WYOMING- Haven’t Drawn Antelope Lately? Here’s Why

WYOMING- Haven’t Drawn Antelope Lately? Here’s Why…

By Guy Eastman

Tens of thousands of Wyoming antelope hunters have been shut out of the tag draw system over the past five years and here’s why. The perfect storm of catastrophic weather events has created significant drops in pronghorn herd numbers roaming the sagebrush plains of Wyoming. 

Starting in 2019, the state of Wyoming fell into the crevasse of what would become a three-year drought cycle that would put both antelope and mule deer herd numbers on a drastic slide. This followed by the worst winter in nearly 75-years would put wildlife managers in a very difficult situation faced with the decision to drastically slash hunt quotas nearly statewide and possibly even close some hunts altogether. The outlook coming out of the 2023 winter was dire. 

As predicted, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Commission did the right thing and slashed antelope hunt quotas to historically low levels going into the 2023 hunting season. With antelope herds at historic and possibly all-time lows, the choice was clear, do what’s right for the resource. 

The end result for those in the application system has been nothing short of continued frustration. What was once nearly 40,000 buck antelope tags would now be cut to an anemic less than 25,000 available buck antelope hunts. A 35% decrease in available licenses over the past four years means that over 30,000 total buck antelope hunters, who would have normally drawn hunts, would be left in the dark wondering what happened. For the nonresident applicants of Wyoming, nearly 10,000 applicants would not be headed afield after buck antelope that normally would have had a chance at a big Wyoming buck. 

That means that over 10,000 nonresident applicants that would normally have been drawn and had their point totals dropped to zero, putting them at the back of line, are still in the system with bundles of points waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel to arrive. This has had a virtual pile up effect on the draw system as more applicants than ever have clogged the upper reaches of the point system making it harder for everyone to draw tags in most of the best regions and areas of the state. There is no easy or quick solution to this problem. 

To put this mathematical phenomena into perspective, this 10,000-point pile up would be enough to clear every nonresident, with nine points or more, completely out of the point system and back to zero, that’s a pile of applicants, many of whom are higher point holders that need to draw and move back to zero for the future of the system to have any hope of working properly. 

The word of the perfect drought/winter storm has made it out to the public however, and more nonresident hunters than ever have chosen to simply buy points last year instead of actually applying for an antelope license in the system. I think this year will be no different in that regard. 

The state has yet to finalize the 2024 hunt season quotas but it is expected those numbers will again remain very anemic for this upcoming hunting season as well making drawing that trophy antelope tag in Wyoming very difficult. 

No one really knows what the future holds, but with antelope numbers in Wyoming at a possible all-time low, this situation could persist for years to come. Even with the best winters and summers Mother Nature can offer up I really think we will not see a healthy antelope herd or solid hunting for antelope in Wyoming for at least another three or four years at best. This means we may just have to wait until 2027 or even 2028 for antelope tag quotas to get back to any sort of normalcy for those wanting to draw with any regularity in a good area. The deer situation is probably worse than that. 

For more information regarding the Wyoming antelope and deer draw refer to the MRS section in the back of the next issue of Eastmans’ Bowhunting Journal or log onto the online MRS section in the Eastmans’ TagHub platform at Eastmans.com.