My 13 year old son and I both drew 47 tags. We will be hunting Oct 8-12. Never hunted the unit before. Any advice on how to hunt/ where to find a decent goat at this time of year would be greatly appreciated. Don't mind using the shoe leather to get to them.
Thanks!
For you, all of you potential hunters of area 47, personally I would stay away. That area is haunted. There are many ghouls, ghosts, and vampires there. Very Scary. Also much of that area was used in underground nuclear testing, so the entire Shirley Basin glows after dark and all the animals have some kind of genetic deformity. Very Dangerous. Oh, and alien abductions tend to run high there.
Ok, if that didn't deter you I'll give you a link which details our hunt last year. But you must keep it to yourself, wink wink.
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f52/gfs-first-antelope-34251/
I would go out to the BLM site and order maps for the Shirley Basin area:
Buy and find Wyoming maps: Bureau of Land Management: Statewide Index
These are handy as they show BLM property, among other borders and roads. While most of the north part of area 47 is BLM there is some private interspersed. You don't want to get cross ways with a surly rancher.
We (actually CSPSgt and my mom) found a very nice, comfortable camp site in the north side of the Shirley Mountains which gave good access to hunting. We literally had only been in the truck 5 minutes from camp after breakfast when my then girl friend (now fiance) squeezed the trigger on her first big game animal. We're headed there on the 25th of September and we expect to have 6 does in the cooler no later than Saturday. We'll head to another area in the next season for our bucks, but that area is haunted worse than area 47 so for your safety and that of others reading this post I won't tell you where.
Directions: Take highway 487 north out of Medicine Bow to highway 77. Take 77 north west until you get to Leo Shirley Basin Road. Take that road west toward the lakes until you pass Dry Creek road (which is the road we took of on where my fiance killed her doe) Just past Dry Creek Road is Prior Flat Road. Taking Prior Flat Road, the campground is just in the trees on the west side. Can't miss it.
We killed three antelope that day. My mom killed two (she had two tags) literally seconds apart. I saw the biggest buck I've ever seen, which was running the two does my mom killed, at just under 100 yards. He would easily have gone over 17 inches. Alas buck tags there are hard to come by and I was only guiding. My dad, CSPSgt, equates Wyoming antelope hunting with Africa, as there are very few places in North America where you can see so many shootable animals in a day. Good luck. You wont need it though. My only real advice is to not shoot the first buck you see unless you think he's REALLY good. I would also say that there are LOTS of opportunities for LONG shots. Most of the country is quite flat, so bring your range finder and prepare to dial up some MOA.
I look forward to the story of your hunt in October.
Hicks
