Wyoming Antelope Input

[Bwana Bob]

Stop complaining your making it more complicated than it has to be. Buck up and pay the $200 more for the special tag. Lots of good areas you can draw with tons of public. Hey, for $50 more I'll even pick some great areas that I've hunted in the past for you.
!0 WY antelope hunts and many hours on the pot reading the WY regs and Eastmans picks has made me an antelope expert, Right.

[GUscottie]

For my next buck hunt I'm just bucking up and paying the special price. Opens a lot more options...plus points creep is drastically reduced.

[Chesapeake]

We've killed some decent (to us, not record book stuff) bucks in the easy to draw units. Just have to hold out. Easy to hold out with a fist full of doe tags. Always see the biggest bucks on private land along the highway driving there.
Never paid the special price before. Sure seems like an expensive antelope tag to me.
This dude was sick or something. He just stood there. But it made a good photo op. He's average sized for what we see most of in the easy units.

[Bwana Bob]

For my next buck hunt I'm just bucking up and paying the special price. Opens a lot more options...plus points creep is drastically reduced.

Smart man Scottie, I'm doing the special thing this year and hope to draw a real decent area.
Point creek and the reduction in tags in a lot of units has led to some real tuff draw odd even in marginal areas.

[cem3434]

Chesapeake, I have 4 points for speed goats and would like to have a chance to kill an average buck and some doe tags. We have never put in and have just buying points for the last couple of years, so what units would you suggest that my hunting partner and myself look at drawing?

On a side note, I still don't understand how its possible to draw your second choice and not burn your points. Can someone break this down into layman's terms for me? If I have 4 points and my first choice takes an average of 7 points to draw and my second choice takes an average of 2 points to draw, does that mean I will draw my second choice and hold onto my preference points?

[bobcat]

I'm no expert on Wyoming but I believe you would not be able to draw a tag that takes two points as a second choice. To draw a second choice it needs to be an undersubscribed tag. (More tags available than first choice applicants)

[Chesapeake]

Chesapeake, I have 4 points for speed goats and would like to have a chance to kill an average buck and some doe tags. We have never put in and have just buying points for the last couple of years, so what units would you suggest that my hunting partner and myself look at drawing?

On a side note, I still don't understand how its possible to draw your second choice and not burn your points. Can someone break this down into layman's terms for me? If I have 4 points and my first choice takes an average of 7 points to draw and my second choice takes an average of 2 points to draw, does that mean I will draw my second choice and hold onto my preference points?

I don't have time to look for you now on unit suggestions, I'll have to look at points creep and tag reductions, ect.... to give a good suggestion.

Your looking for units you can draw with 4 points, have access, and have doe tags. The good buck units don't typically have lots of doe tags. Say for instance 72. You had 30 some buck tags and 20 some doe tags. With 220 some odd folks trying for them. Your in a points range that you'll probably need to hunt bucks in one unit and does in another to avoid wasting your 4 points. The key will be finding these units close enough to be feasible.....

I'll send you a PM in a day or two.

As for second choice draw. The only tags that go into the second choice are for units that have tags left after the initial draw. (read tough access). They don't take your points for second choice draws.

[Chesapeake]

So lets talk about trying to figure out draw odds, points creep, and quota's (Non-res only gets up to a percentage of the tags).

So talking about 89-1. You can see that only 4% of those with 4 points drew. 100% of those with "less than 5 points" drew (Wyoming averages your points when in a group, so if 1 guy had 4 and 1 had 5 in a 2 person group then you'd have 4.5 points or "<5" points. Wyoming has middle groups, so 0, less than 1, 1 point, less than 2, 2, less than 3, 3 ect......)
But look a little lower. 22 folks with 4 points didn't get tags last year. You can expect some of them to be back this year, as well as a few new folks with 4 points may jump in the race.
Look lower yet.  171 folks with <4 points put in. You can expect some of those folks, and some folks that have just been buying points to be in the race next year as well. With a 17 tag non-res quota this unit will creep, because the demand (~200 tags) would take several years to be filled with just 17 tags.


Go here for the quota's.
http://gf.state.wy.us/web2011/Departments/Hunting/pdfs/REGULATIONS_CH5_FILING0006964.pdf