I started a new day job about a year ago, and I don’t have enough vacation time built up yet to go hunting as much as I’d like. My hunting is basically limited to weekends and the few weekdays we get as holidays at work.
Because of that, I figured it would be a waste to put in for a pronghorn tag. I’d love to go back to the places I used to hunt them around Riverton, but there’s no way I could do that and still get out to the woods to hunt elk and deer. Besides, those areas are tough to draw. I could have put in for a second choice in one of the areas near Cheyenne, but I opted to skip it this year so I wouldn’t end up wasting a license.
But now I’m regretting my decision to skip the draw. If I’d gotten a pronghorn license, it wouldn’t have taken much time to go fill it. They’re everywhere this year. On our drive up to get firewood, we took some back roads to get off the boring Interstate. We saw more antelope on that drive than I’ve ever seen in those areas.
And they’re everywhere right around my house, too. I could easily ask some of the landowners near me for permission to hunt, and I’m sure more than a few of them would give me the OK. It wouldn’t have taken much time to hunt a goat, and we’d have pretty good odds of having a good stock of antelope sausage in the freezer for the next few months.
I’ll have a few chances to get out for deer and elk this year, but I’m not overconfident about my chances to get an elk. I’ll keep that in mind next year when the big game draw comes around again. I’ll get a goat tag for sure. I just hope next year is as antelope-heavy as this year seems to be.
