Alright I have this overwhelming want to yo hunting but have never been so I need some help on where to start I've got a rifle but that's it any info would be greatly appreciated on where I should start
start out with coyotes, hogs and dove... you can hunt all three on public lands fairly close to the city. hogs and yotes are open most of the year without special permits / tags. dove are just plain tasty... and shotguns can be found cheap. your welcome to tag along with our group one of these days--- Fog
What kind of hunting are you interested in?
Interested in deer mostly but wouldn't mind trying a hog hunt also
One good place to start is the wildlife department website:
www.wildlifedepartment.com
Find the 2010-2011 Hunting Guide in .pdf format and read it from from to back - maybe several times. This let's you know rules, species, season dates, public land info, etc.
Then, look at the interactive maps showing the public lands, and the link showing all the WMA descriptions. The little descriptions tell you what game species are present on each WMA. The Hunting Guide will show you special rules/regulations for each WMA.
Next, you gotta find a hunting mentor. There's a lot to learn, and you need to find someone who's willing to help, so you can ask a lot of questions.
Deer hunting can be exciting, but it's also maddening at times. Requires a lot of patience. In many, if not most places, deer hunting is quite difficult to actual bag game. Places where trees are everywhere and food is too (no crops, but acorns everywhere). But then again, the hunt is not just about bagging game; it's the whole experience of it, from start to finish, whether you fill your tag or not. In some places in OK, mostly Northwestern & Western, deer hunting is much easier to fill your tag, because there's just far fewer places for them to hide, with less cover, in combination with much greater numbers on some private leases. When I say fill your tag, I mean get a doe - finding a trophy buck is *always* hard, everywhere you go.
Try to find a good hunting lease if you can, preferably getting on the same lease WITH your mentor(s), or if you cannot afford it, then hunt public lands as a last resort. Most leases will allow for both deer and turkey, and some may or may not also allow for quail, and /or pheasants, and/or ducks. If there ARE any hogs on the lease, then the lease will ALWAYS let you hunt the hogs (and the coyotes). But some landowners like to reserve the quail or pheasants or both for themselves or their buddies. A lease will almost always include squirrel and rabbit too, and squirrels are almost everywhere - rabbit numbers can be hit or miss.
Oh, where I was going with that: If you like action - if you are a fidgety, impatient person, then you'll likely greatly prefer waterfowl and upland bird hunting over deer and turkey and hog hunting. Usually lots of shooting & action in ducks & upland birds - especially ducks & geese. Don't need nearly as much patience, and not quite as much meticulous preparation. But you do need a good trained dog (or a friend with one).
Good luck and be safe & ethical.
PS. Someone mentioned coyotes... Yes - you can hunt them any day of the year, and they're everywhere. They usually fairly easy to call in the FIRST time you try in an area. After that, not so much. Note: If you have an Iphone (and if you don't, get one or an Android phone), there's one or more apps that are cheap, with coyote calls on them (rabbit, etc.). Just get an external speaker for phone, and maybe extra battery source, and you're in bidness without having to learn mouth calls or shell out for expensive calling system.
PPS. Until you find a mentor, just ask endless specific questions here on this board and/or the bazillion other hunting boards out there (graybeards, etc.). Also, do us all a favor please, and find an ETHICAL hunter for a mentor. One who does fair chase hunting following all of the rules. Someone who understands whitetail deer (and other species') management practices for producing trophy animals. Finding one or more mentors who have some land/leases, etc., never hurt anyone either.
Also, try to talk to, and get to know your local game warden. They are swamped (those poor guys don't make 1/2 what they ought to), but they are usually quite helpful. Chock full of info about public hunting lands, etc.
Also, minor detail, but you said you *have* a rifle. Can you hit well with it under field conditions? Obviously, practice with it and get it dialed in with a good hunting load. At the range, try some shots standing, kneeling, and on your rear with legs crossed. What's your rifle brand, type, & chambering? Big game hunting is 98% about everything *besides* the shot and the kill. But that 2%, on those hunts where it does come along, is a very exciting 2% - and rare enough that you've got to be dead-eye dick, ready to go with your rifle, and place that shot into the vitals from any angle. Got to know your anatomy of each game animal very well, and what entry point/angles you need reach the key anatomy from most any angle - broadside, quartering toward, quartering away, whether straight on, uphill, or downhill, when to pass on a shot, and when to or not to go for an alternative shot like a head/neck shot.
One last thing. If you ARE going to hunt deer or fall turkeys: Get a bow, Get a bow, Get a bow! Or crossbow. And practice extensively. In OK, you can only hunt with a modern gun for 23 days a year (15 gun season, plus this year the special doe season is now 9 days in many parts of the state). Muzzleloader/primitive season is 9 days as well. That's a grand total of 32 days a year.
With archery equipment, you can hunt deer and fall turkeys 3.5 months (106 days), well over 3 times as often. You can also hunt bucks on certain days with your bow when you can only hunt does with your rifle (for example, if you've already filled your buck tag). You can also hunt does on certain days with your bow when you can only hunt bucks with your rifle (non-doe days). This allows you to take both kinds of equipment on your gun hunt (since archery season is *always* running concurrently with each gun season), and either focus in on a big buck, or maximize your chance for any deer, by going for a doe with your bow on a non-doe day. There's one day every season where you can hunt both deer and turkeys with your muzzleloader. Just one day though. There's also one day, where on a Friday, you can hunt turkeys with a gun (in some counties), and deer with your bow, then on the next day (opening gun season), you cannot hunt turkeys with a gun, but you you can deer (but you can go after turkeys with a bow). So the rules are kind of a CF - get to know them intimately.
Hunting is an awesome & rewarding lifelong hobby - especially if you have kids that you can take and pass the hobby on to them. Highly recommended.
If you do get the fever, then find a job making tons of money, because next thing you know, you're gonna want to be taking out of state and out of country trips for elk, moose, caribou, sheep, and innumerable other species. African multi-species safari hunt is the holy grail, of course - particularly if you can weave one or more of the big 5 / big 6 into your hunt, like cape buff. Better round up $5-$10 K for the trip, lodging/outfitter/PH, & tags, and another $5-$7 K for taxidermy and shipping said taxidermy back home to you. Ok, now I'm rambling.....
www.wildlifedepartment.com
Find the 2010-2011 Hunting Guide in .pdf format and read it from from to back - maybe several times. This let's you know rules, species, season dates, public land info, etc.
Then, look at the interactive maps showing the public lands, and the link showing all the WMA descriptions. The little descriptions tell you what game species are present on each WMA. The Hunting Guide will show you special rules/regulations for each WMA.
Next, you gotta find a hunting mentor. There's a lot to learn, and you need to find someone who's willing to help, so you can ask a lot of questions.
Deer hunting can be exciting, but it's also maddening at times. Requires a lot of patience. In many, if not most places, deer hunting is quite difficult to actual bag game. Places where trees are everywhere and food is too (no crops, but acorns everywhere). But then again, the hunt is not just about bagging game; it's the whole experience of it, from start to finish, whether you fill your tag or not. In some places in OK, mostly Northwestern & Western, deer hunting is much easier to fill your tag, because there's just far fewer places for them to hide, with less cover, in combination with much greater numbers on some private leases. When I say fill your tag, I mean get a doe - finding a trophy buck is *always* hard, everywhere you go.
Try to find a good hunting lease if you can, preferably getting on the same lease WITH your mentor(s), or if you cannot afford it, then hunt public lands as a last resort. Most leases will allow for both deer and turkey, and some may or may not also allow for quail, and /or pheasants, and/or ducks. If there ARE any hogs on the lease, then the lease will ALWAYS let you hunt the hogs (and the coyotes). But some landowners like to reserve the quail or pheasants or both for themselves or their buddies. A lease will almost always include squirrel and rabbit too, and squirrels are almost everywhere - rabbit numbers can be hit or miss.
Oh, where I was going with that: If you like action - if you are a fidgety, impatient person, then you'll likely greatly prefer waterfowl and upland bird hunting over deer and turkey and hog hunting. Usually lots of shooting & action in ducks & upland birds - especially ducks & geese. Don't need nearly as much patience, and not quite as much meticulous preparation. But you do need a good trained dog (or a friend with one).
Good luck and be safe & ethical.
PS. Someone mentioned coyotes... Yes - you can hunt them any day of the year, and they're everywhere. They usually fairly easy to call in the FIRST time you try in an area. After that, not so much. Note: If you have an Iphone (and if you don't, get one or an Android phone), there's one or more apps that are cheap, with coyote calls on them (rabbit, etc.). Just get an external speaker for phone, and maybe extra battery source, and you're in bidness without having to learn mouth calls or shell out for expensive calling system.
PPS. Until you find a mentor, just ask endless specific questions here on this board and/or the bazillion other hunting boards out there (graybeards, etc.). Also, do us all a favor please, and find an ETHICAL hunter for a mentor. One who does fair chase hunting following all of the rules. Someone who understands whitetail deer (and other species') management practices for producing trophy animals. Finding one or more mentors who have some land/leases, etc., never hurt anyone either.
Also, try to talk to, and get to know your local game warden. They are swamped (those poor guys don't make 1/2 what they ought to), but they are usually quite helpful. Chock full of info about public hunting lands, etc.
Also, minor detail, but you said you *have* a rifle. Can you hit well with it under field conditions? Obviously, practice with it and get it dialed in with a good hunting load. At the range, try some shots standing, kneeling, and on your rear with legs crossed. What's your rifle brand, type, & chambering? Big game hunting is 98% about everything *besides* the shot and the kill. But that 2%, on those hunts where it does come along, is a very exciting 2% - and rare enough that you've got to be dead-eye dick, ready to go with your rifle, and place that shot into the vitals from any angle. Got to know your anatomy of each game animal very well, and what entry point/angles you need reach the key anatomy from most any angle - broadside, quartering toward, quartering away, whether straight on, uphill, or downhill, when to pass on a shot, and when to or not to go for an alternative shot like a head/neck shot.
One last thing. If you ARE going to hunt deer or fall turkeys: Get a bow, Get a bow, Get a bow! Or crossbow. And practice extensively. In OK, you can only hunt with a modern gun for 23 days a year (15 gun season, plus this year the special doe season is now 9 days in many parts of the state). Muzzleloader/primitive season is 9 days as well. That's a grand total of 32 days a year.
With archery equipment, you can hunt deer and fall turkeys 3.5 months (106 days), well over 3 times as often. You can also hunt bucks on certain days with your bow when you can only hunt does with your rifle (for example, if you've already filled your buck tag). You can also hunt does on certain days with your bow when you can only hunt bucks with your rifle (non-doe days). This allows you to take both kinds of equipment on your gun hunt (since archery season is *always* running concurrently with each gun season), and either focus in on a big buck, or maximize your chance for any deer, by going for a doe with your bow on a non-doe day. There's one day every season where you can hunt both deer and turkeys with your muzzleloader. Just one day though. There's also one day, where on a Friday, you can hunt turkeys with a gun (in some counties), and deer with your bow, then on the next day (opening gun season), you cannot hunt turkeys with a gun, but you you can deer (but you can go after turkeys with a bow). So the rules are kind of a CF - get to know them intimately.
Hunting is an awesome & rewarding lifelong hobby - especially if you have kids that you can take and pass the hobby on to them. Highly recommended.
If you do get the fever, then find a job making tons of money, because next thing you know, you're gonna want to be taking out of state and out of country trips for elk, moose, caribou, sheep, and innumerable other species. African multi-species safari hunt is the holy grail, of course - particularly if you can weave one or more of the big 5 / big 6 into your hunt, like cape buff. Better round up $5-$10 K for the trip, lodging/outfitter/PH, & tags, and another $5-$7 K for taxidermy and shipping said taxidermy back home to you. Ok, now I'm rambling.....
Thanks for the info and I will probably be asking many more questions on here and have also been looking into a bow and the hardest part is the mentor but I am learning a ton from you guys on this site thanks again
I know of a new crossbow for sale in the non-firearm classifieds section. It might be perfect for you to start bowhunting!
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