# 2013 Southwest Wyoming Antelope Forecast



## wyogoob

For 6 months I've been living, working, and playing in southwest Wyoming antelope areas 59, 57, 93, 94, 95, 98, 99 and 100.

I'm not a big game biologist so call me crazy.....but I'm thinking they may have sold too many goat tags this year. Numbers are really low.


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## gdog

Where's the "not like" button......:|


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## izzydog

Glad I didn't draw then! Maybe next year.


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## Springville Shooter

Bummer:-o Oh well, I'm comitted now!---SS


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## johnnycake

well goob, if it is any consolation, the wife and I didn't fill 3 doe tags last year in 98 and we ended up not drawing any this year....


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## wyogoob

johnnycake said:


> well goob, if it is any consolation, the wife and I didn't fill 3 doe tags last year in 98 and we ended up not drawing any this year....


Sorry 'bout that.

Boy, there's some nice goats on private ground in 98. Not as good as it use to be on public land.


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## wyogoob

Hip Hip Hooray...Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!!

This morning I seen 2 doe antelope running back and forth across Highway 430, the boundary between areas 59 and 58. I'm not making this up, I'm talking 2 antelope. 

Now I'm no biologist, but I'm sure both animals can be counted as part of the antelope herd for each area. Also note each doe antelope will be accompanied by 1.28 fawns in July. Then for each doe antelope counted there will be .042 bucks and another 8.0 does hidden out of sight or 8.042 times the number of antelope observed. That's a total of 234.8 antelope that can be counted for each area......


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## johnnycake

ah goob.....glad to see you qualify for government math!
As far as not filling our tags...yeah we miss the meat(love me some speed goat!) but it was pretty clear that the population was not doing so well up there, so that helped season the tag soup a bit.


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## wyogoob

johnnycake said:


> ah goob.....glad to see you qualify for government math!
> As far as not filling our tags...yeah we miss the meat(love me some speed goat!) but it was pretty clear that the population was not doing so well up there, so that helped season the tag soup a bit.


good on you


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## Packout

Well there better be at least 1 doe left up there for my sons to shoot at. The 12 year old wants to kill one and the 14 yo might just rather hike around and not deal with the mess. I was surprised they issued as many tags as they did after they said the fawn crop last year had such poor survival.


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## sklobe25

Goob or anyone have any thoughts/recommendations on unit 89? Drew out a doe tag and will be my first 'lope hunt.


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## Springville Shooter

Packout said:


> Well there better be at least 1 doe left up there for my sons to shoot at. The 12 year old wants to kill one and the 14 yo might just rather hike around and not deal with the mess. I was surprised they issued as many tags as they did after they said the fawn crop last year had such poor survival.


You guys take care of the last doe, we'll take care of the last buck.....then no one will have to wonder if there are any more antelope up there or not.--SS


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## wyogoob

Packout said:


> ................................................................. I was surprised they issued as many tags as they did after they said the fawn crop last year had such poor survival.


Me too


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## wyogoob

I've made 2 round trips from Evanston WY to Rock Springs WY in the last week. Seen 9 antelope. 

Zip-uh-dee-doo-dah!!!!!


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## Packout

Found all the antelope. SS will be just fine and my boys might get some shooting on their hunts, too. Never seen so many fawns as I did over the weekend, so hopefully that bodes well for the future of the areas I visited.


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## gdog

Packout...what unit did your boys draw?


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## wyogoob

Packout said:


> Found all the antelope. SS will be just fine and my boys might get some shooting on their hunts, too. Never seen so many fawns as I did over the weekend, so hopefully that bodes well for the future of the areas I visited.


Great News!!!

We can issue a couple a thousand more tags next year.

.


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## wyogoob

Update:

Antelope are coming out of the woodwork!!! They're everywhere. I've seen hundreds, perhaps billions, of goats total in units 59 100, 99, 93, 94, and 95.

Come to think of it I think I've seen 3 billion antelope in southwest Wyoming this past week. Uh...that would be the same number of passenger pigeons that we once had.....just sayin.


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## gdog

As soon as I have Cam's 7mm-08 dialed in tomorrow...your gonna have 3 billion, minus 1:mrgreen:


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## NoShot

wyogoob said:


> Update:
> 
> Antelope are coming out of the woodwork!!! They're everywhere. I've seen hundreds, perhaps billions, of goats total in units 59 100, 99, 93, 94, and 95.
> 
> Come to think of it I think* I've seen 3 billion antelope in southwest Wyoming* this past week. Uh...that would be the same number of passenger pigeons that we once had.....just sayin.


My wife says we saw about that same number yesterday.

Thanks for your info Goob, took this one yesterday in 100.

Looked over 20 or so, what i figured were mature bucks before deciding this one would do.



















not many hunters around(surprised me) and plenty of antelope.


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## gdog

Nice work!


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## Mtnsurf

Looks like a nice hunt up there, I'm jealous..
I am heading up soon to try and fill a doe tag in unit 98. I've never hunted in that unit and I'm hoping someone could point me in an overall direction to start. Most of the lower portion of the unit looks to be good antelope country with lots of public land. I am going to put a call in to the local fish and game office to see if a biologist could give me some info. Any and all help is appreciated...


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## NoShot

Mtnsurf said:


> Looks like a nice hunt up there, I'm jealous..
> I am heading up soon to try and fill a doe tag in unit 98. I've never hunted in that unit and I'm hoping someone could point me in an overall direction to start. Most of the lower portion of the unit looks to be good antelope country with lots of public land. I am going to put a call in to the local fish and game office to see if a biologist could give me some info. Any and all help is appreciated...


I'll be in 98 next week with my dad and son trying to fill doe tags as well.:mrgreen:


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## wyogoob

NoShot said:


> My wife says we saw about that same number yesterday.
> 
> Thanks for your info Goob, took this one yesterday in 100.
> 
> Looked over 20 or so, what i figured were mature bucks before deciding this one would do.
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> not many hunters around(surprised me) and plenty of antelope.


Way2go, that's a goodun. Love them white tips. I'm familiar with that gene pool too.


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## Springville Shooter

Well,
I hunted for a solid weekend south of Rock Springs and killed the 98th buck I looked at. Granted, I might have counted a couple twice but, from what I could tell, there is a bumper crop of 2 1/2 year old bucks. I'm no biologist, but it almost seemed like there were too many animals in the area. Saw a few other hunters but they were too busy chasing antelope with ATV's to chat with. Didn't see any others killed. While I was chatting with a nice warden, we did see a guy miss a small buck 5-6 times while there was a bigger buck just over the rise. Funny.--------SS


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## wyogoob

Springville Shooter said:


> Well,
> I hunted for a solid weekend south of Rock Springs and killed the 98th buck I looked at. Granted, I might have counted a couple twice but, from what I could tell, there is a bumper crop of 2 1/2 year old bucks. I'm no biologist, but it almost seemed like there were too many animals in the area. Saw a few other hunters but they were too busy chasing antelope with ATV's to chat with. Didn't see any others killed. While I was chatting with a nice warden, we did see a guy miss a small buck 5-6 times while there was a bigger buck just over the rise. Funny.--------SS


Pictures, we need pictures.

Uh...my friends in Sweetwater County have learned to shoot with a fair amount of proficiency off a moving ATV. The antelope has to be standing still though. And of course, they drive out onto the sagebrush when they pull the trigger so they're not shooting off a public road. :smile:

Glad you are seeing millions, perhaps billions, of pronghorns. I work 5 days a week on the eastern side of your unit and there are zero antelope there. Historically we would see 98 3 1/2 year old bucks by 9:00 a.m. on opening day; those days are gone.

I'm no biologist, all I have to go by is 33 years of myself, family, workmates and friends hunting, working, and just plain living in Southwest WY. Antelope numbers are the lowest I've seen; lower than all the drought years and all the bad winter kill years.

Travel (walk or ride a horse) the Wyoming/Utah state line. Count the number of antelope on each side. Not much on the Utah side; and exactly the same habitat. How did it get that way?

They put out too many tags.


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## Springville Shooter

No Goob, the wolves ate them all.......get with the program.--------SS


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## Springville Shooter

I'll take your word for it Goob. I must say that I was a bit disappointed that in all my scouting and hunting, probably seeing a couple hundred bucks, I never saw one over 14" in my unit. I did see a few bigger ones from the freeway between Green River and Evanston. THANK GOODNESS I don't have to have a huge buck to have a great time. If you can't enjoy a mediocre antelope hunt then hang it up and fish.-----SS


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## svmoose

If you're judging the success of your hunt by the size of the horns, you're in it for the wrong reasons. Now let's enjoy some pics SS!


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## wyogoob

Springville Shooter said:


> No Goob, the wolves ate them all........--------SS


really?


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## wyogoob

gdog said:


> Nice work!


Hey, stop wasting your time on that lame Facebook and post up your WY antelope here.

Uh....speaking of Facebook; my grandaughter won her soccer game; I love my wife; and I'm up at 2:00 a.m. cause I had to pee.

.


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## Springville Shooter

Here you go. the hunt was solo, so the pic was taken with the camera sitting on a rock using the timer, hence the reason it's so far away. ---SS


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## gdog

wyogoob said:


> Hey, stop wasting your time on that lame Facebook and post up your WY antelope here.
> .


Well looks like WY only made 13"-14" antelope this year for unit 94, we saw a bunch of them. Only 2 bucks we laid eyes on were bigger and they both gave us the slip. We put the miles on and at the end of day 2 my son decided it was time to get it done and picked one out for me to take.

We had a blast....


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## toasty

My goal this year was to take my time and carefully select a buck, we passed on 4 or 5 bucks, but this guy looked too good to pass on, after getting a good look at him for about 5 minutes he decides to run another 800 yards and make me work for it. Didn't look as good on the ground after he was down until we put the tape on him. 14 3/4" on one side and 14 1/2" on the other. My hunt was done in 2 hours, but that is an hour longer than my last hunt.


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## NoShot

Well done there gdog, S.S and toasty.
Great looking animals!!


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## NoShot

My son and I ran up to 98 Friday morning and got home last nigh.

It was a hunt to remember. As this was his FIRST hunt ever at 24.
Divorce/ moved out of state/ military deployment. Etc.

I am a happy and proud dad today!








2 mile stalk and 150yard shot bout 4pm yesterday.

And mine,









Love Wyoming!


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## Springville Shooter

Way cool, nothing funner than a little goat action.----SS


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## wyogoob

Well the season is over. I had two doe/fawn tags; one for area 94 and one for area 100. Spent quite a bit of time in both areas, chasing rabbits, ducks, sage grouse...working, or just plain living. 

I didn't see enough antelope in area 100 to justify, IMHO, harvesting an antelope.

Earlier in the season I shot at and missed 5 different antelope with a handgun in area 94. Got me, shot low every time; jerking on the trigger rolling the muzzle down I suppose. Hit it hard out in 94 yesterday and the day before covering a lot of country both days. What few antelope are left are holed up on private ground or huddled up against some gas and oil facility. 

I didn't fill either tag, I just let them go.


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## wyogoob

Well I've been working out in Antelope areas 100 and 94 for a couple weeks. I'm still not seeing many goats in 100. I'm dissappointed for sure. 

Area 94 on the other hand has some antelope that survived the slaughter. I counted over 380 yesterday on the eastern half of area 94. Take that number times the WY G & F calculator, times 2, and there's 2,349,800,201 antelope in area 94. I'm sure the Department will raise the tag quota for 2014.

:-x


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## COWAN

gdog said:


> Well looks like WY only made 13"-14" antelope this year for unit 94, we saw a bunch of them. Only 2 bucks we laid eyes on were bigger and they both gave us the slip. We put the miles on and at the end of day 2 my son decided it was time to get it done and picked one out for me to take.
> 
> We had a blast....


Wow..... that is awesome, I cant wait to hunt with my kids.


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## wyogoob

Good news: This past week's terrible wind storms have blown the snow off of most of the antelope wintering grounds in areas 94 and 95, and, from what I'm told, on a good part of area 93.


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## silentstalker

My son and I shot these two bucks in SW Wy this past year. My Wife also shot a doe. Pretty low numbers for us but we still managed a fun family hunt!


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## horn hunter

Anyone have an idea of what unit 92 is lookin like right now or the forecast for this summer/fall? I've got 7 points. Ready to cash them in. But don't want win the lottery when there's no money in it


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## wyogoob

Been working over in areas 94 and 95. 

95 looks better than other antelope areas in southwest Wyoming. It is managed as a trophy area as much as anything. That's a good thing.

In Area 94 I keep seeing the same 3 or 4 wintering herds of goats, maybe 375 animals total. Not very good at all relative to the last 30 years.

There's just nothing left in Area 100 anymore. The Game & Fish/Private Landowners/BLM have been slowly closing off a good number of the two-track roads to vehicular traffic in the riparian areas, the draws. They can still ride the tops. Maybe that will help although many of the wheeler guys just do whatever they want. Prolly can't read the signs.

.


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## Springville Shooter

wyogoob said:


> Prolly can't read the signs.
> 
> .


Not many Utah folks can read Wyominese.....except for the returned missionaries that is.-------SS


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## wyogoob

I wonder how area 93 is doing. Hopefully the wind blew most of the snow off the winter feeding grounds. Area 93 winters antelope, and deer, from all over the western side of the Wind River Mountains. Tagged deer and antelope from as far away as Jackson have been known to migrate to 93 in the winter. 

We had good feed going into the winter in Southwest Wyoming. And so far the wind has helped keep that food uncovered. Our antelope herd needs all the luck it can get.

.


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