In desperate need for hunting, pest controling or shooting in Oklahoma area...

It may sound like an odd choice, but Craigslist can sometimes be very effective. Be sure to give as much information about yourself, your motivations, and your shooting capabilities as possible. Also, include a photo of yourself, as well as your gear. People want to know that you are competent and safety-oriented. Also, don't take a job that is too dangerous to complete. Explain everything you are doing to the land owner. Excellent Communication is the key to securing permissions.

Be sure to know the fish and game regulations for your area. Eurasian doves were pests in my state but are now classed as game birds. While squirrels are a major pest species they are also listed as game. You might contact the county agent as they get a lot of calls re pest eradication. You might attend garden club meetings for permissions. There is nothing more aggravating that watching your tomatoes grow only to have tree rats decimate them just before the harvest. I live in what was a pecan orchard. Look for similar setups where there is huge amount of food, pecans, and not much else. The squirrels will pig out and reproduce then the groceries run out and they get very territorial. They express this by scent marking. I'm sure you have seen them run down a limb, stop sniff a bump on the limb, chew it then scent mark it with cheek glands. I had nails sticking over an inch into the air where wood used to be. They don't chew my house anymore. 

Being someone who lives where it is relatively easy to find permissions, I do feel for those who have a harder time. One hurdle we have is explaining what a modern airgun can do. People think we are talking about a BB gun and are reluctant because they don't think it will be effective. But the hardest thing for me is just getting out and asking. It's not my personality. I'm told it gets easier... 

The other thing is to look for are public lands. Here in CA, there are lots of areas where we can hunt. And there are species that are year round such as jack rabbits and ground squirrels. Any hunting or pest control in CA requires a hunting license. I hope this helps, good luck!

Hey my friend, contrary to some of the suggestions posted, by far and away the best approach, to permissions, is face to face with the land owner. First of all, you should find a property that has what you are seeking then inquire about hunting, standing at their front door. No sense asking for permissions that don't hold the game to harvest. It is much harder for them to say no, when you've spent even 2 minutes "chatting", rather than with a phone call or any other type of remote interaction.

I hunt big game, waterfowl, upland game, fish, varminting, and more recently pest control. I would say 50% of my hunting is by permission and is the result of this method described. Most of my buddies are amazed at some of the hunts I have put together, just for asking...and typically it is better to gain permission without offering compensation up front, as it sets an atmosphere of friendship rather than a business negotiation. After the hunt, provide a token of appreciation and watch things snowball. I have permissions where my farmer let's me keep my trailer and use their power and water N/C. I have another permission, where I hunt geese and after a hunt on my birthday, I got to my truck and the landowner had left a birthday cake and pizza in the sleeper.

These are the permissions that you want to develop and as word gets around, that you are respectful and a good guy, you'll have more properties than you can hunt. Never hesitate to name drop...this means if you meet a land owner and even if you don't get permission, use his name and give the impression that you know something and some people in the local. The old "one of the boys" ploy. Good luck and good hunting! 
Steve

Check south and east of OKC for prairie dog hunting. My suggestion is to research areas that have them through your state's game department, then get on Google Maps and start researching areas with the satellite feature. It is not hard to find areas that look like they hold prairie dogs on the satellite (there are round mounds everywhere). Once you locate the areas, start calling the city, or county offices and ask about landowners that have PD problems. Speaking to people is normally better in person, but you can take a stab at it via the telephone and see where it leads. Once you meet with the landowners, it is normally easy to gain access.

A sample image from Google satellite:


I did this in the panhandle of Texas and was able to find permission on property to hunt, with prairie dogs, within a few hours. If you spend time doing your research online, it will help cut the amount of time it takes to locate a good area to start.

Eric

Be careful using the satellite imagery method. Most of the time you're looking at ant beds...this image is all ant beds. I made a video in this vicinity on prairie dogs and confirmed the clear spots are not holes.

Any mounds can be deceiving, but It depends on the area you are hunting. Where my image is from (Google Earth - the Texas Panhandle), it is an area that is known to have populations of prairie dogs, and very few ant hills. Now, if we were speaking about Northern Arizona, then I would investigate more, because it is loaded with large ant hills. Either way, as I stated, locate the areas that are known to have PD populations, then start calling to find out who is having problems. You will find out pretty quickly the areas that are devoid of PDs, just by the people you speak with. The biggest issue we run into, are towns that look promising on the map, but have been wiped out by the plague, or poisoned. 

Here is a blog post that Cliff over at VarmintAir put up describing his techniques (he has many more tips on scouting, over on his site, if you search through it). He and I use the same technique, and have both been successful:
http://varmintair.typepad.com/varmintairs_blog/2012/03/google-map-an-airgunners-best-friend-scouting-prairie-dog-towns-in-new-mexico.html

Good luck!

Eric 

I worked for years in the Forestry Industry and used satellite imagery for map making and identifying different forest stands for management. What I found is that you have to field check to verify what you think the imagery is telling you. I discovered that some woody weed species show up as desirable pine reproduction in color infrared photos.

Looking at the photo provided by Eric you can see active holes with the white soil exposed around the den holes as well as inactive dens that show up as black spots. This is my SWAG based on years of office to field work.

Looking at the photo provided by Huntjunky you do not see the light colored dirt with the den hole in the center that you see in Eric's photos. So you can use imagery to locate prospective hunting locations if you have the field experience to know what to look for in the imagery.

A word of warning. Be sure to know when the images were captured. There is a lot of OLD imagery out there. A good palace to look for imagery is the USDA NRCS. They work with farmers and have some good imagery. Nothing but the best for Uncle Sam.

Great intel!