Nevada Antelope - Opening day or wait a week?

[npaden]

Okay, I drew a 2nd choice Nevada antelope tag and have been really trying to figure my plans out.

I have some scheduling conflicts at work that make being there early to scout and be sitting on a good pronghorn on opening day pretty much an impossibility. If it meant the difference between a great hunt and a so so hunt I might make it work though.

In my limited pronghorn hunting experience (Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico) hunters aren't always the best judge of pronghorn trophy quality and many times are going to be out there on opening morning shooting the first 12 or 13" buck they see and not really spending the time to look over a lot of animals to find the few really good ones in the unit, so not being there on opening morning doesn't indicate that all the trophy animals are going to be taken before I get there based on my previous limited experience.

With that said, in Montana the antelope get much more skittish as the season progresses and by the time to you get into the 3rd week of the season they seem to be off and running on smoke and mirrors. My one antelope hunt in Wyoming it didn't seem that way and in New Mexico it was a 2 day season so there really wasn't a choice.

Any input on this in Nevada? If I wait and get out there the first week in September am I going to be dealing with really skittish animals with most of the trophy bucks already taken? That would sure fit my schedule a lot better.

If it helps any, I'll be hunting Unit 31 up on the Oregon border. Largest town is McDermitt which isn't very big. The quota for the unit is 140 but it looks like a pretty big place on paper anyway. Reading what little I can find on the net it sounds like if you are willing to get out and do some walking, some of the spots up in the foothills can hold some good pockets of animals and I'm thinking that last week of the season there is probably a really good chance that a lot of them will be pushed up in there. I have a map of the guzzler locations provided by a guy on HuntTalk and that at least gives me start. I have the GPS chip for land ownership and all that fun stuff.

So any thoughts on whether missing out on opening day is going to be a big hurdle in trying to get a decent buck? This isn't a super quality unit anyway, but it is a long drive from Texas if I'm limiting myself dramatically in my opportunity to shoot a mid to upper 70's buck. My largest pronghorn is a 78" buck out of Wyoming a couple years ago. A goofy horn buck would be awesome too, but I think those genes are a little west of this unit.

I'm generally long winded on my posts so I put the important stuff in bold.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Nathan

 

[Hilltop]

I've never hunted Nevada but have hunted antelope my whole life. I think hunting the second week makes more sense if you will be less stressed. If you have to compromise work to be there on the opener you will likely be stressed and maybe not enjoy the hunt as much. I'm a believer that the larger animals got that way by avoiding hunters in the first place so at least some of them will survive the opener and be there through the entire season. If your the type willing to work, then you should have opportunities any day of the season. Good luck to you and please post pictures!

 

[npaden]

The rut may also be getting started the 2nd week so they should be moving around some instead of completely hunkered down in a hidden valley somewhere. I'm really leaning toward the 2nd week, but don't want to be really limiting my chances of a good buck by doing so.

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

I've hunted Nevada twice for antelope. I don't think you are gonna get much leverage by hunting the opener of the second season. It is not like hunting the first season opener. The last time I was there (Unit 33) the antelope were still pretty stirred up the last day of the first season. What helped me most was finding a spring on a map a long ways from the road (2+ miles). It was a blast hunting that pocket of antelope, a long ways from where people were pushing them around.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I have hunted antelope in Nevada's areas 101-104 twice, 251, 121. Only once did we go out for opening day in area 121, it was no fun. Seemed like there were hunters everywhere even though NV doesn't give out that many tags. On our last three hunts we only saw one other hunter because we were out during the last week of season. I really like not seeing other hunters.
I do believe many of the bigger bucks were already taken or well hidden. We looked over about 20-25 bucks over 4 days and never saw any really big ones.
Here is my last buck from area 101.http://forum.eastmans.com/images/styles/eastmans/attach/jpg.gif

 

[Ikeepitcold]

I've hunted Nevada twice for antelope. I don't think you are gonna get much leverage by hunting the opener of the second season. It is not like hunting the first season opener. The last time I was there (Unit 33) the antelope were still pretty stirred up the last day of the first season. What helped me most was finding a spring on a map a long ways from the road (2+ miles). It was a blast hunting that pocket of antelope, a long ways from where people were pushing them around.

X2^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[npaden]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm leaning very strongly toward skipping opening day and hunting that first week of September instead. Sure works better for my schedule.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

Good luck. Keep us posted on your success.

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm leaning very strongly toward skipping opening day and hunting that first week of September instead. Sure works better for my schedule.

Sounds like a good plan. I would plan to be there all the way through the last day if you can. Here in Oregon with short antelope seasons, the last 2-3 days can be the very best after the place starts to clear out.

 

[Musket Man]

From my experience last year NV is a much different hunt then WY or MT because there are alot less antelope in NV. IMO the most important thing in NV is scouting and getting to know the area and where to find antelope in it. They are scattered here and there and they can also be found in some very nontraditional terrain compared to WY and MT. I saw alot of mid 60's bucks on my hunt and finding a buck thats 75+ could take some time. I dont think the time of the season you go will make alot of difference, it is more the time you are able to put into your hunt learning the area. I spent 11 days total in the units I hunted. I still didnt kill a monster antelope but I had a great hunt!!!!

 

[gonhunting247]

I agree with MM, I think the amount of time spent will be much more important than when you start. The one tag I had in NV, I wasn't able to make the opener and it was great. I didn't see another hunter the whole trip. I did let one big buck slip through my hands that was obviously a little skittish from the opener. He was hiding in some higher brushy terrain and didn't give me a second chance once I bumped him. (My fault for not always being ready, I let my guard down crossing from one flat to the next!). I had ample opportunity on bucks the rest of the hunt though, just nothing quite as good as him. I still came home with a nice antelope and had a great trip. Good luck, hope you have a blast!

 

[JScams]

Best of health and hunting to all the opening day hunters tomorrow.

 

[npaden]

Well, it looks like maybe I should have gone ahead and been out there on opening day. I hunted hard for 5 days and couldn't make it happen. The density of antelope was pretty low and I only saw one decent buck and that was on the first full day and I just couldn't talk myself into really going after him. In retrospect he was by far the best buck I saw by a long shot and I should have gone after him, but I was hoping for a "wow" buck and never saw one. He was probably an upper 70's buck, good mass, length and wide, he just didn't have much at all for prongs.

Ended up with 3,020 miles on the pickup with the vast bulk of that just being the trip out there and back. Put a little over 100 miles on a new friends UTV and 120 miles on my ATV over 5 days of hunting. It was dusty!

Here's the back of the UTV after the first morning.

Spent a lot of time around Sentinel Rock. Pretty neat looking.

Spent a lot of time looking around this area. It is amazing how much a water source means in that country. Once you get 2 or 3 miles from water there isn't much of a point in even looking around, nothing is out there.

 

[npaden]

Moved to a different part of the unit and spent some time in this type of country.

Put 80 miles on the ATV one day and was only able to turn up 15 antelope. Only 3 bucks, 2 were tiny and 1 was just small.

More interesting hills/mountains/peaks/rock formations or whatever you want to call them. I think this one was called "Little Peak".

 

[npaden]

There was plenty of water in this part of the unit. I found the source of the "Kings River", it was crazy it just came out of the side of a dry desolate mountain flowing a stream about 3 feet wide and 9 inches deep.

Somehow they came up with the name "Stone House" for this area.

These antelope seemed to really enjoy the hills more than the flats. There are actually 3 antelope does in this picture. One of them was standing up near the top of the rock outcropping in the top of this picture. I think she thought she was part mountain goat.

This picture does a pretty good job of showing the country I was working. Looks promising, but just wasn't turning up much.

Here's a link to the full size panoramic picture if you are interested - http://padens.com/v-web/gallery/albums/album07/panoramic.jpg

 

[npaden]

I hunted pretty hard and saw less than 100 antelope in 5 days. I think the most I saw any day was just over 20 and the least I saw was the last day when I only saw 2. I probably saw a dozen unique bucks with the one decent buck probably around 15" and upper 70's and then after that about 4 different 12 - 13" bucks that would score in the upper 60's or very low 70's and then about 6 barely legal type bucks.

I was pretty beat down and decided to come home a few days early and skip the last couple days of the season.

Here's what a combination of suncreen and dirt looks like after 5 days of hunting.

I did see a TON of Chukar, at least 200 on one day alone when I was riding my ATV around. Lots of pretty country and met a guy that drove over from Reno to show me around the area and spent a couple days hunting with me.

Overall a good experience, although I was pretty disappointed in the relatively low numbers of antelope I saw.

Never have spent so much time glassing just looking for antelope. Usually I only end up glassing to see how big a buck is or to determine if that white rock is an antelope or not. I spent several hours on this hunt just sitting there glassing the country trying to turn up an antelope.

I did see quite a few mule deer too, although no monsters. I saw more decent mule deer bucks than antelope bucks though. Saw a ton of coyotes. The last morning I was there I saw a group of 5 coyotes all together and a total of 7 that morning compared to only 2 antelope.

Last picture was a neat sunset on one of my last days out there.

One thing I didn't do was spend a lot of time checking out the alfalfa fields on the private land in the river bottoms. I might could have filled my tag that way, but I think I had a better time roaming the hills looking for public land bucks than I would have shooting one off a crop circle even if it was a decent buck.

Oh well, kind of a long follow up to this post but I thought I would close the loop. I now know that it is probably a pretty good idea to start paying attention to those 3rd and 4th choice units as I get more points built up in Nevada. I would had to burn a bunch of points on a marginal unit for elk and I've been thinking about applying for some.

That's it for now. Nathan

 

[velvetfvr]

Did you focus on the north end of kings river? I was up there also helpin my grandpa and friends took us high. Very low densities and small bucks. The biggest bucks I've seen in the unit are south and west in the unit. Though I've never seen a big buck in kings river valley lately.

 

[npaden]

I split time between the north end of Kings River and over west of Orovada. We did make one trip over to the southwest part of the unit where I had a guzzler shown, but we didn't see anything over there.

We saw several herds (one with 14 does, one with 7 does) with small bucks leading them, so maybe the bigger bucks were already taken.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Well it's too bad you weren't able to find a big one. Obviously is wasn't for a lack of trying. You're a more disciplined hunter that I am, by the end of the week I will fill my tag with any buck because we really enjoy antelope meat. It's a lot harder to find a big one than it is to just go out and fill a tag.

 

[ore hunter]

sorry to hear about not getting the big one,,I myself have been eyeballing this unit 31 also.Ive got 6 points for 2016 now,,,do you think unit 31 would be worth 6 bonus points to draw? looks like you really covered some ground there.Ive been applying for 31 loper as my 4th or 5th choice,,cant remember exactly?