Non-Resident vs Resident Unit selections

[LowCountryBuckeye]

Why do some units get a lot of use by residents and others get a lot of use by non-residents? There seems to be a lot of disparity in unit selections and even success rates. For example: Wyoming Unit 6 had 1037 resident hunters and only 266 non-res. But, resident days/harvest is 24.1 while the non-residents were killing elk at will with only 8.1 days/harvest.

Wyoming Unit 50 also sees a large disparity in use between res and non-res hunters. 33 res to 195 non-res. But the days/harvest are similar at 13.9 for res and 10.2 for non-res.

As a non-resident first time elk hunter, should I only be concerned with the non-resident success rates and days/harvest? Or should I "go where the locals go"?

Thanks in advance.

 

[wytex]

Access. Area 6 is mostly private and those cow hunters were looking hard for elk on public sections. NR probably had access or went guided.

 

[Wy067]

Agree what wytex said. For area 6, I don't believe non-residents are going to pony up the $$$ for an elk tag to hunt a nearly exclusively private area unless they had an outfitter or guided hunt arranged.

 

[Jape]

Access. Area 6 is mostly private and those cow hunters were looking hard for elk on public sections. NR probably had access or went guided.

Bingo.