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!
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!
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.
Quote from: akp on April 11, 2020, 08:14:44 PM
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
Quote from: dzsmith on April 19, 2020, 11:52:29 PM
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.
That may be a problem locally as it is all over the country but is not the cause of the decline out there.
Quote from: Sir-diealot on April 20, 2020, 12:18:32 AM
Quote from: dzsmith on April 19, 2020, 11:52:29 PM
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....
Quote from: akp on April 20, 2020, 12:31:04 AM
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?
Quote from: dzsmith on April 20, 2020, 01:55:23 AM
Quote from: Sir-diealot on April 20, 2020, 12:18:32 AM
Quote from: dzsmith on April 19, 2020, 11:52:29 PM
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.
I guess there could be some validity to that. This particular man and other farmers in the area believed it was an "eye worm"...I don't know what that is, not my words just his. But they had witnessed some behavior from birds that appeared to be "blind" according to them....probably a wives tale but interesting none the less.
Heading up today. Hopefully I'll have something good to report. I've certainly got the time to get them figured out.
Quote from: dzsmith on April 22, 2020, 01:22:20 AM
I guess there could be some validity to that. This particular man and other farmers in the area believed it was an "eye worm"...I don't know what that is, not my words just his. But they had witnessed some behavior from birds that appeared to be "blind" according to them....probably a wives tale but interesting none the less.
Seems it is the real deal, I am still reading but it can affect domestic turkeys but do not know for sure if wild turkeys are also affected, I will learn more later or you can read it yourself. https://www.chickenwhisperermagazine.com/health-and-wellness/do-your-fowl-have-mansons-eyeworm
Quote from: Sir-diealot on April 22, 2020, 06:13:08 PM
Quote from: dzsmith on April 22, 2020, 01:22:20 AM
I guess there could be some validity to that. This particular man and other farmers in the area believed it was an "eye worm"...I don't know what that is, not my words just his. But they had witnessed some behavior from birds that appeared to be "blind" according to them....probably a wives tale but interesting none the less.
Seems it is the real deal, I am still reading but it can affect domestic turkeys but do not know for sure if wild turkeys are also affected, I will learn more later or you can read it yourself. https://www.chickenwhisperermagazine.com/health-and-wellness/do-your-fowl-have-mansons-eyeworm
oh wow...I didn't even know that was a real thing. I guess it is.
There's standing water all over western Oklahoma right now. I'll have to come back and hunt two years from now. Struggling so far. Waurika was flooded. Canton didn't produce a gobble, hen yelp, or track. I probably should have just stayed where I started (south central). At least I saw a little sign and heard a couple gobbles (mosquito infested though). Giving one more WMA out west a shot, and the its back east for me. I'd rather get my butt handed to me by easterns that are few and far between in SE Oklahoma then to struggle with Rios out west. I have plenty of them in Texas and just wanted to extend my season since tagging out at home.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Dept isn't going to do much as far as turkeys are concerned until hunters start getting vocal. In SE Ok they are more interested in putting all of their money & studies in a thriving black bear population.
A lot of the public lands in SE Oklahoma are void of turkeys, places where they used to thrive. I was told by a biologist for the department that numbers, state wide are holding there own. By what I'm reading here that's not the case.
thriving in pockets maybe.......its the same in most places with a declining population.
Was able to tag a bird this morning.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/94ea7ca4f55b9948bb4b69a88b68973d.jpg)
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Well earned. Congrats
Felt like I've done more driving than hunting. My impression is that there just aren't a whole lot of birds out there. I've driven all over the state the last few days and have seen next to nothing in what appears to be great looking turkey country.
Been my experience as well herein Oklahoma Have several places. One is 5000 acres that no one hunts and people live on it. No birds. Think we have had very poor hatches the last three years
What birds are there in the western third of the state should have a great hatch this year, setting up some good hunting a couple years from now. I'm thrilled to have gotten on one. Now it's time to see what southeast Oklahoma is all about.
North east Oklahoma isn't real easy right now either. Se Oklahoma is going to be a challenge. Good luck
Struggling indeed. Didn't hear a bird gobble after 9:00 AM and I was out there all day. The bird I did get on this morning gobbled good on his own, but as soon as I setup and called to him, he shut up. Happened twice. Couldn't stay with him after the second time he went quiet. Gave him an hour before giving up.
Couldn't stand the beating I got in SE Oklahoma. James Collins has birds, but the competition for them is fierce. I you show up, scout a day early, and find a bird/birds off the roads a ways, and get to your spot early opening morning, you could have some success. I heard three birds gobbling from camp as I packed my stuff up to leave (safety zones, can't hunt them close to the camping area).
That is a rough trip
It's very hit-or-miss in Oklahoma this year. There are pockets of good hunting, but not the widespread good hunting that we had a few years ago. Ironically, the little 300 acre patch of private that I have permission on seems to have more turkeys this year than I have seen there in 3 or 4 years. They have still managed to outsmart me to this point. Which ain't that hard to do.
sounds about how they treat me : but remember every one says rios are easy
Heavily hunted turkeys are hard regardless of species.
yes sir and henned up field birds are almost enough to make me give up turkey hunting
Quote from: JMalin on April 28, 2020, 03:18:36 PM
Heavily hunted turkeys are hard regardless of species.
thank you. matter of fact its even worse when you can see a bird in the Midwest whose been hunted hard but you can get anywhere near him.....that sucks worse than walking into the woods in the southeast and just never seeing or hearing a bird period.