Apologies in advance for the long post.
I decided in early 2017 I wanted to hunt antelope in Wyoming. I’m from Texas, still live in Texas, and the only antelope opportunities here are the annual draw for the Rita Blanca National Grasslands (about ten permits issued each year from a pool of about 6000 applicants) or to hire an outfitter/buy a tag from a landowner. I’ve entered the draw for many years running now and have not been one of the lucky few and didn’t want to pay an outfitter (going rate of around $3000).
I chose Wyoming because I wanted a state in which I could guarantee myself a 2018 hunt. So, the first step was getting familiar with the out of state options. Basically, I took the 2017 draw results, identified all the units that there was a 100% chance of getting an “any antelope” tag with either one preference point or one preference point and the “special” license, and then narrowed it down from there based on geography, ease of access, and what I could find online and in speaking with the Wyoming game officials about what to expect. I was adamant that I would not pay a trespass fee, so unit access was the most important factor to me.
I won’t post the unit I chose—it’s not like it’s some big secret but I had a good hunt and might go back again and the second a unit name shows up here, it becomes harder to draw—but I think any one of the 3 or 4 that I narrowed it down to would have been good and I will likely try others in the future.
Again, the purpose of this post is to reassure/encourage folks who don’t have time to amass 10 preference points that, with basically one year of advance thought (or less), you can get a good tag in an accessible unit and come home with an antelope—probably won’t break the record book but will be a good time.
I entered the draw with my one preference point and did not pay for the special (more expensive but better odds) license. I also applied for a doe tag in the same unit. My thinking was, I wanted to make sure I came home with an antelope, but if I saw a doe first, I didn’t want to waste my one tag on a doe—so I wanted two tags to be able to take the doe and not later regret not taking the one shot that presented itself if I never saw another antelope.
I got a little lucky and drew both the “any antelope” and doe tags. I expected the “any antelope” based on last year’s results; the doe tag was a nice bonus. I confirmed in looking at this year’s results that everyone with one point that entered the normal (i.e. not special) draw got the “any antelope” tag in this unit, though there were far more applicants this year with one point than last…
A few weeks before the hunt, I laid out all the gear, ran through the checklist, etc. I also took my rifle to the range the week before I left to sight it in at 100 yards. Lots of good information on this website about the appropriate distance to sight in a rifle for antelope, and I just echo all the folks that say to do what’s comfortable for you. I would highly recommend, once it’s sighted in to the distance you want, to go practice at the other distances. For example, my range has a 50, 100, 200, and 300 yard rifle range. So after sighting in at 100, I shot the same loads on the 200 and 300 yard ranges to measure rise, drop, etc and just to make sure I was comfortable with those distances.
Part of the reason for Wyoming was price, and I decided on driving from Texas. It’s a long drive, so I spent the first night en route in Wichita Falls. I met a friend in Denver on Thursday evening who volunteered to join the hunt, and we drove the rest of the way that night. (Looking back, I’m so glad there were two of us, but I think this would have been totally doable with just one person—so don’t let that stop you if you can’t find a buddy to make the trip.) We had a pretty limited timeline, so the plan was to hunt Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and get him back to the airport in Denver by midnight Sunday. (If we weren’t successful by then, my plan was to pick another weekend in October to drive back up.)
Before we got to Wyoming, we had identified 4 good access points for the unit we hunted. There were more than 4, but we narrowed it down to 4 areas we wanted to hunt. Two of the access areas required a lot of hiking, and two were much easier to access from the road. We decided to start with the road access points on Friday because we figured those would get a lot more traffic on Saturday and Sunday, when we could hike further in.
Day one, Friday, October 5
We didn’t get to Wyoming until well after sunset on Thursday, so there was no time to scout the unit. On Friday morning we got to the unit just before legal shooting time. The weather was not good (snow mixed with rain), so we decided to drive the boundaries of the unit to get a feel for it.
We saw out first group of antelope on private land that abutted public, so we hiked the public to see if they would move over, but no dice.
After driving the unit boundary, we took one of the few interior roads to a spot that we wanted to check out. We actually startled a group of antelope, but before I could get out and set up for a shot, they disappeared over a hill and when I got to the top where I could see again, they were long gone.
We ultimately decided to hike in to one of the larger public areas in the unit around noon. After we had hiked about two miles, we came upon a very small buck antelope. We decided to go ahead and set up for a shot (after all, this was about coming home successful, not coming home with a trophy). He walked out of sight behind a large gulley and came back into sight at 230 yards on the side of a hill.
I hit him just below the front shoulder, and he fell almost instantly.
Please don’t give me grief here. It’s the smallest buck antelope you will ever see. But it’s the one that was there. We field dressed him and I took the hide with me as well (a huge thanks to the folks on here who told me how to best do that).
We did a little more scouting that evening before calling it a day.
Day two, Saturday, October 6
Got to the unit before legal shooting and hiked in to the area we took the antelope from the afternoon before. We set up on a small bluff overlooking a watering hole. After a couple of hours, a nice group of antelope passed by at 260 yards. There were certainly better bucks in there than the one I took, but no regrets.
I ultimately did not take a shot at the group because there were about equal numbers of does and bucks mixed in and they were moving, never stopping, and I was having a hard time making 100% sure that the one I was aiming at was a doe.
We got down off the bluff and pursued them a ways across the unit, but were never able to get close enough for a shot.
In the afternoon, we hiked in to another area (where we had startled the antelope the day before) and identified a nice group in the distance. But we were just never able to stalk close enough. It seemed like they identified us from a thousand yards away and always knew where we were. We must have chased them two miles across that unit, never getting in range of a shot. From everything I had read on here, I was just not expecting them to be that wary/cagy. They were NOT easy to get close to in that setting.
Toward the end of the day, we identified another group on private and tried to maneuver to where they were from public in hopes that they would move. They ultimately did move onto private, but once again, we were nowhere near good enough at stalking to get close.
Day three, Sunday, October 7
The weather was really rough this day. It was straight up snowing by the time we got to the unit in the morning. We drove around a bit because of the weather, but ultimately decided to just hike in to the spot we had identified the day before. We got set up in that location around 9am. It was still snowing hard, with limited visibility, so we set up behind a sage bush on the top of a large hill with good 360 degree visibility and just waited.
About an hour later, I looked over my shoulder and saw a doe staring at me not 20 yards away. If she had been hunting us, we would have been dead. By the time I got the rifle and bipod around for a shot, she had run down into a little gulley in front of us. I waited for her to come out the other side, which she did at exactly 200 yards. She stopped on a little hill in front of us, where I was able to hit her at 206 yards, again through the front shoulder. She ran about 50 yards and dropped.
We didn’t take this hide with us, so the skinning and field dressing process was way easier—it took about an hour total. The other bonus was that we were only about a mile from the truck, as opposed to the much further distance the day before.
So that’s it. Two and a half days and we were able to fill both tags.
Looking back, I would have been able to take a much bigger buck had I waited until the second day. But when you’re hunting in Wyoming for the first time, and have been skunked on hunts as many times as I have, you shoot what’s in front of you. Next time that pressure won’t be there.
Again, thanks so much to everyone on this forum who helped make this happen—it was truly an awesome experience.
I decided in early 2017 I wanted to hunt antelope in Wyoming. I’m from Texas, still live in Texas, and the only antelope opportunities here are the annual draw for the Rita Blanca National Grasslands (about ten permits issued each year from a pool of about 6000 applicants) or to hire an outfitter/buy a tag from a landowner. I’ve entered the draw for many years running now and have not been one of the lucky few and didn’t want to pay an outfitter (going rate of around $3000).
I chose Wyoming because I wanted a state in which I could guarantee myself a 2018 hunt. So, the first step was getting familiar with the out of state options. Basically, I took the 2017 draw results, identified all the units that there was a 100% chance of getting an “any antelope” tag with either one preference point or one preference point and the “special” license, and then narrowed it down from there based on geography, ease of access, and what I could find online and in speaking with the Wyoming game officials about what to expect. I was adamant that I would not pay a trespass fee, so unit access was the most important factor to me.
I won’t post the unit I chose—it’s not like it’s some big secret but I had a good hunt and might go back again and the second a unit name shows up here, it becomes harder to draw—but I think any one of the 3 or 4 that I narrowed it down to would have been good and I will likely try others in the future.
Again, the purpose of this post is to reassure/encourage folks who don’t have time to amass 10 preference points that, with basically one year of advance thought (or less), you can get a good tag in an accessible unit and come home with an antelope—probably won’t break the record book but will be a good time.
I entered the draw with my one preference point and did not pay for the special (more expensive but better odds) license. I also applied for a doe tag in the same unit. My thinking was, I wanted to make sure I came home with an antelope, but if I saw a doe first, I didn’t want to waste my one tag on a doe—so I wanted two tags to be able to take the doe and not later regret not taking the one shot that presented itself if I never saw another antelope.
I got a little lucky and drew both the “any antelope” and doe tags. I expected the “any antelope” based on last year’s results; the doe tag was a nice bonus. I confirmed in looking at this year’s results that everyone with one point that entered the normal (i.e. not special) draw got the “any antelope” tag in this unit, though there were far more applicants this year with one point than last…
A few weeks before the hunt, I laid out all the gear, ran through the checklist, etc. I also took my rifle to the range the week before I left to sight it in at 100 yards. Lots of good information on this website about the appropriate distance to sight in a rifle for antelope, and I just echo all the folks that say to do what’s comfortable for you. I would highly recommend, once it’s sighted in to the distance you want, to go practice at the other distances. For example, my range has a 50, 100, 200, and 300 yard rifle range. So after sighting in at 100, I shot the same loads on the 200 and 300 yard ranges to measure rise, drop, etc and just to make sure I was comfortable with those distances.
Part of the reason for Wyoming was price, and I decided on driving from Texas. It’s a long drive, so I spent the first night en route in Wichita Falls. I met a friend in Denver on Thursday evening who volunteered to join the hunt, and we drove the rest of the way that night. (Looking back, I’m so glad there were two of us, but I think this would have been totally doable with just one person—so don’t let that stop you if you can’t find a buddy to make the trip.) We had a pretty limited timeline, so the plan was to hunt Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and get him back to the airport in Denver by midnight Sunday. (If we weren’t successful by then, my plan was to pick another weekend in October to drive back up.)
Before we got to Wyoming, we had identified 4 good access points for the unit we hunted. There were more than 4, but we narrowed it down to 4 areas we wanted to hunt. Two of the access areas required a lot of hiking, and two were much easier to access from the road. We decided to start with the road access points on Friday because we figured those would get a lot more traffic on Saturday and Sunday, when we could hike further in.
Day one, Friday, October 5
We didn’t get to Wyoming until well after sunset on Thursday, so there was no time to scout the unit. On Friday morning we got to the unit just before legal shooting time. The weather was not good (snow mixed with rain), so we decided to drive the boundaries of the unit to get a feel for it.
We saw out first group of antelope on private land that abutted public, so we hiked the public to see if they would move over, but no dice.
After driving the unit boundary, we took one of the few interior roads to a spot that we wanted to check out. We actually startled a group of antelope, but before I could get out and set up for a shot, they disappeared over a hill and when I got to the top where I could see again, they were long gone.
We ultimately decided to hike in to one of the larger public areas in the unit around noon. After we had hiked about two miles, we came upon a very small buck antelope. We decided to go ahead and set up for a shot (after all, this was about coming home successful, not coming home with a trophy). He walked out of sight behind a large gulley and came back into sight at 230 yards on the side of a hill.
I hit him just below the front shoulder, and he fell almost instantly.
Please don’t give me grief here. It’s the smallest buck antelope you will ever see. But it’s the one that was there. We field dressed him and I took the hide with me as well (a huge thanks to the folks on here who told me how to best do that).
We did a little more scouting that evening before calling it a day.
Day two, Saturday, October 6
Got to the unit before legal shooting and hiked in to the area we took the antelope from the afternoon before. We set up on a small bluff overlooking a watering hole. After a couple of hours, a nice group of antelope passed by at 260 yards. There were certainly better bucks in there than the one I took, but no regrets.
I ultimately did not take a shot at the group because there were about equal numbers of does and bucks mixed in and they were moving, never stopping, and I was having a hard time making 100% sure that the one I was aiming at was a doe.
We got down off the bluff and pursued them a ways across the unit, but were never able to get close enough for a shot.
In the afternoon, we hiked in to another area (where we had startled the antelope the day before) and identified a nice group in the distance. But we were just never able to stalk close enough. It seemed like they identified us from a thousand yards away and always knew where we were. We must have chased them two miles across that unit, never getting in range of a shot. From everything I had read on here, I was just not expecting them to be that wary/cagy. They were NOT easy to get close to in that setting.
Toward the end of the day, we identified another group on private and tried to maneuver to where they were from public in hopes that they would move. They ultimately did move onto private, but once again, we were nowhere near good enough at stalking to get close.
Day three, Sunday, October 7
The weather was really rough this day. It was straight up snowing by the time we got to the unit in the morning. We drove around a bit because of the weather, but ultimately decided to just hike in to the spot we had identified the day before. We got set up in that location around 9am. It was still snowing hard, with limited visibility, so we set up behind a sage bush on the top of a large hill with good 360 degree visibility and just waited.
About an hour later, I looked over my shoulder and saw a doe staring at me not 20 yards away. If she had been hunting us, we would have been dead. By the time I got the rifle and bipod around for a shot, she had run down into a little gulley in front of us. I waited for her to come out the other side, which she did at exactly 200 yards. She stopped on a little hill in front of us, where I was able to hit her at 206 yards, again through the front shoulder. She ran about 50 yards and dropped.
We didn’t take this hide with us, so the skinning and field dressing process was way easier—it took about an hour total. The other bonus was that we were only about a mile from the truck, as opposed to the much further distance the day before.
So that’s it. Two and a half days and we were able to fill both tags.
Looking back, I would have been able to take a much bigger buck had I waited until the second day. But when you’re hunting in Wyoming for the first time, and have been skunked on hunts as many times as I have, you shoot what’s in front of you. Next time that pressure won’t be there.
Again, thanks so much to everyone on this forum who helped make this happen—it was truly an awesome experience.
