I'm looking to take my 14 year old son on a hunt next year. We'd love to hunt elk, but the only time we have a break from school is the first week of October so, I am looking into antelope hunts. He is not a bowhunter...yet.

We are not wealthy. We cannot afford fancy lodges and amenities. We just want to get into game and have a nice hunt. Any suggestions?

Greetings, I did just such a hunt last year with my son, 14,during his mid-October break. We went antelope hunting in Wyoming, were I've been several times before.It was a DIY hunt, we had a great time and he dropped the first buck he saw, with a nice shot at 185 yards, I think I got more excited then he did.
This year I'm bringing my 13 year old daughter out as well for her first western hunt...Montana this time.
Antelope is a great start for the youngins, do your homework now and you should be in good shape. Good luck!

If you want a Elk hunt try this Outfitter in Colorado he can get you what you want.
WWW.elkhornoutfitters.com

give my cousin jim of cherry creek outfitters a call - tell him that his cousin Ron in Montana referred you.

www.geocities.com/jimbrown_nd

i apologize if the website is a bit out of date. i made it for him a few years ago and then got busy with a few things.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob1SG:
If you want a Elk hunt try this Outfitter in Colorado he can get you what you want.
WWW.elkhornoutfitters.com

Sounds awesome, but out of my price range.

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
give my cousin jim of cherry creek outfitters a call - tell him that his cousin Ron in Montana referred you.

www.geocities.com/jimbrown_nd

i apologize if the website is a bit out of date. i made it for him a few years ago and then got busy with a few things.

Message sent...thanks.

born - due to a miscommunication on my part, that email address is probably old.

just wanted to let you know in case you tried email - a phone call would be better.

quote:

Originally posted by Born to Hunt:
I'm looking to take my 14 year old son on a hunt next year.

There is a lot of BLM land in Wyoming, most of it is eminently camp-able. The eastern part of the state has more private land, don't know much about hunting that part. The western half of Wyoming has much more BLM land and no shortage of antelope. A call to the local game warden will usually net you a list of guys who have antelope eating their alfalfa.

Elk wouldn't be out of the question, although a week may be a little short.

BTH I sent you 2pm's

Born to Hunt,
Myself and a few freinds hunt Anetelope every year we can draw Wyoming (which is most years). All of it is done on BLM land or walk in hunting and 100% DIY. For the most part, our antelope hunts are in unit 52, but I have been successful around Casper and South Pass city (sorry can't remember the units). With high success rates, affordable tags, and lots of public land. I believe Wyoming BLM land is the way to go. Just becareful of the unit you are applying for as many times the BLM land is blocked by private land.

We hunt antelope out of Gilette, Wyoming. We are going on Oct 6th. Lots of public land. I think that four of us shot fifteen last year! Call Wyoming game and fish. They have lists of land owners who will let you hunt on their land also. Doe tags are pretty easy to pick up across the counter in the early season. Hope that this helps. Have fun!

My brother and I did Wyoming on
our own last fall. I had $910 in my hunt, TOTAL: tags, food, rental, fuel, air,etc, and that's from here in MD.
Had a blast!

Taking my daughter next fall, for her first trip.

There were some good posts here about this last October, if you feel like digging.

An antelope hunt is easily managed as a do-it-yourself (DIY) hunt in Wyoming. First, identify a hunting unit with a high probability of non-resident drawing -- for example unit 24 near Gilette. You can look up this information, I believe, on the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game (or similar name). Second, obtain a list of land owners from the local field office of the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game (or similar name) that allow hunting on their properties in exchange for paying a trespass fee. Third, phone several people on the list and try to identify a deal that suits you. You will find a variety of different deals/arrangements that are possible. One property I called about was 9,000 acres and cost $400/gun. Another property was 1,200 acres and cost $100/gun. Yet another property was $120/harvested animal. Alternatively, you may be able to identify public land you can hunt on in Wyoming for free -- for example the Thunder Basin National Grasslands SE of Gilette. Fourth, you want to file a party license request. Pay attention to the details of how to do this as described in the instructions.

There are so many pronghorn antelope around Gillette it isn't funny. You can easily take a representative buck out there. You can rent a room in a hotel in town and drive 5 or 10 minutes out to a ranch and hunt pronghorn. You don't need to get out hunting before dawn. Unlike deer, pronghorn don't disappear during the day to hide on their beds. Pronghorn remain out in the open all day long. Wake up at 8 AM. Eat a leisurely breakfast, get out to the hunting grounds by 10 AM and you are going to do just as well as the guy who gets out at 6:30 AM.

Be on notice, however, that if you are looking for a trophy buck -- by which I mean a buck with horns substantially larger than the norm -- the game changes. Then you need to be thinking about how to gain an advantage over others. To play this game you will need to be selective about where you seek a license -- and this may also drive you to apply in a unit with a low probability of drawing (others sort of like to have a chance to shoot an above average sized buck too, it turns out). Often outfitters have secured rights to hunting the lands that hold the biggest bucks, so this game may also drive you to linking up with an outfitter. Probably you have to pay more to hunt with the outfitters that harvest the bigger horns. For many of these reasons I personally could care less about the size of the horns but only want a representative animal and a good hunt. In fact, on my one pronghorn hunt I took a doe pronghorn. My doe tasted excellent, just as good as my son's buck or maybe better.

Success rates on pronghorn are high -- around 90% I think. Be prepared to deal with the pronghorn meat. Most of the advice I read says to immediately gut the animal and get it hanging to cool off. SOme advice I've read suggests taking a couple of bags of ice in a cooler when you go out to hunt. When you bag your pronghorn, put the gutted animal in your truck and stuff the two bags of ice into the body cavity to immediately beging cooling the animal off. Others recommend skinning the animal immediately, again to help the cool down process.

You should be prepared to stalk these animals to approach within shooting range. Use small undulations in the land to hide and creep up on the pronghorns. Just about any flat shooting rifle will do -- .243, .25-06, .270, .30-06, 7 mm mag, etc.

This is very easy to do as a DIY hunt and can be done about as cheaply as any out-of-state hunt. No need to hire an outfitter -- unless you demand an outstanding trophy. If you don't need a buck, you can get doe tags even cheaper than buck tags -- last time I checked about $40 for non-resident versus $325 for non-resident buck tags.

quote:

Originally posted by Born to Hunt: He is not a bowhunter...yet.

Good, maybe he will see the light and keep killing them with a rifle, or handgun.

Party applications in Wyoming means that your application as long as it is for less than six people is all counted as one. The down side of this is if one of you has preference points then they round down to figure out how many preference points you would have. Let's say I have 6 and my 5 friends don't have any, then we have 1. If I have 6 and my friends all have 4 then we have 4.

These applications all submitted together are all drawn or not all drawn.

Party hunting in Wyoming (and all other western states) is completly illegal, I wanted to clarify that as I don't think it got settled above.