First Time Wyoming Antelope Hunting

[singleshot1]

A buddy and I had a second season Colorado Elk hunt planned and decided that we might as well grab a couple over the counter doe tags in Wyoming and give Antelope a try while we were out there.

We picked a unit that had a lot of leftover tags and not much public access...geniuses we are.

We drove through the night from Illinois and arrived just as the sun was rising. Changed into our hunting clothes along side the road, then set off to drive around our unit and check out the accessible areas that we could hunt. Couple hours later we had two area's that we were going to focus our efforts on.

Now finding antelope wasn't a problem, probably saw 1000+ antelope in 2 days, finding antelope on accessible public land was a whole different story. We had 4 doe tags between the two of us so we didn't think that would be a problem to fill those.

We got out and hiked into a larger section of public ground, getting away from the roads and over small rises in the land we found several does to chose from on both days. I ended up taking a nice doe on day one and one on day two. My buddy filled both his tags on day two.

Here is my first antelope.


And a picture of camp, nothing like the feeling of camping in the middle of no where.


Lessons learned:
1. Lots of leftover tags doesn't always mean good things.
2. Them damn prickley cactus things suck! Suck Bad! Still finding them 2 weeks later.
3. Wyoming mud is like no other mud, sticky, heavy, and haunting. :W:

Off to elk camp, will start a new thread for that....

 

[wyoming556]

Nice. I like your tent setup.

 

[1_pointer]

A buddy and I had a second season Colorado Elk hunt planned and decided that we might as well grab a couple over the counter doe tags in Wyoming and give Antelope a try while we were out there.

We picked a unit that had a lot of leftover tags and not much public access...geniuses we are.

We drove through the night from Illinois and arrived just as the sun was rising. Changed into our hunting clothes along side the road, then set off to drive around our unit and check out the accessible areas that we could hunt. Couple hours later we had two area's that we were going to focus our efforts on.

Now finding antelope wasn't a problem, probably saw 1000+ antelope in 2 days, finding antelope on accessible public land was a whole different story. We had 4 doe tags between the two of us so we didn't think that would be a problem to fill those.

We got out and hiked into a larger section of public ground, getting away from the roads and over small rises in the land we found several does to chose from on both days. I ended up taking a nice doe on day one and one on day two. My buddy filled both his tags on day two.

Here is my first antelope.
View attachment 38135

And a picture of camp, nothing like the feeling of camping in the middle of no where.
View attachment 38136

Lessons learned:
1. Lots of leftover tags doesn't always mean good things.
2. Them damn prickley cactus things suck! Suck Bad! Still finding them 2 weeks later.
3. Wyoming mud is like no other mud, sticky, heavy, and haunting. :W:

Off to elk camp, will start a new thread for that....

Well done! I'm guessing in that second pic, that you brought your own wood for the stove?? What make of tent is that? I'd guess a seeksoutside...

 

[singleshot1]

Well done! I'm guessing in that second pic, that you brought your own wood for the stove?? What make of tent is that? I'd guess a seeksoutside...

You are correct on both. We had brought enough wood for the stove for 2-3 nights with us. And yes that is a seekoutside 6 man tipi tent, performed flawlessly in Wyoming in the wide open windy country and Colorado on our elk hunt.

 

[nidahunter]

Can I ask what unit you were in for Antelope? We hunted 21 last year, not alot of public there either. Nice job by the way!

 

[singleshot1]

Can I ask what unit you were in for Antelope? We hunted 21 last year, not alot of public there either. Nice job by the way!

Unit 23. The northwest corner has alot of rugged public land, not exactly ideal for antelope hunting. We found some in the checkerboard area and the southwest corner. I believe season had been open for two weeks already also, that may have pushed them off public too.

 

[TLC]

southwest corner? down by the river/creek area? have looked at the area a number of times since they always have tags leftover. but, as you said, not much public to hunt.

 

[Southwind]

We found a nice ole corral on BLM we set up camp on and it was a great little spot.

That mud is crazy, not only is it slicker than cow snot but you practically have to chisel it off. I think it may be the bentonite clay in the soil that makes it so slick and sticky.

 

[singleshot1]

southwest corner? down by the river/creek area? have looked at the area a number of times since they always have tags leftover. but, as you said, not much public to hunt.

Yes, towards the end of Streeter road (i believe that was the name) off of highway 192

 

[1_pointer]

You are correct on both. We had brought enough wood for the stove for 2-3 nights with us. And yes that is a seekoutside 6 man tipi tent, performed flawlessly in Wyoming in the wide open windy country and Colorado on our elk hunt.

Very nice! I'm thinking I'd like one of their big tents to use as a base camp.

 

[nidahunter]

That mud is something else, not even sure chains would work.

 

[singleshot1]

That mud is something else, not even sure chains would work.

Don't know where to even start with that mud. Sometimes you can't even pry that crap off your boots and then the next step it's so damn slippery your trying to figure out how your going to get it off your back side as your laying in it.:W:

 

[sbhooper]

Nice pics. Those does are great eating as long as the meat goes right into the cooler. What did you do with it while in Colorado?

 

[singleshot1]

Nice pics. Those does are great eating as long as the meat goes right into the cooler. What did you do with it while in Colorado?

Had them in the cooler and on ice with in a half hour. I had contacted a processor close to where we would be elk hunting prior to leaving home. Asked them if I was fortunate enough to harvest any antelope if they would cut and wrap the back straps and debone, bag and freeze the rest until we got out of the mountains in Colorado. They had no problem with that and even gave us what I thought was a crazy low price for doing such, $100 total for all 4 antelope.

 

[canvsbk]

You can't really understand that mud until you have to deal with it. Access in 23 would also fall into that category.

 

[Canoe Country]

Nice tent, looks familiar. We had a little issues with the zipper blowing out last year in the Wyoming 50 plus mile an hour winds but those Cabela's tents are well worth their money and the zipper was an easy fix. Didn't get a chance to make it out this year so I threw a few pics in from last year!