dennishoddy
Moderator
I drew Mcalister Army Ammunition Depot, hominy area.
Anybody else put in?
Anybody else put in?
Oklahoma controlled hunt results
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Josh Beauchamp
Well-Known Fanatic
I, along with my Dad drew a McGee Creek gun.
dennishoddy
Moderator
Congrats on the draw.
Josh Beauchamp
Well-Known Fanatic
You to Dennis. Hopefully you will got one of those monsters out there at the Ammo plant.
scubor2
S.L.C.G.A.
Zippolo on my elk hunts, luck is a stranger to me anyway.
Josh Beauchamp
Well-Known Fanatic
I have been putting in for the elk hunt for 12 years. They are though to get drawn for.
dennishoddy
Moderator
LOL, I've been putting in since the early 70's and haven't drawn. My buddy drew 7 years ago, after putting in for the same length of time.Josh Beauchamp said:
Interesting to note that about 50% that drew that hunt, put in for one to three years. The others had been putting in for about the same time as me.
One guy and his wife showed up in their late 80's when I went to help my buddy. Been putting in for day one like us. On the trip out to scout, he started looking like a heart attack in the truck, so they called in a medi-vac from Ft Sill. Chopper came in and took him to the hospital.
Mid afternoon, he showed back up with his wife. Said it was an anxiety attack. The hunt staff took him out, and got a cow pretty quick for him.
He and his wife spent the afternoon skinning, and deboning the animal. It wasen't their first rodeo.
I don't want to wait that long, but if I do, thats the way it should happen......
Josh Beauchamp
Well-Known Fanatic
Has any one hunted McGee Creek before? Trying to figure out how much gun I need to take with me.
Jeff T.
Well-Known Fanatic
I drew a Blank This Year 
Good Luck to all !
Good Luck to all !
Josh Beauchamp
Well-Known Fanatic
Don't worry Jeff, I have been putting in with my Dad since I was old enough (15 years now) and only been drawn twice and didn't seen crud on one of those.
dennishoddy
Moderator
You got a preference point for next years drawing, so you didn't come up totally empty handed. 
454308
Well-Known Fanatic
Drew Lexington for Nov 21, anybody hunted out their and have any tips?
Lester Long
Fanatic
My dad and I were drawn for Wichita Mountains NWR for deer (antlered). This is the third time we've hunted the Refuge for deer since 1995; once in '95 for a buck, once in '05 for a doe, and then this year. (We've also hunted elk there each, both cow tags; his in 2007 and mine in 2009.) We hunted the northwest part of the Refuge, Area "I", and shot these two bucks just a couple of hundred yards southwest of Medicine Tank pond. Both bucks were running together when I shot mine near dark on 11-19-13. My dad returned the next day and shot his buck right after sunrise. The biologist aged mine out to 8-1/2 years and his to 9-1/2 years. (Age was determined via dental examination.)dennishoddy said:
Lester Long
Fanatic
My dad and I were drawn out there in 2000. It wasn't worth a damn. That particular year was one when the ODWC still had different application categories for archery, primitive, and rifle. All of the primitive selections were during the regular primitive season, so we chose McGee Creek since it was about 15 miles down the road from where we were already hunting. We went one day and then said to hell with it. In fact, the statistics for success on state-managed WMA controlled hunts are fairly poor. There were 82 hunters for the muzzleloader controlled hunt at McGee Creek in 2011 with 11 deer killed and 68 hunters for the rifle controlled hunt at the same place with 8 deer killed. Compare that to 45 hunters at Wichita Mountains NWR controlled hunt in 2011 and 34 deer killed or Salt Plains NWR muzzleloader controlled hunt in 2011 with 31 hunters and 21 deer killed. The ODWC doesn't have the resources available to manage their properties the same as the feds. The feds have a goal of a target number of animals, while ODWC has a goal of a safe number of hunters.Josh Beauchamp said:
[URL="http://www.wildlifedepartment...wildlifedepartment.com/chunt/2011_results.pdf[/url]
dennishoddy
Moderator
Those bucks on the WM WNR are senior citizens for sure. I put in for it every year as a deer hunt along with a bull hunt, but have never been drawn. Went as a helper a couple of years ago with a friend on a deer hunt, and was amazed at the 6-10 year old deer that came off of that area. their buck to doe ratio is a perfect one to one.Lester Long said:
Your a lucky man to get drawn that many times.
Congrats on the great bucks and signing on to BoomerShooter!
Do you shoot any competitions when not hunting?
Lester Long
Fanatic
No, just load development and (as of late) hog extermination.dennishoddy said:
dennishoddy
Moderator
Both worthy sidelines. Spent the evening sorting/sizing 30-06 brass for an upcoming elk hunt in New Mexico.
Lester Long
Fanatic
This hunt was much tougher than our previous Wichita Mountains experiences. Each of the earlier hunts was over within about 30 minutes of sunrise; I was sitting on the couch drinking coffee by 2:00 in the P.M. of my elk hunt (the weather was cold, wet, and nasty then -- about like this weekend). We drove from Edmond and decided -- based on our previous experiences -- to just drive back and forth instead of camping out or staying in a motel. We had to be at the Refuge's corral area ready to go by 5:30, which meant leaving Edmond about 3:15. We didn't see squat for deer -- no sign, no tracks, no animals -- until about 1:00 in the afternoon when we saw three does. (We saw elk -- and bison -- by the gross all day. We had just about packed it in at 5:30 that evening when we started walking down the road to meet our ride out of there when my dad saw a deer. (The light was very dim at this point.) We both stopped and looked through our binoculars and could see it was a buck -- a big buck on the west side of the road.
I need to point out that on our pre-hunt briefing and scouting tour the day prior to the hunt, one of the other hunters in our group was a cop for the Refuge. (I was mildly acquainted with him from my elk hunt in 2009 -- he was our group leader on that trip.) He was part of a group of four who had antlerless tags and had done a good deal of scouting even before this hunt and was telling the buck tag holders where and when he had been seeing buck activity. We had all selected our "spots" based on his recommendations and one of the spots was this area around Medicine Tank where he'd been seeing bucks coming in during the evening. (Incidentally, 5 out of the six who had buck tags were successful.)
At any rate, we spotted the buck and my dad wondered if it was still legal shooting light. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 5:50 -- we had ten minutes left. He suggested I try and slip in a little closer for a shot. The area was mostly open with a few blackjacks on the west side of the road and the buck was to our southwest. The wind was howling like hell out of the southwest (it had been gusting to over 30 MPH throughout the day), so I decided to try and put some blackjacks between him and me and move within 100 yards or so. I moved closer to where I was confident I could shoot and looked over to the west and saw a big buck silhouetted about 300 yards off on the horizon. I started to cuss my luck and then looked back to where we had first seen the deer and saw him standing in the same spot facing me. There were TWO big bucks!!! I dropped to one knee and squeezed off a shot. The wind caught me as I fired and it caught him a little far back -- I missed the guts -- and he ran off about 50 yards and stopped. I chambered a second round and ran in closer and finished him with a broadside shot behind his left shoulder. (The first bullet struck him behind the right shoulder, demolished his right lung, missed his entrails, and ended up in the hide near his testicles where I found it while I was dressing him.)
Our ride picked us up about 6:15 and after checking the animal, we made it out of the Refuge about 7:20 which put us back in Edmond a little after 9:00. (The day started about 3:00 that morning and we'd been on our feet most of the day.) My dad had this idea that we'd split the driving: he'd drive to our briefing/check-in on Monday, I'd drive the first day of the hunt, and he'd drive the second day -- if there was one. He also planned that if one of us killed a deer, but the other hadn't, then the other guy would be on his own. He's 72 and I knew if I was beat, he was REALLY BEAT, so I told him that since I already had a vacation day scheduled, I would plan on coming back. I had him leave his rifle and other gear in my pickup and parked it in my garage for the night so that he could just jump in and go in the morning.
By the time I cut the head off and dropped the carcass off at Sallee's in Guthrie, took a shower, and had everything ready to go for in the morning, it was after midnight. My 2:45 alarm came early. I had breakfast for us (I had my wife scramble some eggs and cook some bacon the evening before so that I could reheat it in the microwave) and hot coffee. (I've found if you eat a high protein breakfast, you can really go like hell, even if you're tired or miss lunch.) I picked up my dad and he was BEAT, but after he had his breakfast, he was ready to go. I dropped him off at the corral area where he headed out with the other remaining hunters. I headed in to Lawton a little after 7:00 and picked up a sandwich at Subway so that we'd have something to eat if the day was as long as the previous day when I got a call from my mother -- my dad had killed a deer and was having trouble dialing out. (Cell service is spotty, at best, within a lot of the Refuge.) I made my way back to the Refuge and rode out with our group leader to pick up my dad. He had returned to the same place where I'd shot my deer and managed to kill the other big buck. It was a great hunt, but it took us about a week to recover and rest. We're staying in a motel next time.
Here's one of the other hunters in our group. His buck aged out to 4-1/2 years and he killed it about a quarter-mile north of where my dad and I killed ours:
And a poor quality cell phone photograph of one of the many large 6x6 bull elk we saw:
I need to point out that on our pre-hunt briefing and scouting tour the day prior to the hunt, one of the other hunters in our group was a cop for the Refuge. (I was mildly acquainted with him from my elk hunt in 2009 -- he was our group leader on that trip.) He was part of a group of four who had antlerless tags and had done a good deal of scouting even before this hunt and was telling the buck tag holders where and when he had been seeing buck activity. We had all selected our "spots" based on his recommendations and one of the spots was this area around Medicine Tank where he'd been seeing bucks coming in during the evening. (Incidentally, 5 out of the six who had buck tags were successful.)
At any rate, we spotted the buck and my dad wondered if it was still legal shooting light. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 5:50 -- we had ten minutes left. He suggested I try and slip in a little closer for a shot. The area was mostly open with a few blackjacks on the west side of the road and the buck was to our southwest. The wind was howling like hell out of the southwest (it had been gusting to over 30 MPH throughout the day), so I decided to try and put some blackjacks between him and me and move within 100 yards or so. I moved closer to where I was confident I could shoot and looked over to the west and saw a big buck silhouetted about 300 yards off on the horizon. I started to cuss my luck and then looked back to where we had first seen the deer and saw him standing in the same spot facing me. There were TWO big bucks!!! I dropped to one knee and squeezed off a shot. The wind caught me as I fired and it caught him a little far back -- I missed the guts -- and he ran off about 50 yards and stopped. I chambered a second round and ran in closer and finished him with a broadside shot behind his left shoulder. (The first bullet struck him behind the right shoulder, demolished his right lung, missed his entrails, and ended up in the hide near his testicles where I found it while I was dressing him.)
Our ride picked us up about 6:15 and after checking the animal, we made it out of the Refuge about 7:20 which put us back in Edmond a little after 9:00. (The day started about 3:00 that morning and we'd been on our feet most of the day.) My dad had this idea that we'd split the driving: he'd drive to our briefing/check-in on Monday, I'd drive the first day of the hunt, and he'd drive the second day -- if there was one. He also planned that if one of us killed a deer, but the other hadn't, then the other guy would be on his own. He's 72 and I knew if I was beat, he was REALLY BEAT, so I told him that since I already had a vacation day scheduled, I would plan on coming back. I had him leave his rifle and other gear in my pickup and parked it in my garage for the night so that he could just jump in and go in the morning.
By the time I cut the head off and dropped the carcass off at Sallee's in Guthrie, took a shower, and had everything ready to go for in the morning, it was after midnight. My 2:45 alarm came early. I had breakfast for us (I had my wife scramble some eggs and cook some bacon the evening before so that I could reheat it in the microwave) and hot coffee. (I've found if you eat a high protein breakfast, you can really go like hell, even if you're tired or miss lunch.) I picked up my dad and he was BEAT, but after he had his breakfast, he was ready to go. I dropped him off at the corral area where he headed out with the other remaining hunters. I headed in to Lawton a little after 7:00 and picked up a sandwich at Subway so that we'd have something to eat if the day was as long as the previous day when I got a call from my mother -- my dad had killed a deer and was having trouble dialing out. (Cell service is spotty, at best, within a lot of the Refuge.) I made my way back to the Refuge and rode out with our group leader to pick up my dad. He had returned to the same place where I'd shot my deer and managed to kill the other big buck. It was a great hunt, but it took us about a week to recover and rest. We're staying in a motel next time.
Here's one of the other hunters in our group. His buck aged out to 4-1/2 years and he killed it about a quarter-mile north of where my dad and I killed ours:
And a poor quality cell phone photograph of one of the many large 6x6 bull elk we saw:
dennishoddy
Moderator
Great story! I love how it all comes together right at the end of the day. The two times I've been there as a helper, we camped out at Doris Campground. During the night around the campfire, deer would be filtering through the campgrounds. Some were really nice bucks.
David W
Fanatic
I got the handicap hunt at McAlister with a crossbow, didn't go, my Mother passed away in July didn't know who could care for my dog, she has never been in a kennel before. I usually hunt between Weleeka and Wetumka on 80 acres by myself overlooking the North Canadian River on a 800 foot ridge. This next fall will be using an Ambush Arms 6.8spc AR15 with a Silencer and a Burris Eliminator III scope.
