Success Rates

[Iowan]

I have read a couple posts that talk about 'low' success rates on some of the LE units. Several people have referred to 50-55% success rates as being low. Those success rates seem very high to me. I have always considered anything over 25% to be pretty darn good. In Iowa we literally have deer behind every tree and our archery success rates are still below 50% for whitetail deer. Most of that is due to either inexperienced hunters or guys trophy hunting - not lack of opportunity.

Can someone put these harvest rates into perspective for me? Is it due to people getting the tag and thinking the elk will walk up to them, people trophy hunting, or just simply some hunters finding success and others not being as lucky. I have never hunted Utah but apply every year. I have hunted two units in other states with 50% success rates and if you were willing to work and shoot any decent bull you saw the success rates would approach 100%. Same situation in Utah?

I guess the comments about those being low struck me as odd.

 

[bowhunt]

Good question Iowa,

The Utah LE Archery Elk hunts equal 777 tags in 2010, and 302 elk were killed.
Archery success 39% Pretty dang good!

The Utah LE Rifle, Early and Late hunts equal 1757 tags, and 1384 elk were killed
Rifle Early and Late Success 80% Pretty dang good!

I did not do Muzzleloader, but in looking at it, I would guess 65% success.

I also did not add in the Premium tags, which look like 85%+ success.

Hope that helps.

 

[Elkhunter96]

The Limited Entry units can be pretty darn good in Utah and have to be looked at separately than general public units when considering success rates. The LE elk archery succes rate was 39% for 2010, not bad considering it is a bow hunt and does not have the peak of the rut in it.

Early season rifle is beyond very good, I didn't do the math, but I would bet it is above 90% for those lucky few who had tags. It happens to fall on what is usually the peak of the rut hunt each year, but getting a tag for a quality unit is pretty slim, unless you happen to be sitting on 15 or more bonus points.

The muzzy tags are good tags, success rates are probably around 65% success, as it was mentioned. The muzzy tags get the end of the rut and hunt after the early rifle guys.

In many of our posts, you will see bickering because of the early season rifle rut hunt and the almost gauranteed tag fill. Many feel that the rifle hunt should be moved out of the rut, many don't since they want their once in a lifetime rifle tag...

General season hunts, which the rifle is a week or so in October and basically out of the rut, have a much much much lower sucess rate. Utah just does not offer much in a quality general season any bull hunt, just getting an elk is an accomplishment...

 

[Packout]

If you were only able to hunt your Whitetails every 10-20 years then you'd expect a high success rate and huge mature bucks. That is the problem Utah has faced for years. Utahns were sold that permits would increase as the bull herd grew. That never really happened and hunters became a little spoiled. Not one hunter who started applying for elk when the limited entry program started thought they'd have a chance at a 400" bull (90% didn't have clue about score anyway). As the permits were kept low and the bull herds grew, hunters were able to shop and kill the best bulls. Now we give more tags, guys can't shop as much and are killing old mature bulls that have smaller antlers (these were the bulls the past hunter elected not to shoot as they shopped for a larger bull). Not every bull will be 370, just as not every man will be 6'3".

The rut rifle hunts last year ran at 80%. The ML hovers just below that. Archers have a 33% or so rate.

 

[Iowan]

That puts it into perspective for me a little better. I understand that if you only got to hunt every 10 years you would certainly have high expectations and feel some pressure to shoot something. These points are like my retirement account, something I do not plan to use for many many years, but I apply every year and have about a 3% chance of drawing what appear to be some pretty good units. I have never bought a single lottery ticket or seen the inside of a casino, but obviously I do gamble just a little. I am at least ahead of the spike in applicants that resulted when they allowed non-res to apply for all species - if I were starting from scratch I do not think I would even start at 40 years old.

I feel fortunate to have the great hunting I have right out my back door but there is something about hunting out west that is very special and different.

Thanks