Antelope Hunts

[steel_ram]

Has anyone recently been Pronghorn hunting? I was thinking of somewhere stateside, perhaps Wyoming? Any reccomendations?

[bighornbob]

I went down to Montana in 2002. It was a real blast. You have to apply for a permit (like our LEH). The area I applied for was an area the size of the Region 8 and 4 together. They gave away 13,000 either sex tags. In addition to the 13,000 tags, they offered another 5000 doe or fawn tags to the people that had drawn one of the 13,000. These 5000 were first come first serve with a limit of 2 tags. I did not choose to buy one of these doe or fawn tags as they would cost about 50US for each tag. I could buy meat cheaper up here. The odds of getting drawn were 1 in 4 or 25% chance.

The cost of the tag was 205 US which has to be sent in with your application. If you are not drawn they send you back 200 US.

You dont need a guide in Montana but there is alot of private land. Almost of Montana is private land. The government pays ranchers to allow hunters on their land and the Gov. publishes a book like our regs of all the ranchers that have signed up for the program for that year. You just call up a rancher and book a time. The ranchers make up their own rules for their land. Like the ranch we hunted on said we were only allowed to kill one antelope and no does or faws to be killed. His ranch was fenced into about 40 sections (1 mile X 1mile). You were only allowed to hunt one section and only for three days. This allowed other hunters to hunt the different sections. After you r 3 days you could switch to another vacant section or continue to hunt hunt yours if it was not booked by somebody else. You were also only allowed to drive on the main roads. Only 5 roads on the whole ranch. This type of system was quite fair as you knew nobody was wreck your stalk. Others ranches were a free for all with alot of hunters driving everywhere and lobbing shot at antelope from stupid distances.

You can also pay a tresspass fee on other ranches. I knocked on a few doors and was quoted "No you cant hunt", "An outfitter has rights" to "$300 for three days" to a "I manage my property for big antelope and you probably cant afford it" I have heard of guys getting access though. I only spent about an hour on one road and only knocked on about 10 doors. All the people were friendly though.

There are pronghorn everywhere, on a hour long drive from the ranch I counted maybe 300 antelope and this was from the main road.

The antelope dont get huge like in Wyoming but there are alot of respectable lopes. I passed up two bucks that I stalked before I shot one I got. I wanted one that looked like what I thought an antelope should look like. One of the ones I passed on had horns like a Mountain goat.

Here are a few pics of my pronghorn, not huge by any means. I had him mounted on a wall pedistal mount.





I hear Wyoming has a lot of crown land but no nothing about getting tags.

Hope this helps.

BHB

[steel_ram]

Thanks for the info. I'd be happy with that antelope, looks good to me! I'd be more in it for the experience.

I see there's a fare ammount of guides down there that don't seem unreasonably priced.

[Gateholio]

awesome antelope, I just love thier cool markings...

Must get back down to Montana someday and try it out

[Farmer]

I went to Montana with my brother and 3 others about 10 years ago. We also had a blast.We had permission to hunt on one large ranch ( there were 3 other hunters there at the same time ). We also stopped at the fish and game dep. and were given directions to other walk in areas. We were about an hour west of Miles City. At that time the LEH fee was $125 US. My bro and I got bucks, one friend got a doe. One of the others has gone back and harvested bucks twice. They go down on for pheasants as well. The US now requires you to apply to take your firearms across the border and I think you have to have a US hunting licence to apply. Check this out as well. We went to Montana because a guide was not required for non residents.

Give it a try.
Gord

[WoodOx]

Sounds like fun.

If your not in for quite that drive, you can apply in Alberta for antelope, but from what I understand the draw can take upto 6 years to get. Not awesome odds and might be worth the drive if you really want to harvest one.

[GoatGuy]

I'm priority 3 as a non-res in Alb and I think I need 4 so I should get it next year or the following year for sure.

My buddy went out and got a book buck in Alb this year.

I also have a buddy in Calgary who bowhunts for 'em and said it's an absolute blast.

[Huli Huli]

Wyoming just closed the application period March 15. I was online, just missed the deadline by minutes.

[model88]

I hunted Wyoming a few years back. We were around Gillette, not much for public land but lots of antelope.

We were lucky enough to find some land too hunt on, we had over 10,000 acres all too ourselves. We paid $200.00 each to hunt the land, but only if we killed. I will take some pics of my mounts, wish I would have gone down more than twice The lady who lived on the property recently sold which sucks as well.

If you want a hunt where you will see lots of animals and pretty much 100% success, this is the hunt for you

[boxhitch]

What is the score on a buck like this one ? I see the min. for B&C is 80, so am trying to get an idea what a Booner would look like.