I'm thinking of burning my antelope points this fall. I use to hunt Unit 2----but it looks like a boat load of points needed & I've heard the antelope numbers are way down. I've got 11 points----should be able to draw in Unit 3. Has anyone hunted it for antelope? Looking for a little information before I apply. Thxs, Bob
I've hunted Unit 3 since the mid 70's. In the past it was a great unit, killed several 14+" and 15+" bucks there, although my largest was in GMU 2. Got lucky and drew a tag through the hybrid draw with 7 points in 2017 for Unit 3. The weather was highly uncooperative (it rained and rained), couldn't access a couple of my favorite places, in my other fav spots there were pronghorns there, but nothing like the numbers or age class of bucks that I was used to seeing. Ended up killing a 13" buck and he was a close second to the largest buck I saw. The problem is there is private land mixed among the BLM ground that these days is posted where during previous decades the ranchers just wanted people to kill all the pronghorns they could and didn't care if folks hunted on their land.
The drought of the early 2000's decimated the antelope populations in NW Colorado, CPW decreased licenses by more than half, the number of PP's required (along with normal PP creep) increased exponentially, and now it takes a long time to draw what is an average, even a below average area. At one point it was taking 17 points to draw Unit 3. The populations are increasing though.
Unit 2 historically always had lower densities of antelope, but an older age class of bucks. I just checked the number of points required for Unit 2 and it's 21 points for a sure draw. Damn, I didn't know it was THAT much. To think I drew that unit in 1994 with 3 PP's..
PM incoming........