your gonna have a blast!
i live in wyoming, and that 3x9 scope should do fine. i personally dont like the idea of using my rifle scope as my binoculars, for obvious reasons, but i do know hunters who do, so.........
either way, you are gonna want some decent optics though, a good spotting scope probably. small game opens here september 1, your good there, but i usually refrain from shooting rabbits until we have had some really cold weather, it helps get rid of the bugs. coyotes are predators here, no license required. knock em dead.
i dont think you will regret that last week thing, it may be a blessing. someone earlier on here said so too, a lot of the out of staters will be gone, and a lot of the locals will be filled out. i dont know if the place your hunting borders any great expanses of public land, but if it does, there just may be some real slammers pushed on to your property. i think youll do fine.
a swap hunter last year with me used that same caliber rifle your using, with good results. its a little big, but you appreciate the distance shooting it allows. i try to shoot right behind the shoulder. a lot of hunters here try to take out the two front shoulders so the goat wont run off before it dies, but antelope arent big per say, and the meat is excellent, so i like to try to preserve all of it.
hope ya have a helluva hunt, and if ya have any more questions, post here or email me
brad