np307
Well-known member
Three of us went with 5 total tags last year for our first time. Had it not been for poor shooting, we could have filled all 5 tags. Public land only. Only hunted 3 days as well.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Yep, this will be new territory. I dont believe i have taken a shot over 100 yards before. Got to get in some range time.
Im guessing 10 or 12 x binos is a must? I have a set of 8x42's but im guessing those will be a bit underpowered.
I plan to spend about 10 days in the region so i should be able to cover a good bit of ground.
I selected 75% because 100 wasnt a option. If you spend 10 days you better plan on doing some yote hunting and fishing with the other 9 days, just find a piece cover some ground preferably on a weekday and you can find a decent buck. If you find access its cake!You guys are great. Appreciate all the feedback (even you "piss off non resident guys")
Plan to spend about 10 days in the region so i should be able to cover a good bit of ground.
Here is what we did on our first trip my wife and I did last year along with my Dad and a buddy.
We applied for buck tags in a southern unit and used a unit around the bighorns as a second choice that had over 50% chance of drawing. We in the same southern unit applied for doe tags, two chances each.
We ended up with a total of 9 tags. 3 buck tags in the second choice unit near the bighorns and 6 doe tags in the southern unit. It was about 3.5 hours between these units.
We started with does. Got to that unit and it has about 1/3 public land but lots of checkerboard. We chose this area mostly for our buck tags and the doe tags allowed us to scout it for bucks. Success rates on the doe tag was really high and with the amount of public land, figured it was be pretty easy. I would highly recommend this stategy for any first time hunter For antelope because boy was it easy. First day we actually had a flat tire and since we arrived in the afternoon, the day was shot. Saw some lope to give us hope we would get a few tagged the next day. Well crap, by 8am we had 4/6 down it was that easy...every square mile it seems has antelope in that rawlings area...we got the other two being way more selective shooting big mature does by end of day.
The North unit where we drew buck tags was a whole different animal. Snowstorm hit dropping some early snow. We had to work hard and do some hiking in the limited public that existed in this unit. Many many many antelope on private, not so much on public along with a hunter parked at almost every access area. Did manage to kill two bucks and my wife didn't want to settle for a doe and passed up a few. We did have 4 encounters with bucks and just she never got a shot chance.
So in summary, if you want to shoot an antelope for the experience and don't care about horns, success almost has to be 100% if you head to an area with decent public land and doe tags. Look around rawlings...
You will have plenty of time to fill all your tags in 10 days, best advice I can give you, is scout the first day. Drive the entire unit if you have to, stop, glass, etc. I've drawn three buck and three doe tags over two seasons in NE Wyoming and have filled all three buck tags and one doe tag. The other two doe tags I decided not to fill because I wanted to return home earlier and didn't want to shoot more than I actually needed. Turns out not filling those tags was a good thing considering they have pulled all doe tags for that unit for 2020.
I selected 75% because 100 wasnt a option. If you spend 10 days you better plan on doing some yote hunting and fishing with the other 9 days, just find a piece cover some ground preferably on a weekday and you can find a decent buck. If you find access its cake!
It's Rawlins.
I'll add my 2 cents. Have gone to eastern Wyoming two years in a row, and have had 100% success rates (if you don't count the doe tags we burned last year because we had enough meat between us already and weren't going to shoot the extras just to do it). The first year it was trickier because we were still figuring out access and stalking, etc. Last year was just not challenging since we weren't looking for the biggest antelope to ever walk the unit. If you're trophy hunting, your odds will be lower. If you pick a unit with decent access, and you're just trying to get an antelope down, I would be surprised if you're not successful. Again, it's all about what you're going for. But I think my point would be, as long as there's access, you will have a chance to be successful, as long as you define success as harvesting an antelope and not harvesting "the" antelope. And I define "access" as a legal way into a large swath of public--can be lots of hiking involved in those lower point or zero point units.
Im not going to be too picky at all. Im having a hard enough time as it is telling these 80 inchers from 60 inchers in these pictures and youtube videos.
Ive picked unit 9/8 for my buck tag. I looked at 9 specifically because of all the walk in access area. 8 seems like a wasteland from everything ive read but there are sizable chunks of public, there has to be some antelope back in there.