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Outdoor Oklahoma Journal

This is the Outdoor Oklahoma Journal, where we're all about helping you pursue and engage in Oklahoma's vibrant outdoor lifestyle. Follow us for great hunting and fishing stories, wildlife features, insider information about unique opportunities, and tangible details on how to go out and be a hunter, angler, and conservationist. The outdoors are always open, so don't miss out!

duck decoys on a pond
Guided Youth Hunts Open the Doors to Waterfowl Hunting

The ODWC guided youth waterfowl hunt program helps young hunters and their families discover a lifelong passion while making waterfowl hunting more accessible for beginners.

A shooting range with two roof-covered benches and vehicles in the parking lot
Shooting Range Work Advances at Full Bore

ODWC is working to ensure hunters, along with recreational and competitive shooters, have safe, accessible places to enhance their skills through new shooting range construction and extensive renovations on Wildlife Management Areas.

A whitetail buck looking to the right.
Oklahoma Nonresident Hunters Must Obtain Deer Licenses in Advance

As part of an effort to discourage unlicensed deer hunting in Oklahoma, nonresident deer hunters will need to plan ahead.

A pond under a blue sky.
Enhancing the Habitat in your Pond

Improve your Oklahoma farm pond with simple, low-cost habitat enhancements. Learn how to add fish cover, spawning areas, gravel beds and more.

OLAP: More Access, More Opportunity

As you plan your dove hunts, scouting for deer season or getting ready to chase quail this fall, don’t forget about OLAP!

Oklahoma Game Warden Gillham stands next to evidence of snake skins piled on his truck's hood.
Behind the Badge

Discover how ODWC’s Wildlife Investigations Team tackles complex wildlife crimes, from license fraud and trafficking to multistate investigations.

Mourning dove on log. Photo by Stephen Ofsthun
‘Watering holes’ for Mourning Dove

Learn how to improve watering holes for mourning doves by creating bare ground, managing vegetation and adding attractive perches near quality feeding and roosting areas.

A bowhunter is in a sling tree stand while aiming his bow downward.
Bow Hunter's Paradise

Oklahoma's got 1M+ acres of public land for bowhunters — pronghorn on the Panhandle prairie, black bear in the Ouachita Mountains, mule deer out west. Here's your guide to WMAs, OLAP land, and the tactics that actually work.

Strips of land mowed along a fence line while a smoke from a fire fills the background.
Mowing: Harmful or Useful

Learn how to use mowing strategically for wildlife habitat, including brush management, weed control, strip mowing, access routes and firebreaks.

A bull elk with a lush green background.
2025-26 Big Game Harvest Report

Oklahoma’s 2025-26 deer harvest ranked second-best in state history. Study the numbers, find where hunters found success and use the data to plan for a successful hunt.