Need help with picking a unit

[mnydir]

I have been doing quite a bit of research for a Wyoming hunt. There will be three of us rifle hunting antelope for the first time. I've narrowed it down to units 7,9, and 11. 7 was the only one last year not 100 percent draw with one point. I think all of them have decent public land access through WIA. But if someone could help me narrow it down I'd appreciate it

 

[cnelk]

Look into units with HMAs too

 

[Sturgeon]

I had a very tough hunt in 9 last year. A lot of the walk in areas had no animals on it. We did also go after the season had already been opened 13 days, so if you are out there a few days before opener you might have better chance before they all get chased off the public. We filled one of our 4 tags and should have had another doe. The Niobrara county land in 11 can also be hunted with the unit 9 tag, which is looks to be about 50% of the WIA in 11. Personally if I was picking between the 3 units you had listed I would want to check out 7, but have no experience in it.

 

[rtaylor]

Hunted 7 this year and although we did see some goats the opening 2 days were like the wild west. People everywhere shooting stuff out of trucks and running around like wild Comanches. If I do 7 again it will be with a bow. We also hunted unit 21 this year and saw goats.

 

[JWP58]

Pick the one with the most access and the best odds of drawing.

 

[wjohnson1983]

Partner and I did 7 this year. We missed the wild west opener and pulled into the area on Monday the 8th. The weather closed off access to some areas, but we were still able to see a lot of country. We did not see many animals at all, and assumed they had been pushed from the road.

We both filled our tags on the only two groups of animals on public land that we saw with smaller bucks. Had to get a couple miles off the road to do it. My partner alluded that he would never try to get a tag in 7 again.

We had doe tags in 3 and saw a ton more antelope than 7, but unfortunately they were almost exclusively on private land. We couldn't secure access.

 

[spin]

I hunted unit 11 this year. We tagged out with a couple of does. Not many bucks, and they were small. I saw a monster on private land, of course. It was really crowded and we had people walking in on top of us about every hour. Lots of truck hunters driving by. If you get out early and find a good spot, you may have a chance. There are lots of small areas, but even those held hunters when we drove out. It’s crowded.

 

[Bagel_7]

I hunted 7 this year for the first time. We waited until second week and like others have said the weather made for a tougher hunt. It rained or snowed all 3 days we hunted, which made driving a little tougher on the 2 tracks. We managed to find antelope on public ground, but it took more than just driving around. We would drive and every time we came to a small crest we would turn off the truck and get out and glass. We would walk and get to areas you couldn't see from the road. We managed to fill 2 out of our 3 tags. My wife didn't fill her tag, but that was mostly due to her not hunting much. She ended up staying back with the kids and her mom, partly due to the cold, partly due to not wanting her mom to feel like the babysitter. She only hunted on day 1, and our lack of success day 1 was due to poor hunting tactics, I expected to see more antelope from the truck and we spooked all the antelope we saw. I WILL hunt unit 7 again, although I expected to see more antelope as others have said they aren't dumb and flock to private land. But if you are persistent you will get chances. All you need is OnX Maps and you will be fine. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[AARONB]

3 of us hunted unit 9 this year during the first week. The first 2 days there were hunters everywhere on public, with in a half mile of roads, but not too many would walk farther than that. Day 3 and 4, we didn't see many hunters out, but we also didn't see many antelope on public land those days. We ended up filling our 3 tags in 4 days, with some poor hunting weather some days. Overall we had fun, consider ourselves lucky to go 3-3, and would maybe go back to unit 9.