Antelope Hunt
 

I am new to this forum and have a question about antelope hunting. Is there a place that I can antelope hunt this year without any preference points? I'm willing to travel to any state, but first choice would be anywhere that is driving distance from Rapid City SD. Would prefer a DIY hunt on public land but am not against paying a fair price to hunt private or trespass fee. I am OK with bow hunt or gun hunt either one. I have never hunted antelope before but the desire has just hit me the last few weeks.
Thanks in advance.

WY always has a lot of leftover tags. You can get them online or just drive over to WY and pick them up. They are unit specific and some units are better than others but they always put out a list ahead of time so you can do some research.

Wyoming is probably your best option. Take a few minutes to look over the draw results from previous years and find a unit that is possible to draw with no points. There is a second draw this year for the tags leftover from the first draw so trying to buy them OTC is not the best idea.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Hunting/Drawing...6-Drawing-Odds

Most of the easily drawn units will have difficult public access, so look for units with legal access to BLM land, walk-in areas, or state lands. In the no-points-required units the public land will have quite a few hunters but there are a lot of pronghorns. You might want to consider a doe/fawn tag or two also. A doe/fawn tag costs only $48 each for a nonresident and can often be had in addition to a buck tag.

I am not very good at WY units, but last October I was in Rapid City being a tourist prior to driving to Buffalo WY for antelope/deer. Just head htat way, you'll get sick of counting them in the fields along the highway (unless you're like my wife, it never got old for her!)

We hunted just east of Buffalo and there were left over tags for that unit. I'd have to dig up which it was, but public land access might ben an issue. There are at least 3 outfitters in Buffalo and they probably tie up a lot of the private ranches via leases.


Figure out the units and go from there

Thanks for the info. How about South Dakota, Is it hard to get drawn for that state?

I also just joined this forum and I am trying to learn about doing a DIY Wyoming antelope hunt. I live in New Hampshire looks like there's a good number of eastern hunters on here to talk to and learn from if anyone has tips for first time western hunters i'd love to hear them.

I believe the best thing you can do is to have a few preference points in your favor when the time comes to consider applying for a license. The antelope point will cost you $30 and the time to buy is July 31 - October 31. It is easy to register and buy a point, and the fellows with the most points get licenses for the better units. Simply looking over the draw odds for each unit will tell you which units are considered the most desirable. Antelope hunting can be good in easily drawn units but it is generally better in units that take three or four points to draw.

The WG&F site ( https://wgfd.wyo.gov/hunting ) has a good bit of valuable information.

Once you have found legally accessed land inhabited by antelope, the actual hunt is fairly straightforward. Spot and stalk is how it is normally done, and BLM land is where it is normally done. Most BLM land rented by ranchers is cut up with two track roads that can be driven by a four wheel drive vehicle which is how most spotting is accomplished. There are also state lands that are open to hunting, and Walk In areas which are sections of private land that allow access.

As it is physically not challenging at all, does not require any special skills or knowledge, and has a high success rate it can be an enjoyable experience for everyone. You will find no end of internet experts willing to tell you all about it!

I'm doing it for the 1st time. I'm going with an outfitter.

The PP only buying period is 7/1-10/31 and it's a waste of money to pay big bucks for an outfitted hunt with all the public land there is to hunt in Wyoming doing it yourself. Go on the G&F website and plan on spending a lot of time going over everything and if anyone has questions send me a PM, as I haven't missed a season hunting deer, elk, or antelope since 1997 out there and will be out there again for two months this year!

Thank you very much for the info. If a farmer is renting the land do you need to get permission to hunt the BLM land from them??

Thank you very much for the info. If a farmer has rented the BLM land do you have to get permission from them to hunt it?? Also probably dumb question whats the snake situation i keep reading about crawling to get close enough for a shot here in NH no problem except the trees rocks and pucker brush of coarse but I knew a cool old guy who's no longer with us that lived in Montana for a few years off grid and he mentioned rattle snakes came around when he would BBQ chicken. Anyways I just have a fear in my mind of crawling into a pissed off snake. I plan to see my girlfriend again but not so soon or by a snake.

Also as far as a outfitter 1 I plan to make it a full on adventure for me and my friend who wants to go with me but neither of us can afford 3 or 4 K for a hunt. That and i keep hearing about allot of the guides being off season ranchers who drive you out point at a antelope and tell you to shoot it.
Thank you everyone for all the info for me and anyone else on this thread asking for info

Ranchers can lease grazing rights from the BLM or National Forest Service depending on where the land is and which one oversees the land, but the land is always open to hunting. If they lease grazing rights on state land it's the same, but if they lease it to grow crops then that essentially puts that land off limits to others so the crops aren't damaged.

BLM land requires no permission to use, but be very careful about crossing any private land. Trespassing is taken very seriously.

It is always possible to see a snake but it is not a real problem. I have walked up to buzzworms a few times but it is fairly rare. I am sure it has happened to some unlucky soul, but I can not remember ever hearing of a hunter that was actually bitten.

When you and your friend get close to applying spend some time to study the maps and make a few phone calls (WG&F, BLM office, etc.). Things like droughts or bad winters can change the game. Keep in mind that internet boards offer both good and sometimes bad information, so do your own homework.

Antelope is an enjoyable and usually easy hunt. Anyone can do it. My wife absolutely loves to hunt antelope (more than I do).

I can not think of anything important to add. It is fairly easy to buy points and make the application when you are ready. Read over all of the WG&F information on their site and it will all come into focus.

Good hunting.

BLM land requires no permission to use, but be very careful about crossing any private land. Trespassing is taken very seriously.

It is always possible to see a snake but it is not a real problem. I have walked up to buzzworms a few times but it is fairly rare. I am sure it has happened to some unlucky soul, but I can not remember ever hearing of a hunter that was actually bitten.

When you and your friend get close to applying spend some time to study the maps and make a few phone calls (WG&F, BLM office, etc.). Things like droughts or bad winters can change the game. Keep in mind that internet boards offer both good and sometimes bad information, so do your own homework.

Antelope is an enjoyable and usually easy hunt. Anyone can do it. My wife absolutely loves to hunt antelope (more than I do).

I can not think of anything important to add. It is fairly easy to buy points and make the application when you are ready. Read over all of the WG&F information on their site and it will all come into focus.

Good hunting.

In trying to edit my post it looks like I accidently double posted above.

The edit I was attempting was to include a caveat. Wyoming allows party applications to average their points (Ex. Joe has five and Sam has one, so they are both treated as having three for the draw). This is commonly called "point sharing" and has spawned the practice of some guys cruising the internet boards to join inexperienced hunters that have more points than they do.

They often come across as your new best buddy and offer their vast knowledge and "help" if someone will allow them to leach onto their points. In my opinion this is a great way to cut points in half and get drawn for a lesser unit.

I have been contacted several times by guys offering their "help" in return for sharing my points. I surely do need their "help" and will not do it. Some guys think this is a good deal, others do not. To each their own.

Hmm good to know I didnt know we could do a group app for the tag but I guess that would be helpful to make sure me and my friend both get tags same year same place would really suck having one or the other get a tag. We are waiting for the tag info to come out to do more research and see where they are avaiable I think someone said it comes out 7-1 ?? Some thing my friend ask me about is hes been told there are over the counter or over the web tags also possible to get after the drawing have been done. I haven't gotten around to check in about this yet been to busy past week at work and building my house at same time. Gonna be a slow process and may not try to do the hunt for another year or two but I still cant wait to get out there and give it a try. I've been listen to meat eater podcasts and hunt talk podcasts while i'm working from the sounds of it antelope is very good tasting meat.

This year's draw is supposed to be June 22. After that there will be another draw for the leftover tags - this is new this year. I guess it is possible, but after the two draws I doubt if there are going to be many tags available that you would want and would have access for you to hunt. The information is all on the WG&F website. They also have very easy to understand instructions for applying as a group.

Antelope is not really one of my favorite game meats but my wife likes it better than elk or deer. You need to put a tooth into it to find out how you like it.