Planning for our first Wyoming antelope hunt in 2019. If we draw tags, my son and I will be hunting DIY on public land in the eastern part of the state. Looks like the season will run from October 1 - 15, with opening day on a Tuesday. We will have a full week to hunt. Would you choose to hunt the first week or the second week, and why?
Wyoming antelope: When would you hunt?
- Thread starter Johnbud
- Start date
CODAK
Active Member
first week get there the Sat before opener and enjoy yourself, drink beer, be work free and scout your ass off for opening day
Colorado Cowboy
Super Moderator
Lots depend on the unit. Larger units tend to be less crowded. Smaller units , less area, feels more crowded. I ALWAYS hunt after opening, usually the last week and usually see almost no other hunter. Flip a coin....make your choice.
That sounds good! Here in Wisconsin, the opening day of the deer gun season is always on a Saturday and opening day is absolutely your best opportunity for a good buck. Similar situation for Wyoming antelope in "difficult access" units? When antelope get pushed on to private property, do they tend to stay there for extended periods of time?
Prerylyon
Veteran member
Take this FWIW; from a guy that hunted antelope for the 1st time this yr:
I hunted a tough access unit for does in NE WY in the latter part of October. I hunted 18-20 Oct; filled my tag on the morning of day 3; tag was good thru the 31st.
Saw few to any hunters-pressure was not really an issue, save for 1 stalk. Weather was very good; maybe one colder day, but I got lucky.
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I hunted a tough access unit for does in NE WY in the latter part of October. I hunted 18-20 Oct; filled my tag on the morning of day 3; tag was good thru the 31st.
Saw few to any hunters-pressure was not really an issue, save for 1 stalk. Weather was very good; maybe one colder day, but I got lucky.
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Bonecollector
Veteran member
If you want a great hunt and time well spent with your son, I'd go later in the season. WY doesn't run out of speed-goats.
HighPlainsHunter
Active Member
Show up 2 days early on Sunday, scout and have a ball with few people around Monday, find the buck you are after and be sitting on him when the sun comes up on Tuesday. Then go have some fun the rest of the week before you drive home hitting devils tower and Mt Rushmore.
Prerylyon
Veteran member
'JB,
I hiked my arse off the 1st 2 days of my hunt looking for antelope on public land and came up mostly empty-I had one small herd that I was able to stalk in the original area I was focusing on. Now, to be clear, the unit I hunted is well known for causing hunters headaches, in terms of accessible land-part of the territory with some of the of the viable 2nd choice tags.
Summer scouting and some spotting and scouting on day 1 gave me a list of areas to explore; and sure enough, many goats were hanging out in private lands.
By day 3 I needed something to start happening, so I went to an area of accessible patchwork public with private nearby; to start glassing. Sure enough, a herd started to move across this cocktail of private/public land. I lay prone, and slowly worked my way towards them-ever mindful of the land status on my GPS. Long story short: I got one; they do move away from public lands and seem to move back and forth, some seem to have a 6th sense and defy our plans; staying safe and out of reach on private lands off limits to hunters
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Slugz
Veteran member
NEWHunter
Member
I would get there at least a full day or probably two before the opener depending on how much public land is in your unit. You should be able to locate some bucks and hopefully kill one opening morning. You?ll then have 4+ days to fill your other buck tag and any doe tags. Pressure won?t be any worse than a WI opener. They will likely still be rutting 10/1 and for some time there after. I would think when people talk about the benefits of going later, it’s in the units with 5 and 6 week seasons.
As a guy from WI, the above was my plan on a 2nd choice unit this year in WY on my first western hunt. It worked for me. I didn?t get a monster, but one that I felt good enough about to spend $686 on. Good luck.
As a guy from WI, the above was my plan on a 2nd choice unit this year in WY on my first western hunt. It worked for me. I didn?t get a monster, but one that I felt good enough about to spend $686 on. Good luck.
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That is helpful. Thanks for sharing. We will be looking for decent bucks, representative of the species, worth the price of that special tag as you noted. Monsters not needed, but we all dream of that opportunity don't we?
Bonecollector
Veteran member
I agree with this statement, but..
Maybe I missed it, but the age of your son may be a factor as well. My first trip with my young son I did not want to be competing and surrounded by the orange army. It was about having a great time, having fun, and making memories.
I grew up in Wyo and have hunted antelope since I was a kid. Every unit is a little different. I've always been a fan of arriving early to scout and having several bucks lined up for opening morning. Sometimes mature bucks figure things out and disappear when they notice all the traffic before hunting season opens but more times than not this scenario works out well. Once the season opens and hunters show up for opening weekend there tends to be a lot of pressure to harvest a buck. It's not exactly relaxing and sometimes intimidating wondering if a particular buck you've scouted has already been shot. My guess is a lot of hunters shoot the first decent buck they see. It can get pretty crowded in units that offer lots of tags....especially if there isn't much public land available.
After the first week or 2 there tends to be a lot less hunting pressure. Weekdays usually have a lot less hunting pressure than weekends...even in heavy pressured units. Unfortunately some of the better bucks have been cherry-picked. Bucks don't grow old by hanging out along roads. Many of the smartest bucks make it through opening weekend. Antelope often get pushed to areas that aren't visible from roads....so can sometimes be a little tougher to find. The nice thing about hunting later in the season is there is no pressure to quickly harvest a buck. You can take your time and have fun wading through the antelope finding one that excites you. Most Wyo residents turn their attention to deer and elk once those seasons open in Oct and it's super nice having miles of country to yourself!
Other details not mentioned in the above posts. In some units the rifle season opens early in Sept or in Oct which might miss prime rut timing. Some bucks may hang out in secluded locations until the rut kicks in. Bucks are also a lot easier to stalk when rutting. Season dates obviously change from one unit to the next so it's important to keep season dates in mind. Antelope in some units may migrate when it snows. There may be hundreds of bucks in a unit in Sept that may be void after it snows in mid to late Oct. If you hunt the late season where the herds migrate into the area you may have more bucks to choose from but if you hunt a unit that herds migrated out of you may be screwed. There aren't that many areas in Wyo where this happens..but be aware!
Another thing that happens after the rut is antelope start getting bunched up into large winter herds. It's nice having the ability to size of bucks in large groups side-by-side but it also may be challenging stalking to rifle range with so many eyes watching. There can be drifting snow during late season hunts but there also can be gumbo mud to contend with during earlier season dates. Anyway, access can be limiting and something to consider during either timing.
Things can vary from one unit to the next so it definitely helps to have experience with the unit to be hunted.
After the first week or 2 there tends to be a lot less hunting pressure. Weekdays usually have a lot less hunting pressure than weekends...even in heavy pressured units. Unfortunately some of the better bucks have been cherry-picked. Bucks don't grow old by hanging out along roads. Many of the smartest bucks make it through opening weekend. Antelope often get pushed to areas that aren't visible from roads....so can sometimes be a little tougher to find. The nice thing about hunting later in the season is there is no pressure to quickly harvest a buck. You can take your time and have fun wading through the antelope finding one that excites you. Most Wyo residents turn their attention to deer and elk once those seasons open in Oct and it's super nice having miles of country to yourself!
Other details not mentioned in the above posts. In some units the rifle season opens early in Sept or in Oct which might miss prime rut timing. Some bucks may hang out in secluded locations until the rut kicks in. Bucks are also a lot easier to stalk when rutting. Season dates obviously change from one unit to the next so it's important to keep season dates in mind. Antelope in some units may migrate when it snows. There may be hundreds of bucks in a unit in Sept that may be void after it snows in mid to late Oct. If you hunt the late season where the herds migrate into the area you may have more bucks to choose from but if you hunt a unit that herds migrated out of you may be screwed. There aren't that many areas in Wyo where this happens..but be aware!
Another thing that happens after the rut is antelope start getting bunched up into large winter herds. It's nice having the ability to size of bucks in large groups side-by-side but it also may be challenging stalking to rifle range with so many eyes watching. There can be drifting snow during late season hunts but there also can be gumbo mud to contend with during earlier season dates. Anyway, access can be limiting and something to consider during either timing.
Things can vary from one unit to the next so it definitely helps to have experience with the unit to be hunted.
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Shooter
Active Member
All depends on what you want from the hunt. If you want the best chance at a big buck it is hard to argue against scouting a couple of days before season and killing a buck opening morning. But from my experience this is far from a slam dunk. And if it doesn't work out on opening day and say someone else ends up killing the buck you were after or you never found a good buck while scouting. Now you have less days to find a buck to kill. And I have always found more people hunting the first week of the season than the last week of the season. So not only will you have less days of hunting left you will be doing it with more people in the field. That is why 9 times out of 10 I always hunt the last week of the season.
I would rather spend 5 days scouting and 3 days hunting than just hunting for 8 days.
Unless there is a good reason for me to not hunt on opening day, I always do for pronghorn. If there are other serious pronghorn hunters in the unit you draw, they will pick over the bucks and there will be less big ones to choose from. Just the way it is.
A perfect example is this buck my wife shot. I didn't know it at the time, but besides my wife and I, there was another very serious pronghorn hunter that had every intention of killing this buck. Fortunately for us, we were able to watch this buck until dark the day before the season and were in position at legal light to get him killed. If we would have waited even 30 minutes this buck would have been shot by the other hunter, no question. We scouted for 3 full days prior to the season, and this one was the best buck in the unit we could find.
Some pictures a few days before the opener:
Had to wait for the sun to come up to take some pictures, it was over within 5 minutes of legal light.
Unless there is a good reason for me to not hunt on opening day, I always do for pronghorn. If there are other serious pronghorn hunters in the unit you draw, they will pick over the bucks and there will be less big ones to choose from. Just the way it is.
A perfect example is this buck my wife shot. I didn't know it at the time, but besides my wife and I, there was another very serious pronghorn hunter that had every intention of killing this buck. Fortunately for us, we were able to watch this buck until dark the day before the season and were in position at legal light to get him killed. If we would have waited even 30 minutes this buck would have been shot by the other hunter, no question. We scouted for 3 full days prior to the season, and this one was the best buck in the unit we could find.
Some pictures a few days before the opener:
Had to wait for the sun to come up to take some pictures, it was over within 5 minutes of legal light.
NDHunter
Veteran member
Some good advice here. I've drawn the same unit the last 2 years in Wyoming. There is plenty of public land. The first year, I hunted about a week to 10 days after the opener and hardly saw anybody at all. Saw decent numbers of animals on public but the biggest one I saw was 13" and I shot it. Last year when I hunted, I got there 2 days before the opener to scout. The biggest buck I found stayed in the same spot for 2 days and I shot it less than 10 minutes after legal light on opening morning. Not what I'd say big but it was over 14" with good mass and a big curl. A neat buck and I was happy. There were a pile of hunters roaming around when I left.
As others have said, it depends on what you want out of the hunt. Chances are good if you went out before the opener and scouted, you'd get one good buck on opening morning and then you'd be dealing with a lot of hunters to get your other buck. If you go later, there probably won't be much for good bucks but it'll be a more relaxing hunt.
Also, assuming you're going to be hunting the eastern part of the state, you won't really be in a trophy unit and so you aren't going to need a week to hunt. You could easily tag out in 2 hours if you aren't picky on bucks. If you want to spend a full week hunting, get some doe tags, deer tags or apply for Type 6 cow elk tags.
As others have said, it depends on what you want out of the hunt. Chances are good if you went out before the opener and scouted, you'd get one good buck on opening morning and then you'd be dealing with a lot of hunters to get your other buck. If you go later, there probably won't be much for good bucks but it'll be a more relaxing hunt.
Also, assuming you're going to be hunting the eastern part of the state, you won't really be in a trophy unit and so you aren't going to need a week to hunt. You could easily tag out in 2 hours if you aren't picky on bucks. If you want to spend a full week hunting, get some doe tags, deer tags or apply for Type 6 cow elk tags.
That's what we do, usually works out for us. But we're not hunting wall hangers, might be different for trophy bucks.