I’ve killed several antelope on private land no longer have permission there. My buddy’s boy wants to go out. We have four points looking for a good unit with BLM access

Good luck. I have 10 pts and haven't been able to draw for either unit I want in the last four years.

Antelope numbers are WAY down. You can check WY F&G website, navigate to the section that shows how many applicants for each unit and how many tags issued for each round of drawings before quota was filled.

There hasn't been any left over tags in years.

[quote=3togo]Good luck. I have 10 pts and haven't been able to draw for either unit I want in the last four years.

Antelope numbers are WAY down. You can check WY F&G website, navigate to the section that shows how many applicants for each unit and how many tags issued for each round of drawings before quota was filled.

There hasn't been any left over tags in years.[/quote


Thanks I was just looking at draw results it crazy how many points you need

Like 3togo said, look at the draw odds on the Wy G&F website. It's pretty straightforward for the Pref Point draw. Pick the unit(s) you would have drawn in 2025 that you would want to hunt. Wait until the new quotas are published in April and compare to the 2025 quotas to get an idea how likely you are to draw the unit(s) you are interested in. You have until the end of May to apply and there is no advantage to applying early. Consider applying in the "special" draw if you want to go bad enough to spend the extra $. Starting last year Wy increased the cost to be special by a lot. I had 2 pts and drew last year in the special for an eastern unit with limited public land. I wasn't choosey and just wanted a mature buck. I tagged out on the 3rd day. There weren't many pronghorn around or hunters either compared with what I saw in 2018 and 2019 in the same unit. To put how much it has changed in perspective, I didn't need a PP or to be special to have draw odds in the mid 80% in those prior years.

Last Sept. we drove from Denver to Gillette. Drove from Hiway 387 up hiway 50 to Gillette. Hiway 50 had antelope everywhere. Didn't see giant herds but lots of groups 3-10 animals. Visited with a rancher who lived just off hiway 50. He had non res groups that paid for certain hunting dates. Didn't see any giant trophies but sure no shortage of Antelope.

Numbers are down. Hope for a comeback. I drew a Red Desert unit with max points about 3 years ago. Probably be the last time I’ll see it.

There may be better numbers in the east side of WY. Mostly all private or access reduced.

Last October I drove from Worland up thru Grey Bull to Cody, back south to Meeteetse and back to Worland. Saw some antelope up towards Cody but not many anywhere else.

Point creep hasn't helped. That's when people keep buying points and eventually apply to a unit that should of took 8 points, but they had 15.

Randy Newburgh tracks the income that WY F&G gets every year from people buying points that DON'T apply. $$$20 million/yr.

You folks with points better start putting in for tags.

Best advice i can give is check the draw odds and pic an area you can draw.
As stated East side is mostly private and the areas folks can draw with lower PPs.
There is a little access via HMAs and walk in areas but they get hit hard.

If you look and consider an area reach out via pm, I may know a little about it.
Make sure top look at Type 2 tags also, they can be later season and a little easier to draw.

The Hunt Planner show public lands and tags, set your layers right to show the public lands and hunter access areas.
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Hunting/Hunt-Planner/antelope-Hunting

Here are last years draw odds: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/media/32689/download?inline

No Winter so far so numbers are not getting hit this year, might have a nice carryover to next year but we'll have to see what Spring brings.

I've been one of these people buying points, had kidd and life happened, now its a internal debate whether I keep accumulating points and try for a great unit or just go to mediocre units with the 5 points I have.

I hunted area 68 and saw lots of goats, but would look at 67 also. It hard for anybody to draw two years in a row now.

I think the question is if your looking for a mature big buck or just experience of the hunt. If its just the experience and your ok with average size, you have a lot of options.

you can go on Nilgai hunts on the Atascosa wildlife refuge in far south Texas. Just have to apply. you can shoot and many as you want to process, they are wild as a peach orchard boar though. probably as good as bison. very fine eating and they get rather large