Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wyoming Antelope Unit 2018

Looking for Wyoming antelope unit recomendations for 2018.

We've got a group of 6 going out. We all have 2 Preference Points each. They are not will to pay extra for the "Special Draw Tag"

Looking for any suggestions or advice that you're willing to give. I've spent allot of time looking at maps, units, draw odd, harvest percentage, etc.

I almost feel like two points is kind of a no man's land. Not enough to draw a truly good unit, but more than allot of people have still.

Any help, advice, etc is appreciated. We're just looking to find public access with good number of lopes on it. Not looking for trophies,

-Jake

Your best chance for a draw is on the eastern section of Wy.. But it is mostly private.. I would start by checking around for ranchers that allow hunting or offer a trespass fee!! I only hunt a couple areas. One has public land, but hard to draw the other has almost no public land.. You also might check around Medicine Bow.. West of town there is a huge ranch that I think offers hunter access... I hunted there one year,,

Tag

I was gonna put up that same resource I posted on the thread about the draw but noticed when I was cutting it to paste here that you already saw it.

As has been said, east-east-central are gonna be yer unit areas.

Honestly if I were you I’d shoot for the stars on yer first option and then go for a unit that was 100% second choice this year in 2nd and one that was 100% third choice this year as 3rd. If you don’t get in on the random draw for your first choice you get a point AND have a great chance of still getting a tag in an easier to draw unit. This is the way I’ve hunted and accumulated points. That way when I get THE HUNT I’ll have experience to make something happen.

OnX is yer best friend.

Its a good idea to look at the draw odds page that's on the WYGF website, as well as the public access page.

Correlate those and you'll narrow it down quite a bit. From there, pick an area and apply. IMO, 2 points will land you in some areas with both good opportunity as well as decent to good quality if you sort through enough bucks.

I always get a kick out of the guys that believe a solid buck just cant be had in units that are very easy to draw, even leftover tags can result in very good bucks.

A buck I shot on a 3rd choice tag this year (resident, realize that NR's cant draw it as a third choice).



My nephew (NR) shot his first buck in the same unit this season, really high draw odds even with no points:



A good friend from AZ shot this one in the same unit this season...I believe this was his 14th straight year drawing the same tag.



Some bucks I've shot on leftover, additional buck tags, all in different units over the years:







For the record, I've never paid a dime for a trespass fee and only hunt public lands or publically accessible private.

I'd do this^^^ Have your first choice as a unit out west with an absurd amount of public land, then your next two choices in units with higher odds of drawing (which normally means less public access) and typically on the east side of the state.

Buzz is right concerning many of those "lesser" units still having great bucks on the public sections, though you'll certainly get frustrated seeing all the good bucks on private before finally seeing one on public. When I am hunting third choice tags I normally take the first 12" buck I see, but not because there isn't bigger available. I just want to get back to my beloved bird hunting and not waste time sorting through hundreds of antelope looking for a big one on what public land is there. When I do get my first choice tag, I am pickier because I know when I do see a buck I want, it'll likely be on public.

This was my 3rd choice buck this year-nothing special but I wanted to get back to chasing elk and grouse so I wasn't being picky in a "lesser" unit.

Thanks everyone for the info so far. I enjoy the pictures as well. My primary concern is not buck size. It's public access in areas that have antelope. 6 people driving 1500 +/- miles I want to be sure we have a place to hunt when we get there!

Thanks for the advice so far
-Jake

Don’t forget to keep an eye on walk-in management properties in addition to true public areas.

A lot of the way I’d gage your concern is based upon where you’re from and what your experience has been thus far. I mean so much of what you say above is relative; i’d Not hesitate to bring all those guys out and, provided I had time and/or two vehicles (to cover ground) and OnXMaps I’d be confident.

We'll have three vehicles. 4 of us are coming from Ohio/Pennsylvania and 2 of us are coming from Colorado. We'll definitely be using onX maps

-Jake