My Oklahoma season stank. Work commitments had me missing the muzzleloader and modern gun deer seasons. My bow is still back in California, and I'm more in to target shooting with it than being interested in killing anything with it. So no deer for me this year. Unless wacking them with a pickup on SR-10 counts
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I did go back to California over Christmas and New Year's. I limited out on quail on two hunts, and shot a little 95 pound sow while I was out there.
Moving halfway across the country is kind of like having to learn how to hunt all over again. Compared to California with its vast tracts of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands to hunt on, Oklahoma doesn't have a lot of public hunting land. I'm still trying to learn what's on the local Cherokee WMA. I know there's a lot of small game hunting opportunities that I have taken next to no advantage of since moving out here five years ago. I didn't hunt deer here this past season, or the first season I lived here, but I shot deer during muzzleloader and modern gun during the three that I did hunt here. All on public land, all without much effort. No doubt that this season would have been the same had I had the opportunity to hunt.
What I am focusing on now is trying to find feral swine on public land, and scouting a few public land areas out in western Oklahoma to get a feel for whether or not I want to bother quail hunting on it next year, or just keep driving to Arizona.
This is probably hard to believe, but I only know two other people out here who hunt. One is from California. The other is from Arkansas. The guy from California hunts on private land near where he lives, and also hunts some on Camp Grueber. My pal from Arkansas just goes hunting in Arkansas when the season is on.
So, I'm kind of at a stage where I am starting from scratch, trying to learn as much as I can about the public lands near me by spending as much time as possible hiking in them. Given how small they are compared to what I am used to, I should have the Cherokee WMA that is close to me all figured out by now. Work and other things keep getting in the way and slowing down the process considerably.
One of those "other things" is my 12 year old daughter's budding interest in fly fishing. I've been spending a good many weekends with her fly fishing on Barren Fork Creek. Not complaining, though, because we catch A LOT of fish out of that creek and it is a lot of fun to fish.
JP
