Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wyoming Mule deer and Pronghorn combo

I am looking to plan a DIY in SE Wyoming in 2018 for my 12yo son and I. We are from Pa and don’t mind the drive. Public land would be good but not opposed to paying trespass fees either. Just looking for some firsthand info from guys that hunt out there. As always not interested in learning gps coordinates to someone’s honey hole, just some starting info and where to begin my search for hunting areas. This will be my son’s 3rd season hunting and his trip to pine ridge Nebraska in 2017 really wet his appetite for out west. He’s not ready for the mountains yet so looking to stay east of them for now.

MM

Good for you taking young son out west. I started mine at 12 also.

I have the same interest for my son and I.
Getting harder and harder to find "trespass fee" situations.
Outfitters are taking over use of a lot of private land.

I am getting too old (73) to just load up some gear and go see. Public land hunting
is fine with me, but can be hard to get to and heavily in use so......
We did get to hunt around Douglas a couple times, but lost that small window of
opportunity and it was basically pronghorn with damned few deer. I would prefer
mule deer over pronghorn or elk and the meat/hunt is the trophy for me.
Tim

As stated-good on you for trying to put a trip together with your son. First advice is to make sure to buy his preference points for deer, elk and antelope (for what Wyo charges it's a no brainer even if you don't have the place to hunt right now). Wyoming considers a person as "youth" until age 18 so you have some time to build on the cheap. Antelope hunting is a great way to introduce anyone to hunting out west-that being said a lot of the areas have been hammered with drought and bad winters and springs so the numbers are down.

For a first time hunt, especially with your son, you might think about a "motel based" hunt from an outfitter to get an idea of how things go and to have a good chance of success. There is a ton of public land in SE Wyo if you decide to strike out on your own, the areas that are the easiest to draw usually have the most difficult access. The Walk In areas scattered through out Wyoming are nice also. Get a good atlas like a Gazateer and your hunt area maps and see what might work for you. When you hit the ground out there one of the best things you can have is a GPS with a Wyo chip. It will allow you to be more confident in where you are hunting.

P.M. me with questions if you'd like and I'll try to help. Good luck-you're going to one of the best places on the planet.

Mitch, I'm sort of doing same as you. Just me going antelope hunting in Wyoming though. First time hunting outside Wisconsin.

I did some reading here, and spent a good deal of time researching WGF website for antelope hunting. I also called the Wyoming Lady (in the fiscal dept, they do the draw stats, etc) who was friendly, kind, and shared great info with me about how it works.

Like non-resident (NR) special draw, where you pay extra $$ in addition to the tag fee. This puts you into a pool where 40% of the NR animal quota could go to the special draw folks, for units that have that option. I was interested in unit 23 by Gillette. She explained that was a great area, but be mindful that I would be applying for public tag, or private land tag. I was also interested in unit 8, eastern border with South Dakota. Unit 8 has two good sized public walk in hunt areas. Also a piece of the Thunder Basin Grassland is there. And a bunch of smaller (that's relative to me due to the vast size of Wyoming, I'm used to hunting the 40 acres I had in WI) BLM & state lands that are accessible from state roads. The state lands are one section each, big by standards.

I saw a recommendation here to look at onXmaps.com. Best thing I did. Signed up for a trial of the onX, explored Wyoming. Liked it, bought the onX chip for my Garmin 650.

I did apply for unit 8, spent $30 for a preference point because during the online application it asked me if I wanted to buy one. What the heck, I did. June 21 I'll know if success is mine. Given the draw stats for area 8, I should be good to go.

Have fun with your planning Mitch, I did mine.

It’s an awesome state and fantastic place to go!

You might consider narrowing your hunt to one species rather than a combo. There are lots of guys happy to help around here as I know you know.

With zero points its a challenge but the only bad choice is to not go.

I’m happy to assist as well. My first trip was with my son in ‘10 and there was a very generous gent here who helped a ton.

mitchellmountain I'll shoot ya a PM. I did the exact thing you're talking about for the past 2 years. Some things I learned through research and some I learned the hard way...haha.

I really believe this is one of the reasons that Rick created this site. Outdoorsman reaching out and helping each other. Really appreciate the info and people offering up their help. Not sure yet if we will try to tackle both, but I think Antelope is on the menu without a doubt. Sounds like about the perfect hunt for my son and I and since we won't be that far from the rockies I might have to take him to see what the mountains look like other than in pictures. Thanks again for all your help.


God Bless,

MM

Yeah man my son and I did the Black Hills and Rushmore in 2010 on our first trip. Just incredible memories we talk about all the time.

Good luck don’t hesitate to PM w/ questions!

I think a combo hunt is ambitious, especially on public lands. We hunt deer in the woods about 130 road miles from where we hunt antelope. Two different terrains, two different areas to scout, and two different places to figure out accommodations. In addition, unless you are planning to bow hunt, the seasons are different for each species where we hunt. Gun deer is only about 10 days and usually starts on October 1, while gun antelope in the area we hunt generally opens September 25. By October 1, the antelope are mighty skittish on public lands or have moved to private land. This is just an example, as you may find other places where terrain conditions and/or seasons overlap. I hate to sound negative, but you may want to know this in advance so you can plan around the issues.

Cheyenne is correct

Do you have points?

No points, either of us.

tag