okiejaco

There was a good article in todays paper about the meeting. They are also thinking of making Southwest OK like a management area. There you would only be able to shoot one buck. This is where I rifle hunt, so I would be interested in hearing everyones opinions on this subjet. I have no problems with it myself, but I am sure a lot of people will. Not sure if there is a way to do it. But if there was a way to reward people that shoot mature deer, maybe that would help. I know that more people in Southwest OK are passing up smaller deer now then 5 or 10 yrs. ago.

alsaqr

"They are also thinking of making Southwest OK like a management area. There you would only be able to shoot one buck."

i also hunt mostly in SW Oklahoma and would welcome such a plan. You are right,lots offolks are passing up immature bucks. Unfortunately, there are stillsome of the kind that will shoot a spike or fork horn. i do not have a problem with immature bucks being killed during youth deer season.

i grew up in WV in the 40s and 50s. There were lots of deer with huge antlers. Then the state of WV got greedy and started selling deer.It all went to pot in about 10 years. Now the bucksituation is worse in WV than it is in OK.

tycteach

The meetings begin at 6:30 pm except in Sallisaw and Muskogee and those two start at 6pm. Jan 08 @ Durant at the State Fish Hatchery, Lawton at the Public Library, Okmulgee at East Central Electric, and at Muskogee at the college auditorium. Jan 09 at Ada Vo. Tech, Altus at the public library, Broken Bow and the public library, Enid at Central fire station, Oklahoma City at the Dept. of Wildlife Conservation, Tishomingo at the community center, Tulsa at the Alliance and Conference Center building (Tulsa technology center Riverside campus), Sallisaw at Indian Capital Vo-Tech. Of course, the main topic is reducing the number of bucks allowed over all three seasons from 3 to 2.I personally don't think this will have that much impact on the herd, but I'm no deer biologist. I just don't think there are that many hunters in any area harvesting 3 bucks in the first place. Whatever finally happens, I hope they come up with some way to stop the slaughter of the young bucks and help out by encouraging theharvestofdoes and letting the smaller bucks grow up. I've been hunting S.W. Okla since 1974 when I moved here from S.E. Okla. There were few deer in this entire area of the state at that point. In fact, in 1976 there was only 1 deer harvested in the entire county and I shot it with a bow. Now, we're loaded up with deer. I had as many as 15 at one time in front of me during this past rifle season. I passed on many, many bucks, one was probably a 130-135 class 8 point. I want the opportunity to see those BIG BOYS more often. I manage my property by feeding, planting, etc. all year long and then those little bucks walk off and get shot next door. I want more to grow up. At least according to my cameras, my biggest has made it so far but each year some that were going to be great never showed up again after rifle season. They (the wildlife department) is considering making all or part of Beckham, Greer, Harmon, Tillman and Jackson counties a 1 buck/year area experimental zone. If this will help, I'm all for it. I just know that we're going to have to find a way to reduce the numbers of does for this to work. I'm convinced that all of them don't get bred anyway because of the imbalance. I plan on attending the meeting, but my gut tells me that they will do what they want anyway. I've been to too many meetings and part of too many surveys where I feel that this happens. It's just a good way to make people feel like they were a part of the decision and lends some "false" validity to them. Since we have no real way to see what the actual results were, they can tell us that they were anything they wanted and we'll go along with it. That's an awful lot of meetings to try to keep up with. Also, knowing that written comments are accepted if mailed to Attn: Proposed hunting and fishing regulation changes-----Wildlife Department, P.O. Box 53465, Oklahoma City, Ok. 73152, it makes the task impossible for everybody except them. Wejust have to trust them.
That's thebottom line.All I know is I hope they know what they are doing and get on the road to getting this corrected. I'm not getting any younger. I know that for sure. Happy New Year everyone and here's hoping that each of you harvest the largest buck of your life this next season.

MC Bowhunter

It will be interesting to see what they do. I just hope they make the right decisions. I have no problem with them going to 2 bucks. I passed up so many this year and never drew back on one. I guess we will find out soon what they decide.

MC

ryanaller

I also do 90% of my hunting South of Lawton and am curious to hear how all of these changes will work. I did notice that they were thinking of modifying the dove season as well. Projected limits will change from 15 to 12, but they are thinking of giving another late season dove hunt in December. Here is the link to the agenda and dates: http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/2007_public_hearing_locations.htm

See yall there!!

wmahunter

Hey guys, I live in duncan and also heard about the changes in the oklahoman. I have never killed more than one deer a season so limiting the bucks will not affect me. Im a meat hunter. dont care about horns. By the way any of you hunt public land in OK?

davs2601

I hunt public land. I didnt do any good this year but I had a blast. I had a buck ten yards to my left while I was in my ground blind. Talk about getting the blood pumping. Unfortunately I wasnt paying attention, Oh well ill be after him again next year.

Did you do any good on public land this year? I spent alot of time out at Altus-Lugert. There are some good deer there but they are extremely hard to pattern. Once I got it figured out they changed it all up on me. Although I did find out that Altus Lugert is getting overrun with coyotes and bobcats. I went out sunday after alot of rain and there were tracks everywhere...and I mean everywhere. I may have to plan another trip in the next few weeks for a predator hunt.

alsaqr

Did not hunt or scout in 05 since i worked out of state. Been scouting since early July this year and hunting at least two days a week since early October. In the area that i hunt the most the deer have drastically changed their habits. They have abandonedmany long established trails.The fawn to doe rate was low this year. The fawn survival rate was also low. Many does that were running with fawns early on have lost them to something or the other. There are a large number of coyotes. Blasted one last evening while rabbit hunting with the .22. There is a dramatic increase in the number of wild hogs since 04.

I think that a one buck per limit should be made effective this year. It works in Kansas and other places and can work here as well.

davs2601

did anyone make it to the meetings??

okietreedude

There was a meeting tonite in Enid. I went and there were about 50 people there.

There was a lot of talk about the deer limit thing. Guys mentioning antler restrictions, fewer buck tags, more doe tags....all sorts of things. The biologists are against antler restrictions claiming there are a lot of 1 1/2 deer w/ 6-8 points or on the flip side, old deer w/ few points = this would not help.

There were a lot of things suggested that make a lot of sense, but its convincing the dept, then the legislature to act on it.

as for the meeting:

They had an open discussion first to air ideas and suggestions. Then they went through all the proposed changes. Several items about some part of a river in E. Ok. then they got to the deer stuff. One other proposal is allowing youth hunts to take a doe (like they can now) and add a buck tag. This was pretty ademently opposed. After this, I left. They still had some things about fur bearers (river otters) and other misc stuff I really didnt care about.

If any one does, I can post more about it. Heck, I can even scan it in and put it as an attachment (depending on size).


If there are anymore upcoming, GET OUT THERE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!