Oklahoma public Land hunt

[JohnSouth22]

Hey guys, New member to the forum but have been using this forum for years. Love the content yall put out for all turkey hunters. I am a college student from south Alabama. I finally made an account to get to be able to talk to ya'll directly as opposed to reading old threads.  I am currently halfway through my single season public land grand slam. With only Rios and Merriams to go and due to the virus, I bought my tags for both Sodak and Oklahoma.  I will be heading out to Oklahoma in two weeks and will be spending 10-12 days there before headed to Sodak.  From my digging so far it seems both blackkettle and packsaddle have good numbers but about 3 fold the hunters on the normal year. My question is are either of these WMA's getting less pressure than the average year due to the virus?  Im not asking for anyones spots but any sort of guidance is greatly appreciated!   

[Dtrkyman]

No clue on those, but in the south everyone being off work the public is busy.  I have not been there but several friends have said the same thing!

[akp]

Just got back from hunting private land out there but I hunted Black Kettle one day.  Numbers are way down this year.  I've been to both Black Kettle and Packsaddle and know what they're usually like.  I didn't see a bird on Black Kettle and didn't hear a single gobble.  Hunted a couple of units that are usually great and saw very little sign. 

Pressure is still high.  I saw a lot of trucks on Thursday.  I know there are birds out there but that entire region has to be about as bad as it's been in recent memory.  Not even seeing birds out in the fields on private like usual.  Hate to be negative.  I'm four hours from there and wouldn't make the drive back.

Having said all of that if you spend 12 days there, I'm sure you'll find some.  Just be aware it's not like what it usually is.  Maybe someone here can claim otherwise and steer you to some. 

Weather has not been kind to hatches in Oklahoma lately.

[hootgobbleyelpgobble]

Pressure is still high. 

Weather has not been kind to hatches in Oklahoma lately.

These 2 above quoted sentences pretty much sum up my last few years out in Oklahoma. We have seen the number of birds decline and the pressure go up. Decided to skip this year in hopes of letting the private spots we hunt, rebound some.

[Sir-diealot]

I was planning a trip to hunt Black Kettle WMA myself next year and have been reading a bit and talking to people that live in that area and they are all saying what the others have stated, the turkey are just not there like they once were.

Here are some links from things I have been reading about hunting there, maybe some of them will be of use to you.

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/hunting/species/turkey
http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlife-management-areas/black-kettle
https://www.nwtf.org/hunt/article/oklahoma-sleeper-state-rio-hunting
https://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/bowhunting/guide-hunting-rio-grande-turkey


By the way, does anybody know what number shot you can use in OK? I was thinking of using some TSS for the trip and the sight just says BB sized.

[turkeyfool]

I've been going to Nebraska for a while now as my Spring trip. I wasn't able to buy my non resident tag before they shut it down for NR's. I'll be going to that area of Oklahoma on the 20th I think. Also reading that it's being hammered with hunters but honestly with the virus, every area is. I hunted Mississippi for a few weeks at the end of March and that area was also hunted hard. OP, what date were you planning on heading out there?

[akp]

General consensus with the biologists around Oklahoma that I've talked to is pressure is up from normal weekdays.  I'm sure it has a lot to do with folks being off work.  Our bird populations are a fraction of what they were a decade ago.

[makestomstremble]

I live in northwest Oklahoma. Our birds are down considerably up here from 5-10 years ago. I have observed a good number of jakes this year though, so that is encouraging. The spring of 2018 was rough weather, we had temps in the teens a few nights during the early part of the season. There are still of course birds, but they will be found in the very best habitat around, not in marginal stuff like most years. Good luck and have a safe trip! I hunt a mixture of public and private, and this year I'm mostly on private. The public is not for the faint of heart, even on a good year.

[Improvinghunter101]

Took a trip out there this spring.  Pressure was quite heavy.  If you heard a bird on a tract in Black Kettle, you could bet there would be two to three trucks parked around it in the morning.  Talked with some locals and they said the bird populations were down as well.  Good luck if you decide to go out there!

[turkeyfool]

I'm here now (got in this evening). After reading about the pressure at some of the big tracts, I decided to check out some of the walk in hunt OLAP areas that are few and far between (but also don't seem to be advertised as it's a new program?). We'll see how it goes. I'm spending the week here 

[dzsmith]

I had the pleasure of hunting some private acreage in southwest Oklahoma last year. Fairly large tracks of prestine habitat. the guy who allowed me to hunt has been hunting the area and taking people hunting there a very long time. He starts scouting the winter flocks to see them bust up throughout the area to pin point locations on his farms. He claimed to have never overkilled or anything that should have hurt the birds but even when I was there last year he said the winter flocks are down about 75% in that area. I killed my bird, and it was an exciting hunt but it wasn't what I expected....I had to work a little bit for it because there simply wasn't many birds out and about in fields and along creeks. Small pockets  of turkeys in specific spots. Not what I would expect from an area that looked like that. Not gonna say the area doesn't receive more hunting pressure than per say 15 years ago but I never saw another person hunting on any property. I talked to a local farmer on the road of a neighboring farm and even he told me they just aren't here like they used to be. What can the state do? its already a 1 bird county where I was hunting....maybe they'll comeback, maybe they wont....time will tell.

[Sir-diealot]

I had the pleasure of hunting some private acreage in southwest Oklahoma last year. Fairly large tracks of prestine habitat. the guy who allowed me to hunt has been hunting the area and taking people hunting there a very long time. He starts scouting the winter flocks to see them bust up throughout the area to pin point locations on his farms. He claimed to have never overkilled or anything that should have hurt the birds but even when I was there last year he said the winter flocks are down about 75% in that area. I killed my bird, and it was an exciting hunt but it wasn't what I expected....I had to work a little bit for it because there simply wasn't many birds out and about in fields and along creeks. Small pockets  of turkeys in specific spots. Not what I would expect from an area that looked like that. Not gonna say the area doesn't receive more hunting pressure than per say 15 years ago but I never saw another person hunting on any property. I talked to a local farmer on the road of a neighboring farm and even he told me they just aren't here like they used to be. What can the state do? its already a 1 bird county where I was hunting....maybe they'll comeback, maybe they wont....time will tell.

I learned they have a serious problem with people that have the attitude that licenses are for city fold and poaching out there seems to be a way of life for many of them. Until that can be fixed it will continue to decline.

[akp]

That may be a problem locally as it is all over the country but is not the cause of the decline out there. 

[dzsmith]

I had the pleasure of hunting some private acreage in southwest Oklahoma last year. Fairly large tracks of prestine habitat. the guy who allowed me to hunt has been hunting the area and taking people hunting there a very long time. He starts scouting the winter flocks to see them bust up throughout the area to pin point locations on his farms. He claimed to have never overkilled or anything that should have hurt the birds but even when I was there last year he said the winter flocks are down about 75% in that area. I killed my bird, and it was an exciting hunt but it wasn't what I expected....I had to work a little bit for it because there simply wasn't many birds out and about in fields and along creeks. Small pockets  of turkeys in specific spots. Not what I would expect from an area that looked like that. Not gonna say the area doesn't receive more hunting pressure than per say 15 years ago but I never saw another person hunting on any property. I talked to a local farmer on the road of a neighboring farm and even he told me they just aren't here like they used to be. What can the state do? its already a 1 bird county where I was hunting....maybe they'll comeback, maybe they wont....time will tell.

I learned they have a serious problem with people that have the attitude that licenses are for city fold and poaching out there seems to be a way of life for many of them. Until that can be fixed it will continue to decline.

i have no doubt there are birds being poached. This particular area i was hunting actually had a more biogical problem...the man who let me hunt had been finding dead birds over the last 3 years with nothing physcially wrong with them....

[Sir-diealot]

That may be a problem locally as it is all over the country but is not the cause of the decline out there.

It is one part of the decline, to say otherwise foolish. You have to think if they are breaking the license laws who would be foolish enough to believe they are following the bag limit?

I had the pleasure of hunting some private acreage in southwest Oklahoma last year. Fairly large tracks of prestine habitat. the guy who allowed me to hunt has been hunting the area and taking people hunting there a very long time. He starts scouting the winter flocks to see them bust up throughout the area to pin point locations on his farms. He claimed to have never overkilled or anything that should have hurt the birds but even when I was there last year he said the winter flocks are down about 75% in that area. I killed my bird, and it was an exciting hunt but it wasn't what I expected....I had to work a little bit for it because there simply wasn't many birds out and about in fields and along creeks. Small pockets  of turkeys in specific spots. Not what I would expect from an area that looked like that. Not gonna say the area doesn't receive more hunting pressure than per say 15 years ago but I never saw another person hunting on any property. I talked to a local farmer on the road of a neighboring farm and even he told me they just aren't here like they used to be. What can the state do? its already a 1 bird county where I was hunting....maybe they'll comeback, maybe they wont....time will tell.

I learned they have a serious problem with people that have the attitude that licenses are for city fold and poaching out there seems to be a way of life for many of them. Until that can be fixed it will continue to decline.

i have no doubt there are birds being poached. This particular area i was hunting actually had a more biogical problem...the man who let me hunt had been finding dead birds over the last 3 years with nothing physcially wrong with them....

I would not be surprised if it was the chemicals in some of the crops. I posted a thing about how in Canada they found out some of the chemicals in them were making the turkeys go sterile.