Your Hunting Statistics

[MidMoElkNut]

Hey everyone I was curious about everyone's success each year.
This will be my 5th year going archery OTC diy in Colorado and I am 0 for 4 seasons now and I mainly hunt solo.
My question is do you kill every year or what are your statistics?
Do you bow, rifle or muzzleloader hunt, otc or draw unit?
Any other details or info would be great too. I'm hoping to get on the board this year but we will see!
46 more days for me I can't wait!

[saddlesore]

I hunt ML and center fire rifle. Have had 100% success for over 20 years. I guess it would been more than that because some years I kill two elk when I get the tags.If I kill an elk this year, it will be no. 50. But I am an old fart and have been at it 48 years+

[Ryan Conkle]

I have 2 seasons' behind me, both OTC archery hunts in Idaho and am 1 for 2, although I should be 2 for 2. My first year I shot a bull that I did not recover and last year I shot a 5x5. I feel that resources' such as this have greatly helped me in trying to shorten the learning curve for a newbie such as myself.

[MidMoElkNut]

Thanks for the reply guys! I shot one last year I could not find.... It was a frontal shot which may have been a mistake to start with but it was my first ever shot at an elk and I felt comfortable with making a shot like that. I'm not really sure what happened. All I can think of is my shot may have been a little hi but when you are hunting solo and trying to call them in it's going to be hard getting a broadside shot from what I hear and have experienced.

[Coloclover]

0 for 2. Going into my third season rifle hunting in Colorado with drawn tags. I feel like it's getting better though. The first two years I had no idea what the hell I was doing. The first year I didn't even see elk. Last year I saw elk everyday but I wasn't confident enough to go get them. This year I feel much more prepared physically and mentally.

[Swede]

I am close to 90% for over 20 years. I hunt in an area with 10% average success, but that is only part of the story. I can hunt all season if I want to, and sometimes do. I have lived and worked in the area I hunt. I have had more opportunities than I was able to capitalize on. Please do not measure your success by what someone else is doing. Do your best with the time and place you have to hunt.

Someone wrote on another thread that there are a lot of contradictions in elk hunting. Amen. We hunt different areas with different methods and different elk. To me it is interesting that Stringunner and I have come to the same conclusion about how to hunt our area. Does it surprise me that other hunters are not following our trail? Not at all. They are in a different area and are following a different path. Your success may be a result of a lot of different situations.

[saddlesore]

It's been said that 10% of the hunters kill 90% of the elk. The real measure of success isn't the number of elk you kill ,but how well you enjoyed your hunt.

[MidMoElkNut]

Yes that is all very true! I enjoy my hunt so much every year and that is why I keep coming back! It's not about the harvest I know that but it would be a great bonus to take one home with me! My second year I never heard or seen an elk the whole hunt(7 days or so) but I still had fun! I love the mountains and elk hunting!

[Indian Summer]

Not counting the wonder years I'm 100%. But that is definitely NOT comparing apples to apples. Do the math... if I hunted 5 weeks of bow season and 5 weeks of gun to kill an elk that's literally a lifetime of elk hunting for some people. More actually because one week a year is nothing like hunting consecutive weeks like that. Doing that for 13 years in a row obviously changed everything for me forever.

One of the things that I did especially in the later years of that stint was to look more at the big picture. When I look at an area I look at the geography for miles and miles around. When I hunt other areas or new places I look at them as if they were the areas I know like the back of my hand. Look for similar features and see if the elk are using the area the same way. If nothing else it's a way of having confidence in an area I've never hunted but many times I found elk in the same types of areas I did in my old spots.

BUT... I swear Montana elk and Wyoming elk are different species. That reinforces what Swede said about lots of us hunting different areas. Montana elk love the timber and if we would leave the Wyoming elk alone I think they would be in the wide open more often than not. At least where I've hunted.

[Elkhunttoo]

I had to do the math but I'm at 40%(20 years 8 elk)... As a kid if I would've spent more time aiming and less time shooting that number would be higher . Yet, I've only hunted in average 3-4 days most seasons... I've also became very picky the last several years and I have no problem leaving one in the woods that has potential to be bigger next year

[Stick]

10 years 10 elk! One cow and nine Bulls. OTC!! DIY!! 9 years in Colorado and one in Wyoming!! Average 10 days of hunting per season. Love it. One with a gun all the rest with my bow!!

[stringunner]

All archery. 50% in the past 10 years with 4 of the 5 being in the last 5 years. It took a good 2-3 years of serious studying, learning, missing several shots, and chasing elk before I started connecting. once I figured out how to effectively hunt my area, I have gone 4 for 5.

[WYO_ELK]

2/2. Wyoming archery. 1 cow, 1 bull

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Lefty]

Rifle
Montana OS 2 tags 3 days of hunting one bull, 4 days hunting no bull
Utah cow tag, cow at the end of the day.
Washington St 2 tags. Mt Saint Helen's 2 days , no bull.
Blue mts, 3 days no bulls
Yakima 2 days no bull
Idaho by 10:00 AM huge bodied bull
19 days of hunting, 2 bulls, 1 cow

Archery Ive killed one cow in about 50 days of hunting over 7 seasons ( triple that in scouting). . Many guys will never have the chances I passed on. Or the fantastic misses, dont use the 45 or 50 yards pins when they are at 22 yards

[TurkeyBowMaster]

One hunt...one bull...100% success. Going for two bulls this year. Can't wait.

[IdahoKel]

My stats are exactly the same as yours, MidMoeElkNut. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't discouraged and disappointed in myself.

[MidMoElkNut]

IdahoKel, I hear you! It would be nice to have something to show for all of the hard work especially when you can't get anyone else to go with you because they think it's too expensive. In a way it is but I love it so much that's not how I look at it. Let's hope we both have are on the board this year! I'm just hoping I can hunt the same area this year! How many years have you been elk hunting IdahoKel?

[tikka]

5 hunts with rifle, Year 1 found tracks, year 2 saw cows(bull tag), Year 3 found bulls but too far to shoot for me. Year 4, spike, Year 5, 5X5. Then I switched to archery to get away from the crowds. Saw nice bull, hit stick protecting his ribs.

But during all the hunts I had a great time, many memories. But elk meat tastes a lot better then tag soup.

[Fridaythe13th]

0 for 3 for archery Idaho. 2 misses the 1st year.
Rifle CO 2 for 4.

[Elkduds]

One bull, nine cows w rifle in CO over 25 years, 5-6 days/year. 0 for 1 on archery.

[Tigger]

Rifle Idaho 0 for 1
Rifle Colorado 1 for 2 (nice bull)
Rifle Wyoming 1 for 1 (raghorn)
Archery Wyoming 1 for 1 (nice bull)
This year Archery Montana 1 for....wait, I haven't been on this trip yet!

Total 3 for 5. I think the saying "it is better to be lucky than good" might apply here!

[the weasel]

0 for 25.... yep I'm PETA's best hunting buddy! "next year".

[BrentLaBere]

2 for 4 Archery
Bringing home back straps this year.

[wunder6]

0 for 3 OTC Idaho archery 8 days a piece. Had opportunities just couldn't finish them. Hopefully this is the year, but it's always a blast.

[Bow4me]

I'm 2 for 7. Both with a rifle. O for 4 with my bow. The first 3 years were archery which is my favorite but I realized quickly I needed more experience so I switched to rifle. In 7 hunts I think I have hunted about 28 days.

[oldnovice]

0 for 1 with OTC Bull tag in Colorado. Haven't hunted for 40 years and this was the first year Elk hunting. Saw a few tracks but no Elk. Saw plenty of Mulies, though so applied for Mulie tags along with Elk. Gonna increase my chances!

[Wyo67]

I think it depends on how you define success. Personally, I've been archery elk hunting for 8 years and have brought home 3 bulls. Out of our group of 4 to 8 hunters, the number of which fluctuates every year due to introducing kids or out of state friends and family drawing tags, we have taken at least 2 elk every year. Some years as many as 4 or 5.

[js80138]

0-4 4th season rifle , 0-2 archery. After the education I received during 4th rifle lessons I refuse to leave my unit or change seasons until I get an elk.

[bald9eagle]

Depends on how you want to look at it I'm either batting 1.000 or 0.000. I'm still a virgin.

Darn my ways though. I will probably let my buddy be the shooter since I'm the one with the calls. We will probably tag team with winner of a coin toss getting first chance. I guess technically if he gets one I can say we are 1:1.

[lilshootergirl]

In 14 years I've got 1 cow on a draw Washington, other areas no spikes, lots of big bulls, but no bull tags on hand. I hope I've picked the right area, cause I have lots of time to hunt the whole season. Area lots right, lots of signs, rubs, wallows, lots of food! But not sure how it will play open I g day. But I'll be there and ready

[one_elk]

Some pretty impressive stats above but last I looked for the general archery hunting population the average annual success rate for archery is somewhere between 12 and 13% about one elk every 8 or so years and for rifle it's around 24% but of course as stated above harvest isn't distributed equally and certainly there is a lot of variability (i.e. private land vs public land, years hunted in a specific area....) between hunters but for me I have had much better success when I get to archery hunt 10 or more days....the real interesting statistic would be days per harvest on an annual basis...and it would be interesting to restrict it to public lands as that is what the majority of us get to hunt...anyway interesting topic

[BRazz]

Not very good according to most of you on here...ouch! I fancy myself a good elk hunter but for archery I'd say I get one every three or four years on average. Got a small 4x4 three years ago, lost a nice bull two years ago, then last year got skunked (hardly saw anything in a new spot we tried).

Rifle we go about 50% in my family.

[Saguache]

5 for 9 hunting archery, my first 4 seasons hunting elk were unsuccessful, but I have taken a bull each of the last 5 years. I had a tough time transitioning from being a treestand whitetail hunter but eventually figured it out (somewhat). I've also taken a few cows with a rifle on leftover tags.

[Old school]

Rifle - 2 for 2 on Bulls. DIY OTC archery 0 for 2 but determined to change that this year.

--Mitch

[redtop]

Like has been said if you are having fun, you are successful.
As far as putting elk in the freezer I'm 40 elk out of 40 years, sometimes two in a season.
But, and it's a big but. I live surrounded by elk and my season can run as long as 5 months depending on the tag.
I'm not a better hunter than most of you I just live in a better location to kill elk.
Never been whitetail hunting so my statistics go way down compared to many of you in that arena.

[MidMoElkNut]

Saguache what did you change from whitetails out of a tree stand to elk?
I hunt whitetails a lot here in Missouri! Maybe I just need to change my approach!