Hoping I can get a little help. I drew a tag in 114, which is great but I didn't think I had a real chance to draw this year. Vacation time isn't going to allow me extra time to go prior to the season starts for a scouting trip (coming from Indiana). I am looking through as much info as I can find and checking out google earth every day trying to get as much cyber scouting as I can. Not looking for GPS coordinates or anything, just trying to narrow the playing field as much as possible before the archery opener. Strict bow hunter so not planning on doing things any other way. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Antelope in Unit 114
- Thread starter doc06
- Start date
Musket Man
Veteran member
I have never hunted it but looks like a great unit! Get the BLM map and a good GPS with landownership chip. Antelope shouldnt be hard to find. Good luck! 35
Topgun 30-06
Banned
That unit is referred to as the Badlands by the locals for good reason. It's even worse now out in that area as most of the reservoirs have dried up over the last four years and almost all the goats have moved over to the west side of the unit into the irrigated private property within a couple miles of the Big Horn River near Worland. In unit 115 to the east it's the same way and most of the goats have moved east into the private property along the Nowood River. Where I could drive a few years ago in the public land in either unit and see several hundred goats in an hour or two you now don't see any and I mean zero, nada, zilch. In fact, when I was on the south end of 114 last year heading to Worland on BLM 1404 to visit friends, a guy from Idaho stopped me and asked why the unit was considered so good because he said he had hunted hard for 4 or 5 days and could count the number of goats he had seen on one hand! I've been hunting out in that general area almost every year since 1994 and the change in the antelope situation has been unreal. The numbers are still there, but they are all concentrated on the west side. That can really be seen by the way the G&F has set up the tags now. There are only 50 tags that can be used anywhere in the unit. The remaining 150 either sex tags and 500 doe tags have to be used within 1/2 mile of irrigated land that is along the river. I would strongly suggest you get in contact with the G&F, try to find out the names of ranchers that will allow you on their property over along the west side and start making calls and praying you can get on somewhere over there BEFORE you head out there. You may end up paying a decent fee to shoot a buck, but that's better than spending a fortune on gas and going way out there to not see any animals on all the public land that the unit encompasses. Good luck, especially if you will not hunt with anything but a bow and I'm sorry I have to give you that kind of news!
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Elkoholic307
Banned
The antelope are not hard to find and you won't have to pay a fee or anything like that. Farmers are begging people to come thin them out.
Topgun 30-06
Banned
Didn't say they were hard to find, but a guy I knew last year that drew the 114 tag didn't have the ranchers falling all over him to let him on their places to shoot a buck either! Does are a whole different story and many ranchers will allow free hunts, especially after the first few days of the season. Like I said, it would be best to lock something up whether you have to pay or not before you make the long drive out there from Indiana. It probably won't be a typical scenario where a bow hunter would normally sit in a blind by a water hole, but rather behind an irrigation pivot in a field or something similar. Good luck!
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Elkoholic307
Banned
I never said you said they were hard to find. To the original poster, don't lose sleep about gaining access. It's easy and nobody is going to stick it to you with a ridiculous trespass fee. There are a lot of good people that live out here that will let you on for free.
Topgun 30-06
Banned
So why don't you give the guy a few names and phone numbers if there are so many great folks that will let him hunt for free!
Musket Man
Veteran member
Just go talk to some ranchers, be respectful and chances are you will find a place to hunt. Even if they offer to let you hunt free I would still give them $100 before I left to say thanks and let them know you appreciate them letting you hunt on their property. Last year I bought a doe tag to do some scouting in another unit after I filled my buck tag. I wasnt 100% sure where the public land boundaries were (this was a last minute poorly planned hunt to say the least) so I pulled into a ranch to clarify. After talking a while the owner gave me permission to shoot a doe on his ranch for "a 30 pack of bush beer" aka 20 bucks. I got my doe and gave him $100 and told him to keep it and I appreciated him letting me hunt on his ranch last minute and it was worth $100 to me. By the time I left I had been invited to come back and hunt deer and antelope this year! I didnt draw a deer tag for this year but I did draw an antelope tag. A couple weeks ago I was passing through the area so I stopped in to visit and took him a 30 pack of bush beer. He told me I can hunt free this year but I still plan on giving him $100 and another 30 of bush beer!
I really do appreciate the help. Normally I would have scheduled some vacation time to go out there and scout for myself, that's the way I prefer to do it, but I have a hunt in Canada in September that ate up a good portion of vacation. I applied for 114 this year thinking I wouldn't get drawn with the points I had, last year it was a 1% chance. Got the tag and burned my points. I have the landowner list and I will be making some calls. My goal is to get a legitimate shot at nice buck...I don't need an 80+. I would be thrilled with any buck P&Y quality. I really do appreciate all the help and it will really make things a bit easier for me to decide what to do.
Topgun 30-06
Banned
Good luck doc06! At least now you know to concentrate on properties within several miles of the west unit boundary to have a good chance at filling your tag. If you can get on a place or two over there and can shoot, you should have no problem taking a 75"+ buck. The point I've been trying to make, contrary to what one member keeps saying, is that you should never go out cold turkey HOPING to have a place to hunt. That's why G&F has the statement several places on their website regarding gaining access BEFORE you get drawn. How many PPs did you have to get drawn this year in 114 because it's basically taking the max unless you go in the special draw, which is still taking a lot of PPs, or you get the tag issued in the random draw? Sometimes you can get lucky and it sounds like musketman did because many times you can ask a lot of people to hunt and get no for an answer. I know that over east of there a ways where I hunt it is just about impossible to get on private property because it's already leased or only the owners and relatives hunt it.
Elkoholic307
Banned
I never told him to go out "cold turkey". Making phone calls and getting permission before coming out is obviously a great idea. When did I say otherwise? All I said was he won't need to pay a trespass fee.
shootbrownelk
Veteran member
He won't need to pay a trespass fee? Color me skeptical...A call to G&F will probably result in a list of ranchers who will let you hunt DOES for free...but in my experience if it has horns you have to pay. A lot of ranches are leased to outfitters, and you know the rest of the story there. Just my 2 cents.
This was my second year applying in 114. I picked that unit this year again because I didn't want to get drawn. I have the BC hunt and I am getting married in December so I have more than enough to keep me busy. Dont get me wrong, I am excited and happy that I got drawn, kinda wish it was not this year because that would allow me to make a few scouting trips and not have to post here in order to get more info on the unit. This will be my first antelope hunt and first hunt in Wyoming. I have been through the state several times from north to south and east to west on trips to other states to upland hunt, but first big game hunt. I had 3 PP going into the draw. At this point, I dont mind paying a small fee if I have to, it will probably come down to that given the situation I find myself in.
I can't thank everyone enough for the info, I was willing to go an attempt a public land hunt in the unit prior to the post, nowI am leaning towards tresspass fee.
I can't thank everyone enough for the info, I was willing to go an attempt a public land hunt in the unit prior to the post, nowI am leaning towards tresspass fee.
Topgun 30-06
Banned
You couldn't have picked a much better unit if you didn't want to get drawn. You just turned out to be unlucky because you obviously drew the one tag offered in the random draw that everyone is in after the other few tags were distributed and you were the one out of 77 first choice applicants to draw that tag! I hope you're able to make the most of it and good luck on your other hunt too!
Musket Man
Veteran member
I was very lucky in WY last year!! Not only in finding a place to hunt for this year in a unit that has leftover tags every year but also in pulling a tag out of nowhere in the random draw like doc did although the odds for it were slightly better then 114 I still wasnt expecting it at all. I wasnt even looking for a place to hunt. There was a herd of antelope and I was pretty sure some were on public land and some were on private and I just wanted to verify the boundary line was where I thought it was before I shot 1 because I didnt want to trespass. Maybe every other ranch around there would of showed me the gate. I dont know? All Im saying is stop in and talk to people and you never know what can come of it. I think it helps me too driving an old 96 ford because it kinds fits in out there pretty well. Think pulling a 76 B&C antelope out for everyone to admire helped too! Good luck
Topgun 30-06
Banned
***Cripes; if you drove up in a 96 Ford, it's no wonder they let you on for free! Bad enough to be in a Ford (I drive Silverados), but if it's a 96 I'm sure they felt sorry for you and bent over backwards to help get you a goat, LOL!I was very lucky in WY last year!! Not only in finding a place to hunt for this year in a unit that has leftover tags every year but also in pulling a tag out of nowhere in the random draw like doc did although the odds for it were slightly better then 114 I still wasnt expecting it at all. I wasnt even looking for a place to hunt. There was a herd of antelope and I was pretty sure some were on public land and some were on private and I just wanted to verify the boundary line was where I thought it was before I shot 1 because I didnt want to trespass. Maybe every other ranch around there would of showed me the gate. I dont know? All Im saying is stop in and talk to people and you never know what can come of it. I think it helps me too driving an old 96 ford because it kinds fits in out there pretty well. Think pulling a 76 B&C antelope out for everyone to admire helped too! Good luck
Elkoholic307
Banned
Musket Man
Veteran member
Probably would of run me out before I for out of the truck if I was driving a chevy
Seriously though I think you have a better chance driving an older truck then a new truck.Topgun 30-06
Banned
Probably would of run me out before I for out of the truck if I was driving a chevy
***Do you think maybe if you got out and walked with a bad limp that it would help even more?, LOL!
tikka_mike
New Member
- Jul 27, 2013
- 9
- 0
Go ahead and shoot one then next year start applying for area 67 way better animals and way more. Hunted there many times, trust me its great. 95% public with lots of booners