Pronghorn Hunt

[mrklean]

Well I started doing my research early this year, my buddy and I are thinking about doing an archery pronghorn hunt either wyoming the dakotas or maybe montana. Looking for some feedback has anyone gone out there before? Were looking for a good amount of public land, and pretty easy to get tags either over the counter or by draw. Thanks

[LOTWSvirgin]

Now i might be wrong. A couple of buddies went to wyoming I do know that. I am pretty sure they were able to five but only one buck. They said the things were every where. I am thinking they hunted public land.

[hunterjames]

i went out to wyoming 2 years ago and yes the antillope were everywere but i wouldnt go back. even with the best maps they had and a gps to find the public land it was very hard to tell were you were at. onley one of the public lands we found were marked. if i were to go again i think i would go to montana i got a unckle that goes there every year and sais it is excelent hunting and the public land is marked there. hope this helps

[sticknstring]

South Dakota has lots of public land, we hunted the SW corner off and around the Cheyenne and saw lots of goats but we went too early. Wouldn't come to decoys. We hunted late August and should've gone 3 weeks later. We ran into zero hunters. But the later it gets, the more hunters you'll run into. I had plenty of does and one small buck within bow range and one long miss at a stud but we came home with empty-handed. It was our first time and we had a blast.

[mrklean]

Stick did you have to apply for a tag? What about the public what is the best way to research the land i dont want to go in to blind. Did you guys camp or motel it? I was hoping SD or Wyoming.

[sticknstring]

OTC tags. Visit SoDak's game & parks page and do some research. There's a public land booklet that shows everything in the state. There's a also a walk-in program that allows you hunt private land. Very easy. We stayed in a motel the first night since it rained all day but setup camp and tented the remainder of the trip. We were actually only a mile or two from the Wyoming border, if a guy played his cards right and had enough vacation time, you could hunt both states pretty easily.

[Big River]

been going to wyoming for 5 years now. we apply for buck tags, but over the counter doe tags have always been availible. the place we hunt now is a $20 trespass fee for over 12,000 acres. we talked with the land owner and she helped out with the public land locations, tricky to find but it is posted, and lots of goats on it. we had five people 5 bucks and one doe over the counter. also we stayed at a camp ground in what they called hunters cabin $25 a night, nothing fancy but saves on bringing all the camping gear.

[Walleye Guy]

Hunted in Wyoming this fall with a gun for antelope on public land. We had to apply for the tags. $268 I believe for a gun tag. Went 4 for 4 one bucks in two days. One was a pig the other three were decent. We probably saw 3,000 antelope in 4 days. Granted many of these are repeats and we drove around scouting for many hours. However they were everywhere especially on private land.

The public land is not well marked in the area we hunted. We hunted mostly BLM land. We purchased maps that showed the BLM land. In the area we hunted there was tons of BLM land...Problem. Much of it was not land that antelope wanted to be on. Not a pressure thing either. Antelope want grasslands and alot of the BLM land we went to was rocky, foot hill type stuff more conducive to rattle snakes and mule deer. We had to move to the other side of the zone we had our tags for to find BLM land with antelope. We saw a number of other hunters (almost all non-residents) on this land.

My advice would be to get out and scout a couple full days before the season starts. Do tons of driving and check out lots of state land. Locate some animals and figure out a game plan.

It was definitely a fun trip. Not one I would do every year however.

[maros91]

I had a mule deer hunt in WY about 6 years ago. Lots of goats roaming around. Landowners don't like them either cause they ruin their fences. If you call the WY DNR or whatever they are called they will give you a list of landowners that allow hunting. Most charge a fee though. This was by the Lusk area. Lot of goats. I remember looking at prices back then and I remember that a goat tag was like $150 and a OTC doe tag was like $20. Now I read it is abbout $270. If you go, good luck. I tyhink you have to apply by mid Jan. or mid March. GOOD LUCK!!!

[DonBo]

I have hunted Montana several times, rifle and archery. If you apply for area 900 the draw is guaranteed. (900 covers most of eastern MT) The tag costs $205 and is either sex. You can then buy as many doe tags as you want for maybe $20 ea. (there is an additional archery tag also required) Applications need to be in June 2nd.

We hunted mostly BLM land in the Miles City area. The properties we hunted were very well marked and all you had to do was leave your name and hunting lic. # at the gate along with what you were hunting for and how many days. You never had to deal with the landowners at all. The entire ranch was open to you. Even closed gates, just be sure to leave them as you found them.

There are very good BLM maps available for this and every area of MT. They also show all other public lands, county, state and Federal. We hunted much of these. A GPS along with your map showed where these lands were.

We saw lots of goats and few hunters even during the firearms season. I don't think waterhole hunting would be good in the areas we hunted as there was water everywhere, but I do think decoying and even spot and stalk would be good.

We stayed at local small town motels for pretty cheap.

Anywhere you decide to go, antelope hunting is a blast, game is seen all the time and opportunities are frequent. We like the meat at least as much as venison so go prepared to take care of it and bring it home in probably very warm weather.

[mrklean]

What is the BLM land? Where can you get the maps? I think i have narrowed it to Wyoming and Montana and i might do gun instead, i hear its pretty tough to get some of those goats within bow range. Does Montana provide land owner names so you can hunt with tresspass fees like Wyoming does.

[Walleye Guy]

BLM means Bureau of Land Management I believe. You can order plots maps over the internet.

[sticknstring]

It's not tough if you do your homework. I had goats within bowrange every day. Your shot distance might increase however. Knowing what I know now, I would've done a lot more practicing at longer yardages. Waterholes weren't working. We hunted alfalfa fields on the river bottoms. It's pretty easy to spot fence crossings. Goats will crawl underneath them 90% of the time. It doesn't matter which weapon you choose, it's a different but exciting hunt for sure. Make sure to go.

[DonBo]

What is the BLM land? Where can you get the maps? I think i have narrowed it to Wyoming and Montana and i might do gun instead, i hear its pretty tough to get some of those goats within bow range. Does Montana provide land owner names so you can hunt with tresspass fees like Wyoming does.

It is Bureau of Land Management. In Montana $10 from each non-resident license goes into land access for hunters - BLM. There is a bunch in antelope country. There are great maps available that show this and all public lands.

Where we hunted there are several ranches together that covered a huge chunk of land. Like I said, all you had to do was sign in at the main gate and you're good to go. Landowners get paid from the state for hunter days on their property. Most of the BLM lands you need to apply for alloted times on the property so their was no overcrowding issues. A trip during the week as opposed to weekends is usually enough to guarantee permission. The state handles all this so the landowner is out of it entirely.

If you are really interested, contact me at adress below.

[mrklean]

i gotta talk to my buddy but its for sure something i will contact you about, maybe after the holidays, nuts right now. Thanks for all the help.

[mrklean]

Don i just shot you an email

[DonBo]

Don i just shot you an email

Sorry, that addy is at my work. I am stuck at home for a while and am having a hard time getting my messages here. I'll keep trying.

What I can tell you is I have maps of the area we hunted I can get them to you, or tell you how to get some of your own. I will try to dig them up and get back to you.

[mrklean]

haha that works i gotta check up to see when apps are due and what not thanks for the help

[Joe15]

So where would you say is the best place to do it sw SD or eastern WY