Anyone else notice the mistake made by the MDWFP in their Hunting Seasons and Bag Limits information?

Hint: Focus on the images

http://mdwfp.com/media/253485/2017_18_hunting_season_flyer.pdf

Says 10 inch inside spread but the illustration shows an outside spread measurement

Crazy that no one caught it.

As we know, the difference in the inside and outside spread can be significant.

Kudos to the TPWD for getting it right when first educating Texas hunters on antler restrictions.

As Kinky Friedman used to say, "At least we're better'n Mississippi", or something like that.

2 inches easy when going from outside to inside spread on most deer I'd think.

Dang, MS you gotta estimate legal buck by subtracting inches of rack on alert ears. Too many factors and reason I don't think about shooting close legal estimates...are ears alert (in my opinion or GW's), how much rack inside of alert ears on each side....

I could not agree more. And this will only add more confusion as hunters have to make field guesstimates on the width of racks with nothing to reference other than blind judgement.

I don't think they made a mistake. They explained things pretty clearly on how to get a 10" inside spread estimate using the OUTSIDE of the antlers.

Having lived in Mississippi during much of my youth, I can only image how the average hunter will be able to follow that guidance, with or without these diagrams. It might be safe to say that whoever created the images was lacking a full understanding of the rule.

If the average buck in Mississippi has a 14-inch span between the outside edges of the ears, why not just increase the size of the protected age class with a rule that's so much easier to determine in the field?

IMHO, someone applied way too much thinking to these restrictions.

Yeah this isn't a misprint, it is just a little tricky to think coming from texas rules.

Imagine growing up in MS and all you know is your area has an inside rule of 10 inches, you know that if the deers antlers are at its ear in alert it is likely 10 inches inside....not very difficult.

If in a 12inch area you have to have antlers outside the ears a little and that is approx. 12 inches inside...again not very difficult.


No different that Texas rules, just trying to make it easy for hunters to make the judgment call in the wild...

Kinda hard to tell how wide they are when the dogs push them through.

The diagram clearly marks the outside edges of the antlers, but labels it as the inside spread.

If what you saying is correct, it would have been more logical and easier on the hunter to indicate a one-inch distance inside each ear tip as the point where the outside edge of each main beam must reach at a minimum. And of course, any buck with main beams that reach beyond that are clearly legal.

Why the 12-inch inside spread for other areas was even mentioned makes no sense when a much easier, 15-inch, "ear tip to ear tip" reference achieves the same purpose.

Keep it simple.

And the diagram goes along with the text that was quoted by DNS above, which you commented on, so I know you have seen it. The diagram shows how to judge if a deer is 10 inches inside spread by comparing the antlers to a typical deer's ears in alert position, and the text below explains why this is a correct diagram and not a typo.


Listen, I am not trying to make excuses for Mississippi, or any other state (TX or OK in particular), for their hunting rules. But, when I opened up the link and saw the picture with explanation, I didn't think anything about it was weird, difficult to understand, and I actually thought it was quite easy to remember.

I can see how reading comprehension would be difficult for some, but this isn't rocket science, and it isn't a mislabeled picture; the picture goes along with the text below it. Just like almost any other illustration there is text to explain the picture...

Now if the picture was a stand alone with no text explaining, you would have a point.

With any type of learning, illustrations should make it easier to understand a given concept. These illustrations do the opposite.

With the focus on inside spread being so apparent and yet unnecessary, I have to wonder if this was not an attempt more to be "different", than finding something that's easy for the hunter.

A simple 12-inch outside spread rule with reference to the rack being at least one inch from the outside edges of the ears would have done that for the lower region. And likewise, a simple 15-inch rule would have sufficed for the remaining region.

One value, one point of reference in each case. It becomes confusing when you reference "outside the antler" and inside spread at the same time for the same rule.

^^^This is something I agree with

It seems there would be a better rule if they just said 12 inch outside spread and call it a day, and if they wanted a 14inch outside spread for the rest of the counties then just do that....instead they have the inside spread rule which is weird.

But as I mentioned above, I don't want to make any excuses for any states rules, they all have their good sides and bad sides.

If you actually read the text, the diagram is clearly showing how to get the inside spread from the outside dimensions. It really is pretty easy to understand.

"Estimating a 10 inch spread is accomplished by observing a buck’s ears in the alert position. When in the alert position, the distance from ear-tip to ear-tip measures approximately 14 inches. If the OUTSIDE of each antler beam is 1 inch inside the ear-tip, the inside spread is approximately 10 inches."

The issue is not the written description but the value of the illustration to hunters trying to understand it.

The critical distance (a minimum one-inch distance between the outside edges of the ears and spread) that hunters should check when estimating inside spread doesn't appear in the illustration. It simply shows a deer with an assumed 10-inch spread (even though the measurement marks are clearly referenced to the outside spread) with absolutely no reference to the determining factor spelled out in the description. A simple illustration that shows a minimum one-inch distance between the outside edges of the antlers and ears would have made the written description perfectly clear to the visual learner. And this includes reference to it being a minimum distance which has been ignored in both the description and illustration.

In Miss. the phase, " a picture is worth a thousand words" does not apply!

Man. I'm glad I live and hunt in a part of the state with an average IQ of somewhere north of room temperature.

How an entire region can't practice enough self control to manage their deer well enough to keep the state from having to step in to do it for them, can only be explained by an ignorance level of Arkansas Mississippi Louisiana Alabama Florida proportions.

Texas was in that category as well until severe hunting restrictions were implemented which we still have today. We also have antler restrictions in numerous counties.

Yeah, I wasn't clear. I was talking about the "region" of Texas and comparing east of San Antone with the sister marrying states east of us.

I like the 13 or 15 inch main beam measurements. Texas should have something like that. I have a mature 13 point that grows up and is barely 13' wide. Hes mature with multiple droptines. We are always scared hes too narrow each year to shoot.

When you consider that much of the population does not regularly read anything, and fewer and fewer people derive meaning from paragraphs, then you apply more than one rule in the book, then you increase the number of people who will misunderstand. Add to that the difficulty of most people to measure a single inch at the distances that hunters often shoot. I can easily tell what they were trying to do, but it does not appear to be worth the confusion factor.

So... a Common Core description...

For deer hunters in Mississippi to legally kill a buck, the antlers in the targeted buck must measure 10 inches or wider from a measurement of the greatest inside spread between the two antlers. In order to correctly estimate this rule on an average mississppi buck, a hunter can estimate the width of a deer's ears in the alert position to be 14 inches. If a buck has antlers that are approximately 1 inch inside each ear in this position, and the antlers on average are approximately 1 inch thick at the level of the ears, then by using simple but repetitive subtraction, a Mississippi resident with average Mississippi genetics can estimate the inside spread of a deer's antlers to be 10 inches or larger, therefore a legal deer to shoot. (Teacher assist: 14 inches to tips of alert deer ears - 1 inch inside each ear - 1 inch of antler thickness at the ear level = 10 inches inside spread; I.e. 14-(2x1)-(2x1)=10 )

Assumptions for this second grade common core problem are as follows: 1. The hunter can get a long enough look at the deer with clear enough optics to see the deer in alert position without giving away the hunters position; 2. The deer is not confined by a movement restricting fence product such as high fence or game fence as deer on lands with such products will never produce antlers small enough to worry about the above antler restrictions; 3. The deer have been fed supplemental feed other than double down supplemental feed as double down has been known to cause cancerous growths on antlers that can skew a hunters judgement.


PETA statement: the above common core question has been violently protested by PETA and its affiliates as this question depicts the depravity of ma kind and the unethical promotion of hunting products. PETA and it's affiliates will gladly pay any legal fees for any student unable to mentally complete this examination due to unjust mental duress caused by this question and any other triggers or micro aggressions this question may have caused. PETA and it's affiliates are also strongly opposed to any hunting tactics that involve baiting, supplemental feeding, or fencing that restricts movement as these practices go against the free range practices advocated for all ethical farmers and/or food creators, although PETA itself is strongly opposed to eating any animals products at all and suggests every second grader in Mississippi get their daily caloric intake from a combination of Mountain Dew soda, tobacco chew, and hops and barely derived beverages.