My brother and I have 12 preference points for any sex antelope in Wyoming.
I’m thinking of putting in for the draw in the south western corner, renting a room in Rock Springs?
Is there a distinct advantage to any of zones in that vicinity?
Depends what you're looking for.
First thing you should do is check draw odds, pick what unit you can draw with 12 points.
If you're looking for B&C bucks the units definitely matter.
A call to the local game and fish office might be helpful also. Winter of 22/23 really impacted pronghorn in nw Colorado and from what I hear, same for southern Wy. May be several years before populations recover.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^^^
When I drove along I-80 in October going east from Evanston I could not spot a single antelope (and I was looking pretty hard) until I reached Rawlins and headed north from there. The reports I had seen indicated that up to 80% of the antelope in that southern tier along and south of I-80 had died during the 2022-23 winter. Populations will no doubt be improving after this more mild winter, but are still likely to be really down in some of those units located near to Rock Springs. I'd do some careful checking before burning your points in that part of the state.
Advice given thus far is spot on but to answer your main question about any zones having distinct advantages? I do not believe so. The hilly country south of town may have better glossing spots but that isn't really an issue north of the Rock Springs area either. The checkerboard can be intimidating, but as of right now the bigger landowners such as Rock Springs Grazing Association allow access. That can't be said so confidentally further east towards Rawlins, and even less the further east you go.
The Aspen Mountain area never did produce many 'big' bucks all the years I lived in the Rock, for what that is worth. Bitter Creek just to the east did, as did the Red Desert.
I have been told by locals that more antelope survived the '22-'23 winter than a lot of reports indicate, but the pop did go down for sure. Take all that for what you paid for it.
So, meetings are starting now about season quotas and we'll get population numbers form G&F too.
Don't really think about submitting your app until later after we get quotas set in stone and we know how winter really was, Early May.
By then we'll know if any areas actually look ok or of they are still trying to recover from last winter.
Some areas are ok, some areas not known for trophy bucks will have some due to mild winter. Not all areas took a big hit.
West and SW side up into I guess Pinedale did, local guys can attest or correct me on that.
With Special license fee going way up I think there will be more Regular draw apps and that will push PPs this year.
12 PP would be way more than needed for some areas I'm thinking of though but it would kind of be a lock for a license I think
We will get population estimates from biologists at our local meetings, ours is Monday. They can be close or not depending on how they surveyed and conditions when they did them.
They usually give us ratios, doe/fawn and buck/doe, and overall numbers.
We've had a relatively mild winter but not enough snow pack out here off the mountains.
Snow fences along our usual route all winter have little to no snow behind them, they usually have snow piled up above the top rail. Not good for moisture this Spring and into Summer. Rain will be needed.
Thanks for the link wytex.
I have accumulated 13 NR points since the last WY hunt in a good unit. With no conflicting hunts in AZ this fall, I will have to decide to either keep building points as the herds recover, or apply for a hunt in a unit that was not hit hard by the 22-23 winter and has good access/trophy quality.
A call to the local game and fish office might be helpful also. Winter of 22/23 really impacted pronghorn in nw Colorado and from what I hear, same for southern Wy. May be several years before populations recover.
This^^
I wouldn’t burn PP’s for southern Wyoming or north central Colorado given the mortality last winter.
From CPW .They say in the SW corner of WY ,the antelope were hit the hardest
Parts of Southern Wyoming are just fine, numbers were not greatly affected.
Looking to draw an area that had an increase in tags this year.
Some areas took more cuts though where they did get hit hard.
Some good looking bucks around right now, good tops and prongs. Hoping they get some length below the prongs.
The game and fish district biologist have posted detailed reports on big game population data, either modeled or via flights here https://www.youtube.com/@wygameandfish last week.