Data Sources & Methodology

ProHunt's draw odds, success rates, harvest records, public-land overlays, and unit logistics are built on data published by state wildlife agencies, federal land managers, and other public datasets. This page documents what we use, where it comes from, how often it refreshes, and the known limitations.

State wildlife agencies — draw odds & regulations

Tag-level draw odds, season structure, license fees, and application windows for each of our 9 covered states are sourced directly from that state's wildlife agency. We refresh after each draw cycle (spring/summer for most western states).

• Arizona: Arizona Game & Fish Department (azgfd.com)
• Colorado: Colorado Parks & Wildlife (cpw.state.co.us)
• Idaho: Idaho Department of Fish & Game (idfg.idaho.gov)
• Montana: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (fwp.mt.gov)
• Nevada: Nevada Department of Wildlife (ndow.org)
• New Mexico: New Mexico Department of Game & Fish (wildlife.state.nm.us)
• Oregon: Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (dfw.state.or.us)
• Utah: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (wildlife.utah.gov)
• Wyoming: Wyoming Game & Fish Department (wgfd.wyo.gov)

Harvest records

Our harvest record dataset (3,300+ records across 9 states and 12 species) is built from agency-published harvest reports. Each record represents a reported successful harvest with — where the agency provides it — unit, species, weapon, residency, and year. Records are anonymized at the source; ProHunt does not collect individual hunter identifying information from these reports.

Some agencies publish harvest at unit-level resolution; others aggregate to a broader hunt area. When that happens, we mark the record at the smallest geographic unit available.

Public-land & map data

• Base topography: USGS Topographic tiles (public domain).
• Roads & trails overlay: Stadia Maps OpenMapTiles — stadiamaps.com with attribution. Road classification (paved / gravel / dirt / trail) is rendered by classification tag from OpenMapTiles.
• National forests & BLM boundaries: USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management published shapefiles.
• Fire perimeters: National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) historic fire perimeter dataset.
• Springs & surface water: USGS National Hydrography Dataset named-springs export.
• Campgrounds: USFS recreation site dataset.
• Wildlife observations: Aggregated GPS observations are sourced under permissive licenses where the underlying record explicitly permits commercial re-use. Specific source attribution is shown on each observation in the map UI.

Refresh cadence

• Draw odds & success rates: Annually after each state's draw results publish.
• Application deadlines & license fees: Reviewed before the start of each application window. Daily cron tracks deadline-trigger emails for users who opt in to alerts.
• Public-land overlays: Quarterly when shapefiles update; on demand if a major boundary change is announced.
• Fire perimeters: Refreshed weekly during fire season, monthly otherwise.
• Wildlife observations: Weekly intel-refresh cron.

Known limitations

• Draw odds reflect the most recent published draw cycle. Mid-cycle quota changes announced by an agency may not be reflected until our next refresh.
• Some agencies report aggregated rather than unit-level harvest. Unit pages show the finest granularity available; aggregated records are flagged.
• Map road overlays follow OpenMapTiles classification. Recent USFS / BLM motor-vehicle-use-map closures may not be reflected immediately.
• Our data is a planning aid, not a substitute for the state's official regulation booklet. See our disclaimer for the full statement.

How to report a data error

See our Corrections Policy. The short version: send the URL and source link via the contact form with subject "Data correction."