Oklahoma Outdoors

When turkey season comes to a close, many outdoorsmen and women hang the camo in the closet and prepare for the long summer off season. Bransen Shelton had other plans this year though. He and a few buddies loaded up the truck and headed west for a spring bear hunt. This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, Bransen joins John to talk about the insane amount of time and work it took to bring down a DIY public land bear.

Bransen had hunted the western mountains before, but never for spring bear. He talks about the intense grind the hunt required in order to be successful. Long days and lots of miles. Some days waking up before 4:30am and not going to bed till well after 11pm. He goes through some of the gear he used on the trip and how he was able to stay in the back country for so long. He also gets into the different hunting styles the group used throughout the week, and how he specifically went against some of the usual tactics a lot of people use. 

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This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John discusses the discovery of the first CWD positive whitetail in Oklahoma. It did not come as much of a surprise to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, as every state surrounding Oklahoma has had a positive Chronic Wasting Disease case in recent years. So what happens now?

This episode is not a scientific evaluation of CWD and its future effects of the Oklahoma deer herd. Instead, this episode is simply meant to inform listeners about what has happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and to prepare Oklahoma sportsmen and women for the future. It's not time to hit the panic button just yet! John discusses the history of CWD in Oklahoma, the recent case that has been confirmed, and a few precautions the wildlife department is putting into place. There will definitely be another episode in the near future with someone who is far more informed than John, but he felt that this news was important enough to be addressed immediately.

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This week the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast is covering one of its most requested topics, Oklahoma public land whitetails. Joining John for this episode is Levi Mayfield, a motivated public land hunter who has cut his teeth in the woods of southeastern Oklahoma. Levi has designed his life around being in the outdoors, whether it's behind a camera or a bow. It is this time in the outdoors that has shaped him into the hunter he is today, and on this episode, he invites the listeners into the passenger seat and along for the ride.

John and Levi start from the 10,000 foot view of finding an area to start with, and eventually work their way down to picking the specific tree. Levi talks about how terrain plays a major role in his setups, and how sign like rubs and scrapes don't play into his setups as much as it does for most people. The guys discuss saddle hunting and being mobile, and the ways Levi approaches hunting public compared to private. If you have ever wanted to learn more about hunting public land whitetails, this is the episode for you.

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This week's episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast is all about the fans! Before recording this week's episode, John reached out via social media and asked for questions from listeners. The topics reached far and wide from choosing a good rifle caliber to protecting your deer feeders from cows. Cows came up more than once actually! While most of the questions were serious or strategic in nature, there were a few fun ones also that let John do a little bit of daydreaming about hunting moose in the Alaskan Bush with Jim Shockey!

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This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, we stretch beyond the limits of our own borders and talk to Andrew Muntz of Ohio. Andrew is one of the hosts of the Ohio Outdoors podcast, and he chats with John about a few differences between hunting in the north versus the south. Andrew lives and hunts in Ohio, but has also hunted deep traditional northern states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. Another advantage Andrew brings to the conversation is that he was just down at John's place in Oklahoma hunting hogs about 2 months ago, so he is familiar with how hunting goes in the south as well.

The guys cover several topics including land parcel size, season structures, hot and cold weather effects, and even talk about different hunting strategies like deer drives. In 2022 Andrew killed a nice buck hunting two different parcels of land that totalled only 8 acres! He also talks about how Ohio does not have a modern rifle season. If you want to gun hunt, you can choose between a shotgun, muzzleloader, or straight wall cartridge such as the 350 legend. Overall, it is a great conversation about how different regulations work and affect different states and varying population densities of both humans and wildlife. Check out this episode, and be sure to check out Andrew and Paul over on the 02 podcast also on the Sportsmens Empire Podcast Network!

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Cole Cannon of Buckventures hops on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast this week. Cole is the chief producer and editor for Buckventures, and he and John have a really cool chat about what it's like to be involved with a major outdoor television show. Before they jump into the ins and outs of the television world, Cole tells a quick story about a really nice buck he was able to take last December with his bow in Kansas. Having picked up the farm after hunting season had already begun, Cole and his boss and host of the show Jeff Danker were left with the cards they had been dealt by the previous land owner. Even with the deck stacked against them, Cole was still able to take a really nice Kansas whitetail buck.

After the story, John and Cole get into the hunting industry a little bit. Cole talks about how an internship led into a full time position, and eventually to him being the producer and editor of a major television show. Cole shares what makes the job so enjoyable and how it really is an amazing opportunity. It's not all fun and games, but the good tends to outweigh the bad. Cole also gives a few tips to anyone who may have a similar dream, and some advice on how to maybe get your foot in the door. 

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John has been chasing turkeys all over the place the last two weeks, but finally takes a break to sit down and record a few of his top Stories. On this episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors podcast, John shares three separate hunts that took place in an 8 day period. John headed to the complete opposite side of the state from where he normally roams to chase public land Rios. Even with what seemed like an unusually early start, he still managed to be the second person to his spot. After that hunt, he joined up with the Oklahoma Outdoor Outreach Foundation for a one of a kind turkey hunt with a 9 year old boy named Brock.

After heading home and getting back to work for a few days, John then headed to his buddies place in west Texas to once again try to get a Rio Grande turkey in shotgun distance. Unlike his other hunts, this one happened extremely fast! Though he had his gopro rolling, John would have loved to have had a camera man along on this hunt. Give the episode a listen and find out why!

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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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John is back in the mobile studio this week bringing you a pre summer check list. Before long it is going to get hot and dry, so there are a few things every game manager needs to get done before that time gets here. From tree stands to trail cameras, no matter if you hunt public or private, many of these things will apply to you. 

After the to-do list, John also shares some stories from his Sportsmens Empire hog hunt from a few weekends ago. Fellow podcasters came from Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri to hunt hogs in southeast Oklahoma. Many of the guys had never even seen a hog, much less hunted them, so it was a lot of fun for John to take them around and turn them loose on some wild hogs. 

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John had a heck of a trip to Nebraska to visit his sister and chase Merriam turkeys. On this week's uncut episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors podcast, John talks about the many times he got caught by gobblers with his pants down, multiple close calls, and how distracting all the deer sign was. It is almost hard to believe he didn't fill his tag after situations like walking up on birds midday, turkeys gobbling when he didn't have his bow, and even calling a long beard to 10 steps! He really has nothing to blame but himself.

Even after all the mishaps, it was still an incredible trip. He got to do a lot of scouting for both turkeys and deer, and got permission on yet another property for this fall. John also got to see the effects of EHD for himself, finding multiple deadheads while walking around scouting. It is truly incredible how diverse whitetails and turkeys are and all the places they can thrive, even when it seems the cards are stacked against them.

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