Wyoming Antelope Hunt

[bluey]

hang onh a minute the all seem to really curl at the top , sorry .

 

[Bullthrower338]

Public land New Mexico Pronghorn 2011

 

[jduckhunter]

so jd your antelope is from a tag you buy over the counter and hunt on public land ?
he has a wicked curl to him .

Well the tag was OTC but I hunted on private land, I have a friend that has a small spread in Wyoming ( 108000 acres ) I've hunted there for over 25 years and still haven't seen all of it. Some day if you want to we can go chase one of those critters for you, my friend only charges a small trespass fee.

 

[bluey]

l like that mount bloke ....
really go for them pedastel wall mounts.

 

[bluey]

where I come from bro, a trespass fee is a court case , or youre tryes slashed and at worst burnt out car .

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I've been saving up points for a 'blue chip' antelope area in Wyoming, at the same time my two oldest sons have been drawing tags and shooting antelope. My sons have hunted antelope the two previous years and even though I've just been along as an observer/pack mule/pay-for-gas-guy they have been some of the most enjoyable hunts I've been on. This year I decided it was time to join the fun and we put in as a group, didn't have enough points as a group for a 'blue chip' area, but we still got some great antelope and even better memories. I'm always complaining of never having shot an antelope so my wife told my sons we were not to return until I had notched my tag - I listened to my wife for a change!

My sons had been successful both of the previous years and kept their good luck streak alive on this hunt.

I'll probably never save up enough points for one of those 'blue chip' areas if we can just keep having this much fun. Just a couple more pics from the hunt.

Hey those are some nice pronghorns! If however you want a real bruiser, I'd research New Mexico, some huge ones there. Keep hunting in Wyoming while waiting for a New Mexico tag.

 

[jduckhunter]

where I come from bro, a trespass fee is a court case , or youre tryes slashed and at worst burnt out car .

In Wyoming a trespass fee is just what a guy charges you to hunt on his property.

 

[bluey]

righto I understand , fish in Victoria opens many gates to properties in the high coutry .
now im intrigued , you pay to hunt on your mates land ?
with tags ?
how much ?
is it a per animal , per day thing ?
does it change for species ?

 

[jduckhunter]

righto I understand , fish in Victoria opens many gates to properties in the high coutry .
now im intrigued , you pay to hunt on your mates land ?
with tags ?
how much ?
is it a per animal , per day thing ?
does it change for species ?

My friend doesn't charge me anything to hunt, only friends that I bring along. He charges one flat fee for hunting he doesn't care what we hunt or how long we hunt. The only thing he asks is that we kill every damn coyote that we come across, some thing that I am happy to do.

 

[bluey]

now that's a mate .

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

My friend doesn't charge me anything to hunt, only friends that I bring along. He charges one flat fee for hunting he doesn't care what we hunt or how long we hunt. The only thing he asks is that we kill every damn coyote that we come across, some thing that I am happy to do.

So might you be looking for a new friend? One thing I haven't taken since moving west 22 years ago is a pronghorn.

 

[BRICKBURN]

where I come from bro, a trespass fee is a court case , or youre tryes slashed and at worst burnt out car .

Took me a while to wrap my head around the term as well. To trespass here is an illegal act.

 

[BRICKBURN]

So might you be looking for a new friend? One thing I haven't taken since moving west 22 years ago is a pronghorn.

No way!

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

No way!

Way..........and I'm just a bit ashamed of myself.

 

[Mekaniks]

This is the pronghorn I killed in Wyoming last year. Only hunted public land. I would recommend this hunt to anyone.

 

[jduckhunter]

Antelope hunting must have gained in popularity this year. My son drove to town to buy an antelope doe tag after finishing up his deer hunt only to find out that the area we hunt in was sold out of tags. That's the first time in the 30 + years I've hunted there that tags were sold out. We were seeing quite a few does running around with nice horns and he wanted one pretty badly. I told him they will only be bigger next year.
Antelope seem to be a popular target for poachers as well. We came across a couple of them last Sunday evening, they had just shot one buck from the road and were in the process of trying to shoot more. We drove up on them in a hurry after seeing their tripod set up in the middle of the road and a small herd of does about 150 yards off the road. After some profanity laced yelling on my part they put their gun and tripod back in the truck, but as soon as we began driving away they got them back out. That's when things got interesting, I had my son keep the truck in line with the antelope, so that the only way they were going to shoot was through us or the truck. After a few minutes of this they gave up and left. The antelope seemed to sense what was going on and walked right toward our truck passing within a few feet and disappearing down into a draw. The really frustrating part was the fact that I couldn't get a license plate number the bastards had covered their plate with mud. I did get a good description of all of them though and I'm sickened to tell you it looked like a family affair. Dad, teenage son, teenage daughter or maybe son's girlfriend and worst of all a little boy who appeared to be maybe 6 - 8 years old. The thought of a father passing on crap like that to another generation just makes me sick.

 

[gillettehunter]

Man, you came through Gillette and didn't say Hi. Guess I'm not as well known as I thought...... A couple of yrs ago we had a late winter with a couple of late blizzards. Really impacted the antelope in some areas. Also some hemorrhagic disease. So the Fish and Game has responded by dropping the number of licenses available. So some areas that traditionally had leftover licenses have sold out. Gives them a chance to repopulate.
Bluey, maybe I can help explain a little on antelope in Wyoming. To hunt any big game animal in Wy. you need a license. The state is divided up into management areas. Allows the F@G to regulate how many animals are harvested. Hopefully enough that they don't exceed the carrying capacity but few enough that there are always some to hunt. For antelope you have to buy a license for a specific unit or hunt area. There are over 100 hunt units in WY. Those that reside outside of WY are considered Non-resident hunters. Those that live in the state are residents. Each yr the F@G decides how many licenses to issue for each unit. Non-residents have to plan ahead and apply for those licenses in Jan or Feb. Early in the year.
It is lottery type of system. Some units have lots of permits and you can draw them every year. Units that produce better trophies usually have fewer permits and less hunting pressure. The so called "blue chip units". You can get a good antelope in any unit, but some typically produce better bucks.
Wy has a system of preference points. You get a point each time that you apply and are not drawn. When you get more points than everyone else you are guaranteed to draw. The number of preference points to get drawn varies by unit and species.
For example, I drew my Bighorn sheep license 2 yrs ago with 16 preference points. At that time the Maximum anyone could have was 18. I drew a secondary unit because my first choice would of taken close to 5 more yrs to be certain it happened. When a unit has more licenses than what people apply for they go up for sale after the drawing, usually in July. In some antelope units they have issued a lot of licenses and traditionally have not sold all of them by the end of the season. Those units usually have very little public land to hunt. They also usually have large populations of antelope. So you either have a friend that lets you hunt or pay a fee to allow access. The access fee is locally called a "trespass fee".
Deer and elk are somewhat different in that they have some areas that you don't have to draw a specific unit. They are called general hunt units. A resident can buy a license over the counter at a sporting goods store. Non-residents have to apply. They may also have licenses left over after the draw. There are extra details, but that gets you up to speed on WY and antelope. Bruce

 

[jduckhunter]

Sorry gh, but we were on a pretty tight schedule. My son works for the DOD and needed to be home so that he could be on a plane this morning bound for God knows where. Next year I promise we'll swing by.

 

[gillettehunter]

Sounds great. I love to visit with fellow hunters when they are in the area. I know that many have better things to do and/or time constraints. Maybe it will work out for next yr. Bruce

 

[jduckhunter]

Yeah Bruce it was like 4:20 AM when we hit Wal Mart to pick up our tags and conservation stamps, I didn't think anybody would appreciate our dropping in on them at that time of day.