What do The documented success rates really mean??

[Hunta270]

As I am planning to hunt WA in the next two years I'm constantly looking over the data for each region and GMU. My question is what do the success rates and days per kill actually mean??

It is my understanding that many people only hunt within a mile or so of their vehicles, most still see their car from their hunting spot..  Are these people having success or is it only the real hunters who hike in and get right out into the wild areas..

Looking at the days per harvest its kinda scary to think that it often averages at least 10 days for deer and as much as 60 days for elk!!!

Is it the weekend punters that don't really try that blow out these figures it is it really that hard to nail a deer... I don't mind hard work at all but here in Aus if we thought it would take on average 10 days to get a deer and there was only a 18% chance of getting one anyway we would look else where..

Please help me make sense of it all

[JimmyHoffa]

In the case of elk, I would guesstimate more than half of elk harvest to be the guys that work in the woods (loggers, logging truck drivers, ex-loggers) most of the year that shoot an animal the first hour of opening day. The rest seem to be real random--some are tracked to hiding spots, some get caught in the open in a clear cut, some just get pushed by other hunters. 

[BigGoonTuna]

washington's reporting system is more or less on the honor system.  i'd take it with a grain of salt, the harvest for big game is pretty realistic, but days in the field is something they ask people to volunteer and many times it's guesswork.

small game is a whole other story, every year i buy my license, ask me how many of each species of everything i killed.  like i remember?

[Hunta270]

So I guess it's easy to track of how many tags they sell but you can't keep track of whether people actually hunt at all or if they do hunt and don't report success..

[Bob33]

So I guess it's easy to track of how many tags they sell but you can't keep track of whether people actually hunt at all or if they do hunt and don't report success..

You can for special permit hunts but not general season hunts.

[idahohuntr]

Many of the success and harvest statistics are a good relative measure of the GMU in the state.  Regardless of the actual success or days per harvest; if one GMU is consistently higher success and lower days per harvest...it probably is one of the better GMU's in the state.  One big caveat...there is an enormous difference in success and days to harvest disparity between hunters with and without restricted private land access.  The people who have access may have near 100% harvest...and those without...could be very low...so pay close attention to the amount and quality of public access in evaluating gmu's in washington or other western states. 

[WA hunter14]

my opninion on it is that those success rates are probably close but definately not exact. In washington it seems to me that the 10% of hunters kill 90% of the deer, not always from lack of effort but some. Id bet that if you hunt as hard and smart as you can your success rate will be much higher than what it says it is in the unit your in. There are many different types of hunts in that state many different climates. you can hunt one unit and be in two totally different worlds on one side or another. I would not want to go to that state never having been there before and try to kill a deer and i wouldnt even consider trying it for an elk. I hope someone here can give you some valuable information or offer you the chance to hunt with them.

[buckfvr]

The more time you have to hunt, the better........even in the best units, you have to find the deer, then the one you want.......