For those using Go Hunt for making draw decisions..

[Dos Perros]

If

That’s kinda silly. I’ve talked to several over the years and I rarely get much info of consequence.

Maybe you're not asking the right questions.

Are you advocating purposefully ignoring or avoiding certain information ahead of an application?

 

[louisianahunter]

Would never in my wildest dreams pick a unit based off supposed % harvest success.

What's remarkable to me is how confidently these stats are published. They publish SO many data points, but NOT the per-DAU response rates that would tell you how relevant they are. In some cases they may even be pretty close to accurate, while others are almost pure guesses, and there's no way to tell the difference.

As others mentioned above, comparing year-to-year changes can help give a little clue to this. Most of the online tools don't give an easy way to do that. I do like that GoHunt shows a trend chart, which is a start.

Personally, I tend to ignore these stats. I'm not a trophy hunter, I'm a meat-in-freezer guy, and while I'm still tough enough to put in 10-15mi days I do have arthritis and I've had three mini-strokes so I try to be careful with terrain - I can't keep up with the sheep-hunter crew anymore. What I look for is:

- Size of herd in the DAU (if there's only 1000 head across 50,000 acres, yeah... I'm not going there...)
- Points required (until they kill the point system, I try to alternate 0pt units for 2-3 years and then "something fun" to burn a few points on)
- Public land access (I prefer to hunt public land so no $5k Trinchera Ranch trespass fee for me, thanks)
- General terrain stats FOR THE SEASON (if I hunt past Rifle 2 I don't care as much about terrain because I'll be lower anyway)
- Scouting and knowledge of the area. I've probably scouted 20% of the GMUs (that I might actually hunt) in the state. IMO I think knowledge of a zone with a 10% "harvest success rate" trumps going blind into one with a "40%". It doesn't matter how successful other people are. Just how successful YOU are.
- If it looks fun. Sort of the opposite of the previous point, I'm a nomad and I like to roam around and explore new places. Hunting is my excuse to do that so this year for example I put in 1st choice for an area I've never been to, and I'm excited to see it.

This is actually really good advice. I've been hunting out west for 4 years now and one of the hardest parts is picking a unit from so far away.
Typically I start with terrain/elevation for the season I'd like to hunt, then start making a list of units I can draw and comparing buck:doe, harvest success (over 5 yrs which is what gohunt offers). Access and % public land are huge factors but some units can be misleading (state land, landlocked land etc). Overall I probably put in 40hrs narrowing down and stressing about what unit to apply for but eventually you just have to pull the trigger on one.
I'm sure everyone else has then same considerations as me, but how much to people actually call biologist before they even have a tag in their pocket? Really I'd kill for some in state experience/knowledge. Still hoping me and my wife move closer than Louisiana one day.

 

[CMF]

I think go hunt needs to remove that stat from their filtering. I’ve never once used that as a metric to determine where I was going to hunt. I would put the percentage of hunters willing to accurately report harvest data lower than the odds of getting struck by lightning.

Based on what experience?
Assuming hunters lie, the percentage of hunters lying should be equal across the board making a comparison between units in the same state with same data collection method somewhat relevant.
One thing to look for to see the data is crap, is wild swings in harvest, if you look at the amount of people surveyed and it's only 3 or 4 people than yea, there will be wild swings in the percentage and the info is pretty useless.
Colorado's data is worse than some other states.
Having hunted in multiple units in New Mexico their harvest percentage seems much more relative to the animals and opportunity on the ground.

They definitely shouldn't remove the stat, but adding an average harvest percent would add value.

 

[ccoffey]

Based on what experience?
Assuming hunters lie, the percentage of hunters lying should be equal across the board making a comparison between units in the same state with same data collection method somewhat relevant.
One thing to look for to see the data is crap, is wild swings in harvest, if you look at the amount of people surveyed and it's only 3 or 4 people than yea, there will be wild swings in the percentage and the info is pretty useless.
Colorado's data is worse than some other states.
Having hunted in multiple units in New Mexico their harvest percentage seems much more relative to the animals and opportunity on the ground.

They definitely shouldn't remove the stat, but adding an average harvest percent would add value.

Last part was more tongue in cheek I guess. goHunt doesn’t report hunters surveyed, they just post the stat.

 

[Bergy-Bowsmith]

the hard thing with Harvest success is that you never know what that entails, is that unit primarily a guided unit with alot of knowledgeable guides putting people on animals? is everyone killing forkies? who knows, I never look at harvest statistics when picking a unit but thats just me im confident ill find the animals and have a opportunity.

 

[JNDEER]

I have reached out to GoHunt via email and phone to discuss what has recently happened to me this draw cycle for Colorado Deer. I hunt with Traditional equipment so I wanted to hunt the highest success unit available. I had 9 Prefrence points, so pretty much any area was available to me. Anyway, their success rate for the unit I chose was over 60% another great unit I considered was in the mid to high 40's if I remember correctly.
So I applied for the highest success unit. Last night a friend was asking me how I make these decisions and told him about Gohunt. I look up the unit I chose and now after the draw the unit success rate has dropped over 20% from what it showed before the draw deadline. The other unit I considered was now around 60%. I would have probably chose a different unit based off these new numbers. It's a waste of time picking a unit if the numbers are going to change after we have already all applied.
I plan to hunt the origional unit because it's to late to make a change anyway, just really confusing seeing these changes now. I will update this thread after I have actually spoken with a Gohunt rep.

tough crowd.

Thanks for bringing this information out. It is one of the metrics I like looking at and although like many have said is not 100% accurate, it is a metric that one can use in making tag decisions.

I find it odd though because in looking over some units for species in another state, I noticed a listing of 2022 for the data, I wonder why they didn't do that for CO.

Hope your party has a good hunt and best of luck with the stickbow!

 

[CMF]

goHunt doesn’t report hunters surveyed, they just post the stat.

It depends on the hunt, I'm not sure why they show for some and not for others, but some they definitely do. Others you can look and the total tag numbers and see when there are only a few tags, the data is up and down.
The difference in ~200 surveyed vs a hunt with 4 tags.

 

[CMF]

Thanks for bringing this information out. It is one of the metrics I like looking at and although like many have said is not 100% accurate, it is a metric that one can use in making tag decisions.

Definitely worth using, It just takes a little more than looking at one year's success rate

I find it odd though because in looking over some units for species in another state, I noticed a listing of 2022 for the data, I wonder why they didn't do that for CO.

How fresh their data is depends on when the states release the raw data.
I think what he's saying is when he first researched he saw 2022 data and only looked at it and now he's seeing 2023 because CO finally released it. If that's not right, someone clarify.

When I get down to narrowing down a few units, I dig into more than the most recent and will average their stats.

I would have probably chose a different unit based off these new numbers. It's a waste of time picking a unit if the numbers are going to change after we have already all applied.

I wouldn't sweat it. The most recent success is no proof of the upcoming hunt. The fact that there was 60% in the previous year shows there is potential. Take the 4 or 5 year average of the units you're considering and see where you end up... you might find you like your decision after all.

 

[Andyram_18]

Just to be an advocate, it used to be something l looked at. I think for guys trying to figure out the out of state game; its a huge investment. There is an audience of hunters that is concerned with taking an animal regardless of size. We need them in this too. I have a friend that makes his out of state decisions based on Harvest success. While that stat doesnt matter to me, I think to a certain hunter it makes some sense.

 

[JNDEER]

Definitely worth using, It just takes a little more than looking at one year's success rate


How fresh their data is depends on when the states release the raw data.
I think what he's saying is when he first researched he saw 2022 data and only looked at it and now he's seeing 2023 because CO finally released it. If that's not right, someone clarify.

When I get down to narrowing down a few units, I dig into more than the most recent and will average their stats.

I wouldn't sweat it. The most recent success is no proof of the upcoming hunt. The fact that there was 60% in the previous year shows there is potential. Take the 4 or 5 year average of the units you're considering and see where you end up... you might find you like your decision after all.

I agree- my point was if GoHunt had another states data listing it was still 2022 - but didn’t for this CO unit- I wonder why they wouldn’t also have a disclaimer saying the data was from 2022 for those of us who may not also go to that states GF website to review the raw data.

 

[CMF]

I agree- my point was if GoHunt had another states data listing it was still 2022 - but didn’t for this CO unit- I wonder why they wouldn’t also have a disclaimer saying the data was from 2022 for those of us who may not also go to that states GF website to review the raw data.

It may be the way you're looking at the units. If you're only looking at the list of units where you can sort them by harvest, draw odd, etc, then you won't see the date of the data.

But if you click into the unit page you can see the year of the data. No need to go to the state website.

Below you can see the draw odds for NM are updated to 2023, but the harvest data is still 2022. I don't think NM or CO harvest data is updated before the apps are due.

 

[Beendare]

I would base my decision off if terrain vs those inaccurate success stats.

Thankfully, I have a network of guys that have hunted or know someone that has hunted almost every unit in the US.

 

[stan_wa]

My basic advice is don’t worry too much about success rates if they changed that much one year they can change this year for ya.

 

[Fitzwho]

Until Colorado makes harvest reporting mandatory, I would take that stat line with a grain of salt. They probably only called 10 guys that drew out of 100 tags.

That being said, any state that does have mandatory harvest reporting, I look at those numbers. I don't necessarily look for a 60% harvest rate, but a solid 25-30% and that make me feel like I can get it done.

 

[displacedtexan]

I can't believe gohunt doesn't have a mole so you can benefit from data that hasn't been released!