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Antelope

Of all the species in the West, antelope are probably the most fun to hunt. They inhabit open country where you can see dozens (often MANY dozens) of animals a day, they offer a fun spot-and-stalk type of hunting, the terrain is easy, the meat is great, the tags are fairly easy to come by, success rates are typcially 60-90%, and they make beautiful trophies. I love to hunt antelope.

I've taken antelope with a rifle, a bow, and a muzzleloader. These are all fun hunts and even the primitive weapon hunts have better success rates than almost any other species. The classic antelope hunt, however, is with a flat-shooting bolt-action rifle.

Some people who lack talent or lack respect for game will do the two things you should never do when hunting antelope:

Never take a shot longer than you can surely make (typically, 200 yards or less).
Never shoot at a running antelope.

Hunters with even a slight amount of skill or patience can routinely stalk within 200 yards of an antelope. I've had at least one antelope tag every year since 1992 except for one, and I've never been skunked on a rifle antelope tag (although I have deliberately left them unfilled if I had enough meat for the freezer and couldn't find a big enough buck). Just take your time and glass alot and don't do anything stupid.

Wyoming is a good place to go to have a great experience and get a modest buck (horn length of 12 or 13 inches). New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and some of the more prestigious areas in Wyoming are better bets for a really nice trophy. I go every year in Wyoming, just for the fun of it, and apply in several other states each year for a really high-quality tag.

Don't forget your binoculars, bipod, and leather gloves (for crawling through cactus patches). Some people like to wear knee pads for crawling during stalks, but I find them uncomfortable and go without. Good old blue jeans are a great choice. Boots get scratched up by all the rocks and cactus, so don't wear your fancy pair of German mountaineering boots. A 2-wheel game cart is a luxury, but can be very, very nice to have.

State	Notes	General Tag Quality	Limited Tag Quality	Odds of Drawing Limited Tags	Strategy
Arizona	Excellent trophy quality, but very, very difficult to draw. Antelope tags are typically harder to draw than Desert Sheep tags in Arizona!	N/A	Excellent	Poor	Apply!
Colorado	Colorado has about 50,000 antelope, mostly on private land. Unless you have access, it's a mediocre place to hunt antelope. Tags are on a draw basis, and public land areas can easily require 5+ points to draw. The best public land areas are in the northwest corner of the state. If you're an archer, you can buy over-the-counter tags for most units. If I didn't live in Colorado, I'm not sure if I'd bother.	Good archery opportunities	Average	Average	Pass.
Montana	There are a very few great units that might be worth applying for, but I usually can't fit Montana in to my schedule, so I don't apply here. If you're looking for an average buck, Wyoming is probably a better place to apply.	N/A	Good	Average	Pass.
Nevada	Given its excellent trophy quality, it's relatively easy to draw here. I've only had 1 antelope tag in Nevada, in units 111-114. It was easy to draw (about 1 in 6), but had low numbers and really poor trophy quality. I never saw anything better than a 12 inch buck. If you're going to apply in Nevada, apply for a trophy area.	N/A	Mediocre to Excellent	Average	Apply!
New Mexico	Not a lot of tags, but excellent trophy quality. All tags are draw. Odds are tough, but if you draw a tag you're allowed to hunt on both public and private land. It's a confusing system, but one worth trying to get in on.	N/A	Good to Excellent	Good to Poor	Apply!
Oregon	There are a few great units, but you'll need 10+ preference points to draw. So, I don't apply here.	N/A	Good to Excellent	Poor	Pass.
Utah	You can only apply for deer, elk, or antelope.	N/A	Good	Average	Pass. The deer and elk opportunities are more attractive.
Wyoming	Depending on population fluctuations of both people and antelope, Wyoming can usually claim to have as many antelope as people, about 500,000. This gives it, by far, the largest antelope herd in the world. And, blessed with prolific tags and tons of BLM land on which to hunt antelope, it's the easiest state in which to plan a hunt.	N/A	Good to Excellent	Good to Poor	Apply!