Jeff, there is a great deal of fine Antelope hunting on public land, of which we have a lot. I have lived in WY 10 years and taken 14 Antelope all but three under 200 yards none over 352. All but two within 2 miles of my house and within 10 miles from the town of Pinedale and all on public land. We are on the primary migration route and see 1000s of lopes every hunting season. A buck over 14" is rare due to our tough climate. In short you don't need a guide or to pay a trespass fee. Here's a couple of pics: my 14" 08' buck (only drew a doe in 09') taken from a herd of about 75 at 325 yards with a BOSS equiped M 70 in 270 WCF taken opening morning. The second is my buddy's 14.75" with nice cutters, taken in 09' at 130 yards with a Savage 99 EG in 300 Savage. He was taken about a week into the season. Areas 87,88,88 & 90 offer great opportunities without getting into the mythical 600 yard shot. Good hunting!
Nice thing about Lope, is that as long as you can walk you can hunt. We both have bad knees, bad backs, can't see and other problems associated with being Medicare members. Our typical hunt methods are ambush or spot and stalk (hilly areas where we hunt). A 99 works fine this is a victim of an 08' cull license (81 yards) and this year I put down a wounded (by another hunter) doe at 300+ with the same 99R 300 Savage (130 TSX @2800). A bunch of holdover and hold into the wind.
For rancher/landowner access you can call any of the field offices of the WDFG and they will email you one for the area you want to hunt. I called the Sheridan office for info on the Sheridan Region and they emailed me the list. Check the back of the Non-Res Hunting info book and it gives you the office for the units you want to check.
Once I got the list, I called the bio for the area and asked him if he could narrow it down to some of the better names which he did. I then called about 4 of the ranchers and settled on one that limited the amount of hunters he allowed on, had a decent price and plenty of land. I hunted his place back in October for the 1 clear day I had between snow storms and killed my best buck. I think I attached a pic, never sure if it works or not.
So, just give them a call they are most helpful, if you want the Sheridan region PM me your email and be happy to give you the list I have. Good luck! Frank
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Last edited by Oregonmuley; 01/03/10.
"Rather hunt Mule deer than anything else" "Team 7MM-08"
It seems like a waste of money to pay for a Prairie Goat. For those of us who live in Wyoming its all about Public Lands. Check out your area maps. They will show how much Public Lands is in each area. It might be wise to choose a flat shooting rifle with a good 6X power scope. Sight you rifle for a 250 Yd. Zero. The trick is taking care of the meat once it is down, The "Goat" season is often during the very warm part of the year in Wyoming. I like to cool them as fast as possible after the kill. This is why many folks think the meat is bad, it isn't bad meat it's just poor handling after the kill. Good luck.
It seems like a waste of money to pay for a Prairie Goat. For those of us who live in Wyoming its all about Public Lands. Check out your area maps. They will show how much Public Lands is in each area. It might be wise to choose a flat shooting rifle with a good 6X power scope. Sight you rifle for a 250 Yd. Zero. The trick is taking care of the meat once it is down, The "Goat" season is often during the very warm part of the year in Wyoming. I like to cool them as fast as possible after the kill. This is why many folks think the meat is bad, it isn't bad meat it's just poor handling after the kill. Good luck.
I agree - if I was a local I may not pay to access private. But for a non-res trying to make sure that they aren't trespassing and knowing ahead of time that after driving 1140 miles and already spending $700-$800 on a trip its just nice to know you have a place to hunt. And it seems anyway the easy to draw units are mostly private, and the last thing I want to do is trespass, I try real hard not to do that. And really, the fellow whos place I hunted this year just is a all around nice guy that sure helped- he did more that just take my money and point towards the nearest open gate. He showed me around and told me places to look for the better goats, if not for the bad weather there were much bigger bucks but I just couldn't get to them.
"Rather hunt Mule deer than anything else" "Team 7MM-08"
Don't forget that WY F&G has a lots of Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas that will allow you to hunt on private land. Some of these are in pretty easy to draw units as well.
It seems like a waste of money to pay for a Prairie Goat. For those of us who live in Wyoming its all about Public Lands. Check out your area maps. They will show how much Public Lands is in each area. It might be wise to choose a flat shooting rifle with a good 6X power scope. Sight you rifle for a 250 Yd. Zero. The trick is taking care of the meat once it is down, The "Goat" season is often during the very warm part of the year in Wyoming. I like to cool them as fast as possible after the kill. This is why many folks think the meat is bad, it isn't bad meat it's just poor handling after the kill. Good luck.
I agree - if I was a local I may not pay to access private. But for a non-res trying to make sure that they aren't trespassing and knowing ahead of time that after driving 1140 miles and already spending $700-$800 on a trip its just nice to know you have a place to hunt. And it seems anyway the easy to draw units are mostly private, and the last thing I want to do is trespass, I try real hard not to do that. And really, the fellow whos place I hunted this year just is a all around nice guy that sure helped- he did more that just take my money and point towards the nearest open gate. He showed me around and told me places to look for the better goats, if not for the bad weather there were much bigger bucks but I just couldn't get to them.
Locating BLM land isn't any special magic trick. I can't understand why so many people believe that it's some kind of secret information that only the "locals" know. And I can't see paying for access to private land either when BLM maps are readily available.
I assume you can read a topo and BLM map (need both) and use a GPS with The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system ? If so you can avoid any danger of trespass.
The proplem with the Non-Residents quick check book is that it closes gates. Areas that were once open to everyone due to over population of "goats" are now closed. The ranchers now close the gates to residents who pay taxes in the state. They have found by selling to rich out of staters a better deal. So when one fellow wins other folks are shut out. The check book has changed our way life. Wyoming resident tax payer.
The proplem with the Non-Residents quick check book is that it closes gates. Areas that were once open to everyone due to over population of "goats" are now closed. The ranchers now close the gates to residents who pay taxes in the state. They have found by selling to rich out of staters a better deal. So when one fellow wins other folks are shut out. The check book has changed our way life. Wyoming resident tax payer.
Umm, can't help but say that just kinda sounds whiny...That same check book you are talkin bad about helps that rancher pay his taxes by bringing him revenue....So since you don't want to help him pay taxes and an out of state hunter does you have become the looser, am I hearing that correct??? So the cheap skates who want to hunt Private land are shut out, while the hunter that wants to help the rancher pay his land tax is let in??? Sounds like simple business sense
JeffP: If one can see, or bring along a friend with good vision, he should have no issues harvesting a public land pronghorn in Wyoming. If one does not want to rough it, drive the BMW. They have more pronghorn there than we have jackrabbits and/or coyotes here in Oregon. Wyoming also has a sh-tload of public land (48% of the state's land area). If one wants to avoid hunting pressure, don't tell anyone and sneak out on a weekday.
Landowners pay taxes everywhere. Hunters don't pay landowners trespass fees for taxes, they pay it so landowners will exclude others from hunting their property.
Hell, if you live in Texas there is very little public land. and what there is of it the deer hunting is only so so - and we're the second largest state in the union. unless your family has land, leases are a fact of life for most deer hunting. hunting lease income does help a lot of landowners whether they're farmers/ranchers are not offset the cost of keeping their property. but this post has my ears perked up to go to Wyoming after pronghorns!
Last edited by 1911a1; 01/04/10.
Figures don't lie, But Liars figure Assumption is the mother of mistakes
You don't understand how this works. No Ranch in Wyoming has enough private land to hunt on. All Ranches depend on leased Public Lands. They pay little or nothing to use and abuse Public Lands that belong to all of us. We all pay their taxes. They buy up the private access to Public Lands and then Land lock or lands. They then charge Tesspass fees to cross their land to get to our Public Lands. You can call it whinning if you like, but its down right criminal. Then they have folks like you that support this hunting Ban with your check book and call it right. You have a very urban outlook, and no you don't see a problem. In time someone else will offer this guy more money and you will be out, happens all the time. It is becoming more like Europe only the rich can hunt the Kings game.
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