I'd disagree since I've hunted both. Multiple states have far better elk hunting than the panhandle units of Idaho. I had 12 cams out for 5mos in Idaho, ONE bull on camera. I covered miles during this past deer season in a 13 day span to see 2 elk in Idaho lol, that's miles in the woods, not road hunting. I can see two here by accident
Those damage tags haven't impacted the elk herd around here. The elk you referred to are town/beach elk and tearing up yards, farm land/fencing, and causing several auto accidents with no management due to location. Same for Fort Stevens except no damage tags there. The damage tag complaints are simply uneducated opinions of those locals the article is referring to and the guy wanking has no reason to be given tag holders names as he thinks he should. We fill damage tags and count the elk on a regular basis and there's no impact other than we get elk free land for a few days. They breed and replace what's gone due to available food and sustainability.
In Tillamook County they have substantially reduced the elk population. A lot of the problem is the fact that the Forest Service hasn't done any clear cutting in 30 years so the available habitat in the National Forest is dwindling causing the remaining elk population to end up in dairy farmers fields and now they get unlimited damage tags. The bull harvest didn't drop over 25% in 3 years for no reason.
The farmers getting unlimited tags doesn't really mean much. We get unlimited tags but so far only had to shoot 3, ya need stats to complain IMO. They should get those tags, the elk costs farmers millions annually and that 40-50# of grass one eats per night means more monies being spent for feed. As far as unit numbers Saddle Mountain and Wilson unit pretty much the same success rates for the last 5 years (archery bulls taken). I'm not looking up gun season but, I know the success rate has not dropped 25%. The Wilson unit bulls killed were 56 less in 2022 compared to 2020. You MUST consider that there were also 287 hunters in 2022 compare to 2020. You're way off with ya numbers./
This thread is about rifle hunting and I am looking at rifle season numbers.
True statement and as a newbie to an area, getting information is very difficult. Expand your hunting to learn the area, spring and fall bear hunt or cougar. Time in the woods will help the most. I’m still learning as a transplant, however I enjoy my time in the woods.
My last sentence in the previous post was 1st and 2nd any weapons season from the Wilson Unit, not archery and they are correct. In the wilson units gun season the succes rates pretty much stayed the same, like I said hunter number numbers have to be factored in, not just number of animals killed. You mentioned the Wilson unit, 2018 - 13% success rate, 2020 - 14% rate, 2022 - 13%. There's no 25% decrease in success, it's number of hunters. Like I pointed out previously, there were 287 less hunters in 2022 compared to 2020, kind of obvious less animals would be killed. 2022 had less hunters than the previous two years in the wilson unit. It's not damage tags causing it as ya stated
Not sure where you are getting those numbers but from the ODFW statistics the success rate in the Wilson for 2022 was 10% for first season and 6% for second season. The number of hunters in the Wilson Rifle hunt dropped about 10% while number of bulls harvested dropped 25% so I have to disagree with you. A person has to wonder why hunter numbers have dropped of course. It seems to me less hunters should equal an increase in success but that is just my opinion and not really relevant for this thread. In the Trask Unit archery hunter numbers actually increased 7% between 2020 and 2022 while harvested bulls dropped 25%. I've never seen a place that gave out unlimited damage tags and had it not have a negative effect on actual hunters but I'm not going to debate it. I am just posting the stats that I have available so if someone is looking for info in the future they have an understanding of what the hunt is like.
Getting #s same place you are. The success percentages were archery, no drop in success rates over those years. Like I stated, there's a drop in hunters 2022/2,268 hunters, 2021/2,415 hunters, and 20201/2,555 hunters. The success rate averaged dropping 1%. That drop could be lack of skilled hunters, weather, or whatever BUT, the valley farms do not pull elk from all over and drain an entire of elk numbers . That 79 cows over 3 years in the news didn't affect hunting because they lived in a non-huntable area other than a couple landowners shooting a bull. We can shoot 20 cows from a herd of 80 and there are 80 again there the next year, and we've counted. Like I posted earlier, The Wilson unit bulls killed were 56 less in 2022 compared to 2020. You MUST consider that there were also 287 less hunters. Poachings gotten worse in the Saddle mt unit for sure
