Couple WI Boys Heading West

WIsheds · Jan 3, 2010

Hello all
First Time Poster, long time follower here. Well after putting it off for several years, my brother,myself and our buddy are planning a trip west to try and find some deer antlers. Not posting on here to try and find anyones hotspots or anything. Just looking for advice/tips. Our plan is to head as far as Cody, Wyoming for several days and then head our way back east to Wisconsin while burning a bunch of boot leather and talking with several landowners. We chose Cody because we are somewhat familiar with the area after several trips out there on antelope/deer hunts. If anyone has any advice, criticism, resources for maps, etc we would be more than happy to hear them.

Thank You
Kyle

Antlers_Ink · Jan 3, 2010

Just a fair warning. Alot of those locals in Wyoming hate those of us from Utah heading up there lookin for bones. They blame Utahns for a lot of the changes happening in their state. A lot of places are closed to shed hunting until May 1st up there. You may want to contact someone to find out specifics. Or maybe someone will come on here and fill in the details. I know the Windriver area has had a middle May opening for sheds for years now but I believe they are changing things across the State now.

Ungulate · Jan 3, 2010

Welcome to the forum Kyle,
Cody is in a liminal area where I am not entirely sure whether shed hunting has been outlawed until the first of may. It would certainly be a waste of time if you made the trek from Wisconsin to find that it is strictly regulated. The locals are able to regulate the collection of shed antlers prior to the fish and game officially regulating them as well.

I have obtained BLM maps for specific areas at www.blm.org I hope that you have a lot of success, but you may need to contact local officials and the wyoming fish and game.

elkantler75 · Jan 4, 2010

yeah, i'd be careful with the wyoming guys.... they get pretty unfriendly in a hurry when they see outastate plates. tuneups and fix a flats galore. i have even seen some windshields get taken out..... kinda like they took a page right outta bessies handbook..

sneeke01 · Jan 4, 2010

I believe the new rules for Wyoming are that you aren't allowed to pickup sheds or winter kills from January 1st to April 30th on the western side of the continental divide in Wyoming. I believe you can still pick them up on state and private property. Good luck.

hornhunter247 · Jan 4, 2010

you know if I were you I'd just drive a couple more hours to utah. great people and they just love outta staters! try the henrys, huge deer there!

WIsheds · Jan 11, 2010

Thanks to all who posted. Cody is east of the Continental Divide so we shouldn't run into any problems with the new shed law. About what elkantler said about the locals... ARE YOU SERIOUS???? As much as we in Wisconsin don't like all the flatlanders from Illinois coming up and screwing our hunt, we don't %&#$ with the $30,000 trucks...

Antlers_Ink · Jan 11, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Jan-11-10 AT 08:40PM (MST)[p]Maybe it's just that they love to hate Utahn's. Hopefully you won't have any trouble with them messin with your vehichle, but just in case make sure your packin heat if you catch the M*@#$!
F&#@*!$.

wybhtn · Jan 17, 2010

ElkAntlers75 is full of chit. They will not mess with your vechicle. Unless you decide to drive your atv offroad in the sagebrush.

The reason the shed law was put in place on the west side of the cont. divide was because of the UTAH AFFECT. If you went to the meetings you would have known.

There is just as great of winter ranges on the east side of the divide so why no shed season there? Because it is out of driving distance for the utah crowd.

If you are going to be by cody watch out for private land. Also I heard the elk are wintering farther and farther out these days and you can find elk sheds by meeteesee rim.

Hornhog2 · Jan 17, 2010

Alright, so I keep hearing these horror stories about WY guys freaking out when they see a Utah license plate. I live in S. Utah and have never been to Wyoming. It must be brutal up there when the sheds start to fall. What I don't understand is, isn't it public ground? What makes Wyoming's blm and forest service unavailable to everyone else? Granted there is definitly plenty of dou.. bag shed hunters in Utah. But honestly, I've seen as bad or worse guys in Nevada and Arizona. I guess all the guys in Wyoming are as good as gold, and should get ALL the sheds if they fall in their state.

I hunt sheds because it is fun. It's a great time of year to be outside. I enjoy hanging with my family and friends when we hunt sheds. I have good shed hunting buddies from Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. None of which could give a flying crap about which state we pick them up in. We'll all be sure to steer clear of Wyoming though. We don't want to ruffle any feathers by picking up sheds that aren't ours. P.S. I hope you WI boys find a truck load!!!

wybhtn · Jan 17, 2010

Hornhog2,
It is brutal up here when the shed season gets going. Heck its brutal before it even starts.

The majority of the the problems have been with utah guys. That is a fact and you can talk to any of the game wardens in the areas and they will relay the same to you. In fact someone broke down the wildlife violations for Lincoln county last year and it was staggering to see the % of them were from utah. Of course the number of hunters that even hunt the western part from out of state are from UT so I can see how this statistic isn't worth much. I'm sure in the NE part of the state its UT, probably ND,SD,MT ??

It sucks for the utah guys that do it legit and are just out there to have a good time. They are thrown in the class with everyone else. I know a few from UT that I'd rather shed hunt with then 1/2 the guys I know in WY.

I've seen bad ethics from guys in WY. Heck I'd say personally I've seen more abuse with atv's by guys from WY.

But that is bias because I don't spend much time where the utah guys go. In fact some of the places I go utah guys would wet themselves if they knew about them. So the atv tracks I see all over the sagebrush? They are defiently wyoming guys.

I feel for the utah guys coming to WY and ID to try to get away from the madness of UT, but I don't think they realize they are just bringing the problems with them.

I think its going to be worse this year because the utah guys can just shed hunt in UT till the may first opener and then really pound WY. Before they pretty much had to choose either UT/WY when the shed hunting was prime (April) but now they don't have to.

hornkiller · Jan 18, 2010

I have been going to wy for 6-7 years now and seen more wy guys take wheelers and trucks off roads than i can count seems really easy for them to just blaim it on us carrot heads

SSakitas · Jan 18, 2010

I live and antler hunt in wyoming and it has gone beyond ugly here The compitition for antlers as gotten so intense with just the locals then you throw in people from out of state coming and looking for antlers that are only going to be here for a couple of days so they need to make the most out of it and often times do many shady and unethical things to make sure they dont go home empty handed. Now I relise that it is not every out of stater that is unethical in the pursuit of antlers while they are in the state of Wyoming its a few bad apples that give the rest of the law abiding citizens from Utah a bad name. But unfortunately this is not how the law makers see it and thats why now nobody can shed hunt west of the continental divide and this is why there is so much hostility against people from Utah when they come you Wyoming to shed hunt or look at deer here. And trust me it is as bad as elkantlers75 has said I have heard horrer stories of things people have done to Utahns that are antler hunting in Wyoming and I have heard it strait from the perpetrators mouth. Unfortunately This kind of behaver and attitude from the Wyoming residents will not change any time soon they feel they have been burned by this and being kept from doing the sport they love. Hopefully minds can be changed on this subject this is a free country or atleast it is supposed to be and people should not be harassed because of where they are from. Further more having a antler season I dont think will make more compitition because come May 1 all the antlers will be picked up by the people that broke the law all winter and spring and never got caught because a few people in a area with no other compitition will be able to wipe a area completly out and this is why I did not support the antler law from the beginning and I believe that all it will do is screw the honest guy out of the antlers.

ARCHRYBLL · Jan 18, 2010

+1 SSakitas I also believe it will be just like when utah had a shed season, the honest ones wait until May 1 and all the sheds are gone because the law breakers that are usually the ones causing the problems in the first place have already been out and picked up the sheds! I lived in wyo for four years, but have always claimed residency in utah but I have shed hunted in wyo for at least ten years and believe me utahns are only a small part of the problem.