With most of the major hunting seasons coming to a close across the country, many avid outdoorsmen and woman are already hard at work prepping for the fall of 2025. This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John and Levi talk about what they do once the current hunting season comes to an end. For Levi, this is the time of year he likes to do a lot of his scouting for the following year. He does a lot of e-scouting and puts boots on the ground to locate bucks to chase during the fall. For John, this post season is going to be filled with a lot of habitat work on his new property. Though he is starting with a blank canvas, the canvas needs a ton of work to make the best possible property that it can be.

The Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast is back this week with a great episode and a great guest. The 2024-25 Oklahoma deer season has officially come to an end, and Levi Mayfield joins John to talk about their seasons. For Levi, John, and seemingly many others across the state, it turned out to be an odd fall this year. Not only were temperatures well above average for most of the fall, but it also seemed like there was a lack of big bucks to chase this season. Levi talks us through his season including tagging a good buck on public land, and just missing out on another really nice public land buck.

John had an interesting deer season as well. Even though he had access to more property than he ever had before, he really struggled to find a good deer to chase. After a heart breaking trip to Kansas and a missed opportunity on a really nice buck, John's Oklahoma season was pretty uneventful. That is until the last day of the season, when a last ditch effort and a whole lot of luck came together and John was able to arrow his biggest bow buck to date!

Merry Christmas! This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast is all about family. John has a big announcement at the end of the episode, but starts things off with a story of a close encounter with one of the two bucks he is still trying to tag this season. The buck won this round, but there is still time left on the clock. After that, John talks about a family outing where his wife took a nice big boar with their daughter in the blind with her! Little Hallee did great and got to experience hunting for the second time this year. The very next morning, John took his brother, niece, and two nephews duck hunting on a little farm pond and ended up having a heck of a hunt. His nephew shot his very first duck which ended up being a banded mallard!

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John heads to west Texas to chase mule deer in the Guadalupe Mountains. John had been looking forward to this hunt since he booked it in the early summer of 2023. He was originally supposed to go to south Texas, but unfortunately the ranch he was supposed to hunt on sold. Luckily the outfitter was able to move some things around and John headed west for his first ever fully guided hunt.

Upon arrival, John quickly realized that the cards were stacked against him as far as the weather was concerned. Sustained winds of 20+ mph and gusts as high as 35 mph kept the action a little slow the first two days. On the third day however, the winds died and the temps dropped and those final two days turned out to be magical. When all was said and done, John barely had enough room in the cooler for all the meat he brought home, including a pleasant and unexpected surprise. And of course, things ended up coming down to the wire.

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John gets back on track and talks a little bit about how his 2024 Oklahoma rifle season went. Since John was unsuccessful, he is preparing for his favorite time of the year which is late season whitetail hunting. John talks a little late season strategy, and how he believes this may be one of the best and "easiest" times to kill a mature buck. Bucks big and small will become a slave to their stomachs again as they prepare for winter, and if you stay after it there is still time to put one on your wall.

John finishes this episode with a little pre hunt chat about his upcoming Texas Mule Deer hunt. There was one big kink in his hunt plans, but after ironing out a few details the hunt is still on and John can't wait. This will be Johns first ever guided hunt, and he is excited for the experience and the opportunity to chase a new critter in wild country.

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John takes some time to talk about his 2024 deer season so far, and the challenges he has encountered. John has done a lot of hunting this year, but it's been different than in the past. With November coming to a close, John really hasn't spent much time hunting his own properties. He has only hunted his family ranch a handful of times, and with the warmer than usual temperatures, those hunts have not been very productive. John does talk about a quick trip he made to the ranch, and also about his trip to Texas and the close encounter he had with his recurve bow. There is still a lot of season left, and John is ready to buckle down and get serious now.

This week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, John is breaking down his controlled deer hunt at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. As soon as John found out he had been selected for the hunt back in June, he immediately began doing his homework and trying to learn as much as he could about the hunt and how it worked. What he found, is that there was not a ton of information out there on what to expect on this particular hunt. As he picked up bits and pieces from other hunters over the months leading up to the hunt, he still had a lot of questions leading up to the weekend of November 8th. After going through the process and coming home empty handed, he made up his mind to provide as much information as possible to future hunters who drew this coveted tag.

John briefly tells the story of his hunt and what he experienced, but the bulk of this episode is more about the process, the lessons learned, and what he would do differently next time. John lays out all of the rules of the hunt, and also talks about the terrain he encountered, the vegetation, and recommendations on gear to bring. John talks about the challenges of this hunt, and how just because you see lots of deer, does not mean its easy to actually fill a tag. He also shares some thoughts on the quality tag system, and some thoughts on whether or not this hunt may or may not be right for you.

This week John is celebrating the 200th episode of the Oklahoma Outdoors podcast. Almost 4 years of stories, education, and just downright fun. John takes some time at the end of the episode to not only thank the listeners for their support and encouragement over the years, but also to highlight some of his favorite episodes. This show has covered mountain lions, alligators, elk, pronghorn, fish, bears, mule deer, and of course the glorious whitetail buck. All of these critters just listed can be found right here in the Sooner state.

The Episode timed out perfectly with a big announcement John has been wanting to make. To find out what that big news is, you'll have to check out episode 200 of the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, a proud member of the Sportsmens Empire Podcast Network!