Hunter Days Per Elk Harvested : The Metric That Matters?

[LopeHunter]

Probably more true for guys that have good private ranches kill I bet 50% of the elk. The other 40% are killed most years by 10% hunters. The unit I hunt has a 48 day per elk harvested, which I believe is accurate. The FWP staff normally ask if I killed an elk and if a bull how many points. I have gotten 2-3 calls a years from FWP about harvest information.

Spot on. 10% of the public land hunters kill 80% of the public land bull elk killed. I think in the West the average bull harvest rate for all states and all weapons for all units and seasons is around 20%. Say 1,000,000 bull elk tags per year and 200,000 bull elk killed. Wild guess but just a reference for making the math come alive. Would not surprise me that 100,000 of those bull elk were killed on private land that has agricultural fields/low hunter pressure with 90% or better harvest rates or with primo rut tags on public lands that have 75% of higher harvest rates. The rest of the bull elk killed are on public lands outside the rut with a success rate closer to 10%. The learning curve on hunting bull elk outside the rut on public land even when there is low hunter density a tough learning curve. Lots of hunters show up having never hunted bull elk and go home with memories but no bull elk meat. An example is that I have farmer buddies in the Midwest that head to Colorado each year to archery hunt elk on OTC tag. Most years no bull nor cow but maybe every 3rd year they tag a bull or cow between the three hunters. So 1 in 9 tags get punched but 1 in 18 are a bull elk with 1 in 18 a cow. Under 10% harvest rate, closer to 5% and they feel is a great value between getting away from the farm, seeing each other and other hunters they bump into year after year while hunting the same hills and canyons plus hitting the same roadside dives as drive there and home. But, even after many years of bull elk hunting they are no where near 10% nor 20% success rate on bulls.

 

[rogerthat]

It would be interesting to see some of the stats for some of the folks on here. I suspect they blow those numbers out of the water. Hence the 10% of the hunters kill 80% of the bulls statements.

 

[timmy]

BuzzH what’s your stats? 1 hour per elk?

 

[mtmuley]

Hence the 10% of the hunters kill 80% of the bulls statements.

This is exactly what happens where I hunt. mtmuley

 

[brockel]

Montana fwp has no handle on distribution of hunters, numbers of animals, how many bonus points it took to harvest that elk , or days to harvest an elk. Cool stats though. Keep hammering #mtfwp

Was told they quit asking for a lot of that stuff as the college kids that they hired when someone told them any of the 700 districts that they harvested in for deer or elk the college kids just filed it under the 700 district. They basically had to guess on what district the animal was harvested in.

 

[jtm307]

I'm a nerd who tracks my own stats. My days per elk: 6.57

 

[Irrelevant]

Well. If I start counting the season I killed my first elk and go forward till now, I'm at 4.4 days per elk. If I start when I first started hunting elk, over a decade before, then that # balloons to 31.4.

It turns out the key is to hunt smarter and not harder. Hunt somewhere beside WA!

 

[Sytes]

The interesting factor to keep in mind:

Resident hunters may have that set family/friend(s) hunt annual leave from work though, speaking for myself, I pass on game frequently because I have the freedom to hunt my other days off, etc and often more involved in seeing a buddy or his/her kid harvest.

My hunt days, as a resident is more social related than actually, hammered down, get it done!
The hunt is the fun with friends and their kids... my resident harvest days are not a reflection for the intent. Extended seasons permit this freedom. Ya, I'm opposed to extended freedoms to hunt though for current #'s, it's skewed, and I'd imagine that holds a common theme.

 

[Carnage2011]

I put almost 0 value on the number of days to harvest. The majority of people I see out hunting are on a camping trip with the boys and may or may not get out of bed before 10 most days. One of the units I’m very familiar with has a giant camp every year that hasn’t shot an elk in years. I swing in and talk to the old timers about once a year and they usually haven’t seen much. Great guys…not great hunters. Not all hunters are created equal.

 

[Nameless Range]

I think the value from such a statistic comes when comparing districts to districts, as those crappy or unenthusiastic hunters exist across the whole states, and many states.