The Panhandle elk B-tag rifle season ends Friday, and the Panhandle elk A-tag rifle season opens Saturday. Even for hunters, the system is somewhat complicated.

Elk management zones and the Idaho A and B elk tag system were developed in an effort to provide as many hunting-method (firearm type) opportunities as possible within the limited number of days available.

The A tags generally provide more opportunity for archers and muzzleloaders but have limited rifle seasons. B tags provide more rifle-hunting opportunity and fewer days for primitive-weapons enthusiasts.

With the seasons well underway, people are asking how the harvest looks.

Providing a well-supported answer during the season is not really possible. Tallying actual hunter success and harvest numbers will not be completed for several months.

All that is available now are some generalities and anecdotal comments about what we have heard from other hunters, or what we have seen and heard while checking hunters in the field.

Hunters coming through a check station one day may bring numerous animals in and say they saw lots of deer and elk.

The next day at the same check station we might see very few animals and hear that deer and elk hunting was slow and that most hunters didn't see anything.

For about 30 years, hunters were required to present every elk harvested in the Idaho Panhandle to a check station or Idaho Department of Fish and Game office.

The mandatory check provided an ongoing "feel" for how the seasons were progressing.

However, because hunters could take several days before reporting their harvests, even that information was not particularly current.

The mandatory check was eliminated several years ago and replaced by a mandatory harvest report for deer, elk and antelope hunters.

This information is gathered from hunters across the state.

This method provides better (and statewide) data, but the information takes longer to accumulate. Despite the delay, the information received is more accurate and essential to the season-setting process, which begins in late winter.

The check station summaries that are in so far show that hunters in the Panhandle are reporting seeing a lot of moose, grouse and turkeys.

The majority of hunters also said they saw more elk and deer and more elk and deer sign than the past few years. The number of hunters who put meat in their freezers and on their dinner tables will not be known for several months.

The number of calves which hunters have reported seeing has varied from one check station to the next.

One comment that has been consistent is that hunters are seeing numerous spike elk. Good spike numbers typically mean high overwinter calf survival through the previous winter.

Most deer taken in October in the Panhandle are incidental to elk hunting. With most Panhandle hunters focusing on elk in October, deer hunting success is gauged by what happens during the Nov. 1 to Dec. 1 part of the deer season.

In other words, a low number of deer through the October check stations does not reflect the number of deer in the fields and forests that are available to hunters.

The weather has been uncharacteristically mild and dry, with temperatures well above normal but not uncomfortably warm.

So even those hunters who haven't taken elk are reporting a high level of enjoyment for their time spent in the forests and fields this fall.

For several years now, hunters could expand or extend their hunting opportunity by purchasing a second deer or elk tag at the non-resident price, as long as unsold tags remain.

Beginning this year, Fish and Game has offered those second tags at a reduced price.

So if you are a B-tag hunter and you want to spend more time in the woods this fall, consider purchasing a Panhandle elk A tag that will give you an additional five days of rifle hunting starting this weekend, and some late primitive-weapons elk seasons in November and December.

Phil Cooper is a wildlife conservation educator in Coeur d'Alene for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.