I drew my buck tag in unit 87!!! woohoo! Any help would be greatly appreciated. it should be an awesome year with good antelope deer and elk tags i should have a full freezer eventually.

Congrats on the speedgoat tag for 87! As you probably know, there is a lot of public land to hunt on the Pawnee NG. Don't overlook the portion on the USDA Expirimental Range either, I believe it is still open to hunting, as long as you check in with the field office.

The unit is popular because of the public land access, so opening weekend will be a zoo. You will see a lot of hunters and a lot of goats on the ground Sat and Sun. The last few years, there has also been a hobby rocket club that conducts a big camp/shoot-off-rockets event that seems to coincide with opening weekend (they camp off of WCR 122 and FS45) If at all possible, I suggest hunting after the first weekend, after to initial onslaught is over. A lot of guys will tag out early, especially the doe hunters, and you'll have more elbow room to work with. By Wed/Thur, the goats should have settled down a bit from being heavily pursued the weekend before.

I tried this two years ago, but had a hard time taking my own advice. I didn't go out opening morning, but took a drive out there that afternoon just to see what was going on. Got a sense of where the hunters and goats were, made a plan for a sunrise sit/glass session, went out the next morning and had a buck on the ground 5 minutes after legal shooting light. Was home in time to catch a late breakfast (good) but didn't have any excuse left for skipping out on work the following week (bad).

So don't rush it and shoot the first buck you see. Take some time and wait for that cagey big guy that avoided all the opening weekend pressure.

Good luck on all your hunts this fall!