Antelope numbers and tags issued?

Y

Yell Co AR Hunter

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Dec 10, 2015
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Yell County Arkansas
The area I drew my antelope tag for in Wyoming. The number of antelope was terrible. In 2017 my last trip I said they had more antelope than Arkansas has squirrels. This was not the case for 2020. 500 any antelope tags and 400 doe/fawn tags. I wonder why they issued so many tags when the numbers were so down. When we left out Friday we drove from Kayce to about 80 miles south of Casper before we saw a single antelope from the road.
 
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mosquito

mosquito

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Nov 1, 2012
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NE ohio
I took my first trip this year and had a blast . However i bet the mule deer to antelope ratio was 5 to 1 . I expected to see a lot more . We hunted hard and was all over are unit.
 
Hilltop

Hilltop

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Feb 25, 2014
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Yell Co AR Hunter said:
The area I drew my antelope tag for in Wyoming. The number of antelope was terrible. In 2017 my last trip I said they had more antelope than Arkansas has squirrels. This was not the case for 2020. 500 any antelope tags and 400 doe/fawn tags. I wonder why they issued so many tags when the numbers were so down. When we left out Friday we drove from Kayce to about 80 miles south of Casper before we saw a single antelope from the road.
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Did you hunt a different time of year the last time? Was it a drought year like this year? I know in many of the areas I hunt, the animals were in vastly different places than years before.

Antelope are one of the species the biologists typically have a very good count on. It's pretty rare they make a mistake issuing tags, especially since they now can wait until the majority of the previous winter's impact is known before quotas are set. My guess is the population is good but was in different areas than you had seen in the past.
 
Y

Yell Co AR Hunter

Very Active Member
Dec 10, 2015
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Yell County Arkansas
Hilltop said:
Did you hunt a different time of year the last time? Was it a drought year like this year? I know in many of the areas I hunt, the animals were in vastly different places than years before.

Antelope are one of the species the biologists typically have a very good count on. It's pretty rare they make a mistake issuing tags, especially since they now can wait until the majority of the previous winter's impact is known before quotas are set. My guess is the population is good but was in different areas than you had seen in the past.
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Same unit same time as before. Unit 21. Drought was bad this time. We came across many dead carcass of antelope. the number of groups were way down as was the number in each group. I also noticed more sheep in the unit. last time most of the sage was waist high and this time it was less than knee high. We covered the whole unit and walked miles into remote areas. The local packing house said some three letter disease had whipped them out.
 
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Gr8bawana

Gr8bawana

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Aug 14, 2014
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Yell Co AR Hunter said:
The area I drew my antelope tag for in Wyoming. The number of antelope was terrible. In 2017 my last trip I said they had more antelope than Arkansas has squirrels. This was not the case for 2020. 500 any antelope tags and 400 doe/fawn tags. I wonder why they issued so many tags when the numbers were so down. When we left out Friday we drove from Kayce to about 80 miles south of Casper before we saw a single antelope from the road.
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Maybe those were tags for antelope not standing next to the road? :rolleyes:
 
T

troybackman

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Apr 17, 2015
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Mn
I spent the week west of Casper last week. Terrible antelope numbers. Not good. Same story in western South Dakota. Something bad happened.... Not the ideal year to burn my 8 points but still managed to kill a pretty good buck but had to cover ALOT of ground.
 
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Colorado Cowboy

Colorado Cowboy

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Jun 8, 2011
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The antelope in the picture was shot in Wyoming in 1985. I didn't have it mounted, just the horns on a plaque. The taxi told me I should mount it, as it might be awhile before I shot another that big. Well 10 years later I took the horns with me on an antelope hunt in the same area. I took the cape from an antelope I shot along with the horns from the plaque and had this mount done. You can get the mount you want by doing this. Hard to tell from the picture, but this one score 77 and change.
32631
 
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Y

Yell Co AR Hunter

Very Active Member
Dec 10, 2015
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Yell County Arkansas
Gr8bawana said:
Maybe those were tags for antelope not standing next to the road? :rolleyes:
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Buddy I hope you are kidding. I put in over 5 miles a day on foot for 6 days on antelope. Glassed thousands of acres with spotting scope. To the point I did not get to put the time in on mule deer I had planned.
It was still a great trip and I enjoyed my time. Like I said earlier I have had some major eye problems. Should have killed an average buck, but due to eye sight let one get away. I will be watching the success numbers for this unit. I have a feeling there will be low harvest numbers.
 
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marcusvdk

marcusvdk

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Dec 13, 2011
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Colorado Cowboy said:
The antelope in the picture was shot in Wyoming in 1985. I didn't have it mounted, just the horns on a plaque. The taxi told me I should mount it, as it might be awhile before I shot another that big. Well 10 years later I took the horns with me on an antelope hunt in the same area. I took the cape from an antelope I shot along with the horns from the plaque and had this mount done. You can get the mount you want by doing this. Hard to tell from the picture, but this one score 77 and change.
View attachment 32631
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That's a great idea
 
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8

88man

Active Member
Feb 20, 2014
238
25
Pa
Still no issue killing a lope obviously, however I was all over the central part of the state for two weeks and there are a lot less antelope than a few years ago. A lot less! A friend had a tag this year in a unit that took 5 nr pts and we have hunted it in the past and picked thru between 20 and 40 bucks a day. This year we averaged 5 bucks a day. Is what it is.
 
Colorado Cowboy

Colorado Cowboy

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Jun 8, 2011
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This year in our favorite unit, 3 of us applied for type 6 tags. We drew buck tags last year (and type 6 also), so no points this year. Didn't draw for the first time in quite a few years. I checked the stats after the draw and Wyoming did not issue any NR type 6 tags. Last year we saw lots of bucks, but fewer does than I have ever seen.

Just sayin.........
 
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