Wiz

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My family; self, brother and two sons, (plus a possible 5th hunter) are hoping to hunt pronghorn in Wyo this year, the culmination of a life-long dream, at least for my brother and me.

younghunter has been very generous with his time in advising me, and has recommended two units for the draw. These will be our top choices, though the odds are not very high in these units.

He has also advised that those units which have very high draw odds are nearly all private land. Well, we would like very much to maximize our chances of getting a hunt this year, since we have gotten the budget in place (might not be so lucky next year :); however, trespass fees will not fit in this budget. So, I'd like to ask a (maybe complicated) set of questions of the list.

Has anyone had any experience in *remotely* locating private land which does not require a tresspass fee? If so, can you give me some hints as to how this might be done from TN? Or, if you know of land that we could hunt in a high draw unit, we would appreciate that information.

We are not trophy hunters. We would be very happy to harvest nice representative bucks. We are more interested in the hunt , the stalk, and the challenge than in whether the game will be listed in some book. Whatever we shoot will forever have top place in our personal lists :) We also don't mind locations with potentially long shots, as 4 of us are varment shooters; we will try to save a close one for the final fellow if his shooting isn't up to par by season's opener.

Your advise and wisdom are very much appreciated.

Cheers/Don Carron
Rockford TN
 

Blackhawk357

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I know that the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will help hunters in that situation. I would think that Wyoming would do the same. I'd call and ask. Also, ask if they have anything similar to Montana's Block Management program.

Blackhawk
 

doubleD

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Hi Wiz...I usually go to area 93 and have never been disappointed. The unit is almost all BLM or Forrest Service and there are Antelope everywhere. Keep in mind that you can also get two doe/fawn tags in addition to a buck tag to help fill the freezer. The hardest job is to find a doe that doesn't have fawns with it. If you get drawn, I'll send you a map where you can be hunting five minutes out of Kemmerer. I do suggest that you get maps that show property ownership for the area. They are available from the BLM at a cost of around $4 per area. Good luck in the draws....DoubleD
 

wmidbrook

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I talked to a rancher with about 15 thousand acres west of the Medicine Bow a ways a couple years ago. It's checkerboarded lands mixed with public. He only charges $25 and the draw success is very high. You might be hard pressed to find a 14"+ buck, but there are lots of goats there in that general region. There may even be reduced-price doe tags for both species in that area (good sign if there are).

He also allows deer hunting included in the same price and I think it's almost a guarunteed tag too...no B&C animals, but there are quite a few animals. I've talked to several locals from Wyo and they confirmed that there were quite a few goats in that area. The price includes a place to camp and access to fresh water at their ranch. He says he doesn't get a ton of hunters but you never know.

Alternatively, you can call WFG and get the landowner lists for areas you're interested in applying for. There's still time before the draw. I did have a bad experience with a in region 115 as did another person who makes posts @ JHP regularly so you might want to have backup plans and maps of your area and do some phone scouting too.

Another good resource for the do-it-yourselfer is BigGameHuntingMaps . He's very active in MDF and a big help to the do-it-yourself type of hunter. Tell Erwin hi from Bill in Ripon, CA if you give him a call. I've found his maps to be a help and you'll see patterns that can help you to spot likely areas using maps. He doesn't have many maps covering Wyo Antelope though. Over the years he's developed a rapport with wildlife biologists, wardens, guides and other contacts throughout the west. He'll give you an honest answer if you ask him how fresh the information for a given area is.

While you're out there, it doesn't hurt to ask permission to hunt either after driving around a bit. I've got a gem of a ranch that I can go to for $75/season out in eastern washington. My buddy has continued to go there each year since the day we met the owner. We see over 15 bucks each opening morning out there and 100+ deer--mulies and whitetails. Also, the price includes all the pheasant and chuckar you can take out in his wheatfields too. It's worth meeting some of the country folk sometimes. I don't know if that'll last much longer in this day and age...lots of property owners are going for the big bucks of hunting leases or preserving the opportunity for friends and family. There are quite a few 'old school' folks that hold on to the old school notion that hunting should be 'free' and that they don't own the wildlife on their place. The nominal tresspass fee usually covers insurance or the cost of drafting up a release of liability you sign before going onto their property to hunt.

Not all of us have the $$ or inclination to spend the $$ for well-managed ranch hunts or guided hunts. Heck half the fun to me is in finding the game myself.

Shoot me an email and I'll send you his number. I going through and organize my hunting files and notes this weekend since it's that time of year again to apply.
 

wmidbrook

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Looked it up at it's 26% draw odds for a $200 tag and 44% for a $300 special tag. Unit 32 antelope and area D (unit 66) deer (72% draw odds regular tag/84% draw odds $300 Special deer tag).

There are reduced price antelope tags there too.

I just talked to Pete and the deer numbers are down quite a bit due to the drought conditions...might not be the greatest deer hunt but a person could take a decent antelope buck there.
 

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