Spent the last few weekends on the unit. Put about 1500 miles on my truck and 400 miles on my wheeler. Been from one end of the unit to the other and to all four corners. Last weekend worked on patterning a couple of the larger bucks. Next weekend I will be doing the same.
I can provide you with the following information. The unit is very large and in the middle of nowhere. There is a lot of water this year. Ponds that were empty a few weeks ago are now full. The antelope are very scattered and are spending most of their time in the cedars and believe it or not pines. There are very few antelope over 75". If your wife is looking for a larger buck, I would turn the tag back in.
After spending a total of seven days and putting thousands of miles on my vehicles I have seen a total of 157 antelope. That is very few antelope for the effort. That is less than 25 antelope per day.
They may come out of the trees when it cools down, but right now they are pretty scarce and very scattered. I have shared information with two other hunters that have tags. One has already turned his tag in because of the number of antelope he is seeing and the quality. I actually ran into the guy that received the turned in tag. He is a local and already knows where he is going to hunt so it worked out very well. The other is considering turning his tag in. I'm going to take my chances because I happened to find a couple of mid 70's bucks. That I would enjoy taking with my bow.
When you go scouting be very careful around the water sources. The sage and greasewood around them is full of rattlesnakes. I have never been anywhere that I have seen more snakes.
Many people have told me that there are more antelope on the unit than I or the other two guys have seen. Between the three of us we have spent 14 days on the unit. It could be that it is just very hot still, but we are disappointed in the unit. From my experience I would rate the unit as fair at best compared to the other antelpoe units I have scouted and hunted.
Most of the local people talk about the bucks that were taken a few years back. I haven't seen the quality they talk about. If your wife only whats a 12 or 13" buck with small forks it should not be to tough. Anything bigger will be luck or a some work.
