Antelope strategy

[Bearguide]

When you go and pick your dates for hunting do you like to go on opener or another time in season. Thinking later in season maybe more skittish and do you look at other dates as to what seasons overlap to try and avoid people. Just wondering how you pick your dates for hunting antelope.

 

[j_volt]

I hate pressure, but I also know it’s hard to kill dead antelope.

I have a tag this year and plan to hunt the opener.

 

[dusky]

Opener. I'd only bet on later season if I knew where the pressure puts them
But I've seen animals return to unpressurized patterns by midweek,after the weekenders go home.

 

[wytx]

Haven't hunted the opener in years, we hunt when we have the time.
Usually plan antelope around archery elk.
Have waited til Nov too when they hit the wintering range.

 

[Kurts86]

In my opinion you first have to clarify what quality of hunt you have. It matters a lot if you have limited public access in NE Wyoming with 500 tags or a 10+ PP red desert tag with 90% public land and 50 tags. I think waiting on a high pressure low access unit is a bad idea but on a bigger more accessible unit it’s different.

 

[TaperPin]

I start hunting the day or two before the season opens, even if I’ve scouted a week before the season - be there at first light and drive two tracks and glass as much as humanly possible. You’re just learning the area, but do that before the season, rather than being clueless day one. On day one, a crowd of people will be in the spot you wanted to be, but you know the area and can quickly pivot.

Once in a while a truly huge antelope can be spotted - only you and 20 other dedicated antelope hunters know about him and it’s first come first served - true combat hunting. Pickup tailgates will be flopping, local high school kids will reenact the Baja 500, shots will be fired early, all the trucks will look like ants chasing that poor thing. It’s like combat fishing for salmon - many folks don’t have the stomach for it and leave the biggest goat with the most competition and enjoy the hunt elsewhere.

Truly dedicated antelope hunters, and there are a lot of them in Wyoming, will have glassed this year’s crop of bucks many times the month before the season, especially if it’s within two hours of a town. Organized antelope guys will have multiple people to keep an eye on big bucks, as they get moved around - reminds me of the Tour de France with a whole team helping one guy. A teacher of mine was one of those guys that dreams of big goats all year and not only hunts for himself in one area, but guides for family members and helps out friends in others. He’s helped pick up a handful of B&C goats and if there is a buster buck, competing against guys like him will be tough.

I like to understand the lay of the land and where goats do and don’t like to be in order to know options to get away from others.

If you’re looking for a calmer experience hunting the last week as the rut finishes up can be very nice. They group up, fewer hunters - all around win win.

 

[displacedtexan]

I hate pressure, but I also know it’s hard to kill dead antelope.

I have a tag this year and plan to hunt the opener.

This.

Side bar of "you can't hunt when you can't hunt"

Occasionally there's other things (family/work/whatever obligations) that dictate the exact dates I can go.

I'd rather hunt second choice dates than not.

 

[Bearguide]

Thank you all for your recommendations. I've decided to hunt the opener. I'm hoping not to encounter too many other hunters, especially on BLM land.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

We've always gone later intentionally to avoid the crowds, yeah they're skiddish and all the better bucks close to the roads are already dead but we just hunt harder. Even then I've had people shoot PAST me while stalking up (they missed and drove away immediately) so it won't weed out all the nuts.

 

[j_volt]

I hate pressure, but I also know it’s hard to kill dead antelope.

I have a tag this year and plan to hunt the opener.

The September version of myself is starting to disagree with the August version of me… we will see.

 

[YellCoAR]

I have a NM Tag 3 day hunt. No choice there. When I have hunted WY only one time did not hunt the opener.
The time I did not hunt the opener it was in the unit with the latest closing date. I took my son over Thanksgiving week. Very little public land and the antelope would bust out on you at 2,000 yards. The said part was there was a group of about 80 in the field next to the motel about 50 yards I got to look at every morning.