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Old 02-17-2019, 09:51 AM
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Default Antelope in this weather

I have enough points and was considering pulling my antelope tag in 2019 - but with this month long cold snap, I’m wondering how the animals are making out.

Does anyone in the SE part of the province have an idea how the herds are doing? There’s been a pile of snow to go along with the cold, and i know that’s not good....
Maybe i should wait until 2020
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:55 AM
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I hunted 148 for deer this fall and only saw a few small groups of Antelope, Unless I just missed them I'd say the numbers are down, we're into the 3rd or 4th week of brutal cold and now there's a snow cover,
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:57 AM
Deer Hunter Deer Hunter is offline
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Very little snow out east and they are doing just fine as far as I can see.
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Old 02-17-2019, 02:11 PM
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I think they can handle the cold, but it is the deep snow and snow drifting and filling the ditches up that kills them. They get trapped by full drifted ditches in a field and starve to death. More then a few get killed to when they get trapped on the railway tracks looking for food, when the train comes the snowbanks along the edge of the tracks traps them.


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Old 02-17-2019, 02:46 PM
spoiledsaskhunter spoiledsaskhunter is offline
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i think there was another thread on this awhile ago. the consensus was that they're doing terrible and numbers were way down last fall.
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Old 02-17-2019, 05:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spoiledsaskhunter View Post
i think there was another thread on this awhile ago. the consensus was that they're doing terrible and numbers were way down last fall.
I would take this consensus with a grain of salt. This is the general consensus on pretty much any thread about any zone and any animal.
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Old 02-17-2019, 06:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spoiledsaskhunter View Post
i think there was another thread on this awhile ago. the consensus was that they're doing terrible and numbers were way down last fall.
That certainly was not my impression from last fall.
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Old 02-17-2019, 07:20 PM
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I would not pull it if I were you. I live in the SE and I put on 3000 km last antelope season, scouting and hunting,but what would I know. Brutally cold Jan/Feb down here too.
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Old 02-17-2019, 07:58 PM
spoiledsaskhunter spoiledsaskhunter is offline
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fine, burn your priority........then query '2019 antelope numbers down south'

we live here, so maybe you can tell us something we don't know.
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:21 PM
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I should be getting my archery tag this year family by the hat says herds are great on there land! I haven’t heard if there’s much on my land by drum
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:51 PM
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seeing herds of a 100 and better.
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:55 PM
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Best to hold off on making a decision til closer to the draw deadline
I wouldn’t take a tag in the far south east
Seen a couple decent ones north of brooks
I’m one of the guys who said there numbers were terrible
Not sure how many mature bucks made it through the season since there wasn’t very many to begin with
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Old 02-18-2019, 07:31 AM
spoiledsaskhunter spoiledsaskhunter is offline
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you can do what you will, but....

i live/hunt along the 49th from near the sask border to near the foothills, and have friends/associates all over the area.

one of my rancher friends (and i have many) usually has a couple hundred head on his place that are 'resident' antelope. the winter of '17/'18 was brutal on the herd, and all last summer he was surprised at the shortage of animals. last fall he commented repeatedly that there were hardly any antelope compared to normal and in fact, limited the number of hunters on his ranch because of it. the number of kids compared to usual was noticeable. so was the number of mature bucks compared to other years.

another herd of appprox 50 antelope that i used to see every day has disappeared and i haven't seen them since last fall during the hunting season.

i've been hunting/trapping coyotes down here since the end of november, and have seen one little bunch of antelope all winter. between the coyotes and the hard winter of '17/'18, the numbers have crashed in this area.

h380, saddleup, kbf, and others who live and hunt this whole country agree that antelope numbers are down compared to the usual.......can i find you an antelope? yes!.......but i sure as hell wouldn't be drawing a tag next fall if it were my priority, especially when it may be the last time in your life you are able to build enough priority points to get drawn.

if you have friends/associates in other areas who think they have good antelope numbers, by all means go for it.

just my opinion, but you asked.
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Old 02-18-2019, 07:46 AM
Pioneer2 Pioneer2 is offline
 
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Default Do they not

Migrate south as far as Montana and Wyoming when things are too brutal up here?
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Old 02-18-2019, 07:53 AM
spoiledsaskhunter spoiledsaskhunter is offline
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i think that's part of it.
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Old 02-18-2019, 08:11 AM
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Last fall I had an archery draw in the 150’s and although I was able to get a great archery goat we didn’t see a tonne of “shooters”. They were few and far between and the hunt was difficult. My hunting partner and I ended up spot and stalk killing both of ours. Some other friends had rifle tags there and they had difficulty as well. We managed to secure a large amount of permission and we scouted/hunted for a solid 10-12 days.

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Old 02-18-2019, 08:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spoiledsaskhunter View Post
you can do what you will, but....

i live/hunt along the 49th from near the sask border to near the foothills, and have friends/associates all over the area.

one of my rancher friends (and i have many) usually has a couple hundred head on his place that are 'resident' antelope. the winter of '17/'18 was brutal on the herd, and all last summer he was surprised at the shortage of animals. last fall he commented repeatedly that there were hardly any antelope compared to normal and in fact, limited the number of hunters on his ranch because of it. the number of kids compared to usual was noticeable. so was the number of mature bucks compared to other years.

another herd of appprox 50 antelope that i used to see every day has disappeared and i haven't seen them since last fall during the hunting season.

i've been hunting/trapping coyotes down here since the end of november, and have seen one little bunch of antelope all winter. between the coyotes and the hard winter of '17/'18, the numbers have crashed in this area.

h380, saddleup, kbf, and others who live and hunt this whole country agree that antelope numbers are down compared to the usual.......can i find you an antelope? yes!.......but i sure as hell wouldn't be drawing a tag next fall if it were my priority, especially when it may be the last time in your life you are able to build enough priority points to get drawn.

if you have friends/associates in other areas who think they have good antelope numbers, by all means go for it.

just my opinion, but you asked.
Why waste your breath. Let them burn they’re priorities and find out the hard way, it makes it faster to get drawn!!
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Old 02-18-2019, 08:44 AM
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A friend took a great buck with his bow last year and my son took a real good one the year before. There always seemed to be lots of bucks but not a lot of larger mature bucks. Had to hunt hard and put a lot of miles on the legs. Suspect it will be the same this year. Good luck.
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Old 02-18-2019, 11:39 AM
spoiledsaskhunter spoiledsaskhunter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by old dog View Post
A friend took a great buck with his bow last year and my son took a real good one the year before. There always seemed to be lots of bucks but not a lot of larger mature bucks. Had to hunt hard and put a lot of miles on the legs. Suspect it will be the same this year. Good luck.
i knew a guy who knew a guy, who knew a guy that won the lottery.

i guess if you will be satisfied with a dinky little buck just because he's covered with antelope hair, GO FOR IT!
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Old 02-18-2019, 03:41 PM
Rackmastr Rackmastr is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spoiledsaskhunter View Post
i knew a guy who knew a guy, who knew a guy that won the lottery.

i guess if you will be satisfied with a dinky little buck just because he's covered with antelope hair, GO FOR IT!

Antelope have taken a beating in the past handful of years, but still the odd giant killed in the past couple as well. I couldn't break the 80" mark a couple years back but killed a buck that was close.

Not like it used to be in that country though that's for sure.
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Old 02-18-2019, 04:01 PM
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Numbers are down, the big die off a few years ago hurt them bad. This winter has been pretty mild except the last two weeks or so. There are a few good bucks but if you want a Booner go to Arizona. Use to see herds in the hundreds now more like 20-30 animals in a herd and some herds are gone all together.
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