Public Draw Antelope (pics)

[PJHntr]

Well heres a couple of pics of my goat from this past weekend. This is the first time that I have ever hunted through the public draw and though we had a great time, I must say we did feel pretty unwelcome the whole time. Anyway I don't want to get started on that. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

she looks miserable here but trust me she had a great time

The pics don't do this goat any justice at all but he did go in the high 70's.

 

[mesquitehunter]

Nice goat you have there. Congrats to you.

Why did you feel unwelcome?

 

[mozey]

...don't do it justice? I was thinking that was a sweet goat...

Much congrats!

 

[NeverStopHuntin]

Great goat. Nice heighth on that thing

 

[nmelktrout]

Way to follow up a nice bull with a great speedgoat man! Congrats on getting out with the family as well.

 

[ktc]

Very Nice!

No justice? I was thinking 80? You did good.

 

[LTrain210]

Beautiful goat. I'd take one like that any day. I had my first public hunt two years ago and I went out the day before it opened to do some scouting on the assigned ranch. The owner of the ranch told me he didn't want to let me on the place because he wanted to keep everyone off so we didn't spook all the animals before the hunt and run them off the ranch. I thought that sounded fair to me. The next day my buddy and I shot two animals and got to talking with one of the other hunters who had bought a landowner tag from the ranch owner for $2,000. He let us know the owner had taken all the "paying" hunters scouting the day before and had also given them free roam to drive and scout wherever they wanted before the hunt. After getting home I read the proclamation and it specifically said the owner has to give public hunters access to the ranch, I think for 48 hours before the hunt. If I hadn't shot an animal I would have turned the guy into the game and fish but I figured no harm no foul. I don't know what kind of experiance you had but I hope mine was the exception and not the rule. Sorry, I didn't mean to go on venting but very nice animal.

 

[nmelk13]

That is a nice goat congrats!

Ltrain- BS turn him in that is BS!

 

[PJHntr]

Well the rancher was a really nice stand up guy...at first. He didn't break any rules or anything, in fact he showed me the "pasture" that I should be hunting, me and the other state hunters would have the pasture all to ourselves. What a nice guy He also told me that he could not keep me off the rest of the place legally and made sure to tell me that the map that the state gave me was all wrong and that i didn't want to be anywhere else cause the rest of the property that the paying hunters were going to be on didn't have enough bucks for the number of hunters. I tried not to laugh when he told me but couldn't help it.

This goat didn't come out of his pasture that the state hunters were assigned to but out of a big body of property that "only had 10 dink bucks". I looked over 28 bucks from 1:00 on friday to 10:00am when i shot this guy on Sat. He was the best i saw but I just wish I would have figured out the true bounderies of the ranch before I pulled the trigger as I believe i was barely scratching the surface of the ranch.

Ok, I know i shouldn't complain. I smoked a nice buck and my dad and wife were right there with me and we got it all on video. It was still a great hunt so sorry for the belly aching

 

[nmelktrout]

No worries man, you aren't belly aching. The ranch owner on my dad's hunt (the post below this one) was a great guy and gave us a tour of the ranch on Friday but explained that the ranch had recently been split up and that his sister now owned the other half of the ranch (with all the good pasture). So, we knew that he had 7 paid hunters and were wondering how much of a cluster f we were going to have chasing the few goats we had seen around with them....turns out that we never saw them because they were hunting the "sister's side" of the ranch and we were the only guys on the desert/cholla/windmill section...We didn't find any of this out until we left the ranch and ran into the the other guys as they gassed up in town. Ironically, they had only seen a couple of yearling bucks and had not yet harvested. They were actually surprised that we had actually seen goats and harvested...Oh well, can't blaim the rancher for trying to make a little extra income and he was polite, and we did harvest. Congrats again on the hog, he's pretty sweet.

 

[vinihunt]

PJHTR

HUGE CONGRATS!!...it looks like closer to clines corner around? love to chase those stinky goats! hope to draw next year!!

congrats again!

vinihunt

 

[Ropinfool]

I have kind of a similar story. The paid hunters on the ranch I drew had a guide....he tried to tell me where i could and couldn't hunt. The owner lived in TX and a neighbor rancher took care of the place. He must have liked me because he told me where to be when the sun came up because he said the paid hunters wouldn't be there until 6:30 am. I was gutting mine out when the paid hunters came by with their guide. They didn't even stop.....lol.

 

[rcutchen]

I just happened to be with LTrain210 on the above mentioned antelope hunt. After reading some other experiences here, it bugs me that some of the landowners are shafting the public draw guy. We think that on the ranch we hunted in 2006, the landowner received about 20 tags for him to sell and I think there were 13 state hunters. If he sells those tags for $1500-$2000....well, that's more than some people make in a year. I understand that they are trying to make a buck, but that's $20k to $40k that the state's dropping in their pockets for two days of unlocking their gates.....shady.

 

[PJHntr]

That's kinda why I didn't really want to get into it cause I'm sure that lots of people have had similar experiences. It's just hard to b***ch and moan and not have ideas for solutions for the problem. It is what it is and until I have the cash to fork out to buy landowner antelope tags I'm just gonna have to deal with it. Actually, since it's the first time I have been drawn for antelope in my life I won't be lucky enough to have to deal with it again

 

[Oso]

You guys don't need to worry about being put out on the ranches anymore. All of the rules are changing for the future hunts. The public hunters will be drawn for a region. The public hunter will then have to find a place to hunt that is public and has public access. He can negoitiate to get on private property and they have a coupon that you can give the rancher if he elects to let you in. I have heard that the coupon is good from some about between $10 and $100, don't know the amount for sure. The private land hunter must hunt only on private land and not on public land at all.

So there will be no more ranch assignments and if a ranch has its public land, landlocked, then no one will hunt it unless you can arrange access.

If a ranch chooses to be a unit wide ranch and not a ranch only ranch then the public hunter and hunt it all. This is brand new and the letters from the Department just went out last week to the landowners. The commission votes on it next month.

Kiowa Hunting Service
www.kiowahunting.com
[email protected]

 

[nmbullfighter]

oso where did you hear this? i think there is no way that can work. Most all of the land where antelope live is private. thats why they do the ranch system. it would be very hard to near impossible to allow that many tags for only public..and that means all the private land hunts will be the highest quality and trophy hunts..

 

[JFWRC]

Oso is right-You best get a copy of the proposed change. Personally I worry about ranches that have a lot of public access in highly desired areas. One thing that could happen is to much harvest reducing quality or the antelope will simply move to the private. The rule is supposed to mirror the elk system......however, it does not allow for unit by unit draw, it is a regional draw, and numbers will not be allocated like the elk system. I would prefer a unit by unit draw with all choices similar to what the elk system really is.