Youth Antelope Questions

[SDBugler]

I have been doing some application research for a youth antelope hunt for my two sons and have a few questions that some of you MM members may be able to help me out with:

1. I see there is only one mentor/youth hunt available (unit 29 Selected Ranches). There are only 10 licenses. How does this work as a non-resident? Only 1 of the tags (10%) would be allocated to a non-guided/non-res. How does that work when a minimum of two licenses must be given out? Do they allocate both the guided & non-guided tags? Would we be ineligible if I put both of my sons and myself down on the application (three tags needed)?

2. There is also a youth only hunt on unit 29 McGregor Range with 10 tags. The same question applies here. Would they be ineligible if I put them down together on the same application?

3. How does the 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice option work with only one mentored hunt option available? Don?t we have to have the same people in the group applying for all the same licenses? Would that mean that our only option would be the mentor/youth hunt and no 2nd or 3rd choice?

4. There are four youth antelope buck options (29 selected ranches, 29 McGregor, 52, and NE corner), which of these options has the best opportunity at a quality buck? I was fortunate to draw one of the NE corner ranches last year, so I know it really depends on what ranch they would draw. I like the dates on the two unit 29 tags because the season falls before school starts.

Thanks in advance for any answers/advice you can provide us. PM me if you don't want to share information publicly.

Brian & Sons

 

[Iowan]

Brian

I was trying to work through the exact same process as you. I finally decided that my odds of drawing were good enough on a couple regular units that our group put in together (youth hunter and two adults). We liked the idea of the muzzle loader hunt but the chances of having part of our group draw one date and location verus the rest drawing somewhere else pushed us towards applying in one group for a couple of the rifle units. I also suspect that the 'underscribed' mentor/youth hunt will have more applications in 2010. The mentor / youth tag is considered one license for the purpose of res / non-res allocations - I asked the state this question.

Russ