unit 56 youth doe/fawn question

[gburk]

hey all, my sons have youth doe antelope tags in 56 coming up next month - question, should i be working to secure some private access, or do we have a reasonable chance at finding some on state land? Looks like there's a fair bit of accessible state land, and we won't need to look at more than about two antelope to find a couple we like... thanks!!

 

[JFBNORTHERNHUNTER]

We usually buy a private land owner antelope tag however the property owner did not get any tags this year because the antelope numbers are dangerously low this year. I haven’t heard or talked to anyone that hunted the first hunts and if they saw lower numbers than years before. Either way the land owners in that part of the state don’t allow hunting with out a fee.

 

[gburk]

I appreciate the response. I don’t mind paying a reasonable fee. That’s the first I’d heard about low numbers, every time we drive through there we see tons of em on private.
I suppose our backup plan would be to bail on these tags and go up to Wyoming for the general elk rifle opener… if the antelope numbers are bad enough I’d consider that. Otherwise planning to do this hunt and then head to Wyoming a few days late.

I’ll call the biologist and see what he has to say about it. Thanks again.

 

[smarba]

In my experience, unlimited private land tags have really wiped out pronghorn numbers in NE units where there is a lot of checkerboard private and smaller private ranches. I think large ranches may elect to manage their own herds for trophy quality reasonable quantity because they can make $$$, but smaller properties are more driven to make $ while they can by selling tags, because if they don't their neighbor will, so it has resulted in WAY too many pronghorn being killed. I won't name the units, but a couple in the NE that I've hunted off and on over the past handful of years we used to see 50+ bucks in a weekend of scouting; most recently we couldn't even find 50+ pronghorn of either sex in a weekend of scouting...

 

[LKF5897]

In my experience, unlimited private land tags have really wiped out pronghorn numbers in NE units where there is a lot of checkerboard private and smaller private ranches. I think large ranches may elect to manage their own herds for trophy quality reasonable quantity because they can make $$$, but smaller properties are more driven to make $ while they can by selling tags, because if they don't their neighbor will, so it has resulted in WAY too many pronghorn being killed. I won't name the units, but a couple in the NE that I've hunted off and on over the past handful of years we used to see 50+ bucks in a weekend of scouting; most recently we couldn't even find 50+ pronghorn of either sex in a weekend of scouting...

I agree 100% down in the SE. The old system of getting assigned a ranch wasn't perfect from a hunting perspective but was way better for management of a population as a whole.

 

[tega52]

WAYYYYY lower numbers in 56. Was there last weekend of August guiding a youth hunter and couldn't believe the low numbers

 

[gburk]

Here I was all excited to get a New Mexico rifle tag of any sort and figured we could shoot a couple does no problem

 

[JFBNORTHERNHUNTER]

I am sure it is still possible just will need to work harder for the kill. It is hunting after all.

 

[gburk]

We’re gonna try. Talked to pronghorn bio, who was very helpful, and he gave us some confidence that there are animals to hunt.

 

[SanJuan]

My son drew a buck tag and got his first big game kill. We also lucked into a double on a coyote that came in to get a snack as the buck was dying.

The vast majority of the goats we saw were on state land. I'm guessing those ranch tags actually have the pressure higher on the private. We did run into some yahoos that thought they could run a buck down in their side by side though.

Shoot me a PM if you would like some specifics.

 

[gburk]

Heck yeah that’s an awesome picture, looks like three generations represented! Interesting to hear that you saw more pressure on private. Will send you a PM. Cheers