I had an amazing weekend with a friend at a private ranch this weekend south of Chickasha, OK. The ranch is right around 6,400 acres... about 10 square miles! It wouldn't take much to get lost out there for sure. Although I have seen much prettier country (woods and streams, etc.), this place is managed for healthy game animals. The owner has put in numerous multi-acre foodplots, a couple of large wheat fields, milo fields and multiple corn feeders that run year round. He has some awesome deer, rio turkeys, feral hogs and fallow deer on the property. We saw a bobcat, several coyotes, a nice sized hog (that would have gotten shot had he stood still for 15 more seconds), numerous deer, over 25 turkeys, coons and armadillos.
The ranch sits on one of the richest oil/gas deposits aside from the one in North Dakota. The owner is an insurance broker that has bought the land one property at a time to piece together an incredible ranch. He shared that the gas and oil produced on the ranch already has completely paid for the ranch. He also said the oil being produced is of such a high grade that it comes out of the ground clear and without color, requiring an additive to keep it from evaporating when it comes in contact with the air. I know nothing about oil production, but it sounded impressive to me.
The terrain has some rolling hills of not more than 70-100 feet elevation variation. He burned over 1,000 acres, so there was a lot of lush green among the scrub oaks and elm thickets. There are numerous ravines that drop around 20 feet that are bordered by larger timber (i.e. roost trees). He has 59 ponds on the property, so there is ample water across the property to support game. There is a gravel/dirt road system throughout much of the property, then some areas that are so thick that you would need a chainsaw to walk 100 yards.
We got on birds the first morning in a 5-6 acre foodplot with a nice plum/scrub oak thicket in the middle. The birds worked all over on the other side of the thicket, but never worked around to our side??? That evening, we set up on the other side of the thicket... it was "on like donkey kong". That morning we saw 4 mature birds moving together, several hens and some jakes. That evening, we called in 2 of the 4 mature birds. I got first shot and took a beautiful rio with 1" spurs and a 9 inch beard. I didn't get pics until after dark, so the bird was stiff.... we had more hunting to do. About an hour later, a hen came in and gave us a show like I have never seen. She went into full strut repeatedly and flogged the upright hen decoy several times. She pecked about half the paint off of one of the decoy's eyeballs over about 10-15 minutes. We called in 4 jakes, one of which had a full fan and a 4 1/2" beard. That jake attacked the stuffed gobbler decoy my buddy brought. The decoy had a hinged tail that could be lifted by pulling a string. It drove the birds nuts! The jake also pecked the freeze dried head of the decoy almost in half... ouch... it was hard to watch. He then tried to breed a DSD alert hen for well over 30 minutes... That was crazy! We finally shooed them out of the area hoping to get more birds to come in. We had another full fanned jake that the other 3 jakes kept running out of the foodplot. We continued to call and a completely different group of 5 jakes come in to the decoys. Their demeanor was completely different. Hoping to avoid another decoy violation, we shooed them out of the foodplot quickly. That pretty much ended our evening hunt.
The next morning was about 10 degrees warmer, but winds were about 10 mph faster. The birds were in a completely different mood and didn't want to play... at all. We moved around the ranch throughout the day and heard several birds gobbling. We finally went back to the foodplot where I killed my bird. After about 2 hours (afternoon hunt) the 4 jakes came back. This time we had the DSD jake decoy out with all 3 DSD hens, instead of the stuffed gobbler. The dominant jake led the charge again. I got video of about 20 minutes of this goober pecking the eyeballs of the DSD jake and flogging it repeatedly. That was all my buddy could take. With a full fan, the gobbling jake got rolled. That evening, the landowner came out and fixed us dinner... 3" thick prime rib steaks on the grill!!! Oh, my gosh!!! We didn't eat until 11pm, but it was worth the wait!
Sunday morning we tried a new spot. We had owl hooted nearby the previous evening, but no gobbles. We pulled up on a gas well pad above a ravine and some large timber. We walked maybe 100 yards with a small headlight flashlight, as it was pitch dark and a place we had never been. We switched off the light and stood on a pond bank. A few minutes later we heard a branch move in a tree not 30 yards in front of us... and one hen cluck.
Within 15 minutes, we heard at least 5 different birds gobbling within 100 yards of us. We quickly set up on the edge of some scrub timber. The birds gobbled at the wind, crows, soft calling and who knows what. We likely heard 100 gobbles prior to flydown. All of a sudden we heard wings flapping. A bird rose over the treetops about 50 yards in front of us and flew straight towards our decoy setup 20 yards in front of us. The bird put his tail down and hit the air brakes (wings flapping) to keep from overshooting the decoys. That was quite a rush. Another bird flew over the pond bank and below the trees to our right. The bird at the decoys began to strut... another jake... grrr... The light coloration of the feather tips were beautiful on that bird. He had maybe a 2" beard and the typical feathers about 4" taller in the center of his fan. He thought he was in charge, although he never got more than 2' from the decoys. The other bird turned out to be another jake that wanted nothing to do with the decoys and mosied off towards the nearby ravine, jake yelping and clucking every few seconds. I promise the kind of show that first jake put on would get him killed next year! He finally moved up a rise to my left and continued to strut for another 5 minutes. The little guy was so heated up, he stood and "stimulated himself" repeatedly. That was a first for me to see. They moved off and we tried several more setups throughout the morning. We heard numerous gobbles and saw several more jakes.
Due to several factors, I had to back out of a hunt on this property last year within a week of the scheduled hunt. The landowner, who was a great host, invited me to come back next year, but encouraged me to come on opening day rather than 2 weeks into the season. Raise your hand if you think I'm putting that date on my calendar...
