Oklahoma Outdoors

The south heads north this week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast as John chats with his buddy Nate Rozeveld from Michigan. Nate is the host of the Michigan Wild Podcast on the Sportemen's Empire and recently came down to join John on an Oklahoma hog hunt. John and Nate cover a variety of topics including how social media may have actually improved Michigan deer hunting for the better. John asks Nate about his thoughts on one of John's favorite topics, the one buck vs two buck debate. Nate also explains Michigan's varied landscape including the famous "U.P." or upper peninsula.

Being a podcast host himself, Nate does a great job of turning the tables and asking John a few questions about his property and hunting in Oklahoma. After seeing John's property this spring, he had some questions about how John sets up and hunts his family cattle ranch. The guys also talk about if you can have "too many mature bucks" on a property and ways you can prevent that from happening.

This episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast is all about summer time. John starts off with a quick story of how he almost went on a last second Canadian black bear hunt! He got invited on not just one, but two bear hunts in the same day. After that the episode gets a little more serious and John covers a few things that all whitetail hunters need to be doing this time of year. He also has a brief discussion on if summer time trail camera data is actually helpful for killing a buck later in the fall. 

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John kicks things off with an exciting announcement he has been keeping secret for almost a year now. After the big unveiling, John moves on to one of the most exciting parts about spring, spring food plots! It was a busy weekend at the ranch as John planted all three of his spring plots for a total of around 5.5 acres. As usual, things didn't go as planned when the local seed store was completely sold out of soybeans which had been his first choice after having such success with them last year. But some quick research and a few questions led him to buying a nice mix comprised of two varieties of cowpeas, millet, soybeans, and okra. 

John also ventured into some new territory and planted his very first alfalfa plot. In an area that saw a lot of browse pressure last year, John decided to switch things up and see if alfalfa could outgrow the deers stomachs. He also increased the size of that plot by almost 4 times! Follow along as John walks the listener through his step by step process and points out what he did right and several things he did wrong.

John starts this episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast with some important information concerning bill HB 3462 which aims to release captive "CWD resistant" whitetails into Oklahomas wild herds. The bill lines out the plan and even talks about how land owners can opt into the program to potentially have deer released onto their property.

After the more serious introduction, the episode takes a turn to the lighter side as John is joined by Julius Craig of Deltaflauge Outdoors to talk about hunting in different states. The guys hit on Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Julius's home state of Louisiana. Being a new Oklahoma resident, Julius also asks John some questions about some of the state's lesser known game like bear and antelope. John also recounts the story of his truck getting stolen out of a Denver hotel parking lot on his way to hunt elk in north western Colorado.

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John is headed back to Nebraska to chase merriam's turkeys. John hunted Nebraska in the spring of 2023, but was so sidetracked by scouting for deer on the new landscape that he didn't take turkey hunting near as seriously as he should have. Heading into the trip this year though, John had a completely different mindset. He was determined to bring home a merriams, which would be his third of the four subspecies of wild turkey. 

This trip brought plenty of challenges, and though John had no problem finding birds, getting one into shotgun range proved more challenging than he expected. Like many western animals, the merriams he was chasing seemed to have no predictable pattern. Simply traveling wherever the wind blew them on any particular day. After three long days and a few disappointments, John finally caught up to a small group of strutters on the last day. However, even with a long beard at fifteen yards, John found out it's never easy!

Spring is quickly making way for summer, and John's thoughts have been shifting towards the upcoming fall and all the different places he'll be hunting. On this episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John gives a peak behind the curtain of what has been going through his mind when it comes to gaining access to more properties. Every hunter dreams of buying their own farm or hunting place, but that's not always in the cards. This year John is determined to gain access to more ground, and possibly even in other states. John talks about the trouble he has had finding a credible least online, and gives some good tips on how to find land owner information for good ol knocking on door permission. 

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John is joined by Justin Townsend of Harvesting Nature and the Wild Fish and Game Podcast. If you have a desire to do more with wild game than just deep fry or grill it, Justin is here to help. Harvesting Nature focuses on educating hunters on how to get more out of the game they take. No matter if you are wanting to create a culinary masterpiece, or just looking for something to change up the usual routine. 

Justin and John touch on a few of the more popular wild game species in Oklahoma including whitetail deer, wild hogs, and waterfowl ranging from ducks to greater Canadian geese. There is so much to cover that the guys didn't have time to deep dive into any particular topic, so be sure to check out Harvesting Nature online or tune into the Wild Fish and Game Podcast to learn more about getting the most out of your wild game!

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John heads west to chase Rio Grande turkeys with his long bow! This was John's first turkey hunt of the year, but knocking the dust off would prove to be difficult with how much water was on the ground. John had an odd combination of wet muddy ground and hot 90 degree temperatures that made finding turkeys difficult. After putting several miles on the side by side, the first evening proved to be uneventful.

The scouting mission was not a complete failure though. Two other hunters had been on the property for three days before John got there, and while scouting he found a big section of the property that they had not been able to access due to the deep mud. That is the area John chose to focus on the following morning, and he found himself surrounded by gobbles with daylight breaking! 

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John heads west to chase Rio Grande turkeys with his long bow! This was John's first turkey hunt of the year, but knocking the dust off would prove to be difficult with how much water was on the ground. John had an odd combination of wet muddy ground and hot 90 degree temperatures that made finding turkeys difficult. After putting several miles on the side by side, the first evening proved to be uneventful.

The scouting mission was not a complete failure though. Two other hunters had been on the property for three days before John got there, and while scouting he found a big section of the property that they had not been able to access due to the deep mud. That is the area John chose to focus on the following morning, and he found himself surrounded by gobbles with daylight breaking! 

We have a very important episode this week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. At the end of March, the governor of Oklahoma signed the "License Modernization Act."  This legislation drastically changes the current license structure for the state and is set to go into effect this summer. This act combines current licenses, simplifies many, and raises some costs. One change that is sure to strike up some hot conversations is how the non resident deer license has almost doubled! John walks through the act and talks about the good and the bad of what is about to take place. 

This episode isn't all legislative talk however. John also talks about his recent hog hunt with the boys from up north. Two Michiganders and one Ohio native make the trek to Oklahoma to help John and his family with their hog problem, and do a pretty dang good job of it!