Can a hunter apply for a hunt area 1 licence without preference points?

Residents apply through a random draw with no preference points involved; Wyoming's pronghorn draw for residents is purely random for all hunt areas. Nonresidents must draw through a preference-point pool where three quarters of licences go to the highest-point applicants and a quarter go to a random draw; nonresidents without preference points can still enter the random quarter but will have longer odds.

How much of this hunt area is public land a hunter can count on accessing?

About 147 square miles—roughly 21% of the area—is BLM or State Trust land where hunting is generally allowed. However, much of that mapped public ground is not practically accessible due to landlocked parcels, lack of trailheads, and private inholdings blocking entry; a hunter should scout carefully and not assume every public parcel shown on a map can be reached.

When does the hunting pressure ease on this hunt area?

The first week of the season sees heavy congestion on accessible public lands. As the season progresses into October and November, hunting pressure drops noticeably, giving later hunters better chances to find quieter country.

What are the two seasons available on hunt area 1?

Type 1 allows any antelope from August 15 through September 30 (archery) and October 1 through November 20 (regular seasons). Type 6 is a doe-or-fawn-only hunt over the same dates: August 15 through September 30 (archery) and October 1 through November 20 (regular seasons).

Does the Black Hills National Forest provide pronghorn hunting in this area?

No; the ponderosa pine habitat of the Black Hills National Forest does not harbor antelope and is not useful for pronghorn hunting. The forest does offer spring and fall turkey hunting and some grouse, but those require separate licences and seasons.

Wyoming Hunt Area 1 (Crook) pronghorn hunting

Licence

Limited quota — drawn

Open public land

21%

Elevation

3,400–5,400 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Hunt area 1 spans 713 square miles across rolling sagebrush and grassland country in the foothills and plateaus north of the Black Hills, with elevation ranging from 3,400 to 5,400 feet and typical ground around 3,900 feet. The terrain averages 3.9 degrees of slope, making it predominantly gentle country that lends itself to steady foot hunting across open and semi-open terrain. Grass and meadow cover 53% of the area, with sagebrush at 30%, and ponderosa pine pockets accounting for 9%—those conifer patches are not antelope ground and offer little for pronghorn hunting. The combination of grassland and sagebrush creates suitable pronghorn habitat across much of the area, though the mix is uneven: good ground exists, but hunters need to know where to find it.

Access here is the hunt's real difficulty. Public land—BLM and State Trust holdings—makes up roughly 21% of the area, about 147 square miles. That public ground often borders county roads and state highways, which sounds straightforward until a hunter is on the ground: many mapped public parcels are landlocked or practical only as foot country from distant trailheads, and seasonal closures and private inholdings further restrict where a hunter can actually go. Private land fills 79% of the area, much of it leased to outfitters, and gaining permission is challenging. The early season brings concentrated hunting pressure on whatever public ground is genuinely accessible, but pressure eases significantly as the season advances. Hunters willing to explore late-season opportunity will see fewer competitors, though by then the animals have been heavily hunted.

Pronghorn are mapped across 85% of the area year-round, with a smaller winter-range component at 6% of the area. The country's open nature makes glassing and spotting feasible, but the ponderosa patches and the access barriers mean that hunting often amounts to working public margins and hoping for permission on private ranches—a grinding prospect rather than a walk-across opportunity.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 1 (Crook) is limited quota. A licence for it must be drawn for this hunt area specifically, by resident and nonresident alike. Wyoming issues no general pronghorn licence and no region pronghorn licence, so there is no over-the-counter option and no regional fallback: every pronghorn hunt area in the state is drawn on its own.

Wyoming residents have no preference points for pronghorn — the resident pronghorn draw is random, and no resident point cutoff exists for any hunt area in the state. For nonresidents points matter a great deal: Wyoming awards 75% of each nonresident pool through the preference-point draw, top-down by points, and the remaining 25% at random. Nonresidents also choose between the Regular and Special pools — the same hunts at two price points, competing separately.

Seasons (2026)

Type 1 · Any antelope
Archery August 15 – September 30Regular October 1 – November 20
Type 6 · Doe or fawn
Archery August 15 – September 30Regular October 1 – November 20

The wording of each hunt is the Wyoming Game & Fish Department’s and is legally exact — a “cow or calf” hunt is not a pronghorn hunt in general, and a hunt limited to part of the area is not valid across it. Confirm every hunt in the current regulations before applying.

Hunting each season

Type 1 — Any antelope (August–November)

Archery hunting for any antelope runs August 15 through September 30, a period when pronghorn are entering the pre-rut phase and beginning to establish territories before the primary rut in early September. Temperatures range from warm August highs near 85°F down to cool September mornings in the low 40s, and no snow accumulates in these months, making foot hunting and glassing feasible throughout the entire window. The early part of August sees heavy hunting pressure on the limited accessible public ground; hunters who wait until later in the season will encounter far fewer competitors, though animals become more wary as the season progresses. This season is open to any antelope—bucks, does, and fawns alike—with no area restriction, so hunters can focus on the animals most likely to be vulnerable given the stage of the rut. The regular rifle hunt from October 1 through November 20 extends into the late rut and the fall grouping phase as animals consolidate for winter, with conditions cooling from October highs near 59°F to November highs around 45°F and snowfall increasing from roughly half an inch in October to 2.3 inches by November. Late-season hunters will find pronghorn more grouped and less tied to territory, and the first-week congestion has cleared; however, access remains the limiting factor, as public land continues to be scarce and private-land permission equally difficult to obtain late as early in the season.

Type 6 — Doe or fawn (August–November)

A doe-or-fawn hunt for this same August 15 to September 30 archery window and October 1 to November 20 regular season pursues the female segment of the population during the same rut progression as the any-antelope hunt. Archery hunters in August and September see the same temperature arc from 85°F highs to 40s lows with no snow, and likewise benefit from reduced pressure later in the season if they defer hunting until September. The restriction to does and fawns narrows the legal quarry but does not restrict the hunt to any particular area within the region; hunters can pursue these animals across the full hunt area. The regular rifle portion from October through November drops temperatures to November lows in the low 20s and accumulates snow, shifting the animals into fall grouping behavior as they prepare for winter. Late-season pressure is lighter, and doe-fawn hunting may offer more straightforward opportunities if bucks are heavy-hunted on the early archery phases, though access difficulty remains unchanged from the any-antelope season.

Land and access

private land79%

Private

BLM14%

Generally open to public hunting

State Trust Land6%

Generally open to public hunting

About 21% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — BLM and State Trust Land, roughly 147 square miles. Public ownership is not the same as easy entry: roads, trailheads, seasonal closures and private inholdings all still apply.

State trust land counts toward the open figure above. Wyoming extends hunting on legally accessiblestate trust land to the public unless a parcel is specifically closed — the catch is the access itself, since crossing private ground to reach it still needs the landowner’s permission. Camping, fires and off-road vehicles are not allowed on it.

Where pronghorn are mapped

Yearlong Range85%

the only layer that means year-round use

Winter Range6%

used in winter

Each figure is the share of the hunt area that layer covers. It says where pronghorn are mapped, not where inside the area they are, and not when they move.

Habitat and cover

Across the unit

Grass and meadow53%

Sagebrush30%

Conifer9%

Other cover8%

Shares are of each elevation band, not of the whole hunt area — they describe what grows up there, not how much of the area sits at that elevation.

Weather through the season

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Snowfall
January	35°F	12°F	4.9 in
February	37°F	14°F	4.6 in
March	48°F	22°F	2.9 in
April	56°F	30°F	1.9 in
May	66°F	40°F	0 in
June	77°F	49°F	0 in
July	86°F	56°F	0 in
August	85°F	54°F	0 in
September	75°F	44°F	0 in
October	59°F	32°F	0.5 in
November	45°F	22°F	2.3 in
December	35°F	13°F	4.5 in

Snowfall is the monthly total, not depth lying on the ground.

Common questions

Can a hunter apply for a hunt area 1 licence without preference points?: Residents apply through a random draw with no preference points involved; Wyoming's pronghorn draw for residents is purely random for all hunt areas. Nonresidents must draw through a preference-point pool where three quarters of licences go to the highest-point applicants and a quarter go to a random draw; nonresidents without preference points can still enter the random quarter but will have longer odds.
How much of this hunt area is public land a hunter can count on accessing?: About 147 square miles—roughly 21% of the area—is BLM or State Trust land where hunting is generally allowed. However, much of that mapped public ground is not practically accessible due to landlocked parcels, lack of trailheads, and private inholdings blocking entry; a hunter should scout carefully and not assume every public parcel shown on a map can be reached.
When does the hunting pressure ease on this hunt area?: The first week of the season sees heavy congestion on accessible public lands. As the season progresses into October and November, hunting pressure drops noticeably, giving later hunters better chances to find quieter country.
What are the two seasons available on hunt area 1?: Type 1 allows any antelope from August 15 through September 30 (archery) and October 1 through November 20 (regular seasons). Type 6 is a doe-or-fawn-only hunt over the same dates: August 15 through September 30 (archery) and October 1 through November 20 (regular seasons).
Does the Black Hills National Forest provide pronghorn hunting in this area?: No; the ponderosa pine habitat of the Black Hills National Forest does not harbor antelope and is not useful for pronghorn hunting. The forest does offer spring and fall turkey hunting and some grouse, but those require separate licences and seasons.

Sources

Wyoming Game & Fish — Hunting & Trapping — licence types, general and limited-quota hunts, and season structure
WGFD Hunt Planner — hunt-area boundaries, season dates and the unit descriptions
WGFD — Draw results and odds — how the resident random draw and the nonresident preference-point draw work
WGFD — Regulations — the legal limitations on each hunt, and the statewide licence rules
USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2021) and 3DEP elevation — land cover and terrain by elevation band

Seasons, licence types and boundaries change. Confirm every detail with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before applying or hunting.

All Wyoming pronghorn hunt areas