Wyoming Hunt

[JackBinSC]

Hey guys,
Planning on making a trip to Wyoming with my wife and 35 year old nephew and his family. We plan to apply for tags as a group. Is it best to use a guide or is DIY very doable? We all hunt whitetail in SC and GA.
Thanks, Jack

 

[dls guide]

Are there Grizzly bears in SC that you deal with daily and have you actually ever seen an elk in person? Do you know the the WY hunting laws? Maybe these are few things to think about.

 

[dls guide]

Sorry, I thought you were asking about elk hunting . My mistake. Not many bears out in the plains .

 

[JackBinSC]

Thanks for the reply dls. I know your type. Sorry if I offended you.

 

[Rick Richard]

Thanks for the reply dls. I know your type. Sorry if I offended you.

First time elk hunting, I would use a guide. I have hunted with Hidden Creek Outfitters out of Cody a half dozen or so times and it is a great hunt. They hunt in the Thorofare region and that hunt would be the classical western hunt. Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

[JackBinSC]

Thanks Rick. We plan to antelope hunt the first trip out. This is a big expense for my nephew and his family. My wife and I plan to help them. I will keep the Elk info handy for future use. Great bull in your logo.

 

[Rick Richard]

Thanks Rick. We plan to antelope hunt the first trip out. This is a big expense for my nephew and his family. My wife and I plan to help them. I will keep the Elk info handy for future use. Great bull in your logo.

New Mexico is a great choice too for antelope. Last year six of us shot out the first day with an average of 17 inch goats.

 

[rootacres]

I have done both and have been successful at both. Bears aren't everywhere in WY, and it would be rare for them to be seen in the plains. I feel antelope is one of the more doable DIY hunts. Especially if cost is a concern, maybe plan on extending the trip a little longer and doing it yourself. GoHunt has a wealth of valuable information that was key to our success on DIY adventures. That's not to say a guide isn't the way to go. I went two for two on guided hunts this year but I paid a fortune. They both have their pluses and minuses. I just know if I was doing guided I wouldn't be going with the guide commenting on this post. Good luck!

 

[JackBinSC]

Thanks guys. I appreciate your time and input.

 

[theddguide]

Antelope hunting is very much doable on your own. In fact I don't think it'd be worth paying someone just to shoot a big one when you can quite possibly shoot one as big on your own and be a much greater reward. Thats just my opinion anyway.

 

[.30US]

I hunted unit 73 for the first time this year and drove out from the East Coast. I never had to put the truck in 4WD. It was dry the first few days of the hunt, then we had rain, and a bit of snow.

I looked at flying out versus driving from a time and cost perspective. Denver makes a lot more sense than Casper, to me.

My wife, a friend, and I hiked for miles the first few days glassing, and just didn't get up on any at ranges they were comfortable shooting. Meanwhile, two of our three buddies gave up hiking in the first hour or so and cruised the roads until they saw antelope, got out, walked up the ravines until they were close enough and tagged out two and a half hours into day one. I did see a few hunters that would drive, jump out of a rental SUV, walk not quite far enough away from the road to be legal, take shots, miss, and get back in the truck and continue on.

All six of us had doe tags, and I read everything I could find about 73 beforehand and most of it said there were no trophies in 73. I probably don't know the difference in a 12" or 14" buck at distance, but there were some impressive bucks out there.

The toughest part of our trip was housing. Originally, I rented a place through HomeAway.com or VRBO.com months ahead, and the owner sold the house and cancelled on us a week or two out. I found another place through AirBnB.com that I will highly recommend if you're looking up on top of Casper Mountain. We were a bit of a haul from our hunting area, but it wasn't like we had to be out there early...there were no shortage of antelope, no matter the time of day. We even saw a heard of about 25 elk that the locals say is rare out in that area.

Most importantly, if you like breakfast, you owe it to yourself to eat at G-Ma's Diner!

Definitely by vehicle. The three of us that hunted the whole week together, hiked the first two days just learning the area and glassing. Then we sat for most of a day in a spot near water we had seen them at the previous two days, but couldn't walk up on them at. Surprisingly, that didn't produce any good shot opportunities, either. We drove to a farther west part of the unit to check it out the next day and saw many more antelope, much closer to roads. They didn't really care about the truck at all, but if they saw us get out, they were gone. One of our group got hers that day and we cleaned it and wrapped up as a big cold front came in. The next day was pretty nasty, so we drove the county road through the walk-in unit that the other two guys tagged out near on the first day. We got out and stalked a few groups before my wife took her shot. I was just spotting and had a good opportunity, so I borrowed her rifle and shot mine, too.

Despite more success while spotting from the vehicle and then stalking, talking to both of the ladies I was with the whole week, we all agreed the first couple of days climbing and hiking ridges to get away from the roads were the best experience. We saw massive mule deer bucks grouped together that would have been a chip shot, had we had tags. Seeing that herd of elk was really cool. We thought we were in a gently rolling area, but there was enough variance that they just appeared, then disappeared.

That kind of sums up my first DIY trip with my wife and buddies. $39 group doe tags were pretty easy. The hunting wasn't especially difficult, aside from being 100% sure we identified that we were going to take a shot on a doe; since the distinguishing feature is a blackish mark on the cheek that seemed to me very similar to the shadow you might see on any antelope, and not all males had antlers, but some females did. Invest in good, clear scopes and binoculars. I found my wife's 8x binos of better quality worked much better than my 15x.

 

[Otiro]

Hardest part about Antelope in Wy is making sure you are in the correct area. Hunting us usually done by truck, so you cover a lot of ground pretty quick. Now with phone GPS is shouldn't be to hard. If you can shoot 300 yards, antelope is an easy hunt...