Days aside, do you think a resident that comes across a good mature bull that he/she has worked 4 days trying to find is going to have any less desire to get him on the ground than a NR? Whether his/her season is 5 or 20 days, if you have an elk tag in your pocket your goal is to kill a bull, resident/NR has no bearing.
I’ll concede on a long cow hunt, things could be different.
Honestly, SLM, I don't know. But what Boddington was saying, and I think it could have some merit in some situations, is that some NRs get to hunt elk fairly unregularly, and may have a shorter hunt in an area with which there are less familiar. In that case, they may get to see a lot fewer bulls than a resident. It might be easier for a resident to pass up a bull and wait for tomorrow or next year for a closer shot that the NR would feel compelled to try to take. I'm not saying that's a good way to look at it. For example, now that I have gotten a fair amount of game of various types, I'm a lot more picky and more likely to pass on various shots than I might have been in the past. I shot my first deer at 18 years old 30 minutes into my first deer season when all I had and could afford was a smooth bore Rem 870 with Brenneke slugs. I shot him in the ass at 70 yards. It took him down, but I wouldn't do that today.
