[ognend]

Hello,

We are finally in a position to find our farm acreage. We have a few horses and after years of searching around the country we have zeroed in on SE Oklahoma. In our humble opinions, nowhere is the combination of water availability, climate, greenery and wilderness more conducive to living the outdoors life year-round. Many places in the States have one or the other (New Mexico has wilderness but water is an issue, Wyoming is pretty but frozen most of the year, Florida is warm and has the water but is over-run with people. so on and so on).

We found some land between 20 and 60 acres in Pushmataha county (SE OK, near Ouachita Natl Forest) as this, in our opinion, is one of the prettiest parts of Oklahoma, if not the Unites States.

However, a lot of these tracts are sold as hunting tracts. Being that Ouachita seems to be the only place everyone goes to hunt (from Oklahoma at least) - what are the risks to our livestock on our own property?

We have heard stories of people from the city coming out to hunt and shooting someone's horse or a cow. We have heard of people shooting over your fence line onto your property. Even heard stories of someone's fence being cut to get to the deer that was shot over the fence. Stories of drunk hunters abound (alcohol and guns - yikes!). Are our horses going to have to wear orange vests in their own pastures during hunting season?

Thanks!

P.S. Yes, we visited the area and looked at the land and spent time in places like Talihina - we like what we saw

[justanokie]

Your fears are wildly overblown imo.

Having grown up and lived on a rural farm in south central oklahoma for most of my life I can not remember a single time that someones cow or horse was shot. I have always heard the story told as happening some other western state but have never had even a 2nd hand telling of any such occurrence.

Now sometimes cattle are shot and butchered during deer season but its not by mistake. Its by criminals looking to hide their activities among all the hunting. But genuine mistakenly shooting a horse or cow by a hunter is probably pretty rare.

I have heard of fences getting cut though. Rare. But I have seen it done to gain access with an ATV. Nearly as bad is unclipping the fence for several yards and pushing the barbed wire down to the ground and driving over it.

If you see someone violating game laws then you can contact the game warden who is assigned for your district. He/she will deal with the law breakers.

Nobody should be crossing or shooting across your property. Drinking and hunting don't mix at all. I can't see that being a huge problem either.

Lots of farmers and ranchers operate in the middle of prime hunting and recreation lands without losing any livestock to hunters.

It would probably be in your best interest to develop a relationship with a few hunters who seem trustworthy and responsible. They can help solve wildlife problems your likely to encounter with coyotes and hogs. Especially if you can find one thats an experienced trapper. That guy/gal is worth having in your phone list.

You can just keep a close eye out beginning a month or so before hunting season opens. Make a lap around your place every week and look closely at your neighbors property to see if anyone is setting up deer stands or feeders up close to your property line. Make a note of any that you see and see if you can spot them from your house with some binoculars. You can quickly check to see if you have a hunter nearby before you head out onto your property. And if you hear a shot that seems close you will know where to look to see what is going on.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by justanokie

Your fears are wildly overblown imo.

Having grown up and lived on a rural farm in south central oklahoma for most of my life I can not remember a single time that someones cow or horse was shot. I have always heard the story told as happening some other western state but have never had even a 2nd hand telling of any such occurrence.

Now sometimes cattle are shot and butchered during deer season but its not by mistake. Its by criminals looking to hide their activities among all the hunting. But genuine mistakenly shooting a horse or cow by a hunter is probably pretty rare.

I have heard of fences getting cut though. Rare. But I have seen it done to gain access with an ATV. Nearly as bad is unclipping the fence for several yards and pushing the barbed wire down to the ground and driving over it.

If you see someone violating game laws then you can contact the game warden who is assigned for your district. He/she will deal with the law breakers.

Nobody should be crossing or shooting across your property. Drinking and hunting don't mix at all. I can't see that being a huge problem either.

Lots of farmers and ranchers operate in the middle of prime hunting and recreation lands without losing any livestock to hunters.

It would probably be in your best interest to develop a relationship with a few hunters who seem trustworthy and responsible. They can help solve wildlife problems your likely to encounter with coyotes and hogs. Especially if you can find one thats an experienced trapper. That guy/gal is worth having in your phone list.

You can just keep a close eye out beginning a month or so before hunting season opens. Make a lap around your place every week and look closely at your neighbors property to see if anyone is setting up deer stands or feeders up close to your property line. Make a note of any that you see and see if you can spot them from your house with some binoculars. You can quickly check to see if you have a hunter nearby before you head out onto your property. And if you hear a shot that seems close you will know where to look to see what is going on.

Thank you for your reply! The reason I was asking is because I have been reading about these things online. The only two more personal things I know of are from where we lived; here in Texas - we live in a semi-rural area on 5 acres and our neighbor has 70 next to us. They have 3 homes on those 70 acres and next to them there is someone who is on 40 acres. Three or four times in the past 3 years my neighbor had shots zoom by her on her porch from a high powered rifle from the adjacent 40 acre property! Needless to say she was pretty ticked off. The other incident that was a also close to home was from when we lived back in Florida - we lived a few miles from a Wildlife Management area and someone got shot during hunting season by someone else who was drunk and out hunting. What worries me is not the local guy who had been hunting all his life in the same area (these guys are your neighbors and they are not looking to pick a fight with you, not to mention they got to live with/next to you), it is the city guys who come out and have no clue whose land they are on, what the rules are and they simply want to get their deer or whatever they can, no matter what. I have no direct experience with that though - just my worries. It would seem to me SE OK is prime hunting land and I would imagine it experiences intense hunting pressure from a lot of folks coming from other parts of OK, TX and AR. Is that last statement correct? Thanks!

[Johnhw2]

Where did you live in Texas and look in NM? I grew up in SE Oklahoma and enjoyed your post and curious about your analysis.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Where did you live in Texas and look in NM? I grew up in SE Oklahoma and enjoyed your post and curious about your analysis.

In Texas we are in the Hill Country SW of Austin and NW of San Antone (the place has gone nuts with people and selling the house was a piece of cake). Texas is an interesting place for sure with lots of variety from forests to desert to ocean to mountain, however there is not much public land - in fact only 4% of all land is public, the rest of it is fenced. Most of it is in the SW (Big Bend Natl Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park) - we briefly considered living there but the lack of water is a serious issue esp. if you have large animals such as horses and you want to grow your own food (although for a family of 2-4 growing food is probably possible anywhere). We looked all over New Mexico - from Silver City to Las Cruces to Quemado to Mountainair to Chama. The problem with New Mexico is that land if not cheap and it really doesn't offer much in terms of usability. In order to be able to grow stuff you will need irrigation rights/private well - as soon as you find a piece of land with a private well, the price skyrockets. The other issue with NM is crime - it is EVERYWHERE, small town, big town, any town. The thing NM as going for it is availability of public lands - over 6 million acres of national forests, then there are BLM lands while at the same time having low population density. In practice this means the possibility riding out on your horse and not seeing a person for days. However, NM is the "manana state", employment is scarce, nepotism rules, it is corrupt and if you want the rural lifestyle - you will have to bring your money with you. At least in OK you can ranch/farm and have a hope of making a living due to the fact that grass is lush (SE OK), rainfall is plentiful etc.

[bagster]

A far greater danger to livestock is the automobile. Put up good fences and check them often. For every horse or cow shot by a hunter, there's probably a thousand hit by a car. You could keep your horses in the barn during deer/firearm season since it only lasts a couple of weeks.

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by ognend

Hello,

We are finally in a position to find our farm acreage. We have a few horses and after years of searching around the country we have zeroed in on SE Oklahoma. In our humble opinions, nowhere is the combination of water availability, climate, greenery and wilderness more conducive to living the outdoors life year-round. Many places in the States have one or the other (New Mexico has wilderness but water is an issue, Wyoming is pretty but frozen most of the year, Florida is warm and has the water but is over-run with people. so on and so on).

We found some land between 20 and 60 acres in Pushmataha county (SE OK, near Ouachita Natl Forest) as this, in our opinion, is one of the prettiest parts of Oklahoma, if not the Unites States.

However, a lot of these tracts are sold as hunting tracts. Being that Ouachita seems to be the only place everyone goes to hunt (from Oklahoma at least) - what are the risks to our livestock on our own property?

We have heard stories of people from the city coming out to hunt and shooting someone's horse or a cow. We have heard of people shooting over your fence line onto your property. Even heard stories of someone's fence being cut to get to the deer that was shot over the fence. Stories of drunk hunters abound (alcohol and guns - yikes!). Are our horses going to have to wear orange vests in their own pastures during hunting season?

Thanks!

P.S. Yes, we visited the area and looked at the land and spent time in places like Talihina - we like what we saw

We hunt and fish all the time. I think your worries are misguided. Any one of the incidents would be very rare in my opinion.

The vast majority of hunters in Oklahoma respect the land and take care of the animals on said land. You won't have any problems.

Welcome to The Sooner State!

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by bagster

A far greater danger to livestock is the automobile. Put up good fences and check them often. For every horse or cow shot by a hunter, there's probably a thousand hit by a car. You could keep your horses in the barn during deer/firearm season since it only lasts a couple of weeks.

And the Big Fella, aka Bigfoot. He's said to be prevalent here in the South-Central, especially the area of Oklahoma ya'll are looking at.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by Bass&Catfish2008

We hunt and fish all the time. I think your worries are misguided. Any one of the incidents would be very rare in my opinion.

The vast majority of hunters in Oklahoma respect the land and take care of the animals on said land. You won't have any problems.

Welcome to The Sooner State!

Great, music to my ears

[_redbird_]

Originally Posted by Bass&Catfish2008

And the Big Fella, aka Bigfoot. He's said to be prevalent here in the South-Central, especially the area of Oklahoma ya'll are looking at.

Hey! Leave GP out of it! Just kidding, Goodpasture.

And to the OP, welcome to Oklahoma.