Subscription/Pay Research Tools

[25/06 Rem]

Hi all -

I am in the beginning stages of planning a fall 2017 WY pronghorn hunt. One of the reasons my hunting partner and I are waiting to hunt is to collect points and allow plenty of time for research. Of course I have started by getting as much information as possible from the WY F&G site. We are looking at draw odds, success %, amount of public land, access, etc. I'm pretty well outfitted gear-wise and am thinking about spending some of my money on research tools. I plan on updating my GPS and getting a landowner chip for sure and have wondered about subscribing to Eastman's or something like that.
First question, what chip do you recommend? Second, what subscriptions do you find useful for WY antelope research? If you know the ballpark cost, that would be great, but of course I can research it myself if not. My hunting partner and I are trying to make a deliberate, informed decision on specific units and I bet some of this information will be helpful. I'm sure as our hunt draws near we will be bouncing some ideas around on the forum, too.
As always, thanks in advance. I appreciate the time other hunters take to contribute to this site! - 25/06 Rem

 

[Speeddmn]

gohunt.com
onXmaps

between these two and some google action, you should be able to plan every hunt in the west, for pretty much every season, every species.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

A few thoughts that I have for you. The first is that when you do a subscription type deal, their recommendations are also seen by others. This can affect draw success for that unit so keep that in mind. The other thing is that if you would just spend the money on the special draw, you could get into some pretty good units, some with no pp needed. It just depends on your trophy goals. If getting just a respectable pronhorn is the goal I would just look at units with descent access and feel pretty good knowing you should be successful. If a booner buck is your goal, then yes a research site may be advantageous. OnXmaps seems to be the standard for hunt chips. Good luck

 

[LopeHunter]

I pay for HuntinFool and has decent information in a short version on how the various state draws work plus gives suggestions for best trophy units. I am more of a "hunt often rather than rarely" so go counter to their suggestions at times hoping to find better odds on a hunt that is a good fit for me (my days of charging up mountain ridges are winding down). The huge advantage for me is once I have a tag in hand that HuntinFool will share a list of prior hunters for me to try and contact to get advice. The tags I draw that are very good tags in high demand will often have several hunters on the list and I generally can reach 2 to 5 of them. Sometimes the hunter's phone number is no longer active, etc, and HuntinFool does not share emails yet. Some hunters do not want to share information. Usually, I can get some useful intelligence on operational considerations (does cell phone work in the unit, where to get fuels and food, camp or motel, quality of the roads) since I generally will not be able to scout before the day prior to season opening. A few times I have gotten very good guidance on where to hike and glass which was quite valuable to me. Certainly more than the annual cost. I have drawn some marginal tags and generally there are not other hunters on file at HuntinFool so keep that in mind.

I belong to GoHunt as well and has some general information and is getting better as members add more information about particular hunts. They do offer a nice function where can filter through application choices to find if there is a hunt that you might want to apply for based on your number of points, harvest odds, etc.

OnXmaps is fantastic if you are headed to a unit that has a tricky mixture of private vs public vs closed ground or the boundaries of the unit are not physically marked well.

I dropped Eastmans about three years ago. I gave up on them when they messed up on hunt listings for two different states in the MRS. I think one mix-up was NM changing the sheep draw for NR but whatever it was ended up being a waste of printed paper, in my opinion. Perhaps they are doing a better job on the MRS. I did like to compare it to HuntinFool so find some "hunt often" choices but I expect a high degree of accuracy along with saving me research time.

 

[25/06 Rem]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. I have plenty of time to plan so I just want to make sure I'm looking at the best information possible. I think the special license is a given and I'll make sure I check out the suggested sites.

 

[JohnCushman]

When you get a Garmin GPS you should get a download of Basecamp software for your computer. You can overlay the onXmaps chip maps over the maps from basecamp and see the roads and towns and streets and whatnot to plan your hunt and see what's nearby to your hunting area. It's a nice tool and has come in handy on a couple of hunts for me, even as far as finding our camping spot a couple of years ago.

 

[mixedbag]

gohuntinsider works good for me and what I need.A chip for your gps is a MUST HAVE imoTrespassing is no joke out west.Antelope is really a pretty easy hunt with tons of targets.Finding a BIG one gets to be tricky though.So if you just want a lope,you'll have a blast and do fine without to many research tools.Look for units that have walk in areas and hunter management areas as well as public

 

[5Speedjim]

If you backtrack some of the threads here you will find a lot of info. If I can find antelope anyone can. LOL