Looking for long distant scouting advice

plentycoupe

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
250
Hey all,

I will retire next spring and have to move on to find a grown up job! With this I am assuming I won't have the time off I need right away. So I am going to burn the 6 points I have for WY goats and have a great hunt this year.

Looking at the draw results I have a few options but I need more time to figure them out so I don't waste an application. I am also trying to figure out how to gauge the 2nd and 3rd choices.

My priorities are a great camping style hunting trip along with the opportunity for a nice goat. I have good optics and the necessary gear. I plan to spend a week there. I will be hunting solo and will probably bring my coyote gear as well.

Ok to my questions. How do you all long distance scout? I will not be able to go to the area before the season.
Besides google earth what maps/programs do you use? What are you looking for?
For antelope what are you looking for on Google earth?
How do I know if I can draw a doe tag as well?
What questions do you ask the biologist?

Enough for now as I don't mean to draw this out. I have a scatter brain sometimes so this long distance thing probably seems more difficult to me than it really is.

Please PM me if you want to keep it quiet.

Thank you all.
Jason
 

elkguide

WKR
Joined
Jan 26, 2016
Messages
4,606
Location
Vermont
My first question to anyone at F&G is "if you had 6 points and wanted to have a great hunt for goats, which area would you apply in?"

I've found that most of the people in F&G are very helpful in getting a good idea where to start.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
895
I figured out which areas I picked based solely on the previous year's point stats and the harvest report. Then call the biologist and game warden for that area and asked them.

As far as scouting. I would use a topo lines overlayed onto Google Earth. The site Toprut.com can send you the files for this. Click unit maps, area, animal and state (I think, going from memory). They will email you the files a few minutes later.

You know antelope can't climb, hell they can't even jump a fence, so look for flatter areas where they can use their eyesight and their speed.

Hopefully this helps.

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Last edited:
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
895
Maybe I shouldn't have said "can't" and should have said "really really don't want to and prefer to go under or run along them"

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Jimss

WKR
Joined
Mar 6, 2015
Messages
2,074
Bglemin hit the nail on the head. Look for water and you will find antelope. If I'm heading to a new area I often find maps that show springs, windmills, reservoirs, etc. and circle every one of them. Some may dry up by hunting season but some may have water. Obviously some areas may have lots of streams, ditches, lakes, etc but for the most part the sage/rimrock country throughout Wyo doesn't have much water. If it's a super dry fall many of the antelope will be concentrated within a mile or so of water sources.

In reference to pref pts. Just because a unit requires lots of pref pts doesn't necessarily mean it has lots of bucks or high quality bucks, Drought, winterkill, disease, coyotes, etc can dramatically change antelope numbers and quality of bucks from one year to the next. That would be one of the top questions to ask biologists. I generally keep track of snow depths through the winter, fawn crop, quality of bucks, etc. from the previous 3 years. It usually takes at least 3 years to produce B&C horns on antelope....which is a lot shorter time than deer, elk, and other horned game.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
895
I learned something new as well. I thought only bow hunters would hunt around water holes. I sure wasn't expecting rifle hunters to do the same.

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JustHunt

FNG
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
92
I learned something new as well. I thought only bow hunters would hunt around water holes. I sure wasn't expecting rifle hunters to do the same.

It's not that the rifle hunters sit on the water hole waiting for something to come "in". Rifle hunting antelope around water to me, means hunting within a 2 mile radius of a water hole. Some guys here mention an even tighter radius of 1 mile. Basically your just hunting the country around where a water is, as the antelope will be more concentrated there. While the areas outside of that radius if they do not have water within a couple miles may have way fewer or no antelope. But believe it or not, the desert can have a surprisingly large amount of water holes scattered all around it so narrowing down an area may be difficult if it was a wet year. If it's a dry year, and your planning on hunting a small water, check that it has water in it!

GoogleEarth is your friend! Also check out the access yes and other walk in type hunt areas on the Wyoming fish and game webpage.
 
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