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Wyoming Antelope Hunting - details

29K views 21 replies 19 participants last post by  rabersin 
#1 ·
Okay, a lot of serious posts, depressing info, particularly the Oregon Mule Deer numbers, so it is time to talk about a super fun hunting trip - Wyoming antelope.

This post will be long, since it contains a lot of details about antelope units. This post covers the hunting opportunities where you want to draw a second choice hunt, and NOT use your preference points. In Wyoming, like Oregon, if you draw a second choice hunt, you do not use your points, and can add one point for that year. Some of these units will have leftover tags, so you can wait til July and still get a tag, but if you know you want to go this year, I recommend you put in for the draw, and pick one of these units as your second choice. One warning, there is a small chance you will draw your first choice. The toughest tag to draw is 60-1, so put that as your first choice, and you will be fine. Be sure and put in as a party, as well.

Wyoming has two types of tags, Regular and Special. Special costs $ 240.00 more than the Regualr. All of the units below can be drawn as a second choice with the Regular tag. Do not waste your money by putting in for the special tag.

I have listed all of the units that you can draw as a second choice, then given more specific info about some of those units, including season dates, no. of tags, location, etc. All antelope units run 80-90% success rates, so I did not include that. I will only hunt units that have either a decent amount of walk-in hunter access acres, or a Hunter Management area. On both of those, motor vehicle access is limited. Other units might have a good amount of BLM land, but typically have no restrictions on ATV off-road use. I just won't hunt in those areas.

Walk in areas are scattered throughout the state. They are typically private land, that fish and game leases for hunting access. You can find info on them under the "Public Access" link on the Wyoming Dept of Wildlife home page. When you get to the walk in page, you will see a list of counties ont he left hand side. I have provided the County link for each unit I provided detailed info. click on that link, and you will get maps, and a graph with the acreage for each walk in area, unit it is located in, and special restrictions.

Hunter Managment areas are larger tracts of private land that are also leased for hunter access. When you click on the "Hunter Management Area" link, you will get a list of them by name down the left hand column, and a map at the bottom of the page where they are located. When you click on one of the hunter management area links, you will get a description page, and links to the rules for that area and maps. Hunter Management areas require a permit, which you apply for AFTER you draw your tag. Most of them are relatively easy to get IF you apply as soon as you find out you know you drew the tag, but some require a second drawing.

The units I detailed below all have either Hunter Management Areas or Walk in areas.

Our preference is to hunt later in the season rather than opening week. this eliminates most of the hunters, although a lot of bucks are killed that first week. On any of these units, a 14" buck would be huge, and a 13" buck would be good. One thing to remember, Wyoming bucks seem to have better mass than those in Oregon. My partner's 13" buck scored mid 70's, higher than any of the 4 14" bucks I have killed in Oregon.

You must apply for the draw by march 15, as I recall, with results available in early July. Seasons start on the same day every year, regardless of the day of the week. Season length will not be decided til June, but typically does not change. Dates shown below are from 2008.
Most tags are "any antelope" tags. Many units also have reduced price doe/fawn tags, cost around $ 40.00 as i recall. In some units, you can harvest one "any antelope" buck and two does/fawns.


Units that you can draw as a second choice in the drawing.

1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,29,30,31,35,36,38,39,45,102 and 104.

Specific unit information:

Unit 7, near Newcastle. 21,000 acres of walk in access in Weston County. Season 10-1 to 10-15. 1,300 tags.

Unit 8, near Lusk. 19,000 acres of walk in access in Niobrara and Weston counties. Season 10-1 to 10-15. 300 tags.

Unit 9, near Lusk. 40,000 acres of walk in access in Niobrara County. Season 9-24 to 10-15. 650 tags.

Unit 16, near Sheridan. 4,400 acres of walk in access in Johnson County. Season 10-01 to 10-14. 500 tags.

Unit 17, near Gillette. 4,400 acres of walk in access in Campbell County. Season 10-01 to 10-31. 1,200 tags.

Unit 23, near Gillette. 3,700 acres of walk in access in Campbell County. Season 10-01 to 10-31. 2,000 tags.

Unit 24, near Gillette. 2,500 acres of walk in access in Campbell County. Season 10-01 to 10-31. 800 tags.

Unit 25, near Casper. 2,500 acres of walk in access in Natrona County. Season 10-1 to 10-14. 750 tags.

Unit 26, near Casper. 1,300 acres of walk in access in Converse County. Season 9-24 to 10-15. 1,500 tags.

Unit 29, near Casper. 4,500 acres of walk in access in Converse County. Season 10-1 to 10-15. Tags 1,350.

Unit 30, near Casper. Two hunter management areas, Box Elder, and Hermit Rock, plus Duncan Ranch, which is very hard to draw. 5,000 acres of walk-in access in Converse county. Season 10-10 to 10-31. 600 tags. This is the unit we hunted in 2008. Hunted the last week of the season, had a great time, with no competition.

Unit 31, near Casper. Hat Six hunter management area. No walk in areas. Season 9/25 to 10/25. Tags 400. This is the unit we are putting in for this year. going the second week of the season.

Unit 35, near Cheyenne. 4,600 acres of walk in access in Goshen and Laramie Counties. Season 9/20 to 10/14. 350 tags

Unit 36, near Cheyenne. 8,000 acres of walk in access in Laramie County. Season 9-20 to 10-14. 225 tags.

Unit 38, near Cheyenne. 1,300 acres of walk in access in Platte County. Season 10-5 to 10-31. 550 tags.

Unit 39, near Laramie. 7,500 acres of walk in access in Albany County. Season 10-05 to 10-31. 550 tags.

in the next few days I will post another list of units you can draw with 0-1 preference points as a first choice.

Scoutdog
 
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#5 ·
I did a quick check, and it looks like all of the units listed in my first post offer reduced price doe/fawn tags. Some have special rules, so you would need to check.

As to camping, generally, no camping is allowed on Hunter Management areas or Walk-in areas, or state lands. You can camp on BLM lands, but from what I have seen in a lot of areas, not a lot of great camping spots, and can be very windy.

If you are interested in units 25, 26, 30 or 31, there is a campground (county, it think) about 15 miles east of Casper just south of I-25. Looked like a pretty nice spot along a stream, but don't remember the name of it.

Lot's of places to park a trailer in most units I have been in.

Scoutdog
 
#6 ·
Great post Scoutdog, the only thing I would include is that hunting antelope in Wyoming is addicting so if you go just know you will go again, and again it really is that much fun. Best hunt ever for a new hunter, easy terrain, lots and lots of animals and the weather mostly is nice.
I like it
 
#7 ·
Thank you for taking the time and effort to post. Your information is very useful. Thanks!
 
#8 ·
Don't be misled by the walk in access. For example 40,000 acres in Niobrara county. It may be a 40 road frontage and 1,000 deep, LOL. I sure don't remember much along that hwy from Lusk to Van Tassell. I've worked in that area and hunted private land in that county a couple years and got a buck both times. Although it has better grass than a lot of the state, it is not known for big bucks. One buck I had mounted and I like to remember it came from the least populated county of the least populated state of the U.S. Fun hunts. I'm building points for the Red Desert.
 
#9 ·
Great info scoutdog5. Your post last year helped us out alot in figuring out what to do this past year in WY. We went over as a party of 4 and had a great time. We drew our second choice so we could accumulate points. We then just bought reduced price doe tags after we knew which unit we drew our buck tags in. Came home with 20 of them between the 4 of us :D
 
#10 ·
Great information there Scoutdog! Thank you for taking the time.

I had a lot of help last year mainly from oregonmuley but also from a couple other ifishers for my first solo Wy antelope hunt. I ended up hunting unit 21. I saw lots of bucks, shot a pretty nice one and had a great overall trip. I didn't care too much for the access situation in unit 21 so I think I will try a new area this year but as oregonmuley said; "very addicting."
 
#12 · (Edited)
Thanx for posting this, I plan on going this year.
Would you guys who've done the hunt before be interested in IFISH Meet & Greet/Wyoming Antelope Hunting info at a
local Portland Metro establishment for the purpose of information sharing with those of us interested in learning more.
 
#14 ·
I've PMed several Ifishers over the years about my experiences with Wyoming antelope. While what I have is not as detailed as scoutdog's masterpiece, maybe it can help someone.

-------------------------------------------------

We've always hunted area 11 (southeastern part of the state, south of Lusk and north of Torrington near a little bump in the road called Jay Em). This area shows in the reg booklet as having a high concentration of private land. It does, but a lot of the private land is hunt-able. Beyond that, we've taken a large number of our bucks on state land. All three bucks in 2008 came from state land, and the does we got came from an area that is private but offers walk-in access.

Truly, even though you can't hunt 2/3 of the land in this area, the 1/3 or so that you can hunt is good enough to tag you and your group out within 2-3 days. The longer the hunt goes, the spookier the antelope get, so try to have them down by the third day or so.

If you choose to hunt antelope in this area, I strongly recommend that you try to get a mule deer doe/fawn tag too. There is a herd that hangs out in this antelope area, but I've never seen a buck in it. Those old mulie does are more than twice the size of antelope, and will almost certainly be available until someone shoots one or two out of the herd. It might as well be you. We almost always see them within about half a mile of the school section at the south end of county road 19 near the Gheen and Ryan ranches. Incidentally, we've killed two buck antelope from this same section.

If this is the area you decide on, I'll give you as much specific, detailed info as I can. There really aren't any secrets

We know people who own a cattle ranch over there, and they know someone who has a little house that we stay in. But the nearest town (Lusk) has hotels, and so does the second-nearest town (Torrington). Either is 30 minutes or less from where we hunt.

There is a lot of private ground that is open to the public (Walk-in) where we hunt. The Walk-in atlases are available online. The part of area 11 we hunt is in Goshen County. In fact, we've never killed an antelope in 4 years from an area that wasn't open to John Q. Public. All 3 bucks in 2008 came from state land. The 3 does came from Walk-in land.

If you decide to hunt area 11 next year, definitely let me know. I'll tell/show you down to the square mile where we've killed our bucks over the years.

If you haven’t already, Google 'Wyoming fish game walk in' and select the first option. This should take you to http://gf.state.wy.us/plpwhmprogram/default.aspx

From there select the blue link to the 'Walk-in Area Program' next to the photo of the big mulie buck.

This should take you to a page where the counties are listed. If you don't know what county your hunt area is in, select the 'Antelope and elk hunt areas' link. I happen to know that area 11 is in Goshen County, so I selected Goshen County from the list on the left side. It brings up the map(s) of the walk-in areas in your county/hunt area.

Pink = walk-in
Blue = state landYellow = BLM
White = private

Don't be put off by there not appearing to be much huntable land. In the area we hunt (Area 11, Goshen County, near Jay EM, if you want to look at that map for reference) there does not appear to be much accessible land. I will tell you there is enough in our area that we have places to hunt CONSTANTLY the whole time we're there.

Part of this is because antelope move so much; part is because the hunts never last more than a day or two before we're tagged out .

Anyway, don't be afraid to hunt an area with huge tracts of private land.
PLEASE NOTE that Wyoming's "areas" are similar to out "units", but the borders and the area numbers change for the different game animals. Area 11 for antelope could be area 9 for deer and area 237 for elk--I don't know. Area 11 for deer could be over by Yellowstone. I say this so you don't just say "what the hell-since I'm there, I'll buy an area 11 buck deer tag too"--you might end up with a tag for an area you don't want.

If you hunt antelope in Wyoming, be prepared to shoot long distances. Probably 2 out of 3 are killed within 200-250 yards, but those that are farther can be a lot farther. Personally, I believe that long shots in these conditions are less of an ethical dilemma than such shots are over here. One, antelope just don't take much killing. Two, if one runs half a mile, he runs half a mile across a flat stretch of calf-deep grass and you can see right where he falls. Three, the shots you'll take at those ranges will be at undisturbed, unaware animals that give you a good chance to get a good rest from prone, figure the exact range, wait for the wind to die down, etc. It's a whole different ballgame than blazing away at elk on the opposite side of a canyon in reprod.

Be prepared for cactus. Most antelope are killed by spot-and-stalk, and the spotting can be from more than a mile away and the stalk usually involves at least some crawling. Wyoming has tons of little ping pong ball-sized cactus that stick to EVERYTHING. The dead ones are as sticky as the live (green) ones and are hard to see in the grass. I suggest a pair of leather gloves for stalking, briar-proof pants (I wear Cabelas Boar Hide and they work great) and a pair of hard soccer shin guards for your forearms.

You will see literally hundreds of antelope in Wyoming--not the occasional herd here and there like you see in Oregon. When I first started I feared that telling bucks from does and telling big bucks from small bucks would be harder than it is with deer/elk. It's really not. You'll know right away when you're looking at a big buck. And even at long distance it's easy to tell even a little buck from a doe. Bucks hold their heads different and they have black on their noses and cheeks, which stands out more than you'd think. Also, the size of the herd is a good indicator--the big bucks accumulate a lot of does. The pipsqueaks, not so much.

Personally, I decide to shoot if the buck 1.) has prongs that start above his ears and 2.) has good mass. You may shoot one that's 'only' 12.5 or 13" doing this, but if you wait too long to shoot you may also blow a chance at a 15" because you couoldn't tell if he was 13.5 or 15".
 
#16 ·
Lor, I am up for a meeting. Will be in Central Oregon all this week, but back in Portland next week. I have a lot of the BLM maps for Wyoming that show the public and private land. Pick a night and place and I can be there.

Bat-Ray, I like Unit 74, especially the small number of tags and the long season. There is no HMA in the unit, but two walk in areas, as I recall, one of which is pretty big. We looked around in 72, which is directly west of 74 a couple of years ago, the third week of the antelope season, and never saw another hunter, and saw several nice bucks. One was bedded down on a small knoll. I snuck up on him and got within 50 yards before he stood up and looked at me. Pretty surprising for the middle of the antelope season. I think 74 is a better unit than 72.

C-Lice, great info. Good point about the different unit numbers for each species. The units are also different sizes, which can add to the confusion. We originally thought it would be easy to combine a deer and antelope hunt, and I think it is on a lot fo the private land, but the places we have been with good antelope numbers, we have not seen many deer.

Scoutdog
 
#17 · (Edited)
Hey Scoutdog that is some great info and I sure am glad I found this site. I have a question for you my father, buddy and I have 3 points each and would like to hunt 31, 32, or 73. I know that it states on the draw odds from last year that we would get our tags for 31 without any points. My question is do you think we would for sure get 31 as a second choice? Or should we just use our points on 32 or 73 for guaranteed tags? I would love to keep building them up but my father and our buddy want to go for sure this year, for bucks and it has to be out of Casper. I am just not sure on what to do, because I am in charge of getting the tags and they allready have planned every other detail.

The other question is do you like 32 or 73 better for access, numbers of antelope/hunters, etc..or does it not even matter due to sheer numbers of antelope? I would greatly appreciate any info.

Thanks
Patrick
 
#18 ·
I love posts like this, because it keeps people out of the area I hunt. I too use various sources to try to find areas I can draw in all of the western states for a wide variety of game animals. In Wyoming for antelope, yes the success rate is very high is every unit, but every unit is not created equal. This past year, my wife and I went to Wyoming to hunt antelope and shot two very good bucks, hers being larger than mine(see prior thread). My son went back there also and was less than 100 miles from our hunting area. The best buck they could find was just a little over 12 inches. So not all units are created equal. Nothing replaces time on the ground. Spend some time in these areas and see for yourself, what they produce.
 
#19 ·
The way I read the odds it appears that you would draw as a 2nd or 3rd hunt choice for unit 31 in 2009. If they still are giving out same number of tags I would think you would draw 31 as a 2nd choice. If you are looking for respectable goats I would get the biologists name and number for those areas and ask him about the best units for what you are looking for. As far as best access you can check on the geo mac site for now and order the BLM maps for those areas and figure that out for BLM and State land access. Also check the walk in access atlas and hunter management areas on the Wyoming game and fish site for each unit. Do a google search for Wyoming antelope hunts and on this site and you can get all the info you need and more. Google earth is your friend for pre scouting and I would get there a day before the hunt starts to check the areas you like to decide which looks best for opening day. I found for a hundred bucks the huntinggpsmap sd card for my garmin was the best investment I made. You know when your on public or private land.
 
#21 ·
scoutdog5, way to go! Great info, I can cancel my subscription to the 'HUNTIN FOOL'!! I'll build on my 2 points and still go hunting, maybe.
If I could ever figure out how to post a picture I'd show you guys what a 88 inch net Oregon goat looks like. :doh:
 
#22 ·
scoutdog5, way to go! Great info, I can cancel my subscription to the 'HUNTIN FOOL'!! I'll build on my 2 points and still go hunting, maybe.
If I could ever figure out how to post a picture I'd show you guys what a 88 inch net Oregon goat looks like. :doh:
I would love to see that 88 inch goat, so hopefully you can get that picture on. Also I would not give up your Huntinfool membeship. Those guys are amazing at drawing tags in many western states and you can always call and get your questions answered by talking with their hunting consultants.
Again let's see that goat, that must be an amazing trophy.
 
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