Anyone Travel To Diy Hunt?

I hunt FL & GA mostly, went to WY in 2017 for antelope and got 2.

WY was real nice - loved the stars, seeing a lot of different critters & birds, and the smell of the air. Even found some small shed antlers and fossilized wood. Really neat. Want to go back some day and drag wife along - easy hunt, will be able to relax more than trekking thru the wilderness.

Getting ready to travel again. Considering Colorado this time. Mule deer primarily, but may get an elk tag just in case.

Anyone else do out of state DIY hunts?

 

Anyone can do this - especially with the ease of researching things nowadays. Preference points are the hindrance - you have to plan 5+ yrs out in some instances.

The main thing you want to do is avoid the idiot when choosing your hunt partner. The orange army will most likely be driving the roads. Some places you have to walk long distances, others not so much. We went prepared to do some walking, but fortunately didn't have to.

I may have walked 15 miles total in 2 days of scouting and 2.5 days of hunting. While hunting, saw 2 herds (say 10-12 and 6-8) and about 8-10 buck antelope within range from 25 to 330/340 yards. I didn't have a buck tag, after opener the does were very scarce but 2.5 yr old bucks were around.

Too bad it is such a long drive.

 

30-06 with 150 gr sierra soft points. Was zeroed to shoot a little high at 250, pretty close to dead on at 330. Never thought I would shoot an antelope at 25 yards, was prone and on bipods for the longer 330/340 yard shot. Held on hair.

First antelope was around 0700 and 2nd was close to 1700, sneaky herd came thru around 1400. The later groups were hiding from the trucks driving the roads - they get the hint very quickly... 2 days later put other guy on antelope that he shot in the early gray of morning.

You want to do the trip with someone you know. Don't hook up with some random dude like I did.

 

Public forums are a great place to meet seemingly like-minded folks who talk a lot and then ultimately don't have the action/results to back up the talk.

The short story on the antelope was that I set up where they had been at dark the night before, they got spooked by me and later, after light by the next guy down, came around to follow a gully right to me and they saw me grab my rifle - went back, truck comes down road, back to gully - look directly at me, back. After the 3rd time being pegged, figured there might be a 4th... Ran up there and started easing along a loose tree island. Another truck comes down road, they run out & stop in front of me, looking back over their shoulders at the truck and also over at a guy 150-200 yards away who was looking the other way himself. Had a big mature antelope buck at 15 to 20 yards but did not have the tag for him. Ended up shooting a small one. Huge puff of hair as the critter collapses and a blur of white and tan as the herd explodes out from spitting distance. Awesome display of athletic prowess.

If you want a hunt like the ones on TV, a guide is the way to go. I think a town type hunt is $1200-$2000. Once in a lifetime trip - I'd say go. Plan to spend some time in front of a campfire, looking up at the stars. You'd swear you can touch them.

 

Capt K - if you want to go in the future, best bet is to start accumulating preference points now. It'll pay off later. 3-5 pref points can get you into a great unit in WY for antelope. 1 point may help - the unit I hunted had leftover tags cause it was mostly private land, only had a handful of parcels folks could hunt. A positive thing was that most guys did not want to even get out of their vehicles until they were gonna stalk an animal.