48 Antelope....

[Wiszard]

Just got back from a Wyoming hunt with my Dad and son. We've hunted the same area for over 10 years and had the toughest goat hunt ever. We saw roughly 25% of the goats we'd normally see. The goats obviously were waaaaaay more skiddish than normal....probably from being shot at and chased so many times. We had doe fawn tags and it's the first time we've ever eaten a tag for antelope. We've heard it was the drought as well as the winter kill. Some said lots of the goats went West. We hunted area 30 as well and saw some goats there which we were able to harvest with our 30 tags. Did anyone else have a hard time filling their goat tags in area 48?

Steve
Derkha derkha Muhammed jihad hakha sherpha sherpha abakhala- Gary of Team America World Police

 

[sageadvice]

Steve said, "We saw roughly 25% of the goats we'd normally see..."
and, "We hunted area 30 as well and saw some goats there which we were able to harvest with our 30 tags."

Steve, 30 tags? With the reduced numbers you are reporting, one would hope you mean "area 30 tags", not that you guys, or any group for that matter, had 30 tags?

My old hunting pard returned to our same unit across the river, three years in a row now, with his wife for her buck lope hunt with him having a couple doe tags. She took a dandy 82+" lope and they again reported seeing very good numbers.

Joey

 

[Ruger67]

Shooting way to many does. Everybody always wonders were all our animals are going but have you noticed its the doe, and cow shooters who always ask those questions. Stop shooting the doe and cows and we might have something to shoot!!

 

[Wiszard]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-31-11 AT 03:38PM (MST)[p]Hey Ruger- I've been going out there since '92 and have shot a total of 4 does in that time frame. I normally get drawn for a buck tag in either 48, 32 or 30. I was able to get a couple doe tags for this year since we didnt get buck tags. Since '92, I have never seen so few goats. It has not gone down progressively over the last few years so it is not that too many does are being shot. Not one person I spoke with mentioned over harvest of does as one of the reasons the goat numbers are down in 48. You're eagerness to bash anyone for filling doe tags is ridiculous. You think in ONE YEAR the herd would have a 75% decrease in population because of harvesting does?

Steve
Derkha derkha Muhammed jihad hakha sherpha sherpha abakhala- Gary of Team America World Police

 

[Ruger67]

I sure do think in one year you will notice a difference. Remember everytime you pull the trigger your killing 2. Between the winter and killing does that's what happens

 

[Wiszard]

I agree you'll see a difference but not to the extent we experienced. No biggie....hopefully they rebound in 48 cuz it used to be loaded with goats.

Steve
Derkha derkha Muhammed jihad hakha sherpha sherpha abakhala- Gary of Team America World Police

 

[elkantlers]

We hunted unit 42 which is just to the east of unit 48 about 15 miles. There were considerably less antelope this year compared to years past. My son was able to get a buck and a doe with his bow during the archery season. my wife and daughter both got bucks on opening day of the rifle season. I ended up not shooting an antelope even though I had a buck and a doe tag. we had plenty and I figured it wouldn't hurt to leave two extra.

My brother went up two weeks ago to fill two doe tags and said it was unbelievable. There were hardly any antelope to be found and it ended up taking him most of the day to get the does where it normally should have taken about 30 minutes. He then went to unit 48 for two more doe tags for his son-in-law. he said it was the same story, No antelope. they ended up staying over night and got the does the next day.

I hope they drastically cut the tags in that part of wyoming. the antelope need a little help for a year or two.

 

[WapitiBob]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-01-11 AT 00:27AM (MST)[p]I saw Antelope everywhere I went in 48 and shot my buck and one doe in an evening and morning hunt. Decided not to shoot the 2nd doe. The landowner box was stuffed full of coupons which explained why I had trouble getting within 1/2 mile of the goats.
The roads were wet and nobody was walking off the pavement, and with the wind blowing about 40 mph the antelope were bedded almost the entire day. Spotting them was very difficult.

 

[hunteraj44]

we hunted 48 for the first time this year. hunted last week of season. WOW! you talk about spooky. don't know about numbers as we have never hunted here before, but out of four other units i've hunted, this was probably the fewest i've seen. enough to have fun with but very hard to get closer than 300 to 400 yards. we did'nt see any big ones to speak of,mid 70's were probably the biggest seen. managed to score on some smallish 11-12 inch meat bucks. pretty country, but will go back to our other units in the future.

 

[SouthernWyo]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking doe and fawn antelope, especially in the Shirley Basin units and some of the surrounding units (47,48,63, etc.) The reason there are so many additional d/f tags issued the last several years is that all of these units have been extremely over-objective. Late season antelope hunting has some inherent risks, one of which is that many times the antelope will be "herded up" by mid to late October into large groups of 100+ and may be moving towards or into their winter range, which will leave alot of country that held goats in the early season pretty barren. Unfortunately also, the high pressure leads to pretty skittish animals, as has been described.

Another factor may be that last winter (actually the last two), there was alot of drifted snow which covered some of the highway fences and allowed some pretty large numbers to cross into winter range in other units that they hadn't gotten into for years. When they went to migrate back in the spring, many of those fences were uncovered and they were stuck on the other side. It tended to change the distribution more than was realized.