# Poor Antelope Horn Growth In Wyoming This Year



## hockey (Nov 7, 2007)

We made our annual fall break trek over to Eastern Wyoming. Arrived in our unit 2pm thursday and immediately started hunting. Keep in mind this is antelope hunting so it consisted of driving down every 2 track road we could find and glassing from numerous high points (high point being any hill higher than 25'). There was no shortage of antelope quantity this year, thursday afternoon and all day friday from 730am till dark we closely inspected well over 150 differant bucks and never saw a single one that was 13". Big bodied mature looking bucks but they didn't have squat for size this year. This is the 4th year in a row we have hunted this unit and the last 3 years we were able to find and kill multiple 14+" goats.
Held off pulling the trigger til saturday afternoon and I'm pretty sure Mitchell killed the biggest one we saw
[attachment=1:1bmzei6k]m.jpg[/attachment:1bmzei6k]
Vic was a little more persistant than her brother but this year it didn't pay off, she settled for this one, he has good mass but not much for length. O' well can't kill a big one every year
[attachment=0:1bmzei6k]v.jpg[/attachment:1bmzei6k]


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## Bowdacious (Sep 16, 2007)

Very nice....tell them congrats!


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

I watched a segment of 'Hooked on Utah' ...
(Had nothing to do with Utah as there were 5 guys with Wyoming antelope tags)

Anyway, they were testing Smith and Edwards store stuff, pushing Nikon scopes,
Browning rifles. Long story short, same deal, lots of antelope, nothing very big.
In-fact , they shot lopes smaller they your kids harvested...
What you guys did smoked compared to what they had on the TV show, well done.

Hopefully with quite a few antelope running around, Next year will be better.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Drought?


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## frampa30 (May 31, 2012)

I had family members that hunted antelope this year in Wyoming and it was the same story. They waited to draw one of the best units and ended up shooting smaller bucks than we normally shoot. I guess that is the drought.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Yep - drought was the driving factor for shorter horn growth this year. Had a type 2 buck tag in unit 63. Tons of 12" bucks running around. Very few bigger. My brother in law ended up shooting two that were just a hair under 14" and scored in the mid 70's. I do know of one good buck taken in the unit but the average buck was between 1e-13". The game warden confirmed this as well. Oh well - they're still a riot to hunt. Hope for good moisture next year.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

That should read "brother-in-law and I".


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> Drought?


Yes, there is not much food in the sagebrush steppe. They will have a tough winter.

In southwest Wyoming antelope on irrigated land looked good. There were some nice ones taken off private ground in areas 93, 94, and 95.

I still have 2 southwest Wyoming doe/fawn antelope tags left. I wasn't going to fill the tags because their numbers are low here. On the other hand I may be doing them a favor by filling those tags.

Congrats to the Hockey clan, good job.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

wyo, we struck out on our 3 doe tags in 98(wife and I). We didn't make it up there until a week ago on saturday, and then again yesterday. We didn't see too many compared to normal (~100 a week ago, 12 yesterday). The biggest buck we was was ~13" and pretty heavy, whereas we will often see a few pushing 15.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> wyo, we struck out on our 3 doe tags in 98(wife and I). We didn't make it up there until a week ago on saturday, and then again yesterday. We didn't see too many compared to normal (~100 a week ago, 12 yesterday). The biggest buck we was was ~13" and pretty heavy, whereas we will often see a few pushing 15.


For a number of years now the WY Game and Fish has been trying to greatly reduce the number of antelope in area 98. The number of tags issued is proof of that. There are good numbers of goats on private ground (along the Bear River drainage and the Hamms Fork River) that will help maintain the herd.

I haven't spent any time on the Hamms Fork (yet) But I've been over on the Bear River side quite a bit. Looks like numbers are down some and horns are on the small side, with the exception of some bucks living on the hay fields.

Good luck.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

That makes sense, we hit Hamms Fork last week and were more around Cokeville yesterday.


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## poco (Mar 19, 2010)

[attachment=0:3gweab43]2012 pronghorn hunt 004.JPG[/attachment:3gweab43]My son took this buck on unit 98 two weeks ago, scored 78 not bad for his first buck.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

That's a goodun!


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## Bottomwatcher (Jan 21, 2009)

This was my first year hunting antelope and it was fun. The only thing I can say is that it is very hard for me to tell how big each decent buck was. I ended up shooting this one because I thought that he would look good on the wall. I saw 2 that were bigger but it just diden't work out. I'm not sure on horn growth compared to other years but the bucks seemed about the size I was expecting. I was in area 100.[attachment=2:2s86rnqy]9.jpg[/attachment:2s86rnqy][attachment=1:2s86rnqy]8.jpg[/attachment:2s86rnqy][attachment=0:2s86rnqy]7.jpg[/attachment:2s86rnqy]


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

That's a pig! thanks for posting


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I went out chasing southwest Wyoming doe antelope with a handgun yesterday. The goats are herding up. There were a couple exceptional bucks.

I small group of goats had got out in the highway and couldn't figure out how to get on the other side of the right-of-way fence. I opened a gate and herded them thru it. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Good grief, two of them about ran me over. They ran out in the sagebrush some, stopped, looked back at me and kinda said "thanks" as I put the gate back up. I went back to the truck and drove by the same goats. They now were saying "shoot me". So I stopped at the same gate, opened it again, and walked out and shot at a doe about 80 yards away with my .44 mag revolver and missed. It was snowing. I think the snowflakes deflected the bullet.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Interesting how a scenario can change like that in an instant. Funny stuff.


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