2014 Pushmataha County Thread

[Peepstaxidermy]

Headed up for one last hoorahhh! Jan. 9th

[rhendrix]

Good luck peeps.

Maybe you guys can help me with this. I was trying to find some harvest statistics by date for whitetail in the SE region, I can't find anything online. Trying to figure out what dates to hunt next year to maximize my time afield.

[Peepstaxidermy]

Am I reading this correctly? Regular archery season runs until the 15? So this means it's not just does and spikes? Just want to be clear. We don't normally hunt much in jan this is why I'm a little unclear.

[Booner Sooner]

Am I reading this correctly? Regular archery season runs until the 15? So this means it's not just does and spikes? Just want to be clear. We don't normally hunt much in jan this is why I'm a little unclear.

Correct.

Peeps, you are cleared to shoot bucks with archery equipment through Jan 15th.

Pick a spot and let'er fly!

Good luck.

[Texfisher]

You have to buy a new license though for 2015 but the deer count against last years tags.

[Peepstaxidermy]

Thanks guys for clearing that up. I normally don't do much hunting after the 1st in Oklahoma but Blake and I are goin to give it one more shot Friday and sat

[Peepstaxidermy]

Blake24 and I hunted this evening between us both we saw 7 doe. Bitterly cold! It hurt to sit in a tree. We wanted to give it one last go this weekend so we could honestly say we gave it all we had. Where hunting in the morning should be 21 degrees!!! Wind switching from north to south at daybreak. We are hunting late corn feeders about 400 yards apart both hunting along the creek bottom. Talking to te locals it's the same story as always this time of year plenty of does but no bucks! Oh well, in the morning we are challenging each other to see who can get the best footage on our Go Pro! Wish us luck.

[Booner Sooner]

Blake24 and I hunted this evening between us both we saw 7 doe. Bitterly cold! It hurt to sit in a tree. We wanted to give it one last go this weekend so we could honestly say we gave it all we had. Where hunting in the morning should be 21 degrees!!! Wind switching from north to south at daybreak. We are hunting late corn feeders about 400 yards apart both hunting along the creek bottom. Talking to te locals it's the same story as always this time of year plenty of does but no bucks! Oh well, in the morning we are challenging each other to see who can get the best footage on our Go Pro! Wish us luck.

Stay after them boys! My hats off to you for sticking it out to the bitter end. The big boys gotta eat too. You may catch a group of them between bedding and those feeders early, trying to warm up.

Thanks for the update. I'm pulling for you!

[Archer4Life]

Blake24 and I hunted this evening between us both we saw 7 doe. Bitterly cold! It hurt to sit in a tree. We wanted to give it one last go this weekend so we could honestly say we gave it all we had. Where hunting in the morning should be 21 degrees!!! Wind switching from north to south at daybreak. We are hunting late corn feeders about 400 yards apart both hunting along the creek bottom. Talking to te locals it's the same story as always this time of year plenty of does but no bucks! Oh well, in the morning we are challenging each other to see who can get the best footage on our Go Pro! Wish us luck.

Good luck guys!!

[Peepstaxidermy]

Well we got are butts kicked! Headed home! Single digit temps everything is frozen! Ponds frozen solid we saw very little movement! I sat this evening without seeing a deer got down 15 min early relocated my wireless camera to the feeder I was hunting and by the time I made it to the truck (5min) there where deer under the feeder! Yep it's how my seasons gone. On our way out over 20 deer feeding in a hay meadow near our property. Oh well, already game planning for next year on what to improve on etc.

[Peepstaxidermy]

P.s. I threw out beets of alfalfa hay to see if they'd eat it they didn't touch it! They ate the feed I poured out all around it.

[CADDOKILLER]

My antlers Oklahoma experience this year...

Started out late in September finding this place. It was a smallish 200 acres with about 50 acres of open pasture, 75 acres of recently(6 months prior) clear cut and about 50 acres of mostly hardwood timber. Between being so late in the year before we leased this place and our schedule we decided not to try to bow hunt this year so we just bought our muzzleloader and rifle licenses and went with that.

We put up 3 feeders/cameras towards the end of September and immediately started seeing good numbers of does and small bucks. Sometimes as many as 8 bucks at time but nothing over a 6 point except one very small young 8and one very average older 9 point. This continued until October the 17th when just like a light switch flipping off so did ALL buck movement. From October 17th to December 1st we got pictures of exactly 3 bucks. One 3 point, a five point and the small 8. We were still seeing a good number of does all thru muzzleloader season and shot 1. It was the only shot fired on the place and we didn't ride around very much except once every other week or so to check feeders and cameras.

On December 2nd we had a really nice 8 start showing up. At 8:30 every morning he came to the feeder and stayed for a good 30 minutes chowing down. Neither of us were up there at the time and couldn't get back up till the 6th. Well he came the 2nd, 3rd and 4th and never showed up again.

After that's we never got a picture of a buck again(and very few does)for the rest of December and the first few days of January. On January 7th magically the bucks returned and we are getting pics of 3-8 at a time at the feeders again. Still nothing huge but a couple of better bucks than before.

Our neighbor on the east killed 2 really nice 10 points, neighbor on the wests killed a monster 8 and the others we don't know but heard several shots. We really tried to hunt right this year. No unnecessary noise, no 4 wheeler riding thru the lease except when filling feeders etc. No gunfire except the one shot fired (till the end of season when we had given up). We did not camp on the place.

So my question is those of you who hunt this area is this typical? Any suggestions for next year if we stay on it? Was it a down year in the area due to the recent droughts like some have told us? Any help appreciated

[Daniel75]

I've gotten to hunt more this year than the last 2 years combined in OK and it was a weird year for sure. I got a 30 yard shot at this stud and missed:



I guessed him at 40 and he was at 30. He made it through the season and we'll see if we can get on him next year. Biggest buck I've ever seen in my life on the hoof.

We have a couple of others that we'll be after next year that are some pretty bucks, and that 8 point chocolate horned STUD is a beast too:






These are a few of my observations:

1. Pigs must die We have had a horrible time with them this year. We will put out a few feed pens and just pray that the mature bucks will still come to them next year. We hope to set them out in the next month so they'll have plenty of time to get used to them. We like to hand corn and just put out rice bran on the ground and the pigs have just destroyed us doing that. Early season and then late, just when mature bucks were showing back up eating in the daylight, the **** pigs came back and ruined it.

2. Halloween usually starts the chasing phase but I'll be planning to be in the woods from 11/7-11/20 next year with the peak time being between the 10th-14th. That seemed to show the most daytime camera activity of bucks. It's also the consensus best time to be in the woods from the "experts".

3. We have got to find a way to locate doe bedding areas. Anyone who's hunted these mountains will tell you: look left, look right, look north and look south, it all looks the same. there's no area that stands out with extra thickness where you'd think, "Man, that's gotta be where they're bedding."

4. We need more cameras. We currently have 6 for about 750 acres but I feel we need to add at least 4 more.

[Peepstaxidermy]

This was the same story for the most part for us as well! We hunt beautiful creek bottom land with the mountains around us. We spent a lot of tine hunting this year with maybe 4 mature bucks sighted. Seen plenty of good young buck rutting/chasing activity late October through late November. Mature bucks finally started bring seen during daylight early to mid december.strange year indeed! We are goin over our plan for next year as well. We plan on putting out more wireless camera so we can scout from the couch and leave the woods undisturbed until the camera shows us it's time. We plan on making our food plots larger to try and hold more deer on our property. We've hunted SE Oklahoma for 9 years and EVERY year the bucks disappear around early to mid December. We have lots of acorns so we will scout and hunt the oaks and or plots/feeders with no success. Generally if you haven't gotten your buck by thanksgiving your chances are slim from there on out! I guess they go into the mountains only place they could be. I'm a taxidermist and talk to hunters from all over this slow year is WIDE spread I get the same story from Kansas to Oklahoma to Texas.

[arrowslinger]

I just joined a lease up in snow. Looks like it will be a great place with a decent management plan with a good group of guys on it. 4k acres part of 15k acres all on a management plan. Seen some deer and plenty of turkey while we looked at the place.