deer count (not the deer kill) will be down this year
RJ.

[The Sodbuster]

No matter what kind of check system MDC puts in place, violators will always try to find a way around it.  So what if they can check their deer as being from another county.  In the past it was just as easy for them to not check it at all (as many no doubt still do [don't?]).  Abolishing the check stations was an economic decision.  Money paid to station operators and agent's time in checking up on each check station was significant.