Why such a short gun season?

[Deer Slayer]

The special antlerless Christmas season is 12/16 - 12/25 which is 10 days.

 

[SWRhodd]

Well to be honest, I really don't like the Holiday antlerless season in December. My reason is that the does have already been breeded, so therefore when you shoot a doe you are not only killing her but a future deer possibly also. I think the special antlerless season needs to be moved up to October, IMHO.

 

[rebelracer79]

Well to be honest, I really don't like the Holiday antlerless season in December. My reason is that the does have already been breeded, so therefore when you shoot a doe you are not only killing her but a future deer possibly also. I think the special antlerless season needs to be moved up to October, IMHO.

They have it to cut down the doe population. Why not do it when you get 2:1 or 3:1?

 

[Weatherby]

Well, I can't say that I know of anyone that hunts on public land in Texas. Either you're on a lease, or know someone with land. However deer populations are pretty different depending on what part of the state your in. In south texas the population is out of control, and everything is starving. Or at least that was the case where I lived. In East Texas I have only seen big deer, but I have had entire seasons where I didn't see a thing. I am going to have to read a bit about hunting public lands in oklahoma, because frankly that is a foreign idea to me being from texas.

I cannot stand some of the deer blind hunting in texas. The elevated platforms in the middle of a food plots completely defeat the purpose of hunting for me. My father always walked and stalked, and thats what I grew up on.

Thanks for all the input, sometime here in the next few weeks I am going to have to find an archery shop and learn how it all works. Anyone have any suggestions for the OKC area? I don't mind a drive if the shop is really that great.

I suggest the archery department at H&H. It's the best that I have had dealings with.

 

[ahlosojoe]

I suggest you try Davenport's in Prague. They are a Mathews dealer and give great personal service.

 

[dlbleak]

i would like to see the in-lines lumped in with gun season and have a cap and ball/flintlock only season

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm on my phone, so can't do any research to post a link, but I read a report awhile back that looked at one of the states in the SE part of the country, that started with a 9 day gun season, then as the deer population exploded they progressed to 16 days, thirty, and finally 100 days with no limits on does.
During the progression, they kept track of the number of days hunters spent in the field, as well as the average harvest per hunter as the limits opened up.
At the conclusion of the study, they found that hunter days in the field were almost identical, and the harvest per hunter only got slightly higher.
I remember the wailing and crying when Ok announced the 16 day season.
It was going to be the end of deer hunting as we know it according to some. Even with our gun season being in the rut, our bucks continue to get bigger. All I have to do is look at the deer pics in this forum to know that.

 

[Sticky Stokes]

I too would support a late second 9 day flintlock/caplock or inline muzzleloader season, I tend to be in the crowd that just goes with whatever seasons the ODWC in their wisdom sets. I expect and hope that they fully study and plan the seasons based on what they believe to be best for the deer herd in Oklahoma. I do love the long bow season though!

 

[RidgeHunter]

I'm on my phone, so can't do any research to post a link, but I read a report awhile back that looked at one of the states in the SE part of the country, that started with a 9 day gun season, then as the deer population exploded they progressed to 16 days, thirty, and finally 100 days with no limits on does.
During the progression, they kept track of the number of days hunters spent in the field, as well as the average harvest per hunter as the limits opened up.
At the conclusion of the study, they found that hunter days in the field were almost identical, and the harvest per hunter only got slightly higher.
I remember the wailing and crying when Ok announced the 16 day season.
It was going to be the end of deer hunting as we know it according to some. Even with our gun season being in the rut, our bucks continue to get bigger. All I have to do is look at the deer pics in this forum to know that.

It's not that it would hurt the amount/quality of our bucks, it's that it would turn Oklahoma into Texas Jr. We're getting bigger bucks every year, it's cheap and easy for a non-res to hunt in Oklahoma. Give us a 100 day gun season and watch what happens to lease prices. Watch land get bought up and turned into Texas Style hunting ranches. The opportunity argument goes nowhere if it doubles lease prices for the average blue collar hunter. It's opportunity for people in the hunting biz and yuppies with more money than time.

Texas' long gun season solely exists to increase the dollar bill value on a whitetail buck's head IMO.

The southeast U.S. is a different animal. Nobody in their right mind wants to hunt the Southeast. The culture, terrain and land layout is way different. Fewer large tracts. Bucks don't hold a candle to what Oklahoma is producing on a consistent basis. Oklahoma more closely resembles Kansas than it does South Carolina. Imagine if Kansas had over the counter non-resident buck tags for dirt cheap like Oklahoma does. Now imagine they had a 100 day rifle season. What do you think would happen to the average per-acre lease price in Kansas? People beat the door down to hunt in Kansas as it is, and you can't by OTC tags. If they said "hey no-residents, come gun hunt anytime for 100 days" people would would pay unreal prices to lease land there.

All you guys with large leases in the western half of Oklahoma would be in for a rude surprise if we had a 100 day gun season. Mark my words. Your lease prices would be likely to double, that is if the land isn't sold to someone who realizes it's a lot more profitable to book a few "big buck hunts" to non-resident yuppies who can come here and buy a gun tag at Wal-Mart for $280. I know there are guys on this forum that have posted about losing their Oklahoma leases to Texas residents because even offering more than the going lease rate in OK is cheaper than a good lease in Texas.

In the next 10-20 years Oklahoma is going to be a commonly recognized "Big Buck Hunting State". It's up to the lawmakers whether we keep those big bucks easy and affordable for blue-collar residents to hunt, or if we sell them to the highest bidder like Texas does. If Texas was about opportunity they would not make you put a calibrated eyeball to judge a 13" antler spread before you pull the trigger. It's about money.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Short Gun season (which I do not view it as short) during the rut = Big harvest = need to keep it short.

Yes it would be great to see a shorter season that pushed for a larger doe harvest, but ODWC doesn't have it in the cards. Their mission statement for deer management is Quantity of bucks not quality of bucks.

Although it seems prevalent on many outdoor forums that we all want trophies to take home, the vast majority of deer hunters in Oklahoma are just out there to take a buck. The ODWC tried to fly a trophy management unit in the SW part of the state about 5 years ago. This was not only shot down at the public hearing in that part of the state, it was run off. I was at that meeting and of the few hundred sportsman that were there, only 5 or 6 vocally supported the reduction of the buck limit from 2 to 1 in that area. The rest of the mob acted as if the state was taking their first born child.

Surveys from the ODWC

Best post in this thread.

Facts:

1. The average resident gun hunter will hunt more or less the same amount of days regardless of season length.

2. The average resident gun hunter cares more about seeing deer than he does about seeing trophy bucks.

Those facts alone show that a long gun season is not a benefit for the majority of gun hunters in Oklahoma. The way things are now is a pretty nice compromise. You want improve the trophy management statewide, you have 2 options.

1. Drop the buck limit to 1, give us antler restrictions and a long gun season a la Texas.

2. Shorten gun season and move it out of the rut, when young bucks are most vulnerable a la Kansas or Ohio.

...or we could realize we have it pretty good now and leave things alone.