Mail Surveys Of Hunting — Precision And Sample Size

Several Southeastern states using mail surveys currently apply an estimation procedure to adjust for non-response bias. Efficient planning of these surveys requires an idea of the precision obtainable for a specified number of questionnaires mailed, i.e. an idea of the sample size required. This paper graphically describes the empirical relation between sample size and relative precision of estimates of hunters, effort, and harvest for three game species, deer, turkey and dove. The data were selected from records on hand from six states and over the period from 1964-1969.