Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Southeast Wyoming pronghorn/mulie hunt

Welp, I finally am able to do my first western hunt and I am working out the details. I have family in colorado springs so I plan on driving from PA to colorado for a little visit and then heading into wyoming to do a combo hunt.I am mainly looking at an antelope area 38/deer region J or antelope 34/deer region T combo. My plan is to head into wyoming a few days prior to the mulie opener and hunt some antelope and get a feel for the place. I plan on doing my hunting on public and I have been doing some long range scouting as best I can. I bought one of the Xmaps for my phone and I am starting to find some decent areas. I am planning to call the bio for that area tomorrow to see if he can give me any help as well.

Sooo...what am I missing? I know I can only figure out so much from looking at a map vs actually putting boots on the ground. Are there any land features I should focus on? I'm guessing water proximity is a good start and for the mulies I will need some more land contour and elevation to find them than I would antelope. I love reading maps and digging up good info for whatever I am hunting. Heck, that's just about as much fun for me as the hunt itself.

First of all you're going to need to draw a tag. That's not nearly as easy as it once was. Applications are due in at the end of May. Go to the game and fish website and look at draw success rates for the various areas in that part of the state. Then choose a unit that has a high successful draw AND enough public land. When you try and do a combo for both deer and antelope, it gets tough.

Good Luck!

Are nonresidents able to apply until May? Ithought March was the deadline.

Yup, for deer & antelope anyway we now have until 5/31 to apply.

Where is all this public land you are planning to hunt in antelope 34/38 or deer region T? There may be some walk-in areas on private land, but a lot of those are species specific and come with their own set of rules and regulations. The small patch of national forest in area 38 is an extreme high use area utilized by hikers, climbers, ATVers, etc.

The logistics of what you are trying to do are daunting if you are trying to do it all on public land. For example, I hunt public land in area 47 for antelope. While that technically is in deer Region D, I hunt deer in Region D about 150 road miles from where I hunt antelope. I cannot recall ever seeing a deer on the piece of public land where I hunt antelope. Then there are the odds of drawing both species in an overlapping area.

If you really want to hunt public land for each species, my suggestion is to plan on doing one thing at a time and start banking preference points.

Yep that's good advice.

A great way to "do it all" (i.e.: get out after something this year and have a chance at something awesome in the future) is to get antlerless pronghorn tags in an area near where you want to mulie hunt. Plan 5 days in the field so ya have a day or three to fill tags then go over to scout mulies.

Thanks for the advice fellas. Gives me some things to think about.

Never been there but have connections in the Gillette area? How good is that region of the state?

Honestly that depends on how good your connections are. If you can get access to private land things are pretty good for antelope and deer.

All true. Still hinges on getting a license.
There could be left over, or doe tags available, if you don't draw. Check the web site.

You might consider asking the game and fish dept if they have a list of ranchers who will let you hunt for a fee. I hunt a ranch in east central Wyoming for both deer and antelope. We have 22000 acres to hunt on for a trespass fee of $300 ea. It's well worth the cost to avoid the crowds.

How many days does $300 buy?

The entire season.

I talked to the biologist last week and he was real helpful. Narrowed down which area I should go for a hunt like this. He recommended a couple of BLM maps and he also said to give him a call after I draw and he would give me locations that he would recommend. The trespass fee idea is a possibility as well. I plan on asking for names of landowners who might do that after the draw as well.