WY Antelope Plan B

[Whip]

My buddy and I have been building preference points for Wyoming Antelope and are looking at maybe cashing them in this year in a high demand unit.  Looking hard at unit 61, and figure we should be able to draw it.  
Just in case the draws don't go as planned I'm thinking we should pick out another unit as a second choice that gives a chance of a buck tag without using our preference points.  Of course we want to have it all.  Good populations with a chance at halfway decent bucks, plenty of public land,  waterholes,  etc. Not asking to much,  are we?        

Any suggestions are appreciated!

[tracker12]

We hunted 63 a few years ago and had a great time.  Hunted the rut the second week of the gun season with archery equipment and had no problem filling tags.

[Altiman94]

The problem is that most of the units with good amounts of public land are hard to draw as a first choice with points, making a second choice even harder.

Do you get the eastmans hunting journal?  Their MRS section does a pretty good job of that.  You can also check the draw odds on the Wyoming G & F website to see what units have good public land and would offer a chance at a second draw.  

When I was researching WY I had a pretty extensive spreadsheet laid out with all the good units and chances of drawing with the amounts of points I had.

[Whip]

I did just start getting Eastman's but the issue that came recently only shows info for sheep,  goats, and moose. Maybe the elk, deer, and antelope were in a previous issue?
I am trying to digest all the info on the Game and Fish site.  Lots of good stats but of course I'd love any info from someone who has been there.  G&F doesn't seem to break down much for archery seasons since most units don't have archery specific tags.

[Prairie Drifter]

Originally posted by tracker12:
We hunted 63 a few years ago and had a great time.  Hunted the rut the second week of the gun season with archery equipment and had no problem filling tags.

When did you hunt? The antelope rut is in September?

[Jack Skinner]

Whip if you are thinking of 61 then also I will throw in area 63 and with fewer tags but good area 55. I hunted 61 years ago but not enough to give you good advice. If you go for one of the two areas above I would be willing to point you in a good direction.

[Whip]

Thanks Jack, I'll take a look at those.  They are units that require some points to draw though,  correct?

[FerretWYO]

Joe I could not give you any advice that Jack didnt. I will say that there are few if any areas that make it through the first round of non-res draw that are any good based on your needs. My advice get one of those Jack mentioned and make it count(which you know how to do)

[centaur]

63 is where I did most of my antelope hunting when I hunted them. Lots of public ground, a few waterholes, spot and stalk opportunities in the Sentinel Rocks and up by Ferris Mt. Forget the Arkansas Flats for bow in that area; huge flat ground with nothing to hide in. When you get tired of chasing goats, you can climb Independence Rock or hunt for rattlesnakes, which abound in that area.

[Jack Skinner]

Yes you need some points and 63 is probably the easiest, it has quite a few tags. For the last couple of seasons they have divided that area into 2 units. One west of buzzard rd and one east of buzzard road. Its all pretty good though. But believe it or not there is quite a bit of water in the area so you must seek out the water holes at some distance from creeks and the resevoirs that are in the area. Found a water hole two season back that was just getting hammered but hunted buck tag I had in another area first, and then didnt make it back till rifle season to hunt the doe area. By then the hole had dried up and wasnt near as good. Antelope can be a crap shoot one year you have lots of water holes and goats then the next all the water is turned off or mills broken and hardly any antelope, they go where the water is.

[Steve O]

Joe,

With your membership # and zip you can log into the MRS section of the Eastman website and get last months WY info.  

There are no archery only seasons in WY that I am aware of. You have to draw the general then just buy the archery stamp to hunt early.

[FerretWYO]

There is one area that has the type 9 archery only tag in the basin Steve

[Steve O]

Ahhhh, good to know. I will have to do some digging.

In July I will have 6 antelope points, along with 5 elk, 15 sheep, and MAX deer points.

[Whip]

Thanks for the EBJ tip Steve - I did get in to the website and see I can download lots of old issues.  Looks like I didn't miss the WY deer & antelope info.  Last year it was included with the Feb./March issue which I haven't received yet and there is no link to the 2014 copy on the website.
Application deadlines are fast approaching - I would hope to have it soon?