WaterfowlChoke

Choke Tubes for Duck and Goose Hunting

Sandhill Crane Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

sandhill-crane-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Sandhill Cranes in Texas? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting cranes, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of crane hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Sandhill Cranes is.

Harvesting a Sandhill Crane is the most iconic achievement in waterfowl hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Sandhill Cranes their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Sandhill Cranes have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Sandhill Crane harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Sandhill Cranes are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting mid-continent Sandhill Cranes.

Where are the Most Sandhill Cranes Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Sandhill Cranes in Texas are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Sandhill Cranes per hunt, followed by in North Dakota and New Mexico. Since 2021, those in Texas have harvested 29,607 Sandhill Cranes, whilst in North Dakota and New Mexico, hunters have harvested 1,764 and 1,326, respectively.

The ten states that harvested the most Sandhill Cranes, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. Texas – 29,607
  2. North Dakota – 1,764
  3. New Mexico – 1,326
  4. Kansas – 1,160
  5. Arkansas – 659
  6. New Mexico – 264
  7. Arizona – 187
  8. Minnesota – 179
  9. Colorado – 131
  10. Montana – 82

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the Sandhill Crane hunters sticking to the ag fields of Texas are most likely to harvest a Sandhill Crane. Shockingly, Arkansas Sandhill Crane hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Sandhill Crane on the average crane hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Sandhill Cranes

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Sandhill Crane, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Sandhill Cranes, and discovered that December was the most common, with 63% of Sandhill Cranes harvested. The months of November (13%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to crane season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-sandhill-cranes

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any crane hunter will know, harvesting Sandhill Cranes is a lifetime achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Sandhill Cranes is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in Texas harvesting so many Sandhill Cranes – especially when the bag limit on cranes is so low – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Central Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Sandhill Crane harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe North Dakota will surpass Texas this time next year.”

Related

Latest Posts