# DIY Antelope



## woodsnwater_wanderer

I have started my research for a diy archery/rifle antelope hunt. I'm thinking wyoming but I'm keeping it open. One of my primary goals is to keep costs down so that my dad and brother can afford to go with me. Another goal is to hunt in an area that offer otc tags. Can anyone provide any info or share info on a trip they have taken? thanks


----------



## hunterjb6

woodsnwater_wanderer said:


> I have started my research for a diy archery/rifle antelope hunt. I'm thinking wyoming but I'm keeping it open. One of my primary goals is to keep costs down so that my dad and brother can afford to go with me. Another goal is to hunt in an area that offer otc tags. Can anyone provide any info or share info on a trip they have taken? thanks


 
Here is a story from this past October in Wyoming, hope it helps as it should probably be in this forum anyway instead of the General. You may want to look in there for some archive hunts and posts. Good luck and get er done! It was a quick, reasonable trip and it was a blast!!


*Wyoming Success!!!!!* 
Well finally after getting caught up and being able to sit down, I have the time to tell the story and take you on a little trip to Wyoming. As some of you already knew, Moose57, Jowdones, and myself headed out last Wednesday to the big sky country for a *pronghorn* adventure. Well it was just that an adventure. Before I get started though I want to thank 2Pawsriver for his help on this trip and also Jowdones for giving myself and Moose57 the opportunity to make this trip. I myself have never been that far west before, and let me just say the scenery can be very breath taking at times! 
So to start the trip, we left last Wednesday and drove straight through (which it was a 21 hour drive). Whooo, so we made it there on Thurs to Gillette WY.



















So Thursday afternoon we started doing some scouting, JD had been there last year and was familiar with the territory. Right off the bat he mentioned that it did seem that we were seeing less animals than the year before. JD did speak with a rancher that he knew out there that had mentioned that there had been a big winter storm this last spring that pushed many *pronghorn* to migrate south. He said that in one group they counted 800 *pronghorn* in one group single file marching south. Well when we found this out, to say the least we knew this was not going to be easy. So continueing to scout we found some *pronghorn* but not in the numbers we had hoped to see. Alot of the Phorn were on the private ground, but we did find some where we were going to hunt in the morning.










We hunted state land the whole time and some of our hunts were quite a challenge. 
So moving on to opening morning Oct 1st 2010. This is a view of the sunrise near where I sat the first morning.










The sunrise's in WY were just breath taking as you sit on the hill sides or on the mountains there and just overlooking everything. To sit there and just taking it all in ,really cleansed the soul!! 
So the night before when we were scouting we had spotted a nice buck in some sage near the hill where I sat.
At 7:00am this guy walked out from that same area that we scouted the night before. He walked due broadside from me down the hill, he finally stopped, looked up at me, looked back down, and took a few steps. He looked back up at me, then turned his head away from me. I steadied the .270 on my shooting sticks. 260 yard shot, squeezed the trigger and went down. (Just as I squeezed he took a half of step forward). He layed there like he was bedded for a second, and stood up, by this time I had another shell racked. I steadied again right behind the front of the shoulder and squeezed. Down he was!!!!!!


















(After getting home he measured at 13 and 1/4 inch. He had nice cutters and ivory tips at the end of his horns. He was not a B & C buck but he was a true trophy in my book.


So moving on in the story 10 minutes later about a mile away. Jowdones made his .308 echo through the mountains. (Unfortunately I was not with him at the time to give you a blow by blow story but 2 hours later here he was with his buck and mine. My buck is on the left and his is on the right.










So opening day 15 minutes in and two bucks are down. Well unfortunately even though Moose57 seen a few groups on the other side of the hills, they did not present a shot. So now we continue with our quest of getting his buck tag filled. From this point it took a little more work and some stalking to do. 
Later that afternoon we were able to locate a nice buck in a grass field all by himself. Now I will leave out some details because again this was not my hunt, but both of them wanted me to include some of this in my thread for them. So to say the least an awesome shot was placed by Moose at roughly 200 yards. The buck goes down and lets just say the stalk continued. With a group effort the buck was in the truck 30 minutes later.(Unfortunately we were not able to get any good pics of his buck, alot of them were blurry due to lighting.

Day 2

Morning Sunrise









So continueing to fill our doe tags we had many more adventures that day and here was a nice doe that was taken by Moose57










So all in all we took 6 *Pronghorn* while we were out there and it was an awesome trip. I want to say thanks to my friends and also thanks to the new friends that I met on this trip. It was an experince that I will never forget. Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoyed the pics.




Read more at Michigan-Sportsman.com: Wyoming Success!!!!! - The Michigan Sportsman Forums http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=351095&highlight=Pronghorn#ixzz17dBdNMzv


----------



## woodsnwater_wanderer

Thanks for sharing your story/pics! Did you hunt state lands exclusively? What did you think of accessibility? Was state land marked clearly? Last thing I want to do is unknowingly tresspass.


----------



## hunterjb6

We hunted state land exclusively! I will say that you definitly need to do homework on the areas that you are hunting. There was not a ton of state land and BLM land but there was some. All the areas after opening morning seemed to be hunted fairly well. You could easily see groups of 8 to 15 pronghorn laying down on private land 50 yards from the state land line, especially after the 2nd day. Now don't take that as discouraging as this was my first time out there and I know that there was not alot of state land in our area. Keep in mind as well we filled 3 buck tags and 3 doe tags in 2 days. (Which I would consider that pretty darn good). Although talking to some of the locals and maybe some other fellas that have been out there, there surly is a lot more area out there that has better hunting than where we were at. More accessability, more animals! As well there is very little posting done out there so you really have to do your research and know where you are at! Once you have that figured out, hunt hard and you should have no problems filling your tags, and then some!


----------



## woodsnwater_wanderer

can anybody recommend any general areas? I will call the Wyoming game department to check on the antelope numbers next summer but what are some areas with good access and have some lodging in the vicinity??


----------



## woodsnwater_wanderer

for all of you guys who have done it before what style of hunt is it? i'm assuming its a spot and stalk situation. not too much sitting on stand like we do here in Michigan. Is it typical to glass from a vehicle or is it all done on foot?? Lots of great info coming in, please keep it coming! Thanks!!


----------



## buck11pt24

We did the same thing last yr. We did alot of asking around. We also hunted area 17, and there are spots to hunt, but they are small and at times very hard to know if we were tresspassing or not. Make sure to get a few different maps and compare them to each other. Between them, you should be able to tell if you are on state land or not. Glassing can most of the time be done from within the truck, but there are a few remote areas that this was not possible, unless we walked a 1/2 mile or so. This was some of the best hunting. We killed 3 bucks and 3 does in area 17, all off from one piece of ground within 2 days. This was a 1x1 mile square, and was just a honey hole that we found. We did a little bit of filming of the hunt. Check it out below. We also hunted unit 9, lots of land to hunt, but you have to draw a tag. We are going again next yr and haven't made up our minds if we are going to hunt area 9 and then another area, or just go to unit 17 and stay in that area. You are allowed to kill 2 bucks and 4 does. If you have any other questions, just let me know. We also went the 2nd week of October. Area 9 had alot of hunters on weekends and Unit 17 we saw only 1 group of hunters while hunting. 

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7757220&syndicate=syndicate&section

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7770825

Chris


----------



## woodsnwater_wanderer

I've got copies of the Wyoming hunting regs and was looking at the laws regarding transportation of wild game. Seems pretty straightforward. Can you think of anything that I would need to know about bringing game across state lines that isn't clearly laid out in the guides?


----------



## woodsnwater_wanderer

I'm also interested in learning about the must-see places to stop along the way. A diner, country store, accommodations/campgrounds that you we happy with etc. etc.


----------



## BIG_FISH

About how much does a trip like this cost? I want to take 3 other guys and drive. We are trying to keep it cheap. How much are the licenses? I really haven't looked much into this but I wanna start planning for next year.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


----------



## DGF

I look forward to the replies on this post as I too am looking to head to Wyoming this coming September to try my hand at Antelope hunting. I bought a preference point last fall so my odds of draw look good for several units. 

Here are some threads on another board that have been helpfull in my early stages of planning:

What you need to know:

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=225390&highlight=wyoming+antelope

Details part 1: 

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=286004&highlight=wyoming+antelope

Details part 2: 

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=286235&highlight=wyoming+antelope

Details part 3: 

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=286328


Good luck with your hunt.

Dan


----------



## buck11pt24

Buck tags are around 272 and does i believe were 36. We had 3 guys total and spent no more than 1000 bucks each for the entire trip. We killed 2 bucks and 2 does apiece: 600 in tags, gas 200, lodging 120, and food and odd and end things were probably 50-80 bucks. Very cheap hunt.


----------



## BIG_FISH

Is camping possible out there or did u guys just stay in a hotel?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


----------



## buck11pt24

BIG_FISH said:


> Is camping possible out there or did u guys just stay in a hotel?
> 
> Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


We just stayed in hotels for 50-60 a night. We split everything 3 ways so it was pretty cheap all together.


----------



## solohunter

I am also looking at a wyoming hunt this fall, I have a friend out that way who sent me this link,

http://sunlight.wygisc.uwyo.edu/huntareaV1/#app=8a30&34a0-selectedIndex=1

select animal and state wild life mgmt areas and it outlines the areas, hovering will tell you the hunt area ect,

I am looking at areas 23-24 due to the high number of permits issued but noted a lack of public land access on the wyoming state game license site ???? looking at area 24 but this is my first time trying an out of state hunt.


----------



## White Pine

area 24 has the Thunder Basin Grasslands it would a choice


----------



## PLUMBDOG

I've alway's wanted to go out west to hunt and after reading all the post on a wyoming antelope hunt. not to mention i've always wanted to see yellowstone and the rocky mts this would be a trip of a life time for me . i'am planing the trip for 2012 . i will put in for a point this year , not sure if i need to but hunt area 21 or 22 looks good lots of state land to hunt , high sucess rate's , plenty of tags what do you think ?

thank's plumbdog


----------



## solohunter

I ordered BLM maps for a large area today, I am lookng at area 22 or 23.,,,,, trying to get out there this year, might be able to loan a few maps out next year.. I picked a grid of 12 maps, buffalo to lusk, 
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wy/information/docs.Par.96243.File.dat/wynf-0014.pdf


----------



## PLUMBDOG

solohunter are the blm maps topo maps showing state and private land i think i'll order some also of the area i would like to hunt thanks for the info 

plumbdog


----------



## White Pine

Yes they show public and private,state and federal lands


----------

