Oklahoma public land Q's

[JWP58]

I've got a guided pheasant hunt scheduled in January in the OK panhandle. I've been looking for some public land to try out (picking up my first pup today!) and the Beaver River WMA is only a few miles from my guided hunt, so i figured i might have a go at it.

Anyone ever hunt this 17k acre WMA? Does it have birds? Are there better public lands?

If anyone wants to join me, you are welcome! (i am a complete noob to upland hunting..ya ya i'm a deer hunter)

(i'm not looking for any honey hole info, you can be vauge)

[JWP58]

Dang, I guess nobody hunts it....atleast i can hope its low pressure.

[displaced_texan]

I don't really hunt public land, but the panhandle generally speaking has good bird numbers...

[ACooper]

I haven't hunted Beaver Wma in about 8 years, we used to find some birds there but at some point it stopped being worth the drive. In the past it was good for public hunting.

[JWP58]

Ya i probably wouldnt drive there just to hunt the beaver wma, but since i'm going to be right there i guess i wont lose anything checking it out.

[ACooper]

Absolutely if I were in the neighborhood I would take a spin and no doubt find some birds! You might also look at Optima WMA.

[tommyboy72]

Andy stop giving away me secret quail hunting holes.

I hunt Optima occasionally and it has good numbers of quail on 20,000 acres of public land but you better have your dogs trained not to mess with porcupines because there are a bunch of them out there and you better be ready to walk. You can find 15-20 bird coveys but you are going to cover some ground doing it. I also occasionally hunt Schultz WMA but if you don't know where it is you will get lost. Beaver has decent numbers of quail in years that we get good rain but tonight as I sit here there is a lightning storm going outside and we have not any precipitation at all to speak of since last year and there are approximately 10 grass fires going between where I live and Guymon which is only 20 miles away. I am pretty sure the quail population is going to be way down this year. We have not even had enough rain to turn anything green around here so the birds could get whatever nutrition they needed from green plants to start nesting. We usually have good numbers of pheasant out here but we have gotten a lot of pressure from down staters and out of staters especially those who come here and just pull over on the side of the road and start hunting without permission. It used to be farmers were very generous about letting people hunt their land but that has changed a lot in the last couple of years. I work as a communications officer at the jail and you would not believe the number of calls I get during hunting season concerning trespassing and poaching. Just make sure you are on public land or have permission if you come out here. Good luck to you.

Tom

[Chief_dog]

Beaver is big rolling hills of sandsage and plum thickets with some river bottom. Consider telemetry or a gps if your dog has any kinds of wheels at all. You can lose a dog at 50 yards in some places due to the terrain. Last time I hunted there I saw my female Dixie about a dozen times in four hours, but six of those times were on covies when I turned on the tracker. Back in the old days there were a lot of birds and limits came pretty easily, but now-a-days you'd better have some dogs that will cover some serious ground if you want to move more than a couple covies a day.

[kensfishing]

Beaver is big rolling hills of sandsage and plum thickets with some river bottom. Consider telemetry or a gps if your dog has any kinds of wheels at all. You can lose a dog at 50 yards in some places due to the terrain. Last time I hunted there I saw my female Dixie about a dozen times in four hours, but six of those times were on covies when I turned on the tracker. Back in the old days there were a lot of birds and limits came pretty easily, but now-a-days you'd better have some dogs that will cover some serious ground if you want to move more than a couple covies a day.

Dave I need to get back out there with you and the dogs. Remember when a long time ago, we covered alot of ground with good days and bad days. But it was all good. Remembering Chief, Mike, Ace, Tracker and John. God they covered so many miles. Thank God for memories.

[Chief_dog]

Yep, those were some great times. The family still misses you every Thanksgiving when we have dinner.

I have so many great memories of our hunts together over the years. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about one day when we set on the tailgate up on top of a hill by an old barn and watched Chief and Mike completely eat up a section and a half of crp. Man I loved that dog. Or the day when we met up with Charlie and Tony, and you dropped five off the covey rise before any of us fired a shot. I still have a picture somewhere that I took of Tracker's first wild rooster... I don't know who was prouder, you or Tracker! Or watching Wilma Jean on the last field of the last day of her last pheasant hunt track a wiley old rooster about a half mile before locking it up.... I would have given anything for one of us to have been able to shoot that bird for her. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again soon.

[kensfishing]

Those were good old fun days. Maybe soon we'll do it again. I do miss all of your family at Thanksgiving Dinner.

[JWP58]

It used to be farmers were very generous about letting people hunt their land but that has changed a lot in the last couple of years. I work as a communications officer at the jail and you would not believe the number of calls I get during hunting season concerning trespassing and poaching. Just make sure you are on public land or have permission if you come out here. Good luck to you.

Tom

It looks like i'll be going through the Texas Hwy Patrol academy, so you can be sure i'll be squared away on the st. regs and laws. That would look pretty bad if i didnt....

[jcbuttry8]

It has been a long time since I hunted the Beaver and Optima with tommyboy, but if I remember correctly Beaver was the best for Muleys and witetail and optima and Schultz were always the best for birds. I always had better luck with birds at Schultz but tommyboy is right if you don't know where it is you can end up in the wrong county quick. Optima is not to far, just a few hours, it wouldn't hurt for you to head down by the river and hit some of the open ground. Great thing about Optima is you can see your dogs forever. Flat and wide open. I always loved watching my GSP's from the hill tops.

Good luck

Joe