River bottom land- 160 acres western OK.

[Don B]

Hello to everyone. 4 years ago I was able to buy 160 ares of land next to the north fork red river in western OK. For years I wanted my own land as I am very passionate about deer hunting and land habitat. I'm not right on the river but my property line is only about 250 yards from it. I get a huge draw of wildlife off the river,as they roam back and forth from the river to the adjoining properties. I also have a decent number of deer bedding and roaming my property. Half of the property is lower river bottom with grass pasture and scattered tree thickets. and the other half is thick brush, reminds you of Kansas land. It's a mixture of sand plums, switch grass, a few eastern cedars. Thick and gnarly with broken areas of tall grass and hack berry and china berry tree thickets and lots of wild plum thickets 4 to 10 ft. tall (you could pick plums for a week and not get them all). The Does love to keep their fawns in the thickets We don't have the big forests in western OK. Like I said our terrain is a lot like Kansas. I started managing it right away. I keep summer food plots of peas and beans(plant the big bags of pinto beans from Sams) they hammer them. In the fall its plot pike oats. I found they like oats better than winter wheat. I keep feeders year round. We have only taken one buck off it in 4 years. After the first year we decided to let all bucks walk, and take Does only. I will tell you it has paid off. Every year I am seeing bigger bucks. This summer I've seen the biggest bucks yet. It was hard to let a "decent" buck walk, but eventually it pays. I've really been following Okie kubota's threads, he has a lot of interesting stuff, as a lot of guys do. And were both Okies. Also dog doc(hope I got his handle right). and a few of the other Okies. I followed the threads on the "other forum" that shut down but was not able to get the registration to work for me. Had no problem here. Really enjoy the habitat work! I'll post some pics when I get some. New computer so I don't have any pics on it.
I'll try to post some from on my phone.

 

[Don B]

Here are some recent pics from my phone. I never saw bucks like this when I first bought the place. Management works! Sorry for the quality(these are snapshots from my old computer screen). But it gives you an Idea.


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[dogdoc]

Hey Don - welcome to the forum. Always great to have another Okie on board. You are in some good deer country.

Sam's pinto beans? I'm gonna have to check those out next time I am at Sam's.

Look forward to your land thead.
Todd

 

[OkieKubota]

Welcome Don, looks like you have some great deer on your place. A lot of guys in my area travel to western Oklahoma every year to hunt because everyone knows that is where the big bucks are if you are going to hunt Oklahoma! Looks like you have a dream property! Congrats!

 

[Don B]

Hey Don - welcome to the forum. Always great to have another Okie on board. You are in some good deer country.

Sam's pinto beans? I'm gonna have to check those out next time I am at Sam's.

Look forward to your land thead.
Todd

Thanks Todd. The deer out here have a lot of agricultural food. They're fairly undisturbed , lot of wide open space. The closest house is a mile or more away. Yes the 25 lb bags of regular pinto beans. I think they like them better than peas! I planted 2 bags of beans and a 50 lb bag of peas on about a 1.5 acre plot. The plot is about wiped out. I'll disc it soon and plant it to oats in Sept. for a hunting plot. I plant 2 oat plots in the fall.


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[Don B]

Welcome Don, looks like you have some great deer on your place. A lot of guys in my area travel to western Oklahoma every year to hunt because everyone knows that is where the big bucks are if you are going to hunt Oklahoma! Looks like you have a dream property! Congrats!

Thanks Johnny. I actually had followed yours and others threads for a long time on the other site. I could never get the registration to work.Don't matter now. There is some really good deer out here. I've worked hard at managing the property and love every second of it. I also use a Kubota on the place for discing, planting, mowing and whatever. It's the smaller 2350 with a loader, but with the front wheel drive I've never found anything I can't do with it. It's a tank! I wouldn't be without it. I've dug a small water hole with it(one of the best investments I've done,really draws the bucks).Luckily it had a water well already on it with electricity(previous owner use to run cattle on it). I dug the water hole close to the well and in dry times I just fill it from the well. I can keep it full at all times. The property is only a 25 min drive from my house so I spend as much time as I can there. I moved in a Derksen portable wooden cabin in back in April and have been finishing out the inside of it, getting fairly close to being done. Should be done by bow season. Looking forward to staying in it some during deer season. I have a great view from the cabin porch. When I go to work on the cabin I always go real early in the morning and drink coffee on the porch and watch the deer and turkeys and occasional hogs(yeah I hate em but we got em) before I get started.Really love it!

 

[catscratch]

Pinto beans! Great idea. I've looked at fava beans as they are suppose to be more cold tolerant than than other legumes for a winter crop.
Your deer are awesome. Some nice bucks, and the fact that I think Kansas is the most beautiful place in the world makes your place great.

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[Don B]

Her is some pics of the cabin. Can't wait until it's done. Lot of work but my 18 year old son helps me on in. He's our youngest and our only son, we have 3 older daughters. 20, 29, 32. We stretched them out! He loves to hunt and fish!


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[Don B]

Pinto beans! Great idea. I've looked at fava beans as they are suppose to be more cold tolerant than than other legumes for a winter crop.
Your deer are awesome. Some nice bucks, and the fact that I think Kansas is the most beautiful place in the world makes your place great.

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Thanks
Pinto beans work, plant em and with water they'll come right up! I only use them for summer plots. The view from the cabin overlooking the river bottoms is pretty spectacular. Especially early mornings! You can see a long way in western ok!


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[Triple C]

Welcome to the forum Don! You have some incredible bucks roaming your place. Never thought about pinto beans and to my knowledge, I've never seen them growing down here. That is really interesting. Keep posting!

 

[catscratch]

Your cabin looks great too! Living the dream.

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[dogghr]

Very nice and great bucks. Cabin pic wouldn't load on my computer so have to ck them later.

 

[Don B]

Welcome to the forum Don! You have some incredible bucks roaming your place. Never thought about pinto beans and to my knowledge, I've never seen them growing down here. That is really interesting. Keep posting!

Thanks
I've never heard of them growing around here, But I planted them and they did well! The deer sure liked them. As deer usually prefer a bean plant. For me it was an easier alternative to soybeans and I think they like them just as well. The plot is just about wiped out! I planted them with peas and they picked out the beans before the peas. Probably just go all beans next year.


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[Don B]

Very nice and great bucks. Cabin pic wouldn't load on my computer so have to ck them later.

Thanks
Yeah, I noticed they didn't load on my computer, but the other pics of the Bucks did. Both sets came from my phone. Beats me!


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[Don B]

Your cabin looks great too! Living the dream.

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Thanks
Really getting excited to have it finished. Should have it finished in a month or so. Can't wait to stay in it during hunting season!


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[lakngolf]

Man, yall have some bruiser bucks roaming around in Western Oklahoma. Enjoyed the cabin pics too.

 

[Don B]

Man, yall have some bruiser bucks roaming around in Western Oklahoma. Enjoyed the cabin pics too.

Thanks

We've got some good deer. They have some heavy body weights. I have one deer in the buck pics above that I saw last year that I bet will weigh 200. This buck here. I call him the Old Man. He's an older deer. I'm going to try to take him this year. Cabin is coming along!


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[Don B]

Went down and worked on the cabin this morning. I'm down to trim and wiring the plugs and lights. Really hot and dry out here in Western OK. Need rain bad. Lost some apple and pear trees I planted back in spring. My ground is pretty sandy and dries out fast. Not sure if it was drought or disease that killed them. Need to work ground soon for fall oat plots. Usually plant around Sept. 15. Grass burs are horrible this year. There thick on my farm, mainly the roads and trails where I drive. I used 1x4 stained pine for the trim wood and for the inside corners I used Manila rope. The rope looks pretty neat.


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[OkieKubota]

Don, how big is your cabin? Square footage?

 

[catscratch]

Cabin is coming along great. Too bad about your trees. Nobody likes putting time and effort into something that doesn't make it.