Mathews Inc.
Possibility of new controlled hunts?
Oklahoma
Contributors to this thread:
stickshooter 07-Sep-16
stickshooter 07-Sep-16
razorsharp 09-Sep-16
stickshooter 09-Sep-16
From: stickshooter
07-Sep-16
How do you go about suggesting new laws or say new controlled hunt ideas to the state and wildlife DEPT? There is a place in ne OKLA, camp Gruber, that has a fair number of elk on it. They were transplants way back in I'm guessing, the 70's in the CHEROKEE GMU. Me and a buddy were scouting for a deer hunt and I walked up on a bedded cow, she jumped and ran off. While driving out we spotted a magnificent 7x7 bull standing 20 yds off the road, he was awesome. That was in the late 80's. Three yrs ago I saw a pretty good bull and two cows on the 2nd day of archery, when I got out to get camera and take pic they crashed off. Awesome animals. The last 2 bow seasons I have heard them bugling in early October, they are in areas now that they never were for decades. I know you can hunt them on private but you know how hard it is to get access and they want money. Why not have a draw hunt for them, archery only, even better, traditional only, like McALISTER. That would keep the success rate down but also give us a chance to hunt elk that is currently a once in a lifetime opportunity and is rifle only. The Bulls would have to have at least 5 points on one side to further lower success rate but we would still get to go elk hunting. If the DEPT doesn't think there are enough elk to do this then transplant some more. Prob costs money. I see where colorado might double their license fees cause they say they need more money, maybe these hunts could generate enough money to get it started. I posted a thread back a few yrs ago about seeifn elk and a fellow lady bowsiter contacted me, said she was on the OKLA board for the rmef and was interested in maybe trying to start a conversation about a trad archery elk draw hunt, but I never heard back so I let it go. Camp Gruber is kind of like the McAlister AMMO plant, without all the bombs, maybe a few unexploded ordinance. They take in a lot of money on the plant from controlled hunts, they could do the same at camp Gruber for not only deer but for elk, the money would benefit the deer and elk habitat and increase the quality and numbers of the animals and benefit the state, (and us trad hunters??)this would be a dream come true to increase our elk herd and be able to hunt elk right here in OKLA with traditional archery and it wouldn't have to be a once in a lifetime draw. Sorry for the long post, anyway what do you guys think?

From: stickshooter
07-Sep-16
There are about 55,000 acres there but the army only uses maybe half for training at different times of the year. They already open the gates for spring turkey and for a large part of deer season. To manage like McALISTER does they would probably have to keep it closed except for the controlled hunts, but there doesn't seem to be the numbers of hunters there used to be there anyway, I think most hunt herokee pha and CHEROKEE gma ( the gma part opens after gun season) so there would still be a lot of public land to hunt.

From: razorsharp
09-Sep-16
I'm pretty sure they could raffle off a couple bull tags and not hurt the heard at all while generating some revenue. I saw a 5x5 bull European mount that was killed in the Muskogee city limits supposedly. The heard is growing and not limited o Cherokee PHA/GMA or Camp Gruber. I would start with the local biologist to get headed in the right direction.

From: stickshooter
09-Sep-16
MUSKOGEE city limits, wow, I can believe it, they had to take down a bear at homeland within the last 10 yrs, maybe he was drawn in by the smoker in the parking lot, lol. There are a lot of deer in the city limits, I've seen up to 14 young ones playing on the corner of country club and chandler right at dusk, it's crazy. I've been waiting for the elk to swim the Arkansas river from camp Gruber and get on my cousins private land so I can hunt them. It's a big river though. My dad says way back in the day, I don't know what day, the MUSKOGEE paper published photos of herds of deer swimming the river to get away from gun hunters when they first opened Gruber for hunting or something like that best I recall, maybe it was from a forest fire, I remember back in the 70's the west side of HWY 10 burnt real bad except for the largest trees. I need to go to the ne wildlife headquarters on 69 HWY and use their printer to get my Mcaap papers, I'll talk to one of the wardens about the elk.

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