Many people would be doomed from the start if the Percentages where 80%. I grew up hunting whitetails, Turkeys, rabbits, and squirrels. I've used the knowledge gleamed from those years to harvest elk on multiple occassions. Granted its a whole other ballgame but some skills are definately transferable.

If you do some research, Do some scouting, Draw a decent tag, and have some decent hunting knowledge I honestly believe your chances are 50/50.

Sayyou don't do any research, don't scout, buy a general tag, go to the woods and hope that a stupid one walks by you then I would say that you got a 1 in 10 chance. There is alwaysa guy somewhere that shoots an elk from camp, luck is definately a part of it.