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We have about a 1000 free range elk in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in SW Oklahoma. Probably a similar number that have escaped the refuge and now live on private land or Ft Sill. Also, about 800 bison and several hundred longhorn cattle. Easy to see the bison and longhorn on the sides of the roads. The shy elk are much more difficult to find/see even with their higher numbers.
There is an annual elk hunt. Drawing for participants. They usually have 30,000 applications for only a few hundred permits. The following are the results on last year's hunt.
It was a very successful year with 207 elk tags filled in 5 hunts, 63 bull/either sex tags and 144 cow tags. Below are the success rates from each hunt.
Walk-in (1030/31) - Either sex 80% (8/10), Cow 54% (25/47)
Walk-in (1040/41) - Either sex 90% (9/10), Cow 66% (35/53)
Walk-in (1050/51) - Either sex 70% (7/10), Cow 48% (27/56)
Walk-in (1060/61) - Either sex 88% (7/8), Cow 67% (33/49)
Traditional (1020/21) - Bull 82% (32/39), Cow 44% (24/54)
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Southwest Oklahoma
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