WY e scouting pointers?

[T3clay]

Hi all, I drew my first WY Antelope tag ( north central). and am having a hard time dissecting my unit. The map shows a lot of BLM and a lot of roads….a lot…. what are some things I can look for to have an idea of where to start? I have identified some areas that have a fair amount of water, but anything else I should be looking for?

I’m using OnX as my main scouting tool, in the past, when I have deer hunted out west, I have been focused on getting away from roads which looks like it will be tough in this unit.

I spoke to the game warden who didn’t provide much help…

Thank you in advance

 

[Hoosker Doo]

Antelope can move a lot and can leave an area in a hurry, and they aren't inherently shy of roads and traffic (unless they've been pressured by hunters recently). I would drive those roads and let the truck and my glass cover the miles rather than my feet. If you find an area not visible from any roads, it might be worth a hike to see what you can see, but typically the name of the game is cover a lot of country glassing from afar and then stalking in to the ones that suit your fancy. Hiking a few hundred yards to see country not accessible by/visible to roads would be a pretty good strategy.

 

[Rich M]

E-scouting! I saw escorting and was wondering.

When you get there the first thing you do is drive the unit. So much will suddenly make sense and you'll see where the critters are. If you drive the unit early, middle, and late in the day, you can pretty much pattern them.

Don't overthink it - just go have fun. Be there first and get you an antelope.

This is the kind of terrain where we saw most of the antelope.

 

[DmrbigEshotT]

You’ve marked water, which is a good place to start. Get there a day or two early and spend a whole day driving around checking near where you have water marked.

As mentioned, things will become much more apparent when you have boots on the ground.


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[jmez]

You will have a lot better luck and selection of escorts in Denver.


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[saltfork]

You will have a lot better luck and section of escorts in Denver.

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LOL, yeah Colfax is where you want to start first.

 

[go_deep]

 

[YellCoAR]

I remember an old gal in a watering hole around Kaycee that had a phone number tattoo on her arm. Tried to get my buddy to call the number.

 

[eddielasvegas]

It's really comforting to know that there are other demented people like me on this site.


Eddie

 

[stoopiddumbman]

It really depends both on your looks and services on how good of a honey hole you will be able to get out of your new "friends". Wyoming is a pretty conservative state though so I am not sure what sort of penalties you are looking at if you get caught. Are you guys still hanging people or what?

 

[WCB]

Best thing is show up a couple days early and check it out. Mark every buck you see and you can then check pockets not visible from the road. Last time I hunted WY at noonish the day before opener everything changed. Guys piled in and camped literally right where herds of goats were the prior two days. Any goat that was close enough to the road to see had someone camped right on them at sunset..sleeping in the ditch. Hell guys had tents pitched in the state hwy ditch. Complete sh!t show.

lots of ground that was perfect goat ground had none and some really nasty breaky stuff with chest high sage had goats in it...and that was before the circus came to town.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Stay away from the buckle bunnies...they're crazy!

Ohhh e scouting....its antelope find the public parcels drive around and glass till u fine some...they move all the time so just because they aren't there at 2 doesn’t mean they won't be at 4. Last time I hunted antelop in WY buddy and I both filled our tags on different parcels and together they werent 300 acres total. Dont over look the small public parcels. Good Luck!

 

[Johnny Tyndall]

I'm new to it myself, but I'd advise to get really clear on which roads are public. If it's anything like where I've been, there's no way to tell on the ground and OnX and gazetters don't show it. My understanding is anything maintained by the county is public, so I used county maps.

 

[TaperPin]

Hi all, I drew my first WY Antelope tag ( north central). and am having a hard time dissecting my unit. The map shows a lot of BLM and a lot of roads….a lot…. what are some things I can look for to have an idea of where to start? I have identified some areas that have a fair amount of water, but anything else I should be looking for?

I’m using OnX as my main scouting tool, in the past, when I have deer hunted out west, I have been focused on getting away from roads which looks like it will be tough in this unit.

I spoke to the game warden who didn’t provide much help…

Thank you in advance

e scouting isn’t going to tell you any more than a BLM 1:100,000 map - I’d order all the maps for your area - something like $9 Each. You don’t need a map to hunt what you can see - it just gives you an idea of what’s over the hill and what’s BLM and what’s not. If hunting is tough where you are, the BLM map shows some options of a path to take to work into another area. You might enter an area from one road, and leave 50 slow miles away on a totally different road.

Show up with good maps showing two tracks, topography and land ownership. Quickly driving main roads through an area is a good first step - you’ll get an idea of large spots with nothing in it to avoid, and which easy to access areas to avoid. Step 2 is get as far away from good roads as possible.

Two track dirt roads are all over public land In Wyoming - some will be used by a lot of people and others won’t be. Not all gates will be passable and some ranches with grazing rights on that area have been allowed to padlock otherwise publicly accessible areas. Be flexible. Terrain with a little elevation change is my favorite - the draws, slight hills, and fewer roads can hide animals, although it does make driving slower and you’ll see fewer animals. North of Casper is full of terrain, so that‘s not a problem. There’s also a ton of water sources all over anywhere cows are run, so I wouldn’t plan anything around water - seeing goats 5 miles or more from any water is common.

Stay away from agricultural land and anyplace with a lot of water - that just complicates getting around. Don’t drive around checking water sources - it reduces the number of animals you will be looking over and ultimately reducing the odds. Glass a lot - don’t leave home without a spotting scope and window mount for each hunter.

With any new area don’t be frustrated when half the town of Gillette seems to be smoking goats all around you - don’t shoot a small one if you want a big one. If people are suddenly all around your area take a break, eat lunch and watch. They will cause a lot of movement, shoot a few, and leave even more. Keep your gun handy - more than one goat has slowly walked by a group of guys glassing and by the time the cluster jerk is figured out and someone has a rifle ready the goat has trotted over the hill quickly headed for Kaycee.

 

[JB.USMC]

e scouting isn’t going to tell you any more than a BLM 1:100,000 map - I’d order all the maps for your area - something like $9 Each. You don’t need a map to hunt what you can see - it just gives you an idea of what’s over the hill and what’s BLM and what’s not. If hunting is tough where you are, the BLM map shows some options of a path to take to work into another area. You might enter an area from one road, and leave 50 slow miles away on a totally different road.

Show up with good maps showing two tracks, topography and land ownership. Quickly driving main roads through an area is a good first step - you’ll get an idea of large spots with nothing in it to avoid, and which easy to access areas to avoid. Step 2 is get as far away from good roads as possible.

Two track dirt roads are all over public land In Wyoming - some will be used by a lot of people and others won’t be. Not all gates will be passable and some ranches with grazing rights on that area have been allowed to padlock otherwise publicly accessible areas. Be flexible. Terrain with a little elevation change is my favorite - the draws, slight hills, and fewer roads can hide animals, although it does make driving slower and you’ll see fewer animals. North of Casper is full of terrain, so that‘s not a problem. There’s also a ton of water sources all over anywhere cows are run, so I wouldn’t plan anything around water - seeing goats 5 miles or more from any water is common.

Stay away from agricultural land and anyplace with a lot of water - that just complicates getting around. Don’t drive around checking water sources - it reduces the number of animals you will be looking over and ultimately reducing the odds. Glass a lot - don’t leave home without a spotting scope and window mount for each hunter.

With any new area don’t be frustrated when half the town of Gillette seems to be smoking goats all around you - don’t shoot a small one if you want a big one. If people are suddenly all around your area take a break, eat lunch and watch. They will cause a lot of movement, shoot a few, and leave even more. Keep your gun handy - more than one goat has slowly walked by a group of guys glassing and by the time the cluster jerk is figured out and someone has a rifle ready the goat has trotted over the hill quickly headed for Kaycee.

Thank you for taking the time to write this out. After the winter WY had, I switched plans an pulled a late season cow elk tag instead of an antelope for my first western hunt. Responses like yours are greatly appreciated by folks trying to figure it all out for the first time.

 

[TaperPin]

Glad to help - like many things in life, just going along for the ride for a day is a great teacher - this Is the next best thing. Bad winters really do take a toll on older antelope. In a good year 15” antelope can be seen daily and in bad years 10 days of hunting won’t produce a single one in the same area.

Just to be fair, many friends who grew up in Wyoming take a totally different approach to hunting a new area and will search out areas with the most other hunters with in-state plates and sort of shadow them for a day. There’s some value in that. Antelope hunting is one of the few big game spectator sports.

Good luck with your elk - it should be a fun time.

 

[JB.USMC]

Thank you sir, I appreciate that. Looking forward to making the best out of a bad tag on this one. 41-7. Ive certainly got my work cut out for me *insert nervous laughter.

 

[TaperPin]

Hopefully you’ll be there late in the season! That looks like an area very short on elk until weather pushes them down and then they have to cross a lot of private land. I could be wrong and there might be a small herd that lives out in the sagebrush - I help a nephew last fall on an unfamiliar area and he ended up seeing a shootable elk way out in the open.
You might ask around to anyone in Greybull or at the ranches that border the forest service - they can tell you when elk show up and probably know the ranches that allow hunters for a fee.

 

[JB.USMC]

There is always hope! I will try to make contact with folks in the area and see what they say. Maybe entice the conversation with some MI Greatlakes salmon hahaha. I will definitely be trying to track down ranches that allow hunters for a fee. Thanks again TaperPin.