WY Unit 75 Antelope 2023

[azsugarbear]

Several years ago, I started buying WY antelope points for myself and my son.  I was able to draw back in 2019, but my son couldn't make the trip so I just kept buying points for him.   Fast forward to earlier this year when I learned that WY would be instituting some changes to their non-resident draw program which would have a substantial negative impact on all non-resident point holders beginning in 2024.  Even though the WY antelope heard had a substantial winter die-off the previous year. it just made sense to cash in his points and then get out of Dodge.  My son drew a buck antelope tag for Unit 75, which is located roughly in the center of WY.

We arrived late Thursday night after a 17 hour drive.  Friday was spent scouting the unit as best we could.  There were planty of buck antelope, but none came close to the trophy we were looking for.  We finally located two bucks in different locations later Friday afternoon/evening.  Although all the bucks we were seeing had short tops, these two had the most to offer in length above the prong.  Buck A was located on leased land that did not allow hunting.  Still, he was a decent prospect and we thought we might be able to pressure him off the oil lease land.  Buck B was mostly on BLM land and tended to hang near a well-traveled dirt road.  My son elected to go after Buck A as we both felt Buck B was an easy target and would be pursued by most other hunters at first light.

Opening morning found ourselves glassing the heard of antelope on the oil lease.  As it turned out, a couple of other hunters had the same idea.  We used each other to try and pressure Buck A into moving off the lease, but that old buck seemed to know the score and hung tight in the middle of the valley.  After an hour or so, we left him to go try our luck in an area we had not been able to visit the night before.  We found another decent buck, but as soon as he would see our truck, he would leave his does and run like a bolt of lightning in the opposite direction.  After three failed attempts on him, we decided to see what had become of Buck B near the dirt roadway.

We looked high and low for any sign of him, but he was nowhere to be found.  After driving back and forth on the road a couple of times and seeing no gut pile or scavenger birds, we felt he must still be alive and had moved up into one of several arroyos that came down to intersect with the road.  We drove to a drilling site / gravel pit that had some elevation and began to glass.  After 20 minutes or so of glassing without success, we decided to park the truck and start still hunting each arroyo until we located him.  I pulled a quick u-turn to park the truck and just happened to look up.  There across the gravel pit stood my son's target buck at 175 yds.  He had found this gravel pit and was using it as his hidey-hole.  He was by himself and was somewhat startled to see us.  My son made a great shot and the rest was history.  Although his tops were weak, he is still a great first antelope trophy for my son.

 

 

[PRDATR]

I'd be happy with that one. I think I have eight points so next year might be the year I go to WY.

[mc68]

Very cool! Congratulations. 

[wildwoody]

Congratulations 

[Zeke-BE]

Nice job.  Great buck