the current and improved conditions trip values, the values might 

 also be influenced by responses from hunters who were hunting 

 other species in addition to deer. 



While the Montana Deer Hunting Survey effectively identified 

 those hunters whose trip was made primarily for the purpose of 

 hunting, the distinction was not made between those primarily 

 hunting deer and those who might primarily be hunting elk or 

 another big game species while at the same time be willing to 

 shoot a deer if the opportunity arose. Respondents were 

 explicitly asked (see section II and Appendix A) about "your last 

 deer hunting trip", and over 60 percent of respondents did bag a 

 deer; however, this does not preclude the possibility that elk 

 were the primary objective of the hunting trip. Two statistics 

 from the survey data give credence to the possibility that a 

 substantial number of elk hunters were included in the survey. 



The average number of days which resident hunters report having 

 spent on their most recent trip is more than double the number of 

 days per trip found in a previous DFWP deer study (Brooks 1988) . 

 Brooks found that resident hunters spend an average of 1.98 days 

 per trip hunting deer. This makes intuitive sense since a large 

 number of residents engage in only day or weekend deer hunts. 

 The average number of resident days found in this study was 4.49 

 suggesting that a substantial number of these trips were made for 

 the purpose of hunting elk which generally requires a larger 

 commitment of time and energy and is taken somewhat more 

 seriously by hunters. This difference may also be in part 

 because Brooks (1988) was based on a telephone survey where a 

 list of all hunting trips for the season was obtained from the 

 respondent. The detailed trip information was then asked about 

 one specific trip selected at random. In this study (as in 

 Loomis, Cooper and Allen (1988)), the constraints of using a mail 

 survey required that the specific trip selected for detailed 

 information was the "most recent" or "last" hunting trip. The 

 last hunting trip is more likely to have been a successful trip 

 (and success is in part a function of the length of the trip) . 

 This may also in part explain the difference in days per trip 

 between Brooks (1988) and the current study. 



Nonresidents in Brooks' study spent an average of 6.32 days per 

 trip compared to 6.89 days in this study. There is reason to 

 believe that the number of days nonresident deer and elk hunters 

 spend on their trips is relatively equal. Nonresidents, 

 particularly those who are also guided, tend to commit a week to 

 hunting Montana regardless of the species they are hunting (the 

 possible exceptions are those nonresidents living near their 

 desired hunt areas) . 



More indicative of a possible "elk hunter bias" in the sample is 

 the statistic showing the percentage of each hunter subgroup to 

 bag an elk on their most recent trip. The data showed that 9.2% 



27 



