Hunting at Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge

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meatGrinder

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Recently I noticed a sign at Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge in OKC that hunting was allowed from Sept. through Feb. I never knew hunting was even allowed at all there. I can't imagine rifle hunting would be allowed, what with the Bethany sports fields nearby and all.
Anyway, does anyone know more about hunting there? I didn't see anything in the regs about it, other than the Close to Home Fishery stuff.
 

makeithappen

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Im all for it, but I wonder how many bodies will turn up out at Draper once hunters start roaming the woods

I would think that less bodies would appear as hunters would bring increased traffic to the area, but then again, hunters aren't going to be there at 2 am either. I'd love a draw hunt there...a lot of deer and some monsters are lurking.
 

The German

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Recently I noticed a sign at Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge in OKC that hunting was allowed from Sept. through Feb. I never knew hunting was even allowed at all there. I can't imagine rifle hunting would be allowed, what with the Bethany sports fields nearby and all.
Anyway, does anyone know more about hunting there? I didn't see anything in the regs about it, other than the Close to Home Fishery stuff.

You can duck hunt there. There is a drawing every year for blind spots. That area has not been very good for the last 2 seasons due to water. I think they can control how much water goes in to that area.
 

Huckelberry75

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The only way they can control flow into the marsh areas is by releasing water from Canton Lake or not releasing from Overholser. There is no magical spout into the marshes. And since this is part of the City water supply, they care more about the water than the hunting..understandably.

Yes, it has been pretty slim for the last couple of years, but we still killed ducks, just didn't "slay'em".

There are quite a few blinds at the lottery, but only a few are prime spots.
 

The German

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Here is a good post about how that area works, it is from a duch hunting forum, I will also list the entire thread as there is some good info in it.

The water level on Street Car and Johnson are both controlled by the water dept. They can drain those lakes within an hour if they so choose. Northwest Lake is different, it can only be filled by the river reaching crest stage. The river will crest if they release water from Canton into the North Canadian river to fill Overhoster and Hefner. It takes some really consistant heavy rains to get the river to crest and flood NW Lake. The water comes in at the end of the arm where #30 is located. Last year, NW flooded due to heavy rains that made the river crest two weeks after season opened. In other words, we can get lots of rain but only the river reaching crest stage will flood the marsh. It has to flood to fill. When it does flood, it takes a couple of days for the water level to go down as it is over the tops of the seats in the blinds. One year, my group drew three blinds on NW. We were able to drive out on the lake bed and build the blinds. We finally got water about three weeks before the close of season. By then, the birds just were not using the lake and hunting was very poor. If NW lake doesnt flood before three weeks into the season, the hunting will suck. Sounds strange but I have seen it happen more than once in the last 20 plus years of hunting there.
One year I had #14 on Street Car. I waded out and set up before LST. About 9:00 I was picking up my deeks in the mud as they let the water out. About five years ago, I drew and built a blind on Street Car and they never let water in the whole season. The water dept. pretty much do as they please and the duck hunters suffer from it. If you dont like it, you have the freedom of hunting somewhere else.

http://www.duckhuntingchat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=130215&hilit=draw
 

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