ShatoDavis

I need to find a place to antelope hunt in wyoming next fall. I told my step son that I would take him. So I intended to apply for the tags etc. and find a rancher that would accept a trespass fee. Well, Now I'm preparing to fill out the app's and I'm calling ranchers from the game and fish depart.'s list and no one will let us hunt. I'm running out of ideas here. I was hoping to find a place in unit 23,24, or 26 because of the high draw success. Any suggestions?

game4lunch

Are those hunt areas north a a little east of Casper?
I live in Cheyenne and am not sure if the same area numbers are used for non-resident regs.
I'll assume they are the same.
There is a wonderfull thing here in Wyoming, it's called: "Public Land".
In fact, the majority of Wyoming is public land. BLM, Nat'l Forrest, State sections. Get some maps of Wyoming that show property ownership, like the "Wyoming Atlas & Gazetteer" by DeLorme. It is an atlas of BLM maps. Very helpfull. BLM land is orange, State is blue, and Nat'l Forrest is green.
Maybe the areas you want have a lot of public land. The law is, that a land owner has to allow passage over his land to public land provided it is a publicly maintained road. Like a dirt county road. Very easy to access.
A very popular Antelope area is called Shirley Basin. LOcated north of I-80 west of Laramie and East of Rawlins. It is a huge area, is known for big bucks, and the G&F issue lots of tags (Which increases your drawing odds.) Looks like areas 42,46,47,48 would cover a lot or most of it. For instance, in 2005 they issued 1000 licenses for area 47! Maybe not all were drawn.
Before I forget, make sure and fill in the part of the ap that is called "Part Application Block". If there are 3 of you, it would say 1 of 3, 2of 3, etc. That way each ap is kept together so if one draws, you all draw!
Also, on the Wyoming G&F site there is a section called "Public Access".
In there are what they call "Walk in areas - Hunting", and "Hunter management areas". These are private lands that the owner allows hunting on. The walk in areas don't require permission, where the Hunter Management areas do. But you can apply on line. It's simple. They would just limit the number of hunters that way, so you have to get written permission and keep it with you.
The maps in that section are divided by county so it's easy to reference where you want to go, and whether there are any areas you can use.
Land owners have the right to dictate what species you can hunt. Some may allow goose & pheasant only. Others may allow Antelope, but not deer or elk. Just have to look at the individual areas rules.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do.
Good luck.

NVMIKE

You may be in luck there shato. I just got a job in Gillette (got a 1000 or so running around the mine)and will be there permanently by about april or May if the moveing goes as planned. I should be able to help you out, not a first rate guided deal or anything, but it'll be free and full of witty, sarcastic commentary.

manboy

shato, you need a good antelope hunt. well i live in wyoming. and so does huntnmuleys, we could give you a area that is 99% draw and you would have a very good chance to get nice goats. well you should get 12"+ goats. we had 6 swap hunters this year and they all got 11" or better, 2 got 14" goats and 1 missed a b.c. class. if you need some help i would be glad to show you around.

wyotimberghost

The areas game4lunch mentioned are good places to hunt. I've only hunted 48 myself but the antelope numbers were great and there is a ton of public land. I never saw any big bucks, but I did see a couple of bucks in the 14-15" range during the two days I hunted . Like all other areas, just drive around until you spot a good buck then go shoot it.