Wichita Mountain Elk Hunt

From the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Outdoor, Oklahoma. Hello and welcome to Outdoor, Oklahoma. I'm Todd Craighead and today I'm on the road down to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. And if you're one of the many thousands of people that have applied for the controlled elk hunt down here, you know what a big deal it is. I've never been lucky enough to be one of the hunters, but today I'm going to follow around a biologist and get his perspective of what it's like to put on one of the most sought after and most popular controlled hunts in Oklahoma. I'm Rod Smith, Southwest Region Supervisor for the Wildlife Division.

We're here at the Wichita Mountains doing the controlled hunt elk hunt. And this is a long-standing tradition between the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to cooperatively run this hunt here at Wichita Mountains. It's been a great relationship. We kind of split responsibilities 50-50. We have group leaders, the refuge has group leaders, and we all really work together well in conducting this hunt. Well, preparing for this hunt is almost a year-round thing. Once the hunts are over, the refuge will tabulate, harvest, and do some survey work and find out what their population levels are. And then in January, we start setting up the next year's hunt, deciding how many hunts, how many hunters, and that kind of thing.

And success rate, what I've seen over the years is around 60% on cow hunters, and around that 90-95% on bull hunters. And of course, we have a lot fewer bull hunters taken to get our numbers, where we want to peel off on cows, a little more and a little heavier. So that there is why we set the numbers a little higher on cows. This year there are three hunts, two of those are elk hunts and one deer hunt. We do the deer hunt in November, and then the two elk hunts in December. If populations are higher or harvest is low for a year or so because of weather or whatever factors, then we may have to put a third hunt in, which... It's worked for us, but it's opportunity for sportsmen, so if we get to that point, that'd be a great thing for hunters. Well, gearing up for the hunt is really for us getting vehicles ready and clothes and schedules and that kind of thing coming before the week of the hunt.

I think it's in repair. You missed the other micens deal, the blowout yesterday. See the extra tire there, who's that for? Is that for you too? Blue tire out, you couldn't get the spare out from under the truck. Who would have thought that being a wildlife biologist would include automotive mechanic hunt? Yeah, that's right. Oh well, I guess it's all part of the deal. Of course, Monday morning's real high energy. We have group leaders coming in from all over the southwest region and sometimes from all over the state. So it's up earlier on Monday morning and getting our bags packed and our trucks ready and get down to the hunt. Then we get organized. There's seats that we have to put in the trucks for hunters to set. So we get the trucks geared up to seats on and then it's ready to go to the visitor center and meet the hunters.

Well, that's the fun part. Many morning everybody's real enthused and energy's high and everybody's real excited to get the hunt kicked off. So many morning our orientation time is meeting with hunters, show them their hunt areas and going on over all the procedures. Group leaders really have quite a bit of responsibility. They have to not only get all the hunters in their trucks safely and all their gear. They have to inform the hunters all about the procedures. They have to show them the area. They have to get their flags out on Monday because that's where they're going to hunt Tuesday. Of course, Tuesday morning then they have to go back and find those flags and get the hunters back in the right spots to where they're ready to hunt. The flags are just regular survey flags but they all have a number. Every hunter has a number and during the orientation when the hunter decides where he wants to start from in the on Tuesday morning, they put a flag there. And that flag is kind of an orientation point for both the hunter and the group leader.

That's where the hunter gets out in the morning and that's where the group leader will pick him up at night after dark. And then, of course, they're responsible for really their well-being during the day. Getting helpers out to him when they get an elk and any special needs that hunters might have. They're also responsible for taking care of those needs. Hello, Mr. Smith. You got, I've got your helper for 100 number 78. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah, you're hooked up, but you thought you was going to get to go out. I have number 78 getting back. Okay, get up. Well, you want to... I can run him up and come around him. If you come by right there north of Pinchow, anybody sitting there? Okay, okay.

That's kind of some of the normal things. We try to coordinate and everybody's going in every different direction. Just tell you who's out there. And get somebody out there. We'll be back with more insight of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge elk hunt right after this week's Outdoor News report. Are you a helper or a hunter? And you got one obviously, huh? Well, good deal. What do you think about this whole experience? Tell me about your hunt. Oh, I was sitting up on a big glove and saw him from about a thousand yards off. And just kind of looked at the terrain to see how I could get to him. And finally, just decided to go after him about noon. Nice shot him at a shot him at 420. Finally, just found a rock out cropping that was in front of him because he had 13 cows with him. So there's a lot of eyes to get around people. And finally started him at 250 yards and dropped him with the first shot.

And just followed up with a second one as he was on the ground just so that he didn't get up. I've heard they get up sometimes. Followed up with a second one and he never moved. Do you got one pack on your back? Yeah, another one here. One ready to go. If I can have about two more people to use them. Get him out of there at some point today. How far have I ever hike you have in? About a mile and a half. He was all the way at the back fence. That's a long way. Well, great. So far, what's been the most memorable part of this experience for you? It's a train. I've never been in this type of train. I've never hunted out before. I've been in the train in this pretty country down here. Where are you from? From Alaska. One of the unique things about the hunts of the Wichita Mountains is there's a five shell per day restriction. And that is mostly to add some quality to the hunt. If you're limited to five shells, you're going to be a lot more patient, a lot more careful on shot selection.

And so that's what the limitations for. We do have people that end up shooting all five shells and didn't hit their animal. So once that happens, we pick them up, they come in, they wait till the next day, and then they start fresh with new shells. In the morning, we do a little inspection with hunters just to make sure that somebody doesn't try to bring in more than five shells. But also to make sure hunters have shells. It happens every week, somebody forgot their shells. It happened twice this week. You know, surely mistakes happen, you know. You know, other than hunters just kind of getting here in a panic on a foggy day and getting lost even driving to the area and hunt meters, you know, driving around and getting kind of confused on where they're supposed to be on fog. It's a hard place to know because they're in a straight road on this place, so you get all kinds of stories. It's interesting to see the carts in the way people handle the animal after it's down.

You know, most of the people have never been around an elk and they don't know the size of an elk and they get a bit intimidated when they pull up on one. And it's as big as a horse to them. But by far the best way is by backpack. You quarter them up and you carry them out on your back and that there's the absolute best way. And sleds work pretty good too, but they last about one time and they get chewed up and these rocks pretty well. And while you're on there, you're going to hit a number 77, that's got to go down. So, you're just going to go back to get it tomorrow, see how it's going. Most of us local home that our hunters know about this hunt, obviously there's very few that have ever really experienced it when you consider that, you know, 25,000 people a year put in for this thing and 200 are drawn. What's some of the stuff that from your perspective that the public might be surprised at?

Probably one of the main things is how we cater to, you know, but it's basically because you never know that element of the weather. All during the day yesterday I had six animals on the ground and we got three and a half of them out and so it was busy from the check station to here lunch. It doesn't happen usually. You get to snack a little bit, but that's about what you get to do. And then it's constantly driving in and out. And from there, when my head hits the pillow, it was really nice last night. Do you need another pack frame? I think we got it. We got that car too. So we got two pack frames in the car. We got two pack frames up there. Okay. Look what they're going to do. They're going to let you get up front. You're not even going to argue with them.

We'll go, go, uh, that one. Did you change boots? Yeah. Come in. You said I'm trying to make it. Get up. All right. I'll, uh, see you guys in a little bit. Okay. One of the unique things about these controlled hunts, Witchtall Mountains are those are the only hunts that are in here the whole year. There's no public hunting at all. So this is the only opportunity that hunters have to hunt for elk or deer in the Witchtall Mountains. He must chew a little strange because he didn't ride a hand side down. He's about four and a half, five years old. All right. You want to go and get your truck? Yeah. Most of the hunt area is close to the public year round.

Yeah. There may be some tours and part of it, but parts of the refuge rarely have people on them. And, and so hunters can get up a pretty rugged, unique wilderness type experience. In fact, some of the refuge is designated wilderness area where no vehicles or, or any powered type vehicle can go. So it's, it's pretty much a wilderness type experience for those that get to get out. Of course, there's also the opportunity to hunt up close to Buffalo. It's, it kind of reflects back to what times in the pass bay have been where you're out in a real primitive area hunting elk and you also see in bands of Buffalo or Bison as others call them. So that's kind of a fun, unique part of this hunt. Was it everything you expected? It's, it's rough country. It's rough. I've 100 in Colorado and Idaho. This is rough country. It's over, huh? Over, yeah. I guess if we got any precipitation, it could make it pretty tough out there with all those rocks.

The precipitation is pretty tough this morning. Will you mind me asking you how old you are this year? I'll be 80 in April. 80 in April and you're out here elk hunting. That is fantastic. That is great. I hope I'm doing it when I'm 80. Another hurdle is that most hunters are not used to being outdoors from before daylight to after dark without a vehicle or any of the comforts that we're all used to. So when they leave here at 5.30 in the morning, they take everything that they need for the whole day and that's rain, snow, cold, whatever. They're, they're out there. Of course, if conditions are bad and they have to come back, we will pick them up and bring them out. But most hunters stay the full time and that's, that's quite a challenge for most people that aren't used to that. We have to have some method to control, to manage their populations, you know, with our other large animals that we have like the bison stuff, we have auctions.

But, you know, we have to, in order to keep them from overpopulating and getting over the refugees carrying capacity, we have to have some method to access these animals and doing this public hunt is the most feasible way for them. It's kind of a win-win. You all win by meeting your management goals and public wins with an opportunity. Absolutely. How do you determine how many permits you're going to get each year? We determine how many animal units, overall, what it includes the bison, the longhorn elk, and the white tail deer. And, you know, we break that down, what the carrying capacity of each species animals that we want to have on the rarefuge. And, you know, we do our, our annual sentencing for the elk and the bison will be done in aerial census.

The later part of January or first part of February, and once we determine, you know, how many animals that we think we have here, then we'll figure out how many we need to access all. So it's not just a static number that you always use for a number of permits. That changes based on the health or the size of the herd. That fluctuates each year. Refugees throughout the system are, I mean, they provide a lot of public hunting because it's public dollars, you know, that, you know, actually starting and pay for refuges. So the refuge hunting is probably 60, 70 percent of the refuges have some type of hunting program. If it's not water fall, it's, it could be turkeys, it could be youth hunts. Here on the refuge we provide, you know, a deer and an elk hunt, here on the refuge.

So in those numbers right there, I mean, they're two of the toughest hunts in Oklahoma, you know, as far as I know, you know, to get drawn into. And the odds are pretty slow on getting, especially for, you know, a buck or a bull tag. Those two are some of the premier, you know, tags here in Oklahoma. Well, you know, being a once in a lifetime, you, you take care of them like they are, King. My day at the Wichita Mountains, while I refuge elk hunt, was an eye opener to say the least. It's not just the lucky hunters that are drawn out that have their work cut out for them.

The biologists running the show have a full plate as well. I was impressed with the amount of effort it was put out and, well, I'm proud to work side by side with them. I've spent a fair amount of time on the refuge yet. My time behind the high fence has changed my impression of the area. Instead of associating it with wilderness and wildlife, I'll forever think of the hard working people behind the landscape. For all of us at your wildlife department, I'm Todd Craig and saying thanks for joining us and we'll see you somewhere new next time on Outdoor Oklahoma. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.