Caribou Gear

Easy antelope for my wife’s first time hunting.

Addicting

Addicting

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I am tossing around the Idea of lookiyfor a trespass hunt on a pivot for my wife’s first hunt ever. Up till this last year it’s been a staunch NO. However she got pretty jealous of my time in MT this year. She had me put her in for a WY point when I did mine. So for 2018 I am packing up the Family and heading east for antelope. Care more about having a great time introducing her than a trophy. We will have our 6 and 4 year olds with us so no roughing it this time. I am familiar with 29 near Bill in WY but worry the lack of infrastructure will take its toll on little kids. I am leaning more towards Douglas or Laramie and try to get on a pivot. That way we are near a hotel and there will be things to help occupy the kids attention.

What do you guys think. Open to advice.
 
I think that is a great idea!! Another area to check out is near Newcastle and then south of there, might be able to find a center pivot to get a few does on out there. Landowners are real friendly when people want to shoot does :)
 
We will apply as a group for any antelope and does. I can just remember being around Douglas and they were everywhere on the pivots. My reality is we just want some meat and a good time. I know stalking one down with little kids in tow won’t probably work out well. Sitting in a blind won’t last long with thier attention span either.
 
Thankyou to all that sent a PM. I am also looking to hear from those of you who have hunted with smaller kids and what you learned. My though is that they will have to stay with the truck while Mom gets set up for a shot near the truck. I was thinking about setting up full size antelope targets on the farm so we can run practice sessions over the summer, make it like a spotting game for them and shooting practice for Mom.
 
Addicting said:
Thankyou to all that sent a PM. I am also looking to hear from those of you who have hunted with smaller kids and what you learned. My though is that they will have to stay with the truck while Mom gets set up for a shot near the truck. I was thinking about setting up full size antelope targets on the farm so we can run practice sessions over the summer, make it like a spotting game for them and shooting practice for Mom.
Click to expand...

Benadryl :cool:
 
I personally wouldn't pay a tresspass fee for pronghorn in Wyoming. The Laramie option sounds good IMO. There's plenty of units not to far from there that can be drawn with a point. Many may not have a bunch of public land, but many of access through the Private Lands Public Wildlife programs via Walk In and Hunter Management Areas. Easy enough to leave one parent in the rig with the kiddos while the other does a stalk. Sometimes the kiddos like to honk the horn at you while your sneaking in to make it more challenging!

Untitled by Tyler Staggs, on Flickr
 
I don't know what you are paying for a trespass fee, but if you are dead set on doing it, the Hutterites on the south side of the highway outside of Martinsdale, MT were charging $40 a few years ago(there are separate colonies on the north and south side of the road). That's a lot of land and not many people hunting it. A bordering ranch manager told me he saw a couple trophy class bucks running around the Hutes place. There's a bed and breakfast in Martinsdale or two hotels in Harlowtown if you don't want to rough it.
 
She'll be crawling if you hunt a pivot. Try to get an area with some terrain.
A Laramie based trip would be great for the family. Mountains are close when the hunt is over and Sept -Oct brings a game day atmosphere to the town on Saturdays.
Some nice day trips also available from Laramie after the hunt.

Definitely get some doe tags if possible.
 
We are not dead set on a pivot, that is just what came to mind after seeing them all stacked up there and not wanting to leave. Unfortunately leaving one parent in the truck works for me but probably not for her. She has never hunted and never shot a rifle. Her decision to have me buy points was more about spending time together than hunting. She would be just as happy to go and take pictures. We are a meat hunting family and we spent the money on a point. Driving that far makes me want to get the meat. So I got her enrolled into hunters safety and have a plan to get her ready over the summer. My concern is that she is going to need a coach out there with her to reassure and calm her insecurities about making a bad shot. (Her current fear) I think that is possible if we don’t have to stray too far from the truck and the kids can watch from inside. (Kids constantly distracting her, second biggest fear) I don’t really want to teach her road hunting which is essentially what I’m talking about. So that is more of why I was leaning towards a trespass fee type hunt, if that makes any sense. That’s why I wanted to put it out to the masses to see what other options are realistic given these conditions.
 
Laramie is a great option with a lot of stuff around it for the family, save your money on the trespass fee and go on public ground. Walk-In's are money but pay attention to what species the WIA is open too. Douglas is a good option too, Glendo Reservoir is really close with some good fishing and a sandy beach for the kids to take a dip in and play. Use that would-be trespass fee to camp on Glendo and hunt around there is a good option IMO, especially for a family. I hunted a few times this year with my three year old, difficult, but a lot fun! Lots of terrain to hide their movement and constant chattering about "I can't see them, where are they!?" or the one that spooked em' for me was "Oh dad, I see dem!!!!!!"...within 100 yards. If you need anything or more info just PM me, sounds like you got some info already so I won't add to your inbox. Just make sure the kids are behind you mimic your moves and they'll have just as much fun as you, especially when you field dress the animal and they get poke around gut pile.
 
Check out the units around Worland Wy. They had special doe tags for on or within 800 yds of irrigated crop land. Landowners wanted you to harvest the antelope and didn’t charge anything. You can hunt blm ground right on the edges of the private ground if you wanted more of that western feel, or you could set up in a sugar beet field and hunt them there. Some of the best tasting antelope we ever had.
 
Thanks for the info and to everyone who sent a PM. We actually sat down last night and looked at all the options after talking with several other HT members. For this first year with the whole family in tow we decided it would be more of Western vacation than a hunt. They are excited to go and see Mount Rushmore and other attractions. We decided that we will block a day off for hunting and the rest would just be aight seeing/travel. In order to maximize that day we are going to go to a 14000 acre trespass fee ranch in the early season. We should be able to get our fill of fresh meat and get quite the show of an antelope rut.

So the goal is that they learn and love with the Western experience as I first did many years ago. That new found love will inspire them to want to make more/longer trips in the future exploring different opportunities. So while this trip will not be my typical adventure, I think I can make it one for the books. I will try and update this as the season gets closer.

Thankyou all, Tony
 
Introducing them to a positive experience is key to having repeat trips. Just like fishing, you've got to keep the kids interested. Might not be what you wanted, but it'll be what they need. You guys are going to have some fun. Be sure to carve out some time to take the helicopter tour of the badlands and Rushmore!
 
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