The 2025 Wyoming hunting season could be the best of the past few years. It’s not coming on the heels of a disaster, as other recent hunting seasons have.
The 2023 hunting season opened under the shadow of the massive big-game die-offs during the 2022-2023 winter. And in 2024, much of the state was reeling from gigantic wildfires that summer and fall.
For example, the huge Elk Fire near Dayton was appropriately named, as it scorched some of the state’s best elk hunting grounds.
The effects of the 2022-2023 winterkill are still lingering, mule deer and pronghorn (antelope) herds are still in recovery mode in parts of central and western Wyoming.
When it comes to elk, the story remains the same as it has for years. The herds are huge, in some areas far exceeding the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s objective numbers.
However, getting access to shoot elk can be tricky, as many of them hang out on private property.
Some early archery antelope seasons opened in August. Most other archery seasons for deer, elk and antelope opened Sept. 1, and most big game rifle hunting seasons will open in October.
Fires Still A Threat
The 2025 hunting season hasn’t been completely unscorched by wildfires. There have been some effects, just not nearly on the scale of the 2024 season.
The Dollar Fire near Pinedale has affected some big game hunting areas, Game and Fish wildlife division chief Dan Smith told Cowboy State Daily.
Likewise with areas hit by fire in the Big Horn Basin, he added.
In some areas where the fire has ruined hunting opportunities this year, Game and Fish is offering refunds or “carry-over” for hunters’ tags. Carry-over means tags will still be good next fall.
Are Type 8 Elk Tags The Answer?
To help solve the quandary of getting hunters to bloated elk herds, Game and Fish offers the Type 8 elk tag program, which was first rolled out last year
Those unlimited cow-calf elk tags. Hunters can buy them, over-the-counter, even if they already have other elk tags.
The catch is, nearly all Type 8 elk tags are good only on private land in certain hunt areas. So Game and Fish advises hunters to make sure they have permission to hunt on the private property before they run out and stock up on Type 8 licenses.
Judging by last year’s results, Smith said he’s hopeful that the Type 8 elk tag program will be a hit again this year.
In nine Wyoming elk hunt areas in 2024, Type 8 elk tags resulted in a total of 1,322 more elk tags being sold than for the 2023 hunting season, he said.
And hunters killed 1,192 more cow and calf elk in those areas in 2024, compared to 2023, he added.
During a recent interview with Cowboy State Daily Radio, Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce also plugged the Type 8 elk tags.
“If you have a place to go (on private property), if you have a friend you can call up, you can still get those tags,” she said.
Emphasis On ‘Cautiously’
Mule deer have had a tough time of it across the West.
One of the West’s most prized mule deer herds, the Wyoming Range herd, was devastated by the 2022-2023 winter. It’s thought that nearly every fawn froze or starved to death, along with thousands of adult deer.
Smith said there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic that mule deer there and other areas across Wyoming are doing better.
“I would emphasize ‘cautiously,’” he said. “We’ve seen a better crop of fawns this year."
Numerous deer hunting areas across the state have mandatory chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing for deer. That means hunters must submit the heads, or at least the lymph nodes, of deer they kill to Game and Fish.
CWD is caused by prions, or malformed proteins, and is fatal in deer, elk and moose.
It’s one of the biggest threats to mule deer herds across the West. Although there are no known cases of CWD infecting humans, wildlife management agencies and health experts recommend against eating meat from animals that test positive for the disease.
As for mule deer’s smaller cousins, white-tailed deer, Smith said Wyoming still has plenty of those.
Hunting for white-tails should be good this year, he said. But since they live primarily on private property in river bottom and agricultural areas, hunting access can be a challenge.
Speed Goat Comeback
Pronghorn, colloquially called antelope or sometimes “speed goats,” remain an iconic Wyoming species.
Record-breaking antelope bucks have typically come from the Southwest in states like Arizona or New Mexico. But Wyoming has more pronghorn than any other state, and some of the trophy bucks here are nothing to sneeze at.
The very heart of Wyoming’s trophy antelope areas, in the central and southwest parts of the state, was also hammered by the 2022-2023 winter, and untold thousands of them perished.
Smith said Game and Fish surveys of antelope herds are now underway.
The preliminary results look good, as the herds have recovered over the past couple of years.
“We’re still not fully back to where we were,” he said.
So, in those cream-of-the crop areas, antelope hunting still might be a little slow.
Birds Looking Good
The prospects look good for upland bird hunting this year, Smith said.
Favorite upland species in Wyoming include grouse, pheasants and doves.
“Upland game birds depend on spring moisture, and it was good this year, so we should see good numbers this fall,” he said.
Waterfowl hunting can be somewhat of an unknown factor, Smith said.
It’s highly “weather dependent” in Wyoming.
By that he meant, Wyoming doesn’t have all that many resident ducks and geese. So, the quality of hunting here depends largely on winter storms driving birds south into Wyoming from breeding grounds in Montana and Canada.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
