Oklahoma Outdoors

Spring is here and gobble filled mornings are just around the corner. This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John is bringing back an old turkey story from a few years back. John and his good friend Stiles headed to the Texas panhandle with Stiles's son, SV. It had been many years since the guys had driven out to Stiles's grandmother's place to chase big tom turkeys, but when they got there things fell right into place again.

Not only were they successful at tagging a couple nice birds, but John also got to learn a lot about hunting with kids. SV is a trooper, and has never met a stranger, but when it comes to being quiet and still, it's hard to ask too much from a youngster. John got to see first hand that fruit snacks and peanut butter crackers could be just as important on a hunt as box calls and decoys.

This is a very special episode for John, and one he wasn't sure he would ever get to record. On this episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John gets to tell the final chapter of an eight and a half year old deer affectionately known as... The 2% Buck. The story goes all the way back to 2017, when John got a trail camera picture of a beautiful clean 10 point 3 year old. Later that year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, he watched that buck work its way through a saddle and happily let him go, knowing he might turn into something special in the future. Little did he know at that moment that this very buck would drive him crazy for the next five years!

After years of obsessing and hunting the big 10 point, on the Saturday after thanksgiving, in the very spot he got that first trail camera picture 6 years before, John was able to catch up with the 2% buck. The name came by accident, when John jokingly gave himself only a 2% chance of killing the buck because of the fact he was so nocturnal and lived on land John did not have access to hunt. However, after years of habitat work and studying the deer, John was finally able to kill the monarch 6 years after first laying eyes on him.

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John breaks down his 8 day rutcation, including the Texas rifle opener and 6 full days in Iowa. There was no shortage of bucks in Iowa, in fact John had over 25 different bucks in bow range over the course of 6 days. Finding "the" buck however was definitely a challenge. John gave it everything he had but ended up coming home without filling a tag. That doesn't necessarily mean that his Iowa season is closed though...

John talks about some of the major differences between hunting the midwest and his traditional stomping grounds further south. He was shocked at how similar the breakdown of land was, with your usual ag fields, pockets of timber, and timber lined creeks. One thing that presented a major challenge though was the steeper more rugged terrain that made the wind extremely unpredictable. John was constantly moving and making micro adjustments to his set up, trying to put the wind in his advantage. He did see some really nice bucks, and is counting down the days till his return.

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Cort Travis is back on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast this week with another great story. Some of you may remember Cort as the Oklahoma State University student who killed a 200" buck a few years ago. While this one wasn't quite that good, he is still a heck of a buck and has a heck of a story to go with it. And while two big whitetails are great, the bigger lesson in this episode is that no matter your financial situation, with a little hard work, you too can have a chance at some great hunting opportunities.

Cort's first buck came after getting permission to hunt some land owned by his landlord, and this second buck came from that same property. Being a college student, and now freshly out of college and trying to make a living in this crazy world, Cort didn't have a lot of extra cash laying around to pay for a lease. Instead of giving up or just not hunting however, Cort rolled up his sleeves and made a deal with the land owner to work around the property in exchange for hunting rights. Doing odd jobs and helping work cattle has earned Cort the right to hunt a great property and harvest two fantastic whitetail deer.

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We have a really good one this week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. Lindsay Thomas Jr. is the chief communications officer for the National Deer Association and joins John to talk about a recent article he wrote about "rutcations" and if they are actually effective. Lindsay, like many others including John, had never been able to take a true rutcation until his work situation changed in 2021. After two seasons of taking a full week off of work to do nothing but hunt during the rut, Lindsay made a few observations that any whitetail deer hunter should pay attention to. He observed that factors such as inconsistent winds and added human intrusion might hurt hunters more than most realize, even during the peak of breeding season.

On top of the rutcation observations, Lindsay and John discuss a few other things that greatly affect hunters in the sooner state. One bright spot in the conversation comes when Lindsay talks about a few statistics that he recently learned about Oklahomas deer herd. These statistics are quite encouraging after all the recent talk about laws and regulations and other worrisome topics. Most will be encouraged to learn that the state of whitetail deer hunting in Oklahoma is far better than most realize.

There is a little bad news in this episode however. Be sure to stick around till the end, when John asks Lindsay about a recent research study done on wild hogs. Lindsay discusses the study and how to everyone's surprise, they have found that wild hog populations are growing at an even faster rate than previously thought. The age at which sows can begin breeding is staggering, and so is the survival rate of piglets!

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