First Antelope Hunt Advise
02-24-2006, 12:50 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1
First Antelope Hunt Advise
I am working on an antelope hunt for this fall, particularly hunt area 42 (Como Bluffs HMA and other public access) and would appreciate some local advise. I am an experienced/ non-resident hunter and in great shape. It is probably just as cheap for me to get an outfitter to take care of everything, but putting a successful hunt together is half the fun. Has anybody been successful out there or heard anything about it? Any suggestions? I am not looking for a North American record, just a good representative of the species. Thanks.
04-14-2006, 10:24 PM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location:
Posts: 6,357
RE: First Antelope Hunt Advise
TX: My advice is based on my experience hunting Unit 23 in NE Wyoming, just South of Gillette, but you can likely extend the information throughout Wyoming.
You will want to go to the Wyoming Deparment of Fish and Game web site. Find the information -- probably under hunting or hunting regulations -- about probabilities of drawing in the different units. I take it you are not in the drawing, so you are interested in left-over tags. This means you will need to eliminate units which are "over subscribed" -- more applicants than allocated permits. You will need to identify the "under subscribed" units and obtain a left-over permit in that unit. My guess is that more units are over subscribed than under subscribed in Wyoming. One of the under subscribed areas is usually unit 23, because a large number of tags are allocated for this unit. YOu will also need to purchase a conservation stamp for about $10. This is needed by everyone who either hunts or fishes in Wyoming. Ask about how to obtain one of these through the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game in Cheyenne. There is no limit or quota on these, so it is no problem obtaining one, but you need to obtain one to be legal.
Before you commit to a unit, you will want to have a plan for where you will hunt -- public land or private land or private land with "walk-in" arrangements through the state of Wyoming. For walk-in arrangements, look for information on the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game site. I don't know if this program is good or not. You can also get a list of land owners who will let you hunt their property in exchange for paying them a "trespass fee." Call the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game field office nearest the unit you want to hunt and ask them to email their local list to you. For unit 23, this field office is in Buffalo. You can find the phone number of the field offices on the web site of the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game. Call people on the list until you strikea deal you like. I arranged to hunt a 1280 acre ranch for two days for $100/gun (there were two of us). This was about 5 miles out of Gillette. My son and I both took pronghorns, my son a 13 1/2" buck. I took a doe, but if I had held out longer I could have taken a buck too, it just didn't matter to me. In unit 23 you are unlikely to find many trophy sized horns. The units where trophy sized animals roam are typically over subscribed. Guess what, others have studied the reports and done their homework too, and they converge on the same high-probability areas to hunt for the big horns. Often the outfitters have the best land leased and the only way to hunt for the big horns is by paying lots of $$$$ to the outfitters.
Assuming you have secured a tag and have a place to hunt . . . the rest is easy. Success rates for pronghorn are around 90% in Wyoming. You mentioned you were in good physical shape. This will be no advantage to you, because generally pronghorn hunting is very easy physically. Of course, it is no disadvantage either. Use a flat shooting rifle such as a .243, .257 Roberts, .25-06, .257 Weatherby magnum, .270, 7 mm Remington magnum, .30-06, .300 winchester magnum and such like. Telescopic sights are preferred. Use binoculars to search for a likely animal and then approach within shooting distance by stealth. Use folds in the ground to hide your presence and approach unseen.
Because success is highly likely, have a plan in place for handling the game meat. Everyone seems to advise rapid skinning, quartering, and icing of pronghorn. One thing I have heard of is having a couple of bags of ice in a cooler at the ready. After field dressing the pronghorn, stuff the two bags of ice inside the body cavity during the drive to the place the pronghorn will be processed. If you do your own processing, you may be able to do this on-site where you hunt, for example in a shed on the ranch where you may have arranged to hunt for a trespass fee. If you process the meat yourself, you can quarter the meat to get it into manageable chunks, then cut into meal sized pieces, and then wrap up (I do double layer of saran wrap or other plastic wrap and then butcher paper. Others may do vacuum sealed plastic bags). Buy about 10 LBS of dry ice per pronghorn. Put 5 LBS of dry ice in the bottome of your cooler. Place about 1/4" of newspapers on top of the dry ice. Place your meat on top of the newspaper. Place another layer of 1/4" of newspapers on top of the meat. Place the remaining 5 LBS of dry ice on top of the newspapers. Close the lid. Seal the edge of the lid with duct tape. Check after two days. If the dry ice has vanished, add more dry ice. I used this method to freeze and keep frozen two pronghorns for 5 days. I replaced the dry ice after three days. The meat freezes rock solid.
Pronghorn meat tastes very good if it is well taken care of. My wife and oldest daughter immediately preferred pronghorn meat to the venison I commonly prepare for them. It has a certain spicey taste which they liked better than venison.
Again, this is one of the easiest hunts you will ever do. The pronghorn usually hang out in the open spaces, so you usually can drive your truck right to the pronghorn to load up, unlike either elk or deer. Again, unlike deer and elk, you definitely will see the pronghorns -- they stand right out in the open, in the middle of the day. As a result of this, no need to set the alarm clock to get up at 4:30 AM. Why get out to the hunting ground any earlier than 9 AM? They are going to be there all day long, buddy! If you go out in the dark, all you will accomplish is running them off as you stumble among them.
The weather can range from balmy 70 degree weather to snowy, 20 degrees, and windy. In fact, it is often very windy in Wyoming. Carry clothes for all this range of weather, because the weather may change after you leave home. Take appropriate supplies in your vehicle -- food, water -- in the event you get snowed in. Maybe this is unlikely, but it is probably better to be safe than sorry. Take a first aid kit. I cut myself pretty badly on the finger while processing my pronghorn meat in my hotel room. Granted, I could have gone to the emergency room in Gillette, but it was handy to have gauze pads and medical tape and wound cleansing fluids to handle this right then and there. This, of course, would be even more valuable if you are hunting 50 miles from anywhere.
Take toilet paper with you to the field.
You will want to go to the Wyoming Deparment of Fish and Game web site. Find the information -- probably under hunting or hunting regulations -- about probabilities of drawing in the different units. I take it you are not in the drawing, so you are interested in left-over tags. This means you will need to eliminate units which are "over subscribed" -- more applicants than allocated permits. You will need to identify the "under subscribed" units and obtain a left-over permit in that unit. My guess is that more units are over subscribed than under subscribed in Wyoming. One of the under subscribed areas is usually unit 23, because a large number of tags are allocated for this unit. YOu will also need to purchase a conservation stamp for about $10. This is needed by everyone who either hunts or fishes in Wyoming. Ask about how to obtain one of these through the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game in Cheyenne. There is no limit or quota on these, so it is no problem obtaining one, but you need to obtain one to be legal.
Before you commit to a unit, you will want to have a plan for where you will hunt -- public land or private land or private land with "walk-in" arrangements through the state of Wyoming. For walk-in arrangements, look for information on the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game site. I don't know if this program is good or not. You can also get a list of land owners who will let you hunt their property in exchange for paying them a "trespass fee." Call the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game field office nearest the unit you want to hunt and ask them to email their local list to you. For unit 23, this field office is in Buffalo. You can find the phone number of the field offices on the web site of the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game. Call people on the list until you strikea deal you like. I arranged to hunt a 1280 acre ranch for two days for $100/gun (there were two of us). This was about 5 miles out of Gillette. My son and I both took pronghorns, my son a 13 1/2" buck. I took a doe, but if I had held out longer I could have taken a buck too, it just didn't matter to me. In unit 23 you are unlikely to find many trophy sized horns. The units where trophy sized animals roam are typically over subscribed. Guess what, others have studied the reports and done their homework too, and they converge on the same high-probability areas to hunt for the big horns. Often the outfitters have the best land leased and the only way to hunt for the big horns is by paying lots of $$$$ to the outfitters.
Assuming you have secured a tag and have a place to hunt . . . the rest is easy. Success rates for pronghorn are around 90% in Wyoming. You mentioned you were in good physical shape. This will be no advantage to you, because generally pronghorn hunting is very easy physically. Of course, it is no disadvantage either. Use a flat shooting rifle such as a .243, .257 Roberts, .25-06, .257 Weatherby magnum, .270, 7 mm Remington magnum, .30-06, .300 winchester magnum and such like. Telescopic sights are preferred. Use binoculars to search for a likely animal and then approach within shooting distance by stealth. Use folds in the ground to hide your presence and approach unseen.
Because success is highly likely, have a plan in place for handling the game meat. Everyone seems to advise rapid skinning, quartering, and icing of pronghorn. One thing I have heard of is having a couple of bags of ice in a cooler at the ready. After field dressing the pronghorn, stuff the two bags of ice inside the body cavity during the drive to the place the pronghorn will be processed. If you do your own processing, you may be able to do this on-site where you hunt, for example in a shed on the ranch where you may have arranged to hunt for a trespass fee. If you process the meat yourself, you can quarter the meat to get it into manageable chunks, then cut into meal sized pieces, and then wrap up (I do double layer of saran wrap or other plastic wrap and then butcher paper. Others may do vacuum sealed plastic bags). Buy about 10 LBS of dry ice per pronghorn. Put 5 LBS of dry ice in the bottome of your cooler. Place about 1/4" of newspapers on top of the dry ice. Place your meat on top of the newspaper. Place another layer of 1/4" of newspapers on top of the meat. Place the remaining 5 LBS of dry ice on top of the newspapers. Close the lid. Seal the edge of the lid with duct tape. Check after two days. If the dry ice has vanished, add more dry ice. I used this method to freeze and keep frozen two pronghorns for 5 days. I replaced the dry ice after three days. The meat freezes rock solid.
Pronghorn meat tastes very good if it is well taken care of. My wife and oldest daughter immediately preferred pronghorn meat to the venison I commonly prepare for them. It has a certain spicey taste which they liked better than venison.
Again, this is one of the easiest hunts you will ever do. The pronghorn usually hang out in the open spaces, so you usually can drive your truck right to the pronghorn to load up, unlike either elk or deer. Again, unlike deer and elk, you definitely will see the pronghorns -- they stand right out in the open, in the middle of the day. As a result of this, no need to set the alarm clock to get up at 4:30 AM. Why get out to the hunting ground any earlier than 9 AM? They are going to be there all day long, buddy! If you go out in the dark, all you will accomplish is running them off as you stumble among them.
The weather can range from balmy 70 degree weather to snowy, 20 degrees, and windy. In fact, it is often very windy in Wyoming. Carry clothes for all this range of weather, because the weather may change after you leave home. Take appropriate supplies in your vehicle -- food, water -- in the event you get snowed in. Maybe this is unlikely, but it is probably better to be safe than sorry. Take a first aid kit. I cut myself pretty badly on the finger while processing my pronghorn meat in my hotel room. Granted, I could have gone to the emergency room in Gillette, but it was handy to have gauze pads and medical tape and wound cleansing fluids to handle this right then and there. This, of course, would be even more valuable if you are hunting 50 miles from anywhere.
Take toilet paper with you to the field.
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