Oklahoma Advice

[Bamaslayer757]

Buddy and I are doing a Western swing staying near Sayre, Ok and will be hunting public as we make our way north to Nebraska around April 17-24. Trying to do as cheap as possible as I am a 4th year med student with no money ? I've only really hunted Bama, sippi, and Tennessee birds so any tips or helpful hints would be much appreciated. We will hit the infamous Black kettle as well as other public areas and are just planning on running and gunning all day every day. I have seen a lot of good tips and links as well as I plan on calling the biologists around to fully do my homework but figured I'd reach out to y'all as well for useful tips and suggestions. Thanks!

[Gooserbat]

Not nearly as many birds as there used to be.  If you knock on doors don't waist time doing it near public lands those folks have a scripted polite "No" plenty of camping if you are on the cheap.

[GobbleNut]

Planning on making a run up that way myself.  Here's a question for you, Sam, and others that might know:  For those private-land folks that will say no to hunting, any ideas on how willing they are to allow hunting with the offer of a trespass fee? 

I suspect, like other regions, that most of the private lands are leased-out to individuals or hunting clubs, but I thought I would throw out the question.  Years ago, it was possible to find folks who would allow you to hunt with the offer of a little "reimbursement" for the privilege,...and that was generally pretty reasonable. 

[makestomstremble]

Bamaslayer, like gooserbat said, our birds out in western Oklahoma are down considerably from 5-10 years ago. Many areas that had birds just a few years ago do not presently. Where we used to have tons of birds, there are presently scattered pockets to be found, in the best habitat available. If I were you I would try knocking on some doors and tell them you drove all the way here from Alabama and would only be there for a few days and would gladly pay a trespass fee to hunt a day or two. Not saying you can't kill on public, but Black Kettle is a zoo, and some of the others are not much better. Bring good binoculars and look for negative elevation (water).

About 25 years ago I was driving through an area in Dewey Co. and saw a couple of birds on a fence line south of the road. I noticed a small farmhouse across the highway and saw a pickup parked in front of an old barn. I pulled in, got out and noticed an older gentleman in overalls sitting on a bucket fooling with a barn cat. We visited a bit, and I asked him if a guy could hunt across the highway, I mentioned seeing a couple of birds back down there. He told me sure. I told him I would not be back for a few days since I would not have a day off. When I started to leave, he told me "if I was a turkey hunter, I would probably go a mile the other direction instead of across the highway". He knelt down on the ground, pulled a screwdriver out of the back pocket of his overalls and drew a map in the dirt. He told me where to park, which cottonwoods the birds usually roosted in and told me good luck. A few days later when I got a day off, I got up early and went where he instructed, and sure enough, the birds were there. Found out later he owned a good bit of land and didn't mind a turkey hunter or two. He had family that deer hunted, but he was as nice a guy as you could meet.

You might have to knock on quite a few doors, but if you get just one "yes", the hunting could be infinitely better than on any of the WMAs out here. Good luck, roll a big one.

[GobbleNut]

Your story, makestomstremble, reminds me of a couple of my own OK experiences.

Years ago, three of us went to southwestern OK as an "exploratory" turkey-hunting trip.  Stopped in a hole-in-the-wall cafe in a little town for lunch wearing our camo on the next-to-last day of our adventure.  A couple of older gentlemen asked us what we were doing, and soon we were into a good, friendly chat with them. 

One of them had a small lease nearby and gave us permission to take a look under the condition that, if we decided to hunt it, we could pay him $25 a day apiece.  I decided to take a look that afternoon, found a gobbler near sundown, called him in, and killed him. 

I couldn't track the old guy down to pay him before we started back home, but I called him the next day and told him I needed to send him a check.  Got his address and sent him a hundred dollars, and told him we would be back the next spring if he would still let us hunt.

The next year, not only were we hunting his property, but he had lined up four or five of his old buddies with property that all let us hunt!  We hunted there for about five seasons and killed a bunch of gobblers on those places,....all of it because of a chance encounter with some friendly old guys in a little restaurant!

Second part of the tale:  One day, during those years we hunted there, we were driving around exploring and happened to see a flock of about a hundred Rios in a pecan orchard next to a house.  We figured "what the heck" and stopped and knocked on the door. 

An elderly couple that had to be in their nineties answered the door.  We politely asked them about the turkeys, and eventually they asked us to come in.  The old fellow had been a hunter in his younger years and was quite interested in talking to us about all things hunting.  We sat and chatted with the two of them for a long while, and at the end of it all the old gentleman said, "sure, you boys can hunt those turkeys"!

Naturally, we were "jacked" with that statement and after saying our goodbyes, we started out the door.  We had almost got away when the lady said to her husband,.."what about those guys that we have the land leased to for hunting?"

...Even when things look like they are going to work out,...sometimes they just don't.     

[Bamaslayer757]

Love these stories and the advice y'all! Yeah buddy and I are renting a car and are prepared to put a lot of miles in lookin for birds and trying to strike some up whether it be private or public. I have heard the same about running into people at a diner and ending up with permission as well! Keep the responses coming as they are very much appreciated! Also, I didn't realize I had so few posts when I posted this...have been lurking for a long time and didn't realize I had created an account a while back lol

[Mo_turkey_hunter]

I love it out there. Such a change of scenery from the ozark hills. The hunting is not easy but when you find a bird you typically can pattern him simply due to the lack of trees or call him in as he is a rio.


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[birdman67]

I've hunted western Oklahoma around the Black Kettle several times. The birds are hard to locate but once you do, you can make it happen quickly. Best advice I can give you is have a good pair of binos and the first day or so, scout and glass like crazy. Once you find their roost and patterns, you can make it happen. The hard part is finding them. After that, you can be in for an awesome hunt. Each time I've hunted out there, it took longer to find them than actually limit out. Those rios hang to a pattern a lot and at some point during the day, they usually will come running to the right call.

[Gooserbat]

Planning on making a run up that way myself.  Here's a question for you, Sam, and others that might know:  For those private-land folks that will say no to hunting, any ideas on how willing they are to allow hunting with the offer of a trespass fee? 

I suspect, like other regions, that most of the private lands are leased-out to individuals or hunting clubs, but I thought I would throw out the question.  Years ago, it was possible to find folks who would allow you to hunt with the offer of a little "reimbursement" for the privilege,...and that was generally pretty reasonable.

In my experience if they want to allow hunting for a $$$ they already have it leased.

[The Lung]

Black Kettle gets tons of pressure, even with all the scattered parcels of land. If it has to be western OK, I would try others, in particular there's one that gets very little pressure. In one of Oklahoma's least populated counties.

[Bamaslayer757]

Once again, really appreciate all the tips and advice y'all. Really helps with the limited time we have over there and with birds I've had no experience hunting. I don't hunt with decoys so may be tougher with the wide open terrain out there but am super aggressive at run and gunning.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Something I've learned when ever I am or am not looking for hunting but out in public is to keep my camo on... thinking about gobblenuts story.... I do always take it off when I go to ask for permission/knock on someone's door but when I am getting gas, groceries, lunch, you name it I have camo on. People always seem to ask. Some people do just that but others ask and then offer you an opportunity. The folks that don't mind turkey hunting usually dont know its turkey season and why they ask about your camo on in the spring because it isnt deer season.

Couple examples of this working out:
Sitting in a bar after a long day of hunting in one town probably around 9pm.... was trying to watch my college team and get out of the cold.... lady offer me rights to her land...3hrs away. Another lady over hears our conversation and calls her husband down the road I have permission to hunt the next day.

Wife is hungry late one night so we pull into the only bar/diner within miles.... gentleman see the camo, ask what I'm up to... I'm hunting his property the next day

Getting groceries the clerk in a town offered me to come knock some her flock down

Getting gas a man tells me to follow him up the road, pulls over and tells me to walk over a hill....turkeys.

Just a little food for thought. I stand by taking my camo off when door knocking but I keep a fresh set of breathable camo to change into when I go to any town now.

Another word of advise. You are going to Oklahoma which is the middle of the country....no where near an ocean....what do you have that they don't? Seafood? Crabs? Oysters? Clams? I appreciate Gobblernuts generous tip... a generally cheaper alternative that goes almost as far or farther is bringing a little treat they don't have. I always pack pacific salmon, dungenous crab, halibut, smoked salmon, razor clams or something with me when feasible. Even if they let me hunt for free, I leave it as a parting gift. And like Gobblenut I usually get invited back by them .... and their neighbors.

If you don't have the seafood... summer sausage, pepperoni, jerky all work the same when its homemade. It shows you care about your quarry.

[PalmettoRon]

Also, I believe OK has cut the bag limit to one bird per county pretty much everywhere when a lot of the western OK counties were previously 2 bird counties. You can still take 3 OK birds this Spring, but they will have to be from 3 different counties, I'm fairly sure. The drought has been tough on the hatches in western OK and the Panhandle of TX.

[WV Flopper]

 For a guy that is planning on being in OK in less than two months to hunt the Rio, you guys really are letting the wind out of my sales! I have welllllllll over a hundred hours of E scouting various Western OK WMA's including OLAP properties.

What a bunch of Debbie Downers! It makes the challenge that much better!  Then again, I do relish the easy Gobbler.

[PalmettoRon]

It ain't easy, but hey I'm an optimist. I bought 3 tags for OK. You might as well. The out of state license is the main expense. The tags are only $10 a piece. Be prepared-haha!