Gun Dog Forum

I have recently moved from Colorado to Okalhoma. I have not secured any private land in Oklahoma yet. I was thinking about hunting Black Kettle national grass land, and Pack Saddle WMA. Has anyone had and exprecince quail hunting out there, or on any other public lands in OK? I plan on hunting WIHA in south central Kansas as well, but I would like to find a place closer to home.

I hunt these 2 areas every year and the quail population has been declining for several years. There are birds there but it's not like it used to be. I hunt Kansas as much as I can and some days are better than others. Last year was a tough one in both states. There are several public areas around western Ok but they get hunted pretty hard.

I hunted Black Kettle once a few years ago and had pretty good luck hunting the creek beds. I wouldn't go on opening weekend though, it is supposedly packed then.

I've hunted both. Prefered Packsaddle to Black Kettle. There were good bird numbers and we had some good hunts! This was several years ago though.

Bird numbers in western OK have been brutally low the last several years. I've hunted Packsaddle, Black kettle, Cooper, Beaver, Optima, Sandy Sanders, and FT Supply. I cannot say I would recommend any of them with the current bird populations.

ACooper wrote:Bird numbers in western OK have been brutally low the last several years. I've hunted Packsaddle, Black kettle, Cooper, Beaver, Optima, Sandy Sanders,
FT Supply. I cannot say I would recommend any of them with the current bird populations.

+1
Back in 04-06 we could move 12-15 coveys a day on any of the WMA's he mentioned and it's been all down hill ever since good luck on your search

Thats a fine looking avatar dog pete.

Thanks!!!!he's a special dog

Thanks for the replies. I think I will go out there and check it out even with the numbers on decline. Im supprised the limit is still 10 birds a day. Seems like a large limit given the severe decline.

cstokes/southeast,ks wrote:Thats a fine looking avatar dog pete.

I am going to have to concur!

Even bird numbers on private land are in the crapper right now both pheasant and quail (blue and bobwhite). You know we had a hard drought when it starts affecting the blue quail numbers.

Has anyone tried Packsaddle this year? I'm working in the area so going to go out there Thursday and Friday. Never been so any tips would helpful. Thanks

I tried Cooper, and only saw two birds. I saw more porky pines than quail. I had better luck on Kansas WIHA. Personally I think Kansas has a better system than the Oklahoma WMAs. I don't know why Oklahoma thinks they need to own all of thier public hunting land.

Going to open an old one back up, anyone seeing any birds in Western OK? I hunted Sandy Sanders this morning, still pretty tough go out there for man and dog. Saw one really big covey but that was all I was able to find today.

I've never been to Sandy Sanders. I saw a decent covey at Ft. supply a couple weeks ago. Are the goathead stickers bad at Sanders. They were horrible at the spot I was at Supply. Opening day at Black Kettle I only saw a double near the end of the day. Others found coveys.

Speaking of Packsaddle areas, going West along the Canadian River on the Texas side of border, there's the Gene Howe WMA. I know this year with all the rain we've experienced the quail population has had a significant jump. On average of 6 to 13 decent sized coveys.

ACooper wrote:Going to open an old one back up, anyone seeing any birds in Western OK? I hunted Sandy Sanders this morning, still pretty tough go out there for man and dog. Saw one really big covey but that was all I was able to find today.

The fella I got my dog from went to black kettle the second weekend of quail and said they moved 7 covey the first day and another 6 the next. It figures, since I chose instead to go north(kaw) while they went west. Gonna try and get out to black kettle in the next week. I'll let ya know how it goes.

Wow. That's a good number. I never know which section to hunt when I'm there. Always pick the wrong ones. I'm assuming theses are all different coveys each day?

I've had small luck at packsaddle.

Didn't get to make it out this weekend. Anyone else been out there in the past couple weeks?

GSP4ME wrote:Didn't get to make it out this weekend. Anyone else been out there in the past couple weeks?

Been out and about a lot, not just for quail but pheasants and waterfowl. There are birds around. Some places there are a bunch.

Is duck hunting allowed on the Canadian river in packsaddle?

Heard there were some birds at Lexington wma so since it's a bit closer to home, thought I'd give it a shot. We got into one small covey(6birds) and managed to make it home with one. Ranger worked well -getting better with each trip to the field. But my poor shooting left a lot to be desired

Spoke with a friend who was out that way over the weekend. Birds, birds, and more birds.

To many people and if you were planning on hunting there I would not have posted it on the internet to attract more hunters.

check out
http://eschunting.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Edmond-S ... 5906985870

chwagn11 wrote:To many people and if you were planning on hunting there I would not have posted it on the internet to attract more hunters.

It's free and there are birds, of course there are a lot of people there. It's not a secret, its public hunting area. Isn't this what the forum is all about sharing information about upland game hunting. If people stop using these public areas they will go away.

chwagn11 wrote:To many people and if you were planning on hunting there I would not have posted it on the internet to attract more hunters.

It's 2015. black kettle and packsaddle are going to get more than their fair share of hunters and I doubt very seriously that anything I posted will change that one way or the other. It's not like I revealed a super secret quail hunting location that folks on a gundog forum were unaware of.