WY Meatfest 2010

[gasman]

XD Well hopefully he didn't squish you at all or make you as a pancake.
Lol. We were eating sausage this morning & nobody puked. :] Man you're missing out

Hey, you forgot to mention the stew we had tonight with teh antelope in it 

[Widgeondeke]

My entire family is loving the antelope. I don't see it lasting very long. 

Great pics & write up guys.

[elkhuntindad]

Nice Pics, never hunted Antelope before but wanted to, hard because half the people i talk to hate the meat and the other half love it, guess it all depends on who butchers it and what kind cut you had, i have only had jerky and peperoni sticks which were both good, what are your thoughts

[TeacherMan]

That looks like a blast! I really want to give that a shot some day soon. A couple questions because I really want to do this, and if you don't want to answer any of them that's cool. What units did you put in for and could you put a basic cost break down up. If you don't want to that's okay but I would really like to save/schedule this hunt in sometime. Looks like good eatin 

[huntlakewood]

Nice job guys. I never had lope meat before but I bet I will now since I helped gasman cut his up I smell peperoni. With all the stories that gasman told me sounds like fun.

[gasman]

I will try to answer some of you questions Teacherman.
We hunted Unit 23, but did talk with guys that were hunting unit 24 (in the Grasslands)
Lic cost is $272 for a buck tag and $40 for doe tags. We were able to get 4 doe tags this year (the herd numbers are about 4000 antelope higher then they want)
Hotel cost will depends on where you stay and hunt. Much of the eastern portion of WY is private land but there are some public lands that can be hunted. WY has a great program that allows access to privet property's through a few different programs.
First is the HMA, Hunt Management Area. This is mostly private land that is open to public hunting through a draw program. If you get drawn for a specific unit that has HMA in it, you can contact the land manager to get permission to hunt.
Second is WIA ares. Walk In Area. a cross between public and private land that can be accessed by foot traffic only and there is no need to contact the land owner.
There is BLM land all over, you just need to get propper maps and do your research. Knowing how to read a map helps also 

A land owner list can be received from the WY game dept. You can contact the land owners on the list and make arrange ments with them to hunt there property, but know that they will charge a tresspass fee, and the fee varies from land owner to land owner. The Gillette Visitor center also can point you to Public land and private land to hunt. When it comes to the private land, they will be contacted by a land owner that did not get there name on the Land Owner List but have areas to hunt.

All information i have provided is found on the http://gf.state.wy.us/ web site. You can look at tehareas and decide where you want to put in for by draw success or amount of public land to hunt.

The last cost would be food and fuel. If you find a person to split the cost of fuel and lodging, it will reduce the cost.

Hope thsi helps.

Gasman

[Widgeondeke]

To add on a lil bit:
You can also camp on any BLM land for free up to 14 days.
From Everett to Casper and hunting our gas bill was $600 split by 2 guys.
You can easily do this hunt DIY public land for right around $1000 if you split the gas.
WY is great for giving out info. We hunted all public land (mostly WIA) and got 13 lopes between us.
As stated before. Start researching online to find a unit that suirs you and go for it.
I hunted 72.

[Hyde]

Nice Pics, never hunted Antelope before but wanted to, hard because half the people i talk to hate the meat and the other half love it, guess it all depends on who butchers it and what kind cut you had, i have only had jerky and peperoni sticks which were both good, what are your thoughts

I've taken a few antelope in my days.  I was taught long ago that if you get the antelope skinned and cooled down immediately, your meat will be excellent.  If you don't, it won't.  I can't comment what happens when you don't, as all the lopers I ever shot were skinned and on ice within 1-2 hours of being killed.  Consider that a loper is about the size of a german shepherd (body wise), so having a couple of large coolers along with ice each day will make it easy to accomplish.  If you are camping, just have a backup plan to take the meat into town immediately.  No need to hang a loper, you can shoot it and cut/wrap/freeze the same day. 

[DeerThug]

Great antelope hunt.  Reminds me of the trip with me and my son.  10 antelope in 3 days.

Makes me want to go back.  Tough decision - we are planning a senior hunting trip next year.  Cant decide on Wyoming antelope or Peck's Reservour mulie hunt. 

[ribka]

Great antelope hunt.  Reminds me of the trip with me and my son.  10 antelope in 3 days.

Makes me want to go back.  Tough decision - we are planning a senior hunting trip next year.  Cant decide on Wyoming antelope or Peck's Reservour mulie hunt. 

I was a bit leary about lope meat. Everyone said it was gamey and nasty. I called the rancher  before hand for logistics and info and he insisted that we skin and bone-out lope asap. He also suggested soaking meat in salt water with ice. I soaked mine for 24hrs and meat was sweet with no gamey flavor. Wife and 6 of my neighbors tried it and wanted seconds.

Looking at Ft Peck next year as can combine a lope with a deer hunt. 

[PacificNWhunter]

Congrats.

[pods8]

Generally speaking how much meat usually comes off a lope?  When folks are talking about dropping double digits I'm guessing not too much?

[gasman]

Generally speaking how much meat usually comes off a lope?  When folks are talking about dropping double digits I'm guessing not too much?

Completely deboned, we got an average of 25-35lbs of meat.

We both came home with about 120lbs plus each, of just meat.  Ribka, a little more then me, He seemed to always shoot the big does 

[carpsniperg2]

yeah the bucks we have got avg around 40-45 lbs not much

[pods8]

Completely deboned, we got an average of 25-35lbs of meat.

We both came home with about 120lbs plus each, of just meat.  Ribka, a little more then me, He seemed to always shoot the big does 

Follow up - Do you pretty much just get the 4 legs & back straps (neck?)?  I was interpreting based on going gutless and deboning in 20min or so there likely isn't any real meat on the ribs/flank area to go after?