Harvest numbers can help you zero in on prime spots

Idaho is a rarity in the West because you can buy deer and elk tags without applying for controlled hunts and almost every part of the state has open general seasons.

All of those open areas mean you have lots of options, but it can also make choosing a place to hunt a challenge — granted, a pretty fun challenge.

One way to do it is by looking at last year’s harvest statistics. The numbers give you a general impression of how hunters did.

Reading harvest statistics is like reading stock reports. What happened last year doesn’t necessarily mean it will be repeated this year, but it does you give you some idea of where to start looking.

If your idea of fun isn’t poring over statistics from 99 hunting units in the state to glean which ones had the best numbers last year, we did it for you.

This information should be taken with a boulder-sized grain of salt and should be cross-referenced with the hunting rules.

Many units have a combination of general and controlled hunts. Controlled hunts can have a big influence on success rate because fewer hunters are allowed in an area, and they tend to have a higher success rate.

There are other factors as well. For instance, deer hunters in Unit 73 had a respectable 25 percent success rate and a whopping 92 percent of bucks were four points or better. But, hunters were restricted to shooting only bucks four points or larger, so if it looks too good to be true, there’s probably a reason.

Another example: North Idaho units traditionally have high success rates, but they also offer long seasons and either-sex hunting. Most of the harvest is whitetails. That tends to give those units higher success rates than units that are restricted to bucks only.

So before you decide that harvest statistics will show you the promised land, do your homework, do some scouting and realize this year could be a lot different.

If you want to check out all of the harvest statistics, go to fishandgame.idaho.gov, click on the “Hunting” subhead and then “Game species info.”

Here are some highlights (and lowlights) from the last year’s any-weapon hunts:

Deer

• Best overall success rate: 44 percent, five-way tie between Units 5, 8, 8A and 16.

• Best mule deer success rate: (with 90 percent or more of the harvest being mule deer) Unit 36B, 39 percent success rate.

• Biggest overall harvest: Unit 39, 3,373 deer (including 2,310 bucks).

• Unit with highest percentage of mule deer bucks four points or better: Unit 19, 58 percent (excluding Units 70 and 73, which were limited to four points or better).

• Unit with highest percentage of whitetail bucks four points or better: Unit 9, 80 percent. (Note: only 10 bucks were taken from this unit.)

• Largest number of hunters for any deer unit: Unit 39, 11,840.

• Unit with the lowest success rate: Unit 47, 69 hunters harvested zero deer.

Elk

• Best overall success rate: Unit 11A, 32 percent.

• Biggest elk harvest: Unit 4 with a total harvest of 936, including 615 bulls.

• Best percentage of bulls six points or larger: Unit 67, 67 percent (Unit 70 had 100 percent, but only one bull was harvested.)

• Largest number of elk hunters in any one unit: Unit 4, 6,883.

• Lowest success rate: Tie Units 71 and 73, 3 percent.