Better Late Than Never

[Yotkilr]

Well, our trailer is packed and we are on the road headed southwest to WY. This will be a trip of many "firsts" and a trip I will look back on for years. I grew up hunting whitetail, pheasants and turkeys with my dad and grandpa. Just recently have I begun venturing west. Last year I went on my first antelope hunt in WY with my friend Steve and that was a blast. Once my dad got wind of the trip he decided 2013 was going to be the year! Well fast forward a year... my dad and grandpa arrived at my place this evening and we have an ETA of 1:30am tonight and hope to be chasing some goats first thing in the AM.

I am a little worried though. Last year we hunted in 26 and had no trouble finding goats and tagged out with respectable goats on our first trip ever. This year we got tags for unit 23. I saw they had a good her size and a good amount of public land. After doing some research and talking with friends it appears that the public land is on the north side of the unit and the goats are on the south end! Also there hundreds of leftover tags for the unit...

Well I guess we will find out in the morning!

 

[Big Fin]

The smart money would bet that you have a blast, no matter the outcome. Good luck.

 

[nidahunter]

The game and fish has a list of landowners that may let you hunt in 23, cannot remember the biologists name but she was very helpful. Just call a regional office and they can get you in touch with her, might help a little!

 

[BigBull301]

Don't sweat the small stuff. Have a blast with your family.

 

[dihardhunter]

If you can get a hold of Mike Moore's name (...I think his dad's name is Don...). He's got roughly 50,000 acres 45 minutes south of Gillette. Hunted it several years back and he charges a steep trespass fee, but the hunting was unbelievable even as the last hunters of the year 2 weeks deep into the season. Saw well over 1000 goats in just over 2 days.

 

[Yotkilr]

Well the trip started out a little rough. My dad and grandpa arrived to my place late Thursday night from Fargo and we took off right away. We got to camp around 1:30am and my grandpa hadn't slept the entire time. That night he got sick and threw up a few times. The wind was blowing 40 mph and the rain noise amplified in the trailer. I'm quite sure he didn't sleep the entire night.

Day1- He decided to rest in the trailer and my dad and I began to scout the unit. We were in Unit 23 in WY. It is the unit SW of Gillette. Like I mentioned there were leftover tags for this unit as the population is well above the G&F population goal. On the map it also showed a lot of public land on the north side. The first day was still miserable conditions and we covered a couple hundred miles making a loop around the unit. It is very frustrating in this unit as there are very few roads and the public (BLM/state trust land) has to be toughing the road to access it unless you get permission from the land owner.

Here is an example of many signs we saw around the unit:

Day 2: Well after seeing lots of antelope but zero on public ground we were frustrated but enjoying the time. We explored the northern part of the unit with the majority of the public land but below is what it looked like. All of the antelope were on the south end. We saw over 1000 antelope on this trip easily. It was unreal how many antelope were there but they knew exactly where not to be. I am not one to pay $2,000 though for an antelope.

Picture from the north end on the unit. Very rough. Bighorns in the background.

Day 3: We woke up to a foggy morning. We camped on a piece of BLM land and had seen two does on the piece during day 2. We were slightly bummed as we had not seen anything on public besides a few does. We geared up to put on some miles for day 3. We decided to peak over the hill on the BLM we were camped on. Sure enough our first public herd! We snuck around behind a hill and down into a valley that we could follow to get closer. Well getting close with 4 people is easier say then done. We positioned ourselves and both my dad and grandpa were loaded and ready but the herd was spooked and took off. There went our chance I thought. Originally they were standing at 100 yards and just on the other side of a slight rise.

The rise of obviously to slight and they could see us crawling. They went about 200 more yards and some began to stop. My dad asked "How far?". I said "298". He acted like that was no big deal! Pulled the trigger and it dropped in it's tracks. It was an awesome feeling.

Later that afternoon we spotted some does on public near the road. My grandpa was able to get a shot on one and got it done. At 85 he shot his first WY antelope. Like I said, better late than never!

We took off the next morning as rough weather was coming in. Made a stop at Devil's Tower. It was an awesome trip and glad it all worked out. I wouldn't recommend the unit but definitely recommend going antelope hunting in WY! Below are some more pictures from the trip.

 

[mr_steve]

I just realized after you posted this that I never made any of the photos! That was an awesome trip to be a part of though.

 

[wyoming556]

I hunted last year in 26 and this year over in 8 and your assessment is correct. Last year 26 was a breeze to find animals on the limited public. This year was much different for some reason.

Looks like you still had a good time.

 

[BlakeA]

Awesome!

 

[muledeerjunkie]

Way to make memories with three generations! I like your trailer, I watched your video about it... I'd recommend putting together a short clip of what it looks like loaded (while traveling to a hunt) and the unloading/camp setup process...

 

[huntbux]

Awesome, sounds like you had a great trip. Congrats.

 

[L. I. Yankee]

That trip was priceless.....

 

[Yotkilr]

Way to make memories with three generations! I like your trailer, I watched your video about it... I'd recommend putting together a short clip of what it looks like loaded (while traveling to a hunt) and the unloading/camp setup process...

Good idea we will do that next time we have it out.