My dad, cousin, and I went for our first time this past year. We all have 4-5 points and didn't want to burn them so we picked out a leftover unit and just drove out there to see what it was all about. By 10:00 a.m. the second morning we had each filled a buck and doe tag on public land, and saw many more. It was a hoot. We thought it would be a one time trip before we burned our points, but we're putting it in for a second choice this year with a unit we won't draw as our first choice. Point is, with a bit of research, you can have an awesome hunt in a leftover unit. I'm very glad we decided not to burn up our points. We'll hold onto them until we have 7 or 8. Good luck!
First time antelope hunter
- Thread starter Southern Elk
- Start date
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Southern Elk
Well-known member
You guys are making it tough. Valid points for trying to hunt with and without using the points.
Flatland Crusoe
Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2014
- Messages
- 572
I don't think you will regret using points to go for the first time insuring that you have a good hunt with less frustration. Using PP's will definitely involve less frustration when you are 20 some hours away and your first stalk gets blown by a guy zipping past you on a gator because everyone is piled into the main chuck of public in a mostly private unit on leftover tags. Clearly there will be people doing stupid stuff in every unit, but the density of stupid is much higher. After hunting 2 years on leftover tags I don't feel like my 3 PP's are worth all that much right now relative to other points I have accumulated.
Basically all Wyoming units will have antelope success in the 70-90% range whether you have 8 points or zero, its not like elk where a general/OTC tag might do a 17% success rate and a 6 PP special unit might be doing 50% success. PP's make for more options to be picky and fewer neighbors to deal with.
There are definitely plenty of threads where someone picks a unit with 500 leftover tags and goes out to Wyoming with 6 tags only to completely strike out and bitch/moan all over the internet that they didn't read the asterisk next to the unit that says "hard to access" and wouldn't bother to walk a mile from the truck. From what I've seen 75% of the leftover units can be hunted if you are willing to put in a few miles on foot and are smart about where to go hunting all the little folds along the way you can't see from the BLM road. It won't be easy and it won't be pretty, but you can definitely get it done on leftovers.
Basically all Wyoming units will have antelope success in the 70-90% range whether you have 8 points or zero, its not like elk where a general/OTC tag might do a 17% success rate and a 6 PP special unit might be doing 50% success. PP's make for more options to be picky and fewer neighbors to deal with.
There are definitely plenty of threads where someone picks a unit with 500 leftover tags and goes out to Wyoming with 6 tags only to completely strike out and bitch/moan all over the internet that they didn't read the asterisk next to the unit that says "hard to access" and wouldn't bother to walk a mile from the truck. From what I've seen 75% of the leftover units can be hunted if you are willing to put in a few miles on foot and are smart about where to go hunting all the little folds along the way you can't see from the BLM road. It won't be easy and it won't be pretty, but you can definitely get it done on leftovers.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
Agree with you 100% on that. Way too many think you hunt antelope by laying over the hood or tailgate of a truck and that may be the way a lot do it, but to me the fun of hunting them is parking and getting into the country to glass where the terrain isn't visible from any vehicle. We fill whatever tags we have every year and most are in spots 1-2 miles out that are not visible from a road or two-track. Quartering or deboning them and then backpacking one out a mile or two is a snap as small as they are compared to an elk, so why more people don't go back in the boonies on foot to have a good hunt is beyond me. My buddy in Sheridan shot a 84 4/8" B&C buck about 1 1/2 miles from our truck in 2014 and because John was initially thinking of a full body mount we just gutted him out and John carried him out whole to make sure the entire hide/cape was in perfect condition. Normally we just take the head/cape and boned out meat and the total load is probably less than 50#.
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