Went with Area 63 Ant.

tracker12 · Mar 12, 2010

Just finished completing my app for antelope in Wy. Decided to go with area 63. With 5 points between me and my partner we should not have any problem drawing. Any assistance on the area would be appreciated. Any ideas on hotels in the area or camping areas would be appreciated. We are going to archery hunt the first week so any help on water holes in the area would be a big help. Now time to order some maps.

HiMtnHntr · Mar 12, 2010

You will draw, the area doesn't take anywhere near that many points. Motels are few and far between. Best bet would be camper or tent. Once you get the maps, single out some water sources in the area. Once you arrive, investigate these. Where there's water, there's antelope.

sageadvice · Mar 12, 2010

I hunted lopes there last season. There's lots of water there. Fortunately, there's lots of antelope there as well. We rifle hunted late in the season. Not too many hunters and some pretty decent bucks to pick from. I ended up taking a short but very heavy, long cuttered 80"er. Not your standard water hole in the middle of now where kinda place, too much water for that in most places IMO. As was said above, no hotel-motel nearby, pretty much limited to camping and at that, i didn't see, or notice, any classic camping spots during our hunt. We pretty much just camped where we finished the day. Good luck!

Joey

tracker12 · Mar 13, 2010

Thanks for all the insight. Especially on the camping issue. Guess we we will be camping. We were going to head down to CO when we were finished to do a little scouting for elk and will need to camp there anyway so that works out. What is your recommendation on bringing ATV's. Are they worth tagging along. Also anyone know if there is anywhere close we could get a ground squirrel shoot it?

sageadvice · Mar 13, 2010

ATV? Certainly not needed, we had one but didn't use it at all on the antelope portion of our hunt. There are a goodly amount of roads, two tracks that you can cover the country from a vehicle and good glass. That country is known to get extremely slippery when wet and it was wet some while we were there but dries out pretty fast. They say to carry chains. We had them but not ever came close to needing them.

I purchased the sm. game and fishing lic's. but, with some regrets, never did give the big trout in the Platt a whirl and saw little small game aside from a few groups of out of season Sage Grouse. No squirrels at all and dang few rabbits. Also, jumped more than one bunch of mallards from some of the creeks so when in season, that might be worth looking at. Did find one isolated place with a good population of Tiny Wittle Bunnie Wabbits

but left them be as we had plenty of food with us and didn't care for the, was just too easy, sport.

Joey

tracker12 · Mar 13, 2010

Thanks again. I am definitely going to try and give the Platt a try. I was at a Trout Unlimited event today and was told the Platt can be great especially that time of year. Mallards also sound good just not sure there will be in season the end of Sep 1st of Oct. I'll check it out.

sageadvice · Mar 13, 2010

One more thing being you're interested in the trout. We found very little access and few antelope, by comparison, on the Eastern side, where the Platt River runs along the 63 boundary. We had planned to camp along the Platt but the hunting and access near there left us wanting... plus the campsites there are no great thing. To get over there from where we did hunt is no small little ride, especially going all the way around thru Alcova. There's no way to go directly across and access the majority of the unit...which would have allowed us to camp there. That's what i was told, found to be true, as far as i know. Who knows there may be some pig lopes over there but by far, the majority of lopes that we found in the unit were nowhere near the campsites or the fishing along the Platt.

Joey