Wyoming Antelope Guide
 

I have hunted antelope quite a few tines and never used a guide/outfitter and have been successful every time. It does take some homework and good gps onX to make life easier. That said the advantage of the outfitter hunt is not having to search and find places to hunt, a place to stay and figuring out you dinning options. Only you and your dad can decide what is best for both of you. Either way it will be a fun hunt so go have a good time.

A great deal of pronghorn hunting success is having access to land. I assume that you do not have any preference points so that puts you is a little bit of a spot. Units that can be drawn easily with no points are usually substantially private land, and the public land available in these units gets very crowded. Most of the good private land either is being used by the owners who guide hunts or has been leased by outfitters. The units with access to good public land are hard to draw unless you have accumulated preference points.

Even if you go for the Special draw ( higher priced) it is hard to get into an uncrowded unit with zero preference points. If you want to join the crowds it is still possible to draw licenses in easy-draw units and be successful but it surely will not be like the TV hunts where there is unspooked game and no other orange hats in sight.

If your father wants to use a guide to give you access to private land I would suggest that you smile and thank him.

Don't underestimate the effect of hunting pressure, on public land, lots, on private land, not nearly as much. A guide can get you on private, unpressured land. For example, I've used a guide in WY twice for my wife and I. Two trips, 6 antelope between us (got doe tag the second trip, love the meat). We hunted a 50,000 acre private ranch. You could drive within 50-100 yards of a group of antelope and as long as the truck didn't stop or you get out, they stayed put and just watched. There is one ranch road that goes into a public section, we went over there twice to check it. The second the truck became visible, POOF every antelope in sight was off and running.

It's all in what you want from the hunt. Antelope is probably the most doable DIY hunt. With a guide, you get more of a "vacation hunt" than a hard hunt. They supply food, bed and access to land, as well as someone who knows how to hunt them. Hunting antelope in the WIDE OPEN plains is very different than deer hunting in PA (or NH where I"m from). It's all spot/stalk and learning what you can get away with from different ranges as you close the distance to shooting range is fun, but if you are going to get frustrated with blown stalks, consider a guide.

Best reply !! You can learn from the guide and possibly go back in future years for a do-it-yourself hunt.

Drummer, don't do either guided or DIY. Find a ranch that will allow you to pay them a trespass fee and then you otherwise do everything else on your own. My honey hole costs my group very little and we have a few thousand acres all to ourselves and there are tons of pronghorns. I've only bow hunted for them and have had no problems being successful every time. Most places will let you shoot a buck and a few doe if you want. I'd stack every cooler full that I owned if they didn't taste so nasty. I've hunted many critters and places all over the country and this is the only animal that we cannot get to taste worth eating at all. Access is everything and to me, it's well worth a small fee to have valuable private property versus playing the public pressure and property boundaries games.

I've hunted antelope most years since the mid '70s in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and all DIY on public land or Montana Block Management land. Antelope meat is good if you properly take care and process it. My girlfriend and I like both the steaks and burger that I make from it.

I think that antelope are one of the easiest animals to hunt, especially if you're not afraid to walk. Most rifle hunting is spot and stalk, but many bow hunters are successful every year hunting from blinds near water.

One year when my son was younger, he and I (in our orange pumpkin vests) and my Golden Retriever were sitting in the sagebrush near a barb wire fence. We watched a half dozen antelope on our side of the fence, come from over 1/4 mile away and they fed by us close enough that we could hear them chewing. I wanted a bigger buck so we just sat still and let them go by us.

I have hunted speed goats in CO, WY and MT. I have never failed to fill a tag and have never hired a guide. An awful lot of really good pronghorn habitat is on public land and if you can use a spotting scope or binos and aren't afraid to walk a couple of miles then filling some tags is within the scope of just about everybody. Probably my favorite place to go after them is around Farson, WY. Tags are pretty easy to get, especially for does, and almost the entire area is BLM land. You can camp and hunt to your heart's content and other than opening weekend won't see many other hunters.

Ben I've been on a coupe WY antelope hunts both guided and had a blast and both me an my friend were successful with me just missing a book buck by 1". Also being from PA I want to give you a fair warning - You shots can approach 300 yards unless you have good terrain to get closer. And too, you need to learn to dope the wind. That open country can easily blow your bullet off its intended mark at those longer ranges.Not like shooting a deer in wooded areas.

Wind in Wyoming? Really? Wind in the state that uses logging chains for wind socks? Nahhh!

I have to disagree that you should hire a guide. Reason being you'll harvest one on your own and the tag is $326, you and your dad can take that few thousand dollars saved and go on a semi guided elk hunt in CO/MT/UT with the money saved. For the same amount you'd pay to go on a guided antelope hunt in WY, you could go on a semi guided elk and DIY antelope hunt. I'm doing both WY antelope and CO elk OTC this year for under $1000 because it's all DIY. Feel free to send me a message if you have questions.

I bet you got a bunch personal messages from outfitters, i did after making posts like this. The benefit I see in hiring an outfitter is nothing other than their ability to field judge bucks. They can potentially get you access to private land, but you're going to be paying the landowner for it, just through the outfitter. You can find private land to access on CL for a couple hundred bucks if you're worried about pressure from other hunters.

Wow, if you want to draw USA hunters to your outfit, you might want to have someone proof read the advertisement!

Antelope hunting
 

I messaged you

Bob Barlow helped me out when my outfitter over booked us . got me some property to hunt on . seems like a good outfitter. H e wasn't the outfitter who overbooked just helped me find property

Is that the guy from pronghorn paradise seem like a good guy !

Bob barlow outfitters

Hit up Keith Metz. He's the real deal. Been in the business for a long time.

Here's his facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/keith.metz.7

I live in Wyoming. Antelope is fun and delicious. You'll like it. Great steaks.

Just FYI DJ, that link doesn't seem to be working. It comes back with a "page not found" message.

Antelope tastes sooooooo good. I went hunting with my buddies a number of years and we got so much and ate it all. YUM