WY Unit Access Question, 2 pref points

vanish

WKR
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
550
Location
Colorado
My wife and I have 2 pref points. We want to cash out before all the fee hikes in 2018. $500+ ($324 tag, $70 archery stamp, up to $75 per point...) to archery hunt a pronghorn just isn't worth it for us when we live in Colorado. Neither of us care about the animal size all that much, we just like to hunt. I was disappointed to find out that 2 PPs isn't worth all that much more than 0PPs other than guaranteeing a draw. All the applicable units are still *difficult access* units.

I've narrowed my search to two units, 31 and 42. In Colorado, we hunt on foot and we only hunt about 8 square miles and manage to be successful, so limited access is nothing new to us, but these two units seem to have at least a fair amount of access. My biggest concern is that it is an illusion of access.

Has anyone hunted or been to these units and can give me their impression of the access?
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
895
Let me start off by saying that I've never hunted those areas before. My only real suggestions are to get the onxmaps chip for your gps. And to call the county road department to find out which roads are county maintained. Two track roads are only public roads when they are inside public land, otherwise they are private. County maintained roads are public, whether they travel thru private or not.

Some areas in Wyoming have BLM land that gets close to, but doesn't contact, county roads. Unfortunately that makes getting to the property difficult.

Good luck, and have fun chasing the wind.

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OP
vanish

vanish

WKR
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
550
Location
Colorado
Well, the number of animals was incredible. We looked at well over 100 bucks on just the first day. I didn't see much in the way of trophy potential, though we did see a couple of bucks that looked larger than the average we were seeing; couldn't get on them as they were running does and just never stopping.

After a full day of looking over bucks, on Sunday we decided to just pick a couple of good looking boys. My wife's buck had the largest body of any pronghorn we've taken, yielding over 50 pounds of meat, though his horns were way smaller than we thought once he was on the ground. Mine has some very nice prongs, which is what I was looking for since our bucks where we hunt in CO tend to be tall but have small prongs.

If one wanted to put the time in, they could definitely bring home bigger bucks with effort, but for someone who wants to just go have fun hunting pronghorn, it was off the hook. I see why people go to Wyoming for pronghorn, and as much as I love hunting them, I think I'm going to save my money for something more exotic since I can hunt these guys at home in CO every year. Oddly, being able to look over that many animals and trying to pick the biggest one really stressed me out. Either I haven't grown to become a trophy hunter yet, or its just not in my blood.

uc


uc
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
895
Well, the number of animals was incredible. We looked at well over 100 bucks on just the first day. I didn't see much in the way of trophy potential, though we did see a couple of bucks that looked larger than the average we were seeing; couldn't get on them as they were running does and just never stopping.

After a full day of looking over bucks, on Sunday we decided to just pick a couple of good looking boys. My wife's buck had the largest body of any pronghorn we've taken, yielding over 50 pounds of meat, though his horns were way smaller than we thought once he was on the ground. Mine has some very nice prongs, which is what I was looking for since our bucks where we hunt in CO tend to be tall but have small prongs.

If one wanted to put the time in, they could definitely bring home bigger bucks with effort, but for someone who wants to just go have fun hunting pronghorn, it was off the hook. I see why people go to Wyoming for pronghorn, and as much as I love hunting them, I think I'm going to save my money for something more exotic since I can hunt these guys at home in CO every year. Oddly, being able to look over that many animals and trying to pick the biggest one really stressed me out. Either I haven't grown to become a trophy hunter yet, or its just not in my blood.

uc


uc
Those both look like trophies to me. I've been hunting them in Wyoming the last two years on zero points so I've never had my choice when it came to bucks. I'm currently buying points to use in a couple years. Either way, Congratulations on a successful hunt!! It's definitely addicting!!

Just my 2 cents and worth the price charged.
 
OP
vanish

vanish

WKR
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
550
Location
Colorado
I know, my post is total schizophrenia! Don't get me wrong, if I had the cash, I'd hunt there every chance I could!

We saw so much game that I had trouble handling it mentally. I was stressing over trying to find the biggest buck around and it started sucking the fun out of it. I've always had to work for every animal I've taken in the past, whether it was a doe whitetail or whatever. This was just such a different situation. I started worrying about whether I would end up shooting something "too small" and that has never been a concern of mine before, and I don't know how I feel about that idea. Its not what hunting has been for me.

The guys that hunt limited entry units probably think I'm the silliest thing around right now. :D
 

TravisIN

WKR
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
974
Great story man and congrats. I'm going next year and have one point so your giving me hope. The only thing is I'm going with a bow and trying to find a unit with some topography that will help with spot and stalk.


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cnelk

WKR
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
6,798
Location
Colorado
Yep.
No comparison between WY and Colorado in regards to public access, lack of people and quantity/quality of game a person can hunt each year

Nice job Vanish
 
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