How To Hunt Elk Around Southwest Oklahoma This Fall

There aren't a lot of places in Oklahoma where you can go elk hunting, but if you live around Lawton, we're sitting in one of them.

The City of Lawton just opened applications for its 2026 elk hunt, which is one of those annual things that gets a lot less attention than it deserves because elk aren't an easy venture into the woods like deer and turkey are. But there are enough of them around Southwest Oklahoma that the City of Lawton has been running an elk hunt on city property for years.

This year's hunt will be done, as usual, by lottery drawing.

If you want in on this chance, your application is due September 11th by 5 PM, and there's a $28.75 administrative fee to milk it as much as possible.

The drawing is September 16.

If your name gets pulled, you'll be hunting during one of two four-day periods, October 8-11 or December 17-20. City staff will work with the winners to schedule their hunt times.

You also need the normal stuff like a valid Oklahoma hunting license.

This isn't the only elk hunting happening around here.

Fort Sill Has Its Own Elk Hunt

You can hunt on post, but it's a considerably bigger operation, and they still take it all a step further.

Elk hunting is managed through their iSportsman system, with specific eligibility requirements, permits, lotteries, hunting areas, and bag limits. The 2026-27 elk eligibility permit is already available, and hunters have to have that permit to participate in the elk lotteries and hunts.

Fort Sill isn't just letting people wander around with rifles hoping they stumble across an elk. There's a whole system behind it because, well, it's Fort Sill.

There are ranges involved, safety requirements, very specific areas you can hunt, and very specific areas you better not be caught in. And when you harvest an elk, there's a mandatory check-in process before you leave the installation.

The Army's most recently published season schedule had separate archery, muzzleloader, and gun seasons for elk, along with youth and cow elk opportunities when quotas allowed.

Full Fort Sill details are here.

More Elk Hunting In Southwest Oklahoma

If you strike out on both of those, there are more elk opportunities here in Oklahoma.

We actually have a really well-established elk population in several parts of the state, and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation manages elk as any other big-game species.

There are statewide elk seasons, special zones, and controlled hunts. For instance, if you'd like to hunt the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the Wildlife Department's special controlled hunts are also granted through lottery drawings, but even more opportunities open up outside the refuge fences.

Comanche, Caddo, and Kiowa counties are included in Oklahoma's Special Southwest Elk Zone. It has become as simple as purchasing a tag and having a place to hunt your elk within the three-county zone. It's a pretty cool thing.

Details about the open elk hunting here.

Even though we're still neck-deep in the brutally hot dog days of summer, it's at least something to look forward to this fall... If we get a fall.