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C

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Hey everyone. So I’m still fairly new to the forum and to Oklahoma. In my new member introduction I had talked about getting a hunting lease for next season. Well, it turns out after moving here that my parents, who also came, have a good chunk of money left over and my mother actually told my dad that he should just get some vacant land in the sticks somewhere and make it family hunting property. So he and I have been looking at a lot of properties and founds some nice looking ones. Really wanting something with more than 10 acres. And this is where my questions come in for all you Oklahoma natives. . . . or those who have lived here longer than me 😊

I’ve been reading that really you can have a ton of land and not have deer/game on it if it’s not managed properly. And same thing for a small plot like say 5 acres. It could be crawling with deer if it’s managed well. Is that true?

second questions is, what are some things that we should really be considering or what are things that we absolutely want to avoid? Coming from Oregon we really don’t have things like mineral rights so that’s a new thing to me. I know we’ve come across properties that are landlocked which we’d avoid as well. What are all your thoughts on this?

thanks in advance!

BJ
 
dennishoddy

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#2 ·
There are deer pr.etty much everywhere in Ok.
The biggest buck in Grant County was killed on a 7 acre patch of woods along a river. About 1/2 mile away there was 80 acres of land that had great food plots on it with stands everywhere. The farmer that owned the 7 acres noticed every morning when the guys drove their 4 wheelers to their stands, deer would start moving out of that 80 acres with one buck always moving to that 7 acre patch. He put a stand in there and killed a 191" B&C buck.
My point is that you can have a patch of ground with deer everywhere, but if not hunted right, you may not be successful. Sure you might score some smaller, young bucks and think your doing everything right, but that trophy of a lifetime is slipping away because of mistakes.
It's amazing where you will find deer. In the daylight it appears there is nothing but a grassy pasture, but at last light, deer suddenly appear to start feeding.
Was it in Eastern Ok?
If I were looking for land there which is typically wooded, one would want to find a property with a food source. Land near farmland where crops are planted annually, or land that has natural food sources like oak trees that supply acorns. A place with a pine forest on it is likely to not carry many deer, although they may cross it from their bedding areas to the feeding areas.
If there is a creek running through it, especially with steep sides, there will always be a place the deer will find to cross.
I'd be looking a place that had open areas surrounded by woods so food plots could be put in with multiple stands to sit in depending on wind direction.
Whitetail deer are edge dwellers. Look for deer trails when walking out a property 5-20 feet inside the edge of the woods or places where the trails lead to where they are crossing the boundary fences.
There is no magic answer to the question about what is the best property for deer. In the NW we have vast areas of open land with small patches of woods that hold big heavy bucks. In the SE part of the state, the deer are much smaller, but have really big racks because of genetics, and the right kind of food for antler growth.
The availablity for food, water and habitat will determine if it holds deer or not.
I've always been told that in our early archery season, you will kill your deer. As the season progresses and the bucks go into rut, you will kill your neighbor's deer as they are moving around looking for does.
Good luck!
 
C

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
dennishoddy said:
There are deer pr.etty much everywhere in Ok.
The biggest buck in Grant County was killed on a 7 acre patch of woods along a river. About 1/2 mile away there was 80 acres of land that had great food plots on it with stands everywhere. The farmer that owned the 7 acres noticed every morning when the guys drove their 4 wheelers to their stands, deer would start moving out of that 80 acres with one buck always moving to that 7 acre patch. He put a stand in there and killed a 191" B&C buck.
My point is that you can have a patch of ground with deer everywhere, but if not hunted right, you may not be successful. Sure you might score some smaller, young bucks and think your doing everything right, but that trophy of a lifetime is slipping away because of mistakes.
It's amazing where you will find deer. In the daylight it appears there is nothing but a grassy pasture, but at last light, deer suddenly appear to start feeding.
Was it in Eastern Ok?
If I were looking for land there which is typically wooded, one would want to find a property with a food source. Land near farmland where crops are planted annually, or land that has natural food sources like oak trees that supply acorns. A place with a pine forest on it is likely to not carry many deer, although they may cross it from their bedding areas to the feeding areas.
If there is a creek running through it, especially with steep sides, there will always be a place the deer will find to cross.
I'd be looking a place that had open areas surrounded by woods so food plots could be put in with multiple stands to sit in depending on wind direction.
Whitetail deer are edge dwellers. Look for deer trails when walking out a property 5-20 feet inside the edge of the woods or places where the trails lead to where they are crossing the boundary fences.
There is no magic answer to the question about what is the best property for deer. In the NW we have vast areas of open land with small patches of woods that hold big heavy bucks. In the SE part of the state, the deer are much smaller, but have really big racks because of genetics, and the right kind of food for antler growth.
The availablity for food, water and habitat will determine if it holds deer or not.
I've always been told that in our early archery season, you will kill your deer. As the season progresses and the bucks go into rut, you will kill your neighbor's deer as they are moving around looking for does.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Wow, excellent information and I truly appreciate the response. I will keep those key points in mind when looking with my dad. Yeah we are eastern near Claremore. We’ve been looking sort of SE of here because land gets significantly cheaper as you get away from Tulsa and BA and lots of deciduous trees like oaks. Not a ton of pines, at least from what we’ve seen. But I know we definitely want to have a water source if possible. I hadn’t thought about getting something next to or near farm land where crops are planted. That’s a great point.
Thanks!
BJ
 
retrieverman

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#4 ·
I’ve got a friend who hunts a couple small tracts around Choctaw and killed two nice bucks this year, and he did it by planting food plots, using corn piles, and not overhunting his stands. The biggest problem he’s had is with inconsistency of the bucks visiting his places, and I think that’s going to probably be a universal problem when hunting small acreages.
Like Dennis said, it’s not hard to flush deer out of a place if you’re not careful how you move in and out which most people don’t think about.
One problem with hunting small acreage (and even a big place when people set up stands on the property lines) is keeping a deer from running onto the neighbor’s place after being shot, and that’s a pet peeve of mine.

Good luck in y’alls search for property, because there’s something more special about hunting and taking game off your own place.
 
retrieverman

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#6 · (Edited)
Bear Sits In The Woods said:
Im right there with you I don’t understand putting stands right on fences of a neighbor you don’t know, or know probably wouldn’t enjoy you coming over on their side. This seems common practice, public lands especially and then just come right over the fence no big deal.
Click to expand...
I get at least one call a year to trespass looking for a wounded deer from my neighbors the have 3-5 times the land I do, because they hunt right on my property lines. I always give permission, but I try to make it as an uncomfortable experience as possible.:mad:
 
retrieverman

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#8 ·
Bear Sits In The Woods said:
Guess they think it’s better hunting near your place?
Click to expand...
The property that touches my place on the east side and half the south side shares a boundary with the Salt Plains refuge on it’s east side, and if I was going to hunt a fence, THAT’S the one I would be sitting on.
 
dennishoddy

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#9 ·
retrieverman said:
The property that touches my place on the east side and half the south side shares a boundary with the Salt Plains refuge on it’s east side, and if I was going to hunt a fence, THAT’S the one I would be sitting on.
Click to expand...
I drew a black powder hunt on the A zone of Salt Plains years ago. Right across the road there were 4 or five big tower blinds on some private grounds. I suspect there were food plots further North to draw them across the road off he refuge.
 
baby

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#10 ·
My place is 20 acres. About 18 acres with the pasture and the pond. The house and barn is on about 2 acres. It s all I need. I have shot coyotes, ducks and a goose.































My Grandpa's farm was 80 acres. Which I hunted quail, squirrel, deer and turkey.































I have more success hunting on a smaller tract of land the one that was larger. I think that's because it gets passed up by other hunters because they think it will not have any wildlife like deer or turkey. But they because wrong sometimes. The smaller tract of land doesn't get hunted heavily and the deer and turkey find refuge there. So sometimes smaller is better than something bigger.
 
dennishoddy

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#20 ·
retrieverman said:
I know quite a few folks that hunt in that area, and there are some good bucks killed each year.
Click to expand...
If I remember right, more B&C bucks have been killed in Pushmataha County than any other county in Ok.
 
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