midwest's Link
If you haven't checked it out, you can see the 2015 elk report at my link. There are some tutorials to help you understand it but, really, it's pretty intuitive.
I put together a little 'cheat sheet' on how to navigate all that data
First
Lets research a DEER Unit
Now go to the REPORT
I like to use shortcuts when doing this becasue otherwise you are scrolling thru TONS of data!
So, select 'Control F' and you will get a search box in the upper right of your screen
Its helpful to have the Regulations handy to get the Hunt Code(s) you are interested in [Last years brochure will work]
Lets say you want to research an 'ARCHERY DEER IN UNIT 3'
The Hunt Code is DE003o1A [D=Deer / E=Either Sex / 003= GMU / o1A = Archery
Now type DE003 in that little box.
BAM!
The data sheet jumps right to your inquiry!
Now lets look at chances of drawing this tag
The data shows 54% of Res drew on first choice and 47% NonRes drew on first choice [purple box]
Then I look below that and see that there were no 2nd Choice tags drawn [purple arrow]
In the larger purple box it shows how many people used their PPs.
One Res used 12 PPs, one Res used 9 PPs and 6 NonRes used 5 PPs for this tag.
Remember, the data shows that this tag can be drawn at ~50% odds with 0 PPs!
And 1 PP will guarantee you the tag
There is a lot more data in each page but those are the highlights when I research
I hope this helps
We surmise they decided they would never draw a premier unit and wanted to hunt with buddies, now that this unit is no longer available as a second choice.
There were also terribly inflated success rates published the previous two seasons, totally misleading, which may have led some to believe it was a high probability unit. Jumped from historical 7-8% to 22-24% in one year, with the elk herd staying stable, and the game warden reporting extremely low success from his field checks of camps and hunters.