Antelope in WMU 102/118
 

After speaking with F+W in Medicine hat, I have decided to draw my trophy Antelope tag in this area. In the next few weeks I will be contacting landowners in the area and try to secure foot access to this vast zone. I believe I'll be a priority 12 this year, and I have been awaiting this opportunity. I plan on setting out on foot in the sparsely populated area. I am hoping someone with some possible insight into this area can PM me some or any information about there hunts in this area. No fear of honey holes as I will not be back for another 12 years or so. Any and all information is appreciated. I know gas stations are non-existent and jerry cans are a must. I plan on camping in my truck a day or so before the opener to scout and spend whatever time it takes to kill a good animal.
Thanks,

Davef

Nice
 

Good luck on your hunt.

Good luck we will also be drawing a tag there this year hunted there 13 years ago and killed the Boone and Crockett hopefully the herds in good shape this year this'll be my son's first Antelope hunt PM me I still have the maps from when I was there prior I believe

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Ya good luck. I talked to a guy in the area last October out scouting. His friend took a trophy pronghorn the year before. He showed me pictures and it was a very nice looking antelope. Cheers.

Good news is permission is easy to come by in those zones. Bad news fuel is NOT easy to come by! Plan on taking several 25L Jerry cans with you in your travels. Most permission comes with a strict foot access only stipulation, bring a game cart.

LC

I hunted there 10 years ago and killed a good goat. Everybody I asked for permission from laughed at me. At first I felt a little disheartened and figured these southerners were a little rude, but soon realized they were laughing because nobody there asks permission. Out of the 10 I asked everyone said don't ask, just make sure you're walking and you can hunt anybody's land.
I did see one quarter with a no trespassing sign, but that was the only one in the entire zone lol

Good luck on your hunt, still have a few more years until I can hunt Alberta again for speed goats

Don't bother going now to ask permission, take 3/4 days before your hunt and hit the road with your trusty landowners maps. Get as much permission as you can especially on the big spreads. The afternoon before opening day find a good one and hope he's in the vicinity the next morning. Don't get drunk that night and get early!

I took 2 cans of gas and it wasn't enough, I'd bring 4-6, you'll drive way more than you expect to on this hunt. You can also walk a lot if that's your thing (it's mine). Remember the prairie is easy to get lost on and never leave the truck without your pack and lots of water, even if it's just for a short walk. Those short walks sometimes turn into long walks.

We took two weeks off, scouted a whole week. Then I shot mine opening afternoon (morning hunt was a gong show :) ) and my buddy got his the next morning. Mine we walk 6kms one way...got him and packed him out 6kms back to the truck. My buddy's we got 200m from an access road. Like you say only one area we were not able to access the rest folks were great if you asked permission, some even gave us written forms where others just want our names, license plate and a phone number. As far as fuel we had at least 8 Jerry Cans of fuel with us and with Boyd's in Orion burning down...fuel is even harder to come by.

LC

I would not take this advice. Regardless what a landowner responds to you, asking for permission is the right thing to do. I would also say that there are more than a few landowners down that way that have had their fill with hunters and just walking in will get you charged. Also in October there are still a lot of cattle on leases and ranchers are well within their rights to keep you out of those pastures.

All of that said there is lots of land you will get access to. Dont be a db and you will have a good hunt

Sure, ask everybody. It doesn't hurt at all, that's for sure.

And there was no leased land that I saw down there, everything was private.

But there was also 400 tags per year giving out and I'd say I only saw 25 houses in the whole area we hunted.

You'll see for yourself when you go what it's like. You can drive every road in the two WMU's in about 3 hours.

All great advice, I will definately bring lots of fuel and plan on contacting all of the landowners in the next couple months. I do plan on walking a lot as this would be the most rewarding way to hunt a trophy animal, any suggestions on a game cart? I have an old chariot which can be transformed into a three wheel stroller. I wonder if anyone would lend out or rent out there game cart if it's idle for the week?

Thanks,
Dave

You didn't see any lease land in 102, 118? :thinking-006:

GOATS are not that big take pack frame ,bone out and pack out ,saves a trip back to truck for cart .

Released cougars now theres no lease land.

Alternative facts I guess.

No. But I just asked the farmers where to hunt so never really looked at a county map while we were there.

Up here leased land, grazing leases are posted as such. I guess there they don't.

I just assumed it was all private, and treated it as such.

Who released cougars down there ?

And I didn't say there was no leased land, I said I didn't see any. In hind sight I guess if there's tons of leased land like you guys are implying then access will be even easier then before.

There's townships and townships of leased land in those zones.

Another hint, if you show up at a farmers door for permission it looks real good on you to have a map in your hand. How else could you possibly know where you're hunting?

The government, from Cypress Hills. There is a ton of lease land.

There you go.

Like I said. I knocked on doors, the farmer pointed out his land, we killed an 80" speed goat.

It wasn't like hunting up north where WMU 357 has 7,850 landowners. By the 10th guy we talked to I had more land then I could possibly ever dream of hunting.
I hear they have an app for landowners now. Costs all of $20 or so. When I pull the draw next time I'm sure I'll buy it.

Those two zones literally have 10:1 ratio of lease:private land. 100's of square kilometres to get permission on.

LC

There is a beautiful website that show's all the land owners for this particular area, Large grazing leases, federal land and miles and miles of prairie with no roads. Most land is on lease from the looks of things. How much meat will I get off a mature animal? 40-50lbs?
Thanks for all the feed back!
Davef

Fuel is plentiful if you do your homework and have good social skills and carry Pineapples and Malibu:)

I harvested my first antelope in this zone last fall. Permission was very easy to get, find out where the land owner lives and knock on their door. I hunter App worked great for knowing exactly what lease owner has what land. I packed my Lope out in one shot wasn't a big deal at all. Cant wait to go back with Archery Tackle next!!!
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps64wsqrjt.jpg

^^^^^great goat! What did he score?

Not great his Cutters were pretty short just a hair under 70" I'm happy with it.
Here's a better pic, I couldn't turn it down when I was looking through my rifle scope I love the look of his Jet Black face.
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1vfkysbs.jpg

I'm surprised he didn't score higher, but he's a dandy nonetheless! The reason I asked specifically about score is because I'm pulling my antelope tag this year and I'm trying to get more proficient at scoring them. I'm a P16 so I thought I might as well use it because I may only get the draw once or maybe twice more in my lifetime.

Looking forward to something I've need done before!!!

Look for lots of mass, long cutters and a deep curl. Real tall skinnys with short cutters can look real impressive till you get a tape on one:thinking-006: Then again score is just a few numbers on paper..... lol

You'll be hard pressed to find big alberta trophies I think. It's a fun hunt and if you do it right it'll be a good memory

There's still some good ones out there I thinkhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bca14ff6f9.jpg

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Went for my first loper hunt about 20 years ago, and last time I went with my son, we still had permission from the ranchers we contacted then. Trick was to keep in contact, even in non-hunting years. A simple Xmas card was remembered.