Good public land Speed Goat areas

[Triggernosis]

Bob,
Oops - I thought I had it set up to display my e-mail address. It's should be working now.

Tom

 

[JCFORD]

Grumpy, Wyoming is probably your best bet, although you will have a hard time getting a tg over the counter that has alot of public land. If I were you I would apply for one of the better units with lots of public and then put in for unit 47 or 48 type 2 tag for your second choice. These are good units wiht lots of public land, but this is the second season. It can be better than the first because the goats migrate into the units. Montana has some easy draw units that have quite a bit of public as well. I have not hunted there for antelope, but have been there for other game and they have lots of antelope.
New Mexico is cheap to apply for and the tags are reasonable, but the odds suck. A guy should still apply as they assign you to a ranch and have some of the best big antelope hunting there is.
Utah is cheap to apply for as well and some of there units are not too hard to get drawn for. It costs $6 for NM and $5 for UT, so it is a cheap chance and you might get lucky.

Wyoming is still the best deal and you can get extra doe and fawn tags and have alot of fun in big country. If you go after the first weekend you will more than likely be there all by yourself. Good Luck!!!

 

[grumpyBD]

Thanks JC, I was kinda leaning towards WY. Last time I was there the area north and east of Gillette seemed to be loaded with goats. How well do you know the area? Maybe you know some Honeyholes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif. Thanks again.

 

[grumpyBD]

BuffaloBob, I didn't realize Keyhole SP was in the area of Gillette, Sorry for the oversight. I've been in that area twice and somehow missed it. Your right it truly is a wonderful area. Did you hunt around the Sundance or Newcastle areas? Thanks for anymore info.

 

[Buffalobob]

GBD
I give you the same advice I gave Trigger. If you do not include your email in your profile you lose a lot of information. I sent a lot of stuff to Trigger and would have copied you but "NO EMAIL ADDRESS". The person who pays for this forum is a private individual who does it for his own enjoyment and is not going to sell your email address nor have I ever recieved any spam related to this site. Your email address will be reasonably well protected as far as I can see.

Now that I have delivered the lecture of the day, I will say that the area you are referencing is predominantly private and that the going rate is $500 to $1000 for a buck. The BLM has closed off a lot of land that appears to be public so you can't go near all of the oil and gas drilling sites, so you should be careful when looking at maps. This is the famous Teapot Dome area and it is just messed up to the max by the oil and gas people. There are a couple of large public access areas to the west and south of Gilette and another over close to Buffalo but there are a lot of hunters crowded into those areas.

Keyhole SP is in the edge of the Black Hills in the northwest corner of the state.

We hunted near Gillette on private property because we did not decide to go until it was the leftover draw time so we had to take what was "leftover". If you are willing to pay you can do alright near Gillette.

One word of advice. Gillettte is a boom town and there is no housing and people are living in the hotels. You will need to get reservations in advance if you stay in a hotel. Plus you should take some lice killing soap.

 

[JCFORD]

Grumpy, the area I am talking about is south central WY. North of I-80 between Laramie and Rawlins and south of Casper. It is called Shirley Basin, there is a big chunk of public there. Get one of the DeLorme WY. Atlas & Gazetter, you can order from Cabela's. It shows BLM, Nat'l Forest, private and school lands. Then get the application book from WY. Game and Fish and you can order area maps from page 48, I believe, they will let you see the area in more detail. Also do not be afraid to call the area bioligists listed in the application book as I have found them to be very friendly. I have had them talk for over an hour to me giving me info. This neat country, not as many antelope as up by Gillette, but way less people and plenty of antelope to hunt and the size is better in the southern part of the state. Alot of these areas have decent deer hunting and some of the areas have lots of elk and a guy can get a cow tag fairly easily and hunt elk/antelope/deer all at the same time in some of these areas. If you are going to hunt elk you have to do it by the end of this month. Combine this with prarie dogs and coyotes and you better start loading shells now!!!!
Let me know if you have more questions or email me if you want.

 

[grumpyBD]

BuffaloBob and JC, Thank you both for the info. As far as the email address, sorry I can't recieve email here at this location. This is a public library and their policy doesn't allow it. I apologize. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Buffalobob]

Grumpy

Maybe we should change names and I should be called Grumpy.

My apologies for being short with you.

 

[grumpyBD]

BuffaloBob, no harm done. Thank You for not pulling any punches, Just calling them as you see them. As we speak, most of my "friends" started bailing out on this trip. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif So I've cancelled my plans because of childish behavior on their part. And believe me, I gave them an earfull about it! This is mainly due to me showing them the costs of everything involved. I was hoping to maybe get good rates for lodging, trespass fees, etc. if enough of us went, so much for that idea. It looks as though they'll do Maine again this year. I'd rather save my pennies take a month off and do a combo hunt out west next year. So it I who should be apologizing for rattling the member's cages for info before I had a definate committment from my group. Sorry to have inconvenienced any of you. Thanks, Grumpy