Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Gonna burn my CO Antelope points...Unit 88 or 87

Which would you choose and why?

Going with my son... are not expecting Booners. We would shoot the first good representative bucks we see that would look pretty on the wall. We are from Michigan so just having an antelope is mount worthy for us as long as it isn't a dink...which we wouldn't shoot anyway. We are both used to passing animals to get a mature one.

87 has more public land but approximately 3x the number tags issued. 88 less public land but 1/3 the tags issued.

Any helpful thoughts about the two units would be greatly appreciated. I will not be able to make a trip out to scout because I will be going to Africa in July for 2 week (assuming the COVID Nazi's have not shut everything down for travel to/from Africa) but will be there a couple days early and will hunt all 9 days if need be. I expect it to be an absolute zoo on public land for at least the first weekend. Hoping it settles down a little during the week after that.

I know how to hunt Antelope....I just usually do it in Wyoming where the seasons are a month and a half long and I let everyone do their thing for the first couple weeks, then I go hunt antelope when they have moved on to Mule Deer. But CO has a 9 day season so that isn't a feasible approach.

If you know any ranches that will let us hunt for a trespass fee in 87 or 88 we would be all for that just to get away from some of the crowds. But I don't want a guided hunt.

Please feel free to PM me if you want to roll that way.

Thank you for any help/insight you can provide

If I was going to burn a bunch of speedgoat tags in CO I would look at unit 12 or 11. Lots of public land, lots of big bucks. I followed my own advice a few years ago and took this buck.


Both horns went over 15 inches and he had a double prong on one side and a small 3rd horn on the bridge of his nose.

Nice antelope. Congrats

It took 16 points last year to draw Unit 11
It took 11 points to draw Unit 12 last year

We have 6

We can draw 88 & 87 this year. We would need to wait 5-10 years to hunt those assuming the points needed stayed the same...but point creep says we may never catch up to the units your talking about. And they are talking about cutting the NR allotment of tags in CO...which would degrade the value of our points because if the NRs are competing for even fewer tags, the points needed for us to get units will shoot up.

So yea....we are gonna hunt 87 or 88....because we can.

So I am still wanting to talk about units 87 & 88

Ok. I am from the Sterling area. I used to hunt doe antelope in those units when you could get them as a leftover tag. We used to go about 12 miles east of Briggsdale and head north. There is a creek that flows there and it has a couple of permanent ponds. If you get a map of the Pawnee Natl Grasslands you can see the ponds on the map. We set up a camp at the ponds and hunted the areas around it. Always took our does but never drew a buck tag for the area. The area north of Stoneham can also be good but there is more private land there. There are two very small towns (Grover and Keota) and lots on antelope hang out there as well.

One thing about those areas is that they are only an hour and a half from Denver so they get hit hard. Doesn't take much time for the antelope to get onto the big private ranches and unless you know somebody you're not going to get on those ranches.

Thank you. That is useful information. I appreciate your insight. It gives us a start. I will be doing lots of Escouting but really have not made up my mind about which unit (87 or 88). Once I do we will get serious about it. I am leaning toward Unit 87 right now because of the amount of land in the PNG.

We know we are going to be facing heavy competition. It is what it is. We figure we might as well hunt the units we can because we don't want to wait 5+ years and are skeptical about what the future holds for NRs and our points in CO and WY. I see the value of them being cut because I believe the available NR tags will be reduced. So we are using our points.

So thank you again for sharing this.

You would be surprised how many hunters here would hunt first 3 days of a 9 day season and head home. I'd suggest planning on last 5 days of any rifle unit.

Yea, I kind of am hoping that will be the case. We will definitely be trying to outlast (and outwork) the masses. Since we have to drive from Michigan we figure we might as well get in there into the fray for opening weekend (#1 priority = don't get shot) in case one of us gets lucky.

Don't want to completely blow off the first 3 days when the season is only 9 days. But we are definitely thinking our best chance might be after people get done for the weekend. Hopefully the Bronco's have a game that Sunday...preferably a home game, and draw some of the hunters home on Sunday

Thank you for sharing though!

Your PP in Wyoming should be safe but pronghorn numbers are low and need to bounce back before you use them.

Good luck in Colorado, have seen some nice bucks while travelling through Eastern Colorado. If your son is a youth that may get you some access.

Don't no how it is in Colo for antelope and haven't hunted in Wyoming for them in years. In SD on public land or public access you need to be there 2 days before the opener and scout enough for an opening morning plan. The season always starts on a Saturday so every tag holder is out there. Lot of hunters, by Monday they have most of the antelope not shot run off on to private property with no access. If a guy planned to hunt public last half of the season he'd be wasting his time and money unless he has arranged for a private property hunt. I hunt by spot and stalk utilizing the topography for a successful sneak, sometimes a dry year watching a watering spot works good. Wandering around out there in blaze orange blazing away at antelope you spook just runs them off to private property and unfortunately that's what half the tag holders do. This was just for the op's reference not a rant....mb

For a good area in Wyoming it is not that way at all. Plenty of good bucks and waiting til after the opener is way less pressure and rut hunting in most areas.
We have plenty of public land areas with the right PP to have a great hunt an maybe take "book" buck.
Our seasons open on the same dates every year, not the same day.

Call the regional office of the CP&W and ask for the biologist or game warden responsible for those areas. They can give you an idea of the ranchers that will give access, and the ones who won't.

It's a start.

Yes. My approach when I hunt Wyoming based on a long season. I have no issue waiting 3-4 weeks into the season to hunt. I think it is actually better than hunting opening week.

But CO only having a nine day season....completely different story. I don't know how long SD's seasons are but I am gathering by MBs comments I am guessing they are more like CO's than WY's.

Thank you. I will do that.

I was just wondering if anybody here had any personal first hand experience or knowledge. But I will definitely call CPW!

Yes, we are going to go out early and scout and be where we think is best on the opener.

That said, these two area's in CO have a 70-80% success rate and I assume not all of those are killed in the first 2 days. I am sure a whole bunch are. Hopefully if one of both of us has not scored on opening day we can still get it done.

And yes, we will spot and stalk not just blaze away at 500-700 yards like too many people do.

From what I've seen in Colorado you're making a good plan to be there early.

I hunted 87 about 10 years ago. It was crowded but I managed to find a buck on the national grassland.

Have you checked the draw odds? I think residents is 6+ points for 87. Took me 6 points to draw in 2014 and I'm a resident.

I think points are points not sure residency matters
But I have been wrong before

And you're wrong here. In CO residents and non-residents require different numbers of points because they limit the number of non-resident tags to a percentage of the available tags. If you ever look at the draw recaps on the DOW site it shows the required number of Res and Non-Res points for every unit. For instance I was a CO resident for 54 years before work took me to TX and I have 24 points for elk. I built them up for a Unit 2 either sex tag which is one of the hardest tags to get. 24 points will get the tag as a Res but as a Non-Res it will take 28 or 29 and most antelope tags will follow suit with the numbers depending on the unit.

Actually, 270cowboy is correct and YOU are the one wrong here. You better check your regulations.

Unlike Deer, Elk, Moose, Sheep and Mtn Goat...in CO the Antelope are one combined pool of tags for both resident and nonresident.

And last year the draw for Unit 87 Rifle tags was 53% with 4 points, 98% with 5 points and 100% with 6 points+
Last year the draw for Unit 88 filled 82% with 4 points and 100% with 5 points+