Wyoming Elk Harvest Data
Elk
I am looking at the harvest data from 2017 and they show how many people hunted each unit on the general tag. With the general tag not being limited to a specific unit, how do they know how many people hunted each unit? For example, unit 103 shows 1458 hunters and unit 104 shows 737 hunters even though they are similar sized units.
Also, can anything be learned by the resident versus non-resident success rates. It seems like most of the units I have researched show the non-residents having more luck which seems odd to me and is a question all by itself. Others show the residents having more luck. Does this have something to do with elk getting pushed onto private more in the units with a higher resident success rate? Thanks Ken Thanks
Nevermind, They have a copy of the survey right at the beginning of the elk harvest data.
Anybody have any thoughts on the resident versus non-resident success rates?
NR will have a higher proportion of guided/private land hunts than resident which in turns inflate the success rate. Want to see even more staggering discrepancies, look at Alaska success rates for tag holders!
Tembry, I hadn't even considered the higher percentage of guided hunts by non residents but that makes sense.
One other factor that I'm sure influences the difference in success rates between residents vs nonresidents...the overwhelming majority of nonresidents typically commit a minimum of 10-14 days for their elk hunt. OTOH, many residents are basically weekend warriors. The more days committed to hunting, the greater the chance of success.
Also, people who hunt out-of-state are usually a little more passionate about hunting, on average, than people who only hunt in their own state (not that there aren't hunters who only hunt in their own state that aren't as passionate as anyone else, but 'on average.')
The average resident hunter I've met in multiple states, hunts 1-3 days a year, often times believes a lot of hunting myths, has a poor understanding of pressure/wind/stealth/etc, doesn't wake up as early or hunt as late, doesn't practice that much, doesn't scout in the off season, etc.
Um, not even close to the resident hunters I know .
There certainly are some hard core and very successful resident hunters. But there are also a good number of them that don't take it all that seriously. As Ike mentioned, lots of them hunt only weekends and they also often spread their time out between multiple species. Tags are cheap, and if they don't fill it the financial pain is minimal. Most nonresy's hit it hard every day they are there. They invested a pile of money in the tag, often waiting years to draw it, and they tend to give it their all during the time they have.
"Um, not even close to the resident hunters I know."
YRMV. I was in WY this year and a resident asked us to kill an extra one for him so he could tag it and didn't care if it was a cow - he just wanted the meat and didn't want to spend a long time getting it - and this was in a LE unit, not a General Unit.
3 years ago, spoke with a WY resident bowhunting in a general unit and he said he'd been bowhunting for 17 years and never got one with a bow, usually got a cow with his rifle in November.
I could tell stories like these over and over from multiple states. Most hunters don't go more than 200 yards from a road or their ATV. CA did a survey of hunters and asked how many days the hunter hunted. The options were: a) 0 days, b)1-2 days, c)3-4 days, and d) 5+. They lump the guys who hunt 5 days a year in with people who hunt 50+, but thought it prudent to differentiate between people who hunt 2 days and 3 days. I thought this was outrageous and started looking into hunting data and found out that lots of states have done these types of surveys and come to find out, most hunters hunt only a few days a year, many only 1 day.
