Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7017869
10/15/20 08:08 AM
10/15/20 08:08 AM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 6,191 Kansas
Pawnee
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 6,191
Kansas
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I’ve bird hunted north of Rawlins Wy for sage grouse a few times. Most goats and quality bucks of any place I’ve hunted. Im sure there are guys on here that can contribute a lot more. Not sure on how their point system is set up. Good luck that’s all I’ve got.
Everything the left touches it destroys
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7017871
10/15/20 08:10 AM
10/15/20 08:10 AM
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 269 West Virginia
WV Danimal
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 269
West Virginia
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My experience, easiest and least expensive big game adventure you can ever take when hunting over water. Beautiful animals and plenty of them when I hunted Wyoming but it's been a while. I'll go ahead and start the meat argument: I don't flip what you do to the meat or how you handle it, it's nasty! But then again, some people can eat things like liver and pickles and are still alive lol.....
Trash your goals and plans for life. Just wing it and you'll never be let down!
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: WV Danimal]
#7017939
10/15/20 09:50 AM
10/15/20 09:50 AM
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,943 South Dakota
Hydropillar
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,943
South Dakota
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My experience, easiest and least expensive big game adventure you can ever take when hunting over water. Beautiful animals and plenty of them when I hunted Wyoming but it's been a while. I'll go ahead and start the meat argument: I don't flip what you do to the meat or how you handle it, it's nasty! But then again, some people can eat things like liver and pickles and are still alive lol..... x2 we always dress skin and quarter on ice pack in coolers..... dont take long on a antelope.
The only place you find free cheese is in a mousetrap !
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7017953
10/15/20 10:14 AM
10/15/20 10:14 AM
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 673 Southern Wisconsin
Fishdog One
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 673
Southern Wisconsin
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I will start by EdP has it corrrect, thought we were hunting this fall and nope on the lope's. As far as meat they are just fine, we have ours boned out and on ice in about an hour or two, boned out in the field if too far from truck.
Born twice, die once
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7017981
10/15/20 10:42 AM
10/15/20 10:42 AM
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 20,241 The Hill Country of Texas
Leftlane
"HOSS"
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"HOSS"
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 20,241
The Hill Country of Texas
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I have a friend who says DIY antelope hunts are the way to go so long as you find a rancher who will let you hunt under his wind mill.
“What’s good for me may not be good for the weak minded.” Captain Gus McCrae- Texas Rangers
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7018017
10/15/20 11:26 AM
10/15/20 11:26 AM
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 269 West Virginia
WV Danimal
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 269
West Virginia
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If it's a scorcher it can be a rough one to sit in an oven blind all day. Even worse I think is when my friend sat all day on a little board atop a windmill in the open sun. Typically I am wearing heavy jacket and shivering before dawn and then in my underwear in the blind by 8:30 am. Practice shooting out of a blind well before you go. My friend shot through the side of my blind (under the window) but still killed his buck. Nearly all the bucks looked the same size to me and I am happy with the one's I've taken. Difficult to judge for a whitetail hillbilly. The potential is there to really fill a freezer if you wanted and the population is good. On one place, the rancher was nearly begging for us to shoot all the doe we could but we only took one each after we got our bucks. I believe we could've gotten 3 doe tags over the counter then.
Good binos and a good book are a must for the sake of maintaining your sanity on long sits. I always carry a small radio with earbuds, battery operated fan and small cooler in the blind as well. Lazy man style!
CACTUS! Learned that WY has lots of them! Little ones that you don't notice until you set a knee down.
Trash your goals and plans for life. Just wing it and you'll never be let down!
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7018094
10/15/20 12:47 PM
10/15/20 12:47 PM
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Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 64 OHIO
mimusp
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 64
OHIO
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I bow hunted pronghorns in the Thunder Basin Nat'l Grasslands around Bill, WY for many years in the 80's, 90' and early 2000's. Except for one of those hunts when there was a big thunderstorm and a pretty severe cold front, it was always very hot during bow season. Instead of hunting from blinds over a waterhole, I preferred going mano y mano with them wherever I found them. I killed my last buck perched on a limb of a big, solitary cottonwood where he and a couple of does had been loitering in the shade most of the day. When they left for the waterhole late in the afternoon, I climbed up into the tree. Got the buck when they returned. I always found the meat delicious except in extremely dry years when they had to resort to eating sage. Then, the meat had a distinct, but not necessarily disagreeable, sage flavor. (It made some rather tasty sausage patties). As related above, field dressing and cooling ASAP was a must. But then, I treat all my big game carcasses in that fashion.
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: Eagleye]
#7018183
10/15/20 03:42 PM
10/15/20 03:42 PM
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,852 meadowview, Virginia
EdP
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,852
meadowview, Virginia
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The Wy F&G site has all the info you need on the Walk In Areas. It's a bit hard to find (not particularly intuitively obvious) but it's there on the site. Where they are located, what species they are open for, what dates they are open, whether or not you can use blinds, etc. The WIA's are numbered sequentially according to the county they are in. The maps on the site also show other public land such as State Trust land, BLM land, National Forest land. Some counties have websites showing the public road system right down to county right of ways that have no road yet.
Note that some of the Walk In Areas don't open until opening day of the season so you can't scout ahead of time on those parcels. They take trespassing very serious in Wy so it pays to be sure of the dates.
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Re: Antelope Archery
[Re: EdP]
#7018245
10/15/20 05:43 PM
10/15/20 05:43 PM
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 3,067 Wyoming
cmcf
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 3,067
Wyoming
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I hunted pronghorn in Wy in 2016 and again in 2018 and 2019. A buddy and I planned to hunt this year but the lottery system got blown up by a drastic increase in applicants and reduced quotas in some areas. The odds of drawing a tag (w/o pref pts) for the unit I hunt was over 80% in 2018 and 2019 but dropped to below 10% in 2020. In general, the units with lots of public land have the most applicants thereby lowering your odds of drawing a tag. Units with good odds have little to no public land. By doing a lot of homework I was able to find a unit with good odds and enough public land for a fun hunt despite competition from other hunters. At this point I have no idea what the next few years will bring. A lot of hunts that folks had booked with outfitters got pushed into future years. I think this put them looking for other options for their annual western hunt and pronghorn became the back-up plan of choice. Combined with herd reduction from winter kill in some units the odds of drawing a tag changed drastically.
I will second what WN Danimal said about it being a whole lot of fun and not particularly expensive compared with other western hunts. Very practical to do DIY also. He is completely wrong about the meat though. It is excellent if handled properly and cooled quickly. I hunt small public land parcels and my kills have been less than a mile from my truck. The animal is promptly field dressed before I go for my deer cart. I bring a bag or two of ice back with the cart and put them in the body cavity for the haul back to the truck. The carcass is cooling down via ice in less than an hour after the shot. Once back at the truck the animal is skinned and broken down right there on the side of the road (a hitch mounted hoist helps) and put in a cooler with more ice. Treat the meat right and you will have the best meat the west has to offer.
Good luck with the draw and your hunt! Second this ^^^^^ Times a thousand on skin and quarter and on ice within the hour. They have a very mild liver better than calf liver IMO. Leave it pink in the middle very tasty. I wonder about archery though, they have some of the largest adrenal glands for their size of any animal. I have always disconnected their coil wire at the base of the skull so the signal never got sent. No adrenaline no problem.
“The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined” B. Disraeli
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