There are limited days and areas in Ok to bag does with rifles...

[AlongCameJones]

Not sure by what you mean by “deer rifle friendly”. There are plenty of deer to be hunted with a rifle, tags can be bought over the counter for residents and non residents. Lots of good public land opportunities all over the state.
That’s why so many people come here to hunt.
FWIW almost any public lands will have plenty of doe to hunt. They are everywhere.

I mean most of the Ok WMA's and a couple of OLAP's I've looked at so far (at least in the SW or SE) are any combination of one or more of the following:

-closed to regular gun seasons altogether, no rifles period
-allow shotguns but no rifles
-are closed to holiday antler-less gun seasons, no female deer with rifles for 14 days out of total deer season
-have short (nine-day) gun seasons, very few rifle days
-allow guns but not for antler-less harvest, no female deer will die by bullets

The best I could see so far are a couple of WMA's that allow a hunter to take a doe (or any-sex deer) with a rifle during a short 9-day window of regular gun season AND an antler-less deer (doe) during a longer 14-day window of the holiday antler-less gun season. I could even open up some more Ok deer/doe possibilities for myself by buying a slug barrel for my Mossberg 500 since some OLAPs allow shotguns but no rifles. Muzzle-loading and archery is something I definitely won't get into.

Many public areas have restrictions to some degree on weapon types, ammo types, hunter age bracket and/or deer sex. There are some youth-only (oh, those bratty punk-arse kids!!) seasons. Older hunters get robbed by the system here. I don't mind special seasons for seniors, however, or special vehicle access privileges for disabled hunters.

There maybe plenty of doe to hunt on public lands but you may need a bow or muzzle-loader to do it depending on the place and time of year during deer season.

 

[AlongCameJones]

Source?

Well, a muzzle-loader has special safety concerns that a modern gun person doesn't have to worry about. They are not quite as forgiving of mistakes or as idiot-proof as a modern smokeless cartridge gun. Besides, I'm too lazy and too impatient to mess with them or clean them anyway. They aren't convenient hunting tools.

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/dont-make-these-dangerous-muzzleloader-mistakes/

 

[rswink]

And yet some of us never have a problem with the rules.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

 

[AlongCameJones]

I don't have trouble with the Ok hunting laws. They do take some getting used to for this western boy. The heavy-handed rifle restrictions common in more eastern states I believe exist largely for public safety reasons. Land gets more and more privately-held the farther back east you go. I have to learn to improvise, adapt and overcome. The American landscape is overrun with too many people (mostly foreigners) these days. There is too much demand on land for commercial farming to feed the overpopulation. Hunting rifles can still be chiefly used in western states for big game like Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming because there is still a lot of unpopulated and unfarmed open country out there. There are areas in Ok that I might like for deer and dove but I will have to go thru ODWC material with a fine-tooth comb to seek it out.

 

[meatGrinder]

Did you ever find that Winco you were looking for

 

[BobbyV]

This reminds me . . . I need to clean my TC muzzleloader.

 

[dlbleak]

Yeah, I don’t get the disdain for MZ? Modern inlines require a couple more steps to load that take an extra minute or so. Very accurate at reasonable distances with no safety concerns from me. In fact, modern inlines are about as close as you can get to a center fire rifle that you can get. Less punkin heads in the woods, less educated deer, less chance of freezing cold weather etc etc.

 

[bigred1]

Punkin heads...LOL

 

[dlbleak]

Well, a muzzle-loader has special safety concerns that a modern gun person doesn't have to worry about. They are not quite as forgiving of mistakes or as idiot-proof as a modern smokeless cartridge gun. Besides, I'm too lazy and too impatient to mess with them or clean them anyway. They aren't convenient hunting tools.

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/dont-make-these-dangerous-muzzleloader-mistakes/

I read that article. It’s a pretty weak attempt to keep people way from MZ. Pre weighed pyrodex pellets make it almost impossible to double charge if you mark the ram rod, also a way to check for a loaded gun.

 

[Aries]

Yeah, I don’t get the disdain for MZ? Modern inlines require a couple more steps to load that take an extra minute or so. Very accurate at reasonable distances with no safety concerns from me. In fact, modern inlines are about as close as you can get to a center fire rifle that you can get. Less punkin heads in the woods, less educated deer, less chance of freezing cold weather etc etc.

I usually get out and go somewhere to get AWAY from the punkin heads that live here.