idahoelkinstructor

I want to hunt Antelope this year and will if money allows me to go out of state. I don't have much experience hunting antelope. I have only taken one with a rifle back when I was 15. I want to archery hunt them but would love if any and all antelope hunters responded with advice that made your hunts successful. Also what mistakes did you make that made you hunt unsuccessful. Thanks Jason.

Roskoe

I have hunted them with black powder but not archery. One of my buddies has tried it a few times with a bow. I think your best chance of success is to get one of those Double Bull blinds and set it up on a water hole in the middle of prime antelope country. Put it up a fair length of time in advance so they get used to seeing it. And use a decoy.

It is often easier to get permission to hunt antelope on private land during the bow or black powder seasons - where there would be no way you could get in there during rifle season. Bad news is that, at least here in Colorado, the archery and black powder seasons do not correspond with the rut like the gun seasons do - animals are not as distracted with the mating ritual - but bucks are still vulnerable to the water hole stakeout.

ELKINMTCWB

They are not to hard I have only hunted them 5 years 1 rifle kill 4 bow. Here is a way 99% of the hunters miss. Use a trypod stand and hunt the fince. find a good crossing [most times they go under not over]. I do a lot of stock hunting here in montana. use the drainages and the points to set up on ir in.

You can allso call them and decoy them in prity eazy.This is a very fun way as some times they will run right over you. BE READY they are fast and will run right to you and try to kill the decoy :} This is a good way to hunt with 2 people and vidio. you will have them come a lot but get to kill few. it make good footage.

SpyroAndes

Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and New Mexico are the states to look at for HIGH QUALITY antelope.

The draw in all of those states is pretty darn tough for a non-resident so your realistic options for an out-of-state antelope hunt is a landowner permit in Nevada and New Mexico.

Permits in these states will vary from $300 to $5000 (not including the state license/tag) and go pretty quickly.

The August archery antelope hunt in New Mexico is pretty darned tough to beat. The rifle hunt in late September or first weekend in October is darn good as well.

More so than almost any other hunt you'll do, like unlimited bighorn hunt in Montana where 95% of your hunt is done 2 weeks prior to the season, you have to really have the big antelope nailed down before opening morning. While most of the hunts are conducted on private land, you have other tag holders (w/ landowner permits or drawn tags) on the land as well. Thr rifle hunt is generally only 2-3 days long in the better units.

During the archery hunt, atleast they used to, they'll run the handicapped hunt as well. I was withing 100 yards and closing on a boomer 86"+ antelope. Then I heard a truck driving down the road and stop, my heart sank a little, then *KAAABOOOMMM* the antelope was down. I was a little heated but there was no way they could have seen me since I was in a cut. Besides, how long are you going to stay mad when you see a guy in a wheelchair smiling ear to ear..

Use terrain to your advantage just like any other stalk. Use your knowledge of the land (e.g. location of water tanks, fencelines and breaks in the terrain) to your advantage. If you have a buck that you want to shoot but he is moving, figure out where he is headed and intercept him.

My favorite technique during the rut, when I decide to hunt with a revolver, is to slide between the buck and his does. More so than muleys and elk, antelope will let their does wander off 100 - 200 yards and then herd them back up.

Nevermind that during the rut, there are few animals dumber than an antelope...

Heck, I have had them decoy up to 50 yards of me... with just a few wraps of toilet paper around my forearm... held in front of me... while I crouched and walked at an angle towards the buck.

Not showing enough patience and forcing a stalk... however... I have never, in almost 20 years of hunting antelope, not harvested an antelope.

As the great Benjamin Franklin once said "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail"...

Speaking of being Successful and Unsuccessful...

Judyboi

I public land hunt them in wyoming every year, with a rifle. I just hike up to the top of a high ridge glass over the 6-7 herds in sight and then decide which one has a buck that I want in it and the stalk begins.

Slamfire

I went to the lava flows in NE California once, and although I actually saw one, I'll never make that mistake again. Wyoming for me!

huntnmuleys

lots of goats here in wyoming, plenty of easy draws for non residents too. i live in one of those areas. we dont have the troply potentioal of arizona or nm, but i have seen b&c quality goats for a few years now, usually just one per year. havent got one of em yet, always taking swap hunters who want a deer first. anyway, i would look to wyoming, but our non residents apps. had to be in last month, so youre sorta hosed for this year. if you do deceide on wyoming, let me konw and i can maybe help get ya on a goat.

oh ya, a bonus to this area of wyoming, if you dont get your antelope with a bow in september in the rut, your tag is still good for october rifle season.
brad

BareBack Jack

Number one rule DON"T LET THEM SEE YA,the does will bust ya befor the buck.I have not bow hunted them myself,but I have guided a few guys for them and what I like to do is ambush them.Wait by a hole in the fence,water trough,travel route.I have freinds who decoy them,and have had good luck,I'mgoing to try the Bull Blind and a decoy.If that don't work I will ambush them.

I have never not filled my antelope tag when it came to rifle hunting them,but I think the bow is going to be a little diffrent.

Montana has good numbers of antelope also in the state,some good bucks around eastern MT and Centeral state.
BBJ

Alsatian

Judyboi:

Where do you public land hunt in Wyoming? Do you have problems with large numbers of other hunters? I have hunted in unit 23 near Gillette, but I paid a trespass fee because I was afraid that the Thunder Basin National Grassland public land nearby would be overrun with hunters. I would prefer to hunt public land to save the trespass fee.

Judyboi

Well, I won't say the exact unit, 'cause we don't see many hunters at all. Two or three other groups each season. If you want to know more send me a pm. this is a pic, you might have seen it, of my dad's and my bucks.