Last week, I went to visit my great uncle.  He is 98 years old and WWII veteran.  He is staying at the Clinton Veteran’s Home.

All together it was about 10 hours door to door in each direction.  This is from just east of St. Louis, down I-44, through Joplin, past Tulsa, past Oklahoma City, and then west on I-40 to Clinton.

I couldn’t help noticing the terrain differences between south western Missouri and Oklahoma.

From the interstate, there seemed to be a lot more open space…not so jammed pack with trees.  And the contour changed to gently rolling hills.  I saw lots and lots of round bails.  Then at some point the wind mill farms started up..

So I have to ask:  how is the deer hunting in Oklahoma?

Unlike Illinois, I am ASSuming you guys can use regular bottle necked rifle rounds.  Ill-annoyed used to be strictly shotgun slug only.

How are the coyotes?

And how are the wild birds (pheasants, quail, prairie chickens)?

And lastly, how are the feral hogs?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:  I first went to Dong’s Guns and Reloading back in 2006 or 2007.  I was out there for a major IDPA match.

So on the drive back, I made it a point to stop in at Dong’s again.  I bought some stuff including a T-shirt.

Each county is as different as the terrain. As for farm deer like northern Missouri or southern Iowa we don’t have that. Our deer numbers are up but poachers in SE Oklahoma where I am thin out the trophy bucks and the Game Warden’s are bought and paid for. So don’t expect a lot of trophy bucks. Now if you can find a very large ranch with four or more sections with limited access the odds go up. Now the rough terrain of some forests service land also offers some decent opportunities. Hogs are still plentiful in certain areas. But we have finally knocked them down in our neighborhood. We haven’t had a pig picture in over a year (almost two). What I understand the quail and turkey hunting is still pretty good west of here. But turkey and quail have been knocked back by the feral hogs. Dove is getting better. Ducks are pretty plentiful if you’re into that. Squirrel and Rabbit populations are very good. In fact I may have to chase a few tree rats this year. Fishing is good with plenty of lakes. Now gaining access to private land is lease mainly. It’s getting harder to gain access all because the Game Wardens are so sorry people don’t want anyone they don’t know on their property. And even then loose lips are so damaging it’s hard to trust anyone when a GW looks you straight in the eye tells you there’s nothing he can do because of corruption in the DA’s office and Judges. But if you get caught off road with a buggy without a permit they give you hell. I used to be a solid QDMA member but after growing some big bucks and I person poaching one and BowHunter magazine trying to strong arm me into giving up the buck’s prior history I quit. P.S. we found where the buck had been gutted and shot right next to the county road a mile and half where the guy claimed to have killed him. And the buck was seven years old with only three working legs. He was traveling about a half mile between my place and a neighbor who had corn out for him. So you can see how the Game Department is here. They cater to the poachers. The comments from Texans used to be they could pay the fines in Oklahoma cheaper than to hunt legally in Texas. If you can find a decent lease west of here I think things are better.

Good luck

Funny you should mention the poaching thing….

We ate dinner with my Great Uncle last Wednesday at the Clinton Veteran’s home.  Their cafeteria food was actually pretty good.

One of the other vets wheeled himself over and started talking to us.  He said he had X amount of acres in Oklahoma and Y head of cattle.

So I asked him about the deer hunting.

His response was basically, “I HATE POACHERS!”

When I was at Dong’s I should have asked them about hunting too.

It sounds to me like the fishcops don’t get paid enough in Oklahoma.

Not that I would want anybody’s hunting license fees or taxes to go up for more .gov agents .

Anywhooo…. If I ever get to retire, and I have enough money, I would like to buy some land…somewhere….preferably out in the country.

At least from what I could see from I-44 and I-40, Oklahoma looked nice.

It’s a shame the corruption is so bad.  We have enough of that already here in south western Illinois (near St. Louis).

It’s a shame because we have the ability to grow some outstanding bucks.
This buck was from a few years ago when we had a DA that prosecuted poachers.

And another. But after 2018 our bucks went down hill. Now we’re absolutely lucky to see a 135” buck.

Hunting isnt bad,

but for most part lots of people that use to allow you to hunt their property for free are now few and far between.

Too many clowns that came in to hunt fucking stuff up and not fixing or paying to fix their fuck ups.

So now most property owners you pay a hunting lease to hunt and/or fish on.

Sooooo…these poachers are picking off these bucks with the big racks….are they just cutting off part the skull that has the antlers, or doing a European mount with the cleaned skull?

Because I don’t know how you would take such a poached deer to a taxidermist to do regular / traditional trophy mount.

I think it is like that all over…a few bad apples spoil the barrel kinda thing.

One of the local poachers is a taxidermist. Like I said GW’s don’t want to buck the local DA or judges. Plus the worst poacher is the largest land owner in the county’s grandson. He has protection. And now with NV and Thermal optics you don’t see lights flashing in the horizon like spotlights. It all boils down to the decent hunters not policing their own ranks. Look how they treat the best poachers like rock stars. Land owners have seen this and now it’s pay to play. I used to put out five tons of protein supplements a year to grow bigger bucks. And plant around sixty acres of food plots. Now I don’t waste the money. I have grown two bucks that were in the top 100 for Oklahoma’s record book. The Hicks buck and Martin buck. But the GW’s during that time from retired or were removed. The new ones were let’s say very very good at poaching before they became GW’s and can relate to the poachers better than the landowners. Until our game department is overhauled we’re not going to have the potential bucks our state is capable of. The other part that gets me is a game warden has the power to investigate and arrest a DA or Judge on the grounds of aiding and abetting. They are the most powerful state LE enforcement agency of the state. Yet they are the most corrupt in the state. Used to you could haul little hay or help out a land owner and get all the access you wanted and then some more. But it’s not that way anymore because of the poaching and property destruction.

I have only been here for a year.

So far, I see deer almost daily. No big bucks though....

The poaching explains a lot. Is there a season on poachers or can we shoot them all year?

Sorry they’re protected here.

OP, I live on the western side, maybe about 30 miles South of Clinton.  I much prefer this side of the state, too damn many out of staters over on the East side  Honestly, I like the openness and rolling hills better than heavy timber.  We also dont have any humidity over here.

We dont have a serious poaching problem over here and we also dont have deer hunting, we have deer shooting cause there are so many.  Its not even sporting so I stopped.  When I was actively hunting, 20-30 minutes in my stand was all I needed.  

Cost of living is excellent around here.  Homes can be had for cheap, land isnt terrible and taxes are low.  My last property tax was $370 for 3600 sq ft house, pool, 2 barns on 10 acres.

Lots of small towns and communities west of 35 from Kansas to texas.

Course theres the rattlesnake capital of Oklahoma that has the yearly festival/carnival amongst all the other festivals throughout the state

And y’all still have quail and turkeys!!!

Maybe we do and maybe we dont

🫢

Nice!

Here in Illinois, of course we get raped on all kinds of taxes.

I LOL’ed.

Thanks everybody for all the gouge/intell.

This would definitely be an area specific thing.   I live in Norman with a similar sized home on 10 acres.   I pay just a teensy teensy tadpole more for taxes

My little acreage with near 1200sqft house in rural east norman by the lake with homestead exemption was $333.

Got some unimproved acreage thats cheaper as long as i leave it unimproved.

Downside is im rural and a mile out of the fire department greenzone so my house insurance is higher,

but ive also got a $500 deductible, i could raise that and drop my yearly rate quite a bit,

but if a brush fire hits my place my house would go up like a box of matches before the fd would even get close to leaving the station.

And the $500 would get enough insurance funds for me to build another house.

Haven't seen or heard a quail here for a long time now.

Do have lots of turkeys, deer, bob cats, coyotes, red and grey foxes and feral hogs,

Few weeks back my nephew killed a 100 pounder back behind the house, he said there were about 15 or so more