Wyoming Antelope hunt
08-25-2005, 05:08 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 7
Wyoming Antelope hunt
Hi, a friend, his son and I will be in Wyoming (unit32) the first week in October to hunt antelope. This is the first time I've been out west and wondered if there are any techniques I need to be familiar with to hunt antelope? I've seen programs on TV that show people glassing for days to find an antelope to people using a burlap sheet to "walk up" with in 100 yrds of a buck to get a better shot...what's the best technique?
08-26-2005, 06:41 PM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location:
Posts: 105
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
You won't need to glass for days Max, as they are pretty plentiful in that area, but you will want to glass. Get on a high point, figure out where they are, and stalked using the terrain, wind and sun to your advantage the best you can. You can put a lot of miles on the old leather, so be sure your boots are good ones! I have never used decoys, etc, like you are refering to. Typically spot and stalk is the technique most used. Good luck to all of you!
08-26-2005, 07:05 PM
#3
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location:
Posts: 164
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Spend some time now with your binoculars, it will help your eyes, a good range finder is good it can be hard to jugde disdance in open country. Allways remember if you can see them, they can see you. if you can take time to plan your stock normally you can get within rifle range, you may have to crawl some so look for snakes and cactus. Some places look flat as a board but if you look hard and are willing to walk you can get in as close as 100 yrds.
Your hunting mid season so they will be nervise so try not to sky line your self or vehical when you stop to glass a area.
take your time and don't take the 1st buck you see, after you've glassed for a day you'll know a good buck when you see one.
I looked at the regs and they're giving out a lot of permits in 32 so you'll see lots of goats,
drink lots of water it's not hard to get dehydrated in the high praire.
be sure to get your meat clean an cool, as soon as you can. DO NOT LET IT RIDE IN THE BACK OF THE TRUCK ALL DAY, Skin it and hang it in the shadeas soon as you can!
Your hunting mid season so they will be nervise so try not to sky line your self or vehical when you stop to glass a area.
take your time and don't take the 1st buck you see, after you've glassed for a day you'll know a good buck when you see one.
I looked at the regs and they're giving out a lot of permits in 32 so you'll see lots of goats,
drink lots of water it's not hard to get dehydrated in the high praire.
be sure to get your meat clean an cool, as soon as you can. DO NOT LET IT RIDE IN THE BACK OF THE TRUCK ALL DAY, Skin it and hang it in the shadeas soon as you can!
08-30-2005, 09:20 AM
#4
Typical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 612
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Great advice! Be patient and humor the drive and shoot guys. If you get off the beaten path and glass, you'll find goats. They are much easier to spot than mulies. Take gotlost's advice on meat care.With one exception, we've always had our meat in the freezer the day they are shot. The one exception was when we had to stay in the field an extra day. We skinned, quartered, and packed them in coolers with ice (make sure the coolers can drain). I've fed antelope steaks/roasts to avowed antelope meat haters who thought they were eating deer. If your thinking of a mount, have a taxidermist lined up before the hunt and spend some time talking abouthow he/she would like it skinned/cared for until you get the cape there. They do make a beautiful european mount if the budget is tight. Enjoy the hunt, antelope are a blast!! Can't believe we didn't get drawn this year
!
!
09-04-2005, 05:15 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 7
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Thanks for the information. I found a taxedermist in town that will do the mount for $300. He gave a me some specific information regarding cape field care. He reccomends dry ice to keep the hides from getting wet and skin bacteria promoting hair slippage. He also recommeds freezing antelope solid at a processor, along with the hide.
09-15-2005, 10:46 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Walled Lake MI USA
Posts: 73
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Max -Ihave hunted antelope in WY, close to Douglas a couple of times and shot 2 - one at 300 and one at 400 yds. One bit of advice that I wish I had the first time was not to drag an antelope that you are considering having mounted. Always carry it. The hair pulls out of the hide easily and I pretty well skinned the left side of mine dragging it....just FYI - I was able to purchase a cape from the meat processor for $30 and I was back in business with my horns. I agree with all of the info above - use the wind, naturalcoverand stay low - they have great vision - and they will make a kind of barking noise at you if the wind is not in their favor and they see you - it must be an alert to others of some sort (don't know for sure). It is a fun hunt - good luck - you will likely run into them before you know it - look for the white patches in the fields.
09-22-2005, 07:31 AM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location:
Posts: 6,357
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Max:
You will have a fun hunt. As was said, pronghorn are very easy to spot and they tend to stand right out in the open. The difficult part may be getting close for a shot. Keep in mind that if one stalk fails, you can do another stalk pretty darn soon on another herd if your area has an abundance of animals. I have heard that fleeing pronghorn sometimes make a large circle and return roughly to their starting point.
Heed the advice about hair slippage. Just handling the animal to lay him in the back of my truck tufts of hair were coming out of the back of the pronghorn. Also heed the advice about getting the animal cooled off quickly. Gut the animal, skin, quarter, and get on ice promptly.
If you have any distance to drive to return home and you have the animal butchered (you can arrange for meat processing, I'm sure, but I butchered and packaged my pronghorn in my hotel room) and packaged, you should freeze them on dry ice. This works very well -- keeps the meat frozen rock solid and no water. For one pronghorn put 10 LBS of dry ice in the bottom of a cooler. Lay about 1/4" thickness of newspapers on top of the dry ice. Put your packages of meat on top of the newspapers. Lay about 1/4" thickness of newspapers on top of the meat packages. Put another 10 LBS of dry ice on top of the newpapers. You don't want the meat in direct contact with the dry ice. Close the cooler. Seal the lip of the cooler with several overlapping strips of duct tape. I have read -- which may not be true -- that the CO2 gas released as the dry ice (frozen CO2) melts can cause a driver of a vehicle to fall asleep due to oxygen deprivation and have a wreck. The duct tape slows the release of gas. You might also open your windows fully while driving from time to time to circulate out CO2 gas -- every couple hours or when you get sleepy. Again, this could be an old wives tale or an urban legend, but I took notice of the warning just to be safe. You can actually get by on a little less dry ice if the meat is frozen and you don't have more than a couple of days to drive. Dry ice costs about $1/lb in the supermarkets out there. The quantities I mentioned quick froze two pronghorns -- mine and my son's -- and kept them frozen for three days. In fact, there was a thin waffer of dry ice left when I stopped. I then replenished the dry ice and spent another two days on the road. I didn't have so far to go, just had some ports-of-call to make on the way home. The dry ice worked like a charm. I love it!
You will have a fun hunt. As was said, pronghorn are very easy to spot and they tend to stand right out in the open. The difficult part may be getting close for a shot. Keep in mind that if one stalk fails, you can do another stalk pretty darn soon on another herd if your area has an abundance of animals. I have heard that fleeing pronghorn sometimes make a large circle and return roughly to their starting point.
Heed the advice about hair slippage. Just handling the animal to lay him in the back of my truck tufts of hair were coming out of the back of the pronghorn. Also heed the advice about getting the animal cooled off quickly. Gut the animal, skin, quarter, and get on ice promptly.
If you have any distance to drive to return home and you have the animal butchered (you can arrange for meat processing, I'm sure, but I butchered and packaged my pronghorn in my hotel room) and packaged, you should freeze them on dry ice. This works very well -- keeps the meat frozen rock solid and no water. For one pronghorn put 10 LBS of dry ice in the bottom of a cooler. Lay about 1/4" thickness of newspapers on top of the dry ice. Put your packages of meat on top of the newspapers. Lay about 1/4" thickness of newspapers on top of the meat packages. Put another 10 LBS of dry ice on top of the newpapers. You don't want the meat in direct contact with the dry ice. Close the cooler. Seal the lip of the cooler with several overlapping strips of duct tape. I have read -- which may not be true -- that the CO2 gas released as the dry ice (frozen CO2) melts can cause a driver of a vehicle to fall asleep due to oxygen deprivation and have a wreck. The duct tape slows the release of gas. You might also open your windows fully while driving from time to time to circulate out CO2 gas -- every couple hours or when you get sleepy. Again, this could be an old wives tale or an urban legend, but I took notice of the warning just to be safe. You can actually get by on a little less dry ice if the meat is frozen and you don't have more than a couple of days to drive. Dry ice costs about $1/lb in the supermarkets out there. The quantities I mentioned quick froze two pronghorns -- mine and my son's -- and kept them frozen for three days. In fact, there was a thin waffer of dry ice left when I stopped. I then replenished the dry ice and spent another two days on the road. I didn't have so far to go, just had some ports-of-call to make on the way home. The dry ice worked like a charm. I love it!
09-25-2005, 01:08 PM
#10
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location:
Posts: 2
RE: Wyoming Antelope hunt
Alsatian-
I have a question regarding the type of boots to wear in Wyoming. I will be hunting in area 32 the 2nd week of Oct. Do you have any suggestions regarding full leather vs cordura, goretex or not and grains of thinsulate? We will do mostly stalking, minimal driving. Your thoughts are appreciated.
Michael Nygren
I have a question regarding the type of boots to wear in Wyoming. I will be hunting in area 32 the 2nd week of Oct. Do you have any suggestions regarding full leather vs cordura, goretex or not and grains of thinsulate? We will do mostly stalking, minimal driving. Your thoughts are appreciated.
Michael Nygren