Honobia & Three Rivers WMA's Oklahoma

[Soonerlongbow]

Anyone have experience with either of these SE OK lands? Or any of the other SE public lands for that matter. These are mostly timber lands that are open for public use and (for us flatlanders) can be rugged terrain. I know black bears are present and have a season concurrent with dear season. I've thought about going here a few times and just curious if anyone has had any luck.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

I have hunted honobia, three rivers, ouachita and broken bow.  I think three rivers and honobia has the best population of deer per what I've seen while fishing there back in September. Also for deer the Atoka wma is really good too.

However if you want a crack at a bear, I think the Leflore Unit of the Ouachita WMA is where I'd try to be.

[Fattony77]

A friend and I paid the access fee and hunted the Honobia area once, a few years ago. We didn't have any luck, but neither of us really knew what we were doing (especially when it came to scouting/hunting new areas). I do know this, I wouldn't enter either of those areas without a map of the areas with up-to-date roads & their names. REALLY easy to get lost in there when driving around!

As for hunting bear, I have been trying to get one on public land for the last several years. Again, I'm apparently not that good of a hunter, but I have had some close encounters. Also had a few years where I didn't see anything but some weeks-old scat. I mainly hunt right on the Talimena Scenic Byway and a few of the small public areas nearby. The byway (and most of the public land surrounding) is all part of the Ouachita National Forest. But there are some State-owned properties here and there, too.

Another member here (that doesn't get a chance to log-in much any more) "Skitch", used to live in Tulsa and he tried one year, where he had his wife drop him off at one of the many hiking trailheads on opening day and hiked/camped that day & night and then had them meet him at another intersecting trailhead the next evening. He said that he did see a few bears anlong the way, but didn't get a shot on any of them.

I don't know much more than that, but if there's anything else that I can help you with, feel free to ask (PM, email or I can give you my phone # if ya want). Hope this helps some.
-Tony

[Soonerlongbow]

We've got so much public land here ion such different types of environments that it's unreal. We may not have the acreage that western states do but they certainly don't have the varied landscape we have. For years I've been wanting to go to Packsaddle WMA but haven't had the chance. When I live in SE Ok I didn't hit up as much of the public land because I always had private lands to hunt. Still do. But now I find I'm wanting to hit up various public lands to try to hunt all our various zones.