Can a hunter apply for a licence to hunt area 34?

Hunt area 34 is a limited-quota area drawn for that specific area alone. Wyoming residents and nonresidents enter the same draw pool; the resident draw is random with no preference-point system. Nonresidents compete in a draw where three quarters of licences go to those with the most preference points and a quarter are awarded randomly. There is no general pronghorn licence or region licence in Wyoming, and no alternative exists if the draw does not come through.

How much public land can a hunter actually access here?

About 9% of the hunt area—254 square miles of State Trust Land, BLM, and State Wildlife Areas—is public ground, but it is scattered in isolated parcels interspersed with private land. Roads, trailheads, seasonal closures, and private inholdings still apply to public ownership. Walk-in areas offer the most straightforward access: 44 enrolled parcels allow hunters to walk onto private ground during posted seasons without permission, though enrollment is renegotiated annually and concentrates in the northern portion of the hunt area.

What is a hunter management area and how does a hunter use it?

A hunter management area is private land enrolled by agreement. Three HMAs—Nimmo, Peterson Draw, and Chalk Hill—are open here. Before hunting an HMA, a hunter must first obtain a printed permission slip from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Enrollment is renegotiated annually, so it is not guaranteed in any future season.

When do the seasons run here?

Type 1 (any antelope) opens with archery August 15–September 19 and continues with regular hunting September 20–October 14. Type 6 (doe or fawn) runs archery August 15–September 19 and regular hunting September 20–November 30. Both seasons require drawing for the specific area; no over-the-counter licence is available.

What should a hunter do before applying?

Because 91% of the hunt area is private land and public access is poor, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department strongly recommends securing access to private land before applying for a license. Arranging walk-in area or hunter management area access ahead of time—or contacting landowners early—will help a hunter make the most of the hunt if the draw comes through.

Wyoming Hunt Area 34 (Goshen Hole) pronghorn hunting

Licence

Limited quota — drawn

Open public land

Elevation

4,000–6,400 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Hunt area 34 is a rolling prairie landscape spanning 2,869 square miles at elevations between 4,000 and 6,400 feet. The country is dominated by native grassland and converted agricultural land, particularly conservation reserve grassland, with scattered sagebrush patches woven through. Slope is gentle throughout—the ground averages just 2.1 degrees and 98% of it is gentle terrain. This is foot country where a hunter can move across open terrain and see what is ahead, though the grassland's dips and swells break up sightlines and offer pronghorn plenty of concealment. The lower elevations run grass and meadow (65%), other cover (29%), sagebrush (4%), and riparian ground (3%); mid elevations shift slightly to more grass (79%) with less other cover (16%); higher elevations hold more of that other cover (24%) against grass (74%) and minimal sagebrush (2%).

Access here is the hunt area's defining constraint. Only 9% of the ground—roughly 254 square miles—is public land or walk-in country a hunter can generally count on; 91% is private. State trust land and BLM parcels exist but are isolated and interspersed with private inholdings. The hunt area contains 44 walk-in areas, most concentrated in the northern portions, where a hunter may access enrolled private ground during posted seasons without prior permission. Three hunter management areas—Nimmo, Peterson Draw, and Chalk Hill—offer another avenue but require a printed permission slip before hunting. Given the pressure access concentrates on the few public and walk-in parcels, hunters willing to arrange private-land access before the draw will have far fewer competitors. Later in the season, as some hunters move on, the pressure on those accessible spots eases somewhat.

Type 1 and Type 6 hunts share nearly identical seasons. Type 1 runs from August 15 into mid-October and allows any antelope; Type 6 runs the same early window but extends into late November and is limited to does and fawns.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 34 (Goshen Hole) 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 19Regular September 20 – October 14
Type 6 · Doe or fawn
Archery August 15 – September 19Regular September 20 – November 30

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–October)

Archery and regular seasons here run back-to-back through mid-October, opening as pronghorn enter pre-rut and territory formation in mid-August and closing as the rut winds down into early October. Archery (August 15–September 19) sees warm temperatures in the 80s cooling to the low 70s, with no snow; regular hunting (September 20–October 14) drops from the low 60s into the 30s and introduces light snow in late October. Pronghorn during this span are shifting into rutting behavior, making them more mobile and visible but also more wary. Access is confined to public and walk-in parcels and the Nimmo HMA; the remainder is private, and crowding concentrates where access is easiest. Type 1 is valid for any antelope, giving a hunter the full range of legal game.

Type 6 — Doe or fawn (August–November)

The doe-and-fawn hunt spans from mid-August through the end of November in two consecutive windows, starting with archery (August 15–September 19) in warm conditions with highs in the 80s, then regular hunting (September 20–November 30) through cooling fall and early winter. During archery, does are grouping with fawns in summer range; by the time regular hunting begins, the rut is underway and the season extends through late rut and into fall grouping, when pronghorn are beginning to consolidate for winter. Temperatures in regular hunting drop from the low 60s to the low 40s, and snowfall increases from trace amounts in late September to nearly 2 inches per month by November. Access remains limited to public and walk-in country and enrolled HMAs; the bulk of the hunt area is private and requires prior arrangement. This hunt is restricted to does and fawns only.

Land and access

private land91%

Private

State Trust Land8%

Generally open to public hunting

About 9% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — State Trust Land, BLM and State Wildlife Areas, roughly 254 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.

This hunt area has 44 enrolled walk-in areas. It also holds 3 Hunter Management Areas. Both are private ground enrolled for public access, not public land. A Hunter Management Area requires a printed permission slip from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before hunting it. A Walk-In Area needs no permission slip — a hunter may walk in during the open period, subject to its posted rules. Enrollment is renegotiated every year, so check current status before counting on either.

Where pronghorn are mapped

Yearlong Range81%

the only layer that means year-round use

Winter Range15%

used in winter

Crucial Winter Range11%

the part of Winter Range considered essential to the herd — inside Winter Range, not added to it

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

Lower elevations

Grass and meadow65%

Other cover29%

Sagebrush4%

Riparian3%

Mid elevations

Grass and meadow79%

Other cover16%

Sagebrush4%

Riparian1%

Higher elevations

Grass and meadow74%

Other cover24%

Sagebrush2%

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	39°F	16°F	2.4 in
February	41°F	16°F	4.1 in
March	51°F	24°F	1.5 in
April	58°F	30°F	1.5 in
May	67°F	40°F	0 in
June	79°F	49°F	0 in
July	87°F	55°F	0 in
August	85°F	53°F	0 in
September	76°F	44°F	0 in
October	62°F	32°F	1.1 in
November	49°F	23°F	1.9 in
December	39°F	16°F	3.8 in

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

Common questions

Can a hunter apply for a licence to hunt area 34?: Hunt area 34 is a limited-quota area drawn for that specific area alone. Wyoming residents and nonresidents enter the same draw pool; the resident draw is random with no preference-point system. Nonresidents compete in a draw where three quarters of licences go to those with the most preference points and a quarter are awarded randomly. There is no general pronghorn licence or region licence in Wyoming, and no alternative exists if the draw does not come through.
How much public land can a hunter actually access here?: About 9% of the hunt area—254 square miles of State Trust Land, BLM, and State Wildlife Areas—is public ground, but it is scattered in isolated parcels interspersed with private land. Roads, trailheads, seasonal closures, and private inholdings still apply to public ownership. Walk-in areas offer the most straightforward access: 44 enrolled parcels allow hunters to walk onto private ground during posted seasons without permission, though enrollment is renegotiated annually and concentrates in the northern portion of the hunt area.
What is a hunter management area and how does a hunter use it?: A hunter management area is private land enrolled by agreement. Three HMAs—Nimmo, Peterson Draw, and Chalk Hill—are open here. Before hunting an HMA, a hunter must first obtain a printed permission slip from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Enrollment is renegotiated annually, so it is not guaranteed in any future season.
When do the seasons run here?: Type 1 (any antelope) opens with archery August 15–September 19 and continues with regular hunting September 20–October 14. Type 6 (doe or fawn) runs archery August 15–September 19 and regular hunting September 20–November 30. Both seasons require drawing for the specific area; no over-the-counter licence is available.
What should a hunter do before applying?: Because 91% of the hunt area is private land and public access is poor, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department strongly recommends securing access to private land before applying for a license. Arranging walk-in area or hunter management area access ahead of time—or contacting landowners early—will help a hunter make the most of the hunt if the draw comes through.

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