A postal survey of 1,323 game management area permit holders (5%) was made in early 1972 to detennine the utilization of game management areas for deer hunting. Responses (777) were inadequate for projecting utilization of many of the 35 state game management areas for deer hunting. Thus responses from the postal survey and from a subsequent personal contact survey, were grouped into major hunt units. Sixteen percent ofthe 777 postal survey respondents were selected for personal contact. This survey was more comprehensive than the postal survey, and provided an estimate of the number of management area deer hunters utilizing non-management areas. Estimates from the personal interview survey were uniformly higher and more variable than those projected from the responses of the same hunters in the postal survey. The apparent overestimation from the interview data on buck deer killed, for example, may be viewed as conrirming the tendency of hunters to report number of kills greater than had occurred. The personal-contact survey with its smaller sample size and more extensive questions provided less reliable information than that of the complete postal survey. Comparisons of projected mean estimates of the utilization data from the personal contact survey, its counterpart from a postal survey and the entire postal survey are included along with standard deviations.
