Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

And tonight you have tuned into our fall hunting live show.

Tonight's show is going to be broke up into three segments with some main discussion with each of our panelists.

Then we're going to do a little bit of trivia, and we're going to end up answering all of your questions that you submit.

So you can submit them in the comments below.

Or you can text your questions to us.

Now let's meet our panelists.

First up, we have Doctor John Hast, who's our wildlife program coordinator.

How are you doing?

Doing great.

Next up we have, Jimmy Woods, who is a wildlife biologist.

How are you doing?

Doing great.

And answering all of our law enforcement questions out on the end, we have Sergeant Thomas Blackwell.

How are you guys doing?

Doing good sir.

Hey, our fall hunting seasons are in.

Right now we have both crossbow and archery seasons have opened up for deer.

We've got some small game season going on, and then, there's some duck seasons in as well, correct?

Yep.

So hopefully you've already had time to hit the woods.

And, I know I've been in a tree stand, 2 or 3 times.

You've been out as well, haven't you?

I have, yeah, I actually was able to harvest a buck, with my recurve, which was pretty neat.

Very cool.

Very cool.

Well, hopefully you guys get some time to get out and get in a tree stand very soon.

All right, let's get to our, our main topic here.

First off, we're going to talk about some of our new bear archery season regulations.

Tell me a little bit about what's going on in Clinton and Wayne County.

Yeah.

So we got an expanded archery season this year, in Clinton and Wayne County.

It opened September 20th.

So last weekend runs through October 3rd.

Okay.

And that's both archery and crossbow.

Okay.

Overlaps with, kind of it started when crossbow for deer started.

So give you an opportunity to deer hunt with a bear tag in your pocket as well.

Okay.

Very cool.

So how do you go about getting a bear tag now here in Kentucky?

Yeah, absolutely.

Over the counter.

So jump on our website.

Same place you bought your sportsman's license or fishing license or anywhere, you just click on the on the bear tag bear permit.

Okay.

Main things you got to know about bear hunting is, is, for on the legal side is make sure you got your hunting license, your permit.

But the number one big thing for bear hunting is the baiting issue.

Correct?

It is.

Tell me a little bit about baiting for bear.

Tell me what you got to watch out for.

So there is, of course, no baiting for bear.

And, with the clean up process, is it the same as if there is bait on the property?

Correct?

Yep.

They have to make sure that's cleaned up before they can hunt it.

Yep.

It█s a tricky question.

I know you don't work in the in the mountains where there are bear, but, appreciate you coming in there.

All right, let's talk a little bit about, let's talk a little bit about management techniques on your, on your, your property or on properties that you tend to hunt on and the management techniques to improve habitat for quail, rabbits, squirrel, turkey, and grouse.

Talk to me a little bit about that.

So I know Jimmy this is something that you do every single day.

You're out trying to improve the habitat for wildlife species.

Sure.

Yeah.

Especially in the previous roles that I've had, managing public land, for all those species, for sure.

And currently I'm working as a small game biologist trying to promote management for those same species.

So basically trying to get people to do the management that I used to be doing on public land, on their own property, and, you know, there's a million ways to improve your property for, a plethora of species.

If you're thinking about, small game, especially prescribed fires.

Wonderful.

That's one of my favorite tools.

I call it a tool because you can accomplish many things with it.

It doesn't always do the same thing.

Depending on the situation, you can apply that tool in different ways.

So, for all those species prescribed fires is really good.

You know, early successional habitat is a word we throw around a lot.

And that is really beneficial to your quail, to your rabbits, and it, you know, the way you might do that changes, the rotations and so on.

So the best thing to do is to get in touch with, you know, one of your local biologists.

Honestly.

Okay.

They come onto your property and help you, you know, determine the best avenue.

Everybody wants more more wildlife.

And sometimes you can get better habitat and more wildlife by doing less work.

It's very interesting.

Every year we have this conversation where the wildlife biologist, they always talk about, you know, spraying less and, and, and mowing less is always is always a good way.

But then when invasive plant species or it gets so thick that your son's not getting down and your new grasses are not growing up, that's where your fire comes in, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's it's all about balance, right.

You know, most people are managing their property slicked off.

You know, they're mowing it.

They're keeping it really short.

And, you know, that doesn't really provide a lot of cover for wildlife, you know, predators or something that comes up a whole lot.

And when you think about it, you know, the reason your chickens are in a chicken coop is because, you know, if they were out, something would eat them.

That thick cover works just like that chicken coop.

You know, they're protected if they're in that cover.

So if you're losing animals to predators, you probably don't have good habitat.

Now, there is a science to a prescribed burn.

So we need to make sure that absolutely going out and setting things on fire to make their habitat better.

Certainly.

So you make sure I mean, you guys go through and check the moisture and how much wind there's a ton that goes into before you set a fire.

I mean, you got take a lot of information to make sure that it's it's the right way, cut burn paths and stuff to keep the fire from spreading.

A lot goes into it, right?

Definitely.

Yeah.

But for a person who wants to put their piece of property into a burn every so many years, what what is the timeframe?

Is it every two years, three years, five years?

What is it typically?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I hate to say it depends, but it truly does.

It depends on the type of burn you're looking at.

So a forested burn versus an open land burn.

And it depends on the species or suite of species that you're focusing on.

Okay.

So if you're thinking about, for instance, quail, you might want to be on an every year or every other year type rotation, but you don't want to burn your whole property all at once.

For something like deer or just general forest management, you might be out to five years or something like that.

Okay.

The species that are that really want a lot of bare ground, you know, quail walk around on the ground, they like it that that thatch layer to be burned off pretty frequently.

But for a rabbit, you know, just keep the trees out of the field and you're going to be okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Let's talk a little bit about some changes this year for for our hunting seasons.

We've got a couple things on the deer side especially.

Tell me what has changed this year that the people out there that are planning their fall hunting may need to know about.

Sure.

So there's a, this weekend is going to be our first ever anterless only, weekend.

It's Saturday and Sunday, and it's only in the 14 counties of the surveillance zone.

The CWD surveillance zone.

They can take antlerless deer by any means.

Firearm, archery, crossbow, what have you.

The only stipulation, besides, if you were, you know, outside the zone or regularly hunting, is that you need to, once you recover the deer, process it, telecheck it, and then take a sample to one of our drop off stations.

Okay.

We have several drop off stations and they can be found on our website, to basically there are coolers that you can drop a head and so that they can do samples.

The biologist can.

And this is, samples for CWD testing.

Correct.

So, you know, another hot topic right now is, is HD, which is different than CWD, but HD is is on the landscape just like it is every single year here in the state of Kentucky.

And this year in certain pockets, it's been a little bit worse.

Tell me a little bit about, very quickly about HD.

And then let's talk a little bit about that this year is is different, but it's not that unique is it.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's what's been keeping us busy here in the last month.

We have had we expect that, every year, August, September time, we get a few cases.

And this is a little, you know, worse year than, than we've had.

And maybe since back to 2017, we had a big outbreak in East Kentucky.

So the interesting thing this year, it's pretty well spread all the way across the state, but still, even locally, even within the corner of a county, it might be one farm and not the other.

It can be that localized, which makes it, you know, tough to manage.

It's going to be very much up to the landowner to, you know, get a read on what their how how hard their population has been hit and then manage accordingly.

There are certainly some farm owners I've talked to that got hit pretty good and others that have not found a single dead deer.

So, you know, a lot of people wonder.

They're like, man, my property has been devastated.

I don't know why we're having a deer season this year.

The simple fact is, is that we manage wildlife out year out.

And, you know, we know there's going to be certain HD and certain other outbreaks.

This year I think August was one of the driest on record.

Yeah.

It's been a couple years since we had a major outbreak.

So these deer are susceptible, if you have a piece of property that you're seeing a whole lot of dead deer on there, we put our rules and regulations out by zone.

Not to say you can't be more conservative on your piece of property if you feel like you've been harder hit.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's very much up to the private landowner.

I mean, that's that's really the role that you've got.

You've got the, you know, my case, our farm in Ohio County, we have seen a few dead deer, but it's not it's not going to be enough to to throw off our deer season or change our harvest goals or that kind of stuff.

But that certainly might not be the case across the board.

You know, you know, if you've got, you know, and everybody's running their cameras right now and checking on their bucks and you possibility that your shooter buck got lost to the HD, but, you know, good chance another one to fill in or certainly it it it balances deer populations in some places.

You know, if you get caught up on some of the, the forums and I read a lot of the hunting forums, you know, people start talking about their they've lost their target buck and the genetics are, you know, they've lost that genetics.

And but you got to remember is that that two year old buck that hadn't hit its potential yet is not a shooter right now.

Probably has those same genetics as that five year old buck that you were chasing as well as those those does right.

Those does play a major role.

Those does also are carrying the genetics.

And it's hard to tell the the rack capacity of that that Doe is carrying.

But, Mother Nature is unique in the fact that there are certain things that that whitetail deer can do to replenish themselves rather quickly when these type outbreaks happen.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think East Kentucky, I mean, we had a major outbreak in 2017.

And I think most people will agree it's it's back to where it was if not better than what it was before.

Yeah.

So it might take a couple years.

But it'll bounce back.

Let's talk about some of our, tactics that are used with our game species hunter surveys.

There's a bunch of them out there.

If you've bought a tag, you can go on to your my profile and get some of those.

But you guys gather information a lot through hunters, through landowners, but other sources as well.

Tell me how you gather some of your information based on population and species.

Sure.

Absolutely.

So there's a few different ways we will do that.

One of our, our best and longest running surveys is our, rural mail carrier survey and essentially all of the rural mail carriers across the state.

We mail them all survey cards, and they will, on their route, look for, rabbits and quail and that that survey has been running since 1960.

So it's really neat to see, that data over time.

It's not super encouraging because, quail numbers you can see just dwindle right down.

But that's all habitat related.

And, but it's it's a great survey, a great way of getting it, kind of a statewide, look at the population.

The other one, that, that we do is a hunter cooperator surveys.

And essentially that's gives our hunters a chance to keep a hunting log, essentially where they note, the county they were hunting in, how many squirrels they saw or rabbits or quail.

And then tell us, through there, you know, essentially logging every hunt and then mail that back to us.

And that gives us an idea of the population over time.

We can get some metrics from that.

So those are two main ones we're using right now.

We have a new one out there, that's called, Game Species Hunted and that's actually available on the website.

It's not getting utilized a whole lot.

It's just a little button you can click on.

But if you wouldn't mind clicking on it and telling us the species you hunt, it helps because we'll end up mailing you 100 cooperator survey and saying, hey, would you tell us a little more information?

Is that found in the is that found in the my profile as well?

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a little tab on the right hand side.

You know we talked about going online.

One of the interesting things to go back to EHD Ihate to jump back there, but if a person does find a deer on their own, their piece of property, there's actually a very easy online form that you fill out that lets us know that that's there.

And, tell me a little bit about where they can find that.

What what all is included in that.

Absolutely.

So we've got we've got a reporting form for kind of any dead wild animals that might come up on that.

So that could be, any, any time of the year you might run into the, we've had a couple interesting, bird die offs recently that we were able to kind of detect with that system.

So it's highly useful for us.

We've got a separate sick deer reporting page.

Okay.

And that just kind of encompasses, you know, especially during this time that we've got EHD.

And but it also might be the case of roadkill that's made it off the road.

And you just need assistance with it.

So we've got our wildlife health team puts together a map and sends that out every week of the EHD.

So we're getting real time data on where these sick deer are.

But you need you need landowners and hunters and outdoor outdoor enthusiasts to to help with this.

And we know we've got a limited amount of biologists.

They can't be on every piece of property.

So even public lands, private lands, it doesn't matter if you're an outdoor person, you come across it you want to go online and fill that out.

It's only a couple questions, right?

Yeah, a couple questions.

And you can even at the end of it, check a box if you don't want to call.

You know, you find a dead deer, you know, that's all you want.

Great.

Well, still include it on our map and a lot of these EHD cases recently.

You know, once we know we've got it in our county, we're not going to go investigate every one.

We might go and remove that deer if it's right on somebody's back porch or something.

But, it really helps kind of filter through and allows us to prioritize what cases we go after.

I love that you told me that it's not a EHD reporting page, because you're not asking people to diagnose what caused this death or whatever.

If you found come across a suspicious looking dead deer, it's not laying in the road.

If it's a suspicious looking dead deer or any other wildlife species.

Yeah, go on there.

Put that information in hit send, like you say if you don't want to be contacted, there's an option for that.

And just let us know so that we can kind of keep up with it.

If it's in a very short amount of time, may be to get somebody out there to get a sample, but yep, everybody wants the sample taken.

But there's a small window to make those samples useful, right?

It is especially in the month of August you know, August, September with the heat we've had our HD sample.

It's got to be fresh lung tissue tissues real important.

So a lot of those that you can upload pictures.

So a lot of times we can tell if it's worth going.

We might follow up.

And you know as long as you're good with where that deer is we might leave that alone.

And that's been I mean, that's essentially what's driven our understanding of this, this latest HD outbreak is that that mapping system, the online system.

So let's get to, let's get to another section here, which is, we're talking about this change, which is this new deer season for Doe only you can use a rifle.

You can use whatever format you want.

Tell me a little bit about why this is useful and what information we gather.

Yeah, absolutely.

So this is one of our better best, by far the best tool.

So our our entire foundation of our CWD surveillance program is using hunters to get us to deer, that we don't go out there and shoot piles of them.

You know, we want to take that hunter harvested animal and then use that animal in our surveillance.

So it is it's a it's an extra opportunity.

We hope that people will we hope we get some, you know, a little bit cooler weather this weekend and people get out there.

And it we're trying to make it as simple as possible on the hunter.

So go kill your doe and we don't really have a set time frame for when that deer head needs to make it in our freezers.

But we're asking sometime in that week, so we're going to have our technicians out running those freezers daily for 8 or 10 days after the season just so we can jump right on those samples.

And it's as easy as, you know, give us an inch or two a neck and you can freeze it.

That's ultimately what we're going to do with it in our check in freezers.

A couple of Walmart sacks.

Stick it in your freezer when it's convenient Monday, on your way to work after work, drop it in one of our freezers.

We've got about I would say I've got I've got the guide out here in front of me with probably 30, 35 drop off freezers in our CWD zone and maybe more.

You can find those in the hunting guide as well as online, you know, and then all of the paperwork that you need is right there.

And it's literally is just your confirmation number, your information.

And you put that, attach it, put it down in the in the deep freeze and close it up.

And we've got trash bags.

If you come right out of the field by freezer we've got trash bag instructions and the tags.

You can rip the bottom section off.

And in about 3 to 4 weeks be able to look up those results if you're interested.

So we're really hoping that this early season helps us knock out a couple of knock out some of our quotas.

We've got quotas set for each county.

You know, a couple thousand deer, you know, with hunters putting them in the freezers and may you may see less of us during modern gun season on mandatory checks in the future if this works so go shoot a doe, put her head in the freezer and, we might be able to not pester the the hunters as much during modern gun season.

What a unique opportunity to be out with a rifle.

And if they're in one of those those counties early before you're worried about, you know, during firearms season when you're up there on the rifle, if you've got a buck tag, that doe comes by, you're like, oh, man, there could be a big buck trailing her.

No.

This time you're they're not going to be they're not going to be chasing them this time of year.

So this is an opportunity to fill the freezer earlier and then focus more on, on on the hunting that that big buck, that big one.

But now it's only in 14 counties CWD zone county.

So make sure you check your hunting guide and make sure that you're hunting in one of those counties.

And all other rules and regulations apply to hunters orange, legal hunting equipment, far as rifle rounds, all that's exactly the same.

Is that right?

Yes.

That's what I was going to cover when you said any format.

And I think I said that, too at the beginning.

Any legal format that doesn't open up the gates to just go to town, any legal format that you would use during the legal deer seasons, which you can use to harvest these anterless deer.

Yeah.

And the biggest thing is just make sure you bring that hand to one of those drop off stations so that we can process and get the data from it, because that's really what we're looking for.

We're looking for that data now when it comes to hunting, when it comes to habitat and really talking about cover and food.

And, I went out with a couple biologist a few years ago.

And one of the things I know you work on is your mass crop surveys.

Yeah.

Tell me a little bit about how that's looking here in the state of Kentucky right now.

And give me an idea.

I mean, I know you've got several different species of mass crops oak, hickory, beech.

And there's others.

What is the timeframe in which they usually start dropping in what order?

So that people can kind of hone in their hunting this year based on what food source may be available?

Because the deer are going to be where the food are and the squirrels are going to be where the food are at.

That's that's how it works, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, in my experience, you know, it's going to be the hickories first are going to be falling.

If you're squirrel hunting.

I mean, that's where I go.

I'm trying to target squirrels, followed by your white oaks and then, you know, finally, your red oaks are going to fall.

And and that's usually in my late season hunting, for deer, as far as the way our mass crops looking this year, we don't have all the data analyzed at this point.

But I will say just looking at it briefly, it looks pretty decent across the board.

Nothing really stands out like it's going to be an unbelievable year.

But nothing's a failure crop either.

So I think we're going to be in pretty good shape.

Oak, hickory, and beech.

what's happened to those?

You said, the hickory, so.

Well, deer, they don't really feed on hickory often, do they?

I haven't seen deer feed on hickory very much no.

But the white oak, when those hit man, that can change your deer pattern significantly.

You could be hunting field lines and seeing tons of deer.

And all of a sudden you think, what in the world has happened?

And elk too.

I know you've spent a ton of time with the elk program, and I'm guessing bear as well.

Anything that's going to feed on those white oaks.

It can totally change the pattern of movement for your game species.

Absolutely.

When do you start seeing the White Oaks hit the ground?

You know, I, I hunt mostly on Chinkapin Oak, and they're falling right now.

Okay.

So if I'm hunting white oak in the areas I hunt, it's mostly chinkapin, and they're falling right now.

I want to say the, you know, the white oak that we're most familiar with.

I think those are falling right now as well.

If not, they'll be falling here in the next, you know, month.

So if you if you got that deer stand up there and you're hunting that field edge and you've been seeing a lot of deer and all of a sudden things slow down a little bit, you might want to go take a, take a walk through the woods and see, see what other food sources are available because it will completely, totally change your deer movement.

And I'll add one more thing too, you know, when we do this mass survey, we go out with binoculars and just look up in the trees and see which trees have a lot of acorns in them.

And we have a little system for doing that, but it's a great way to scout prior to season is just to go out and figure out which trees actually are loaded down with acorns and set up your spot right there.

You know, we we talk a little bit about our fall hunting season.

We all get so excited for September 1st and dove season came and it's it's still come.

It's still opportunity to dove hunt.

If you didn't get out there.

We got checked this year and had our my Hip survey filled out, all my paperwork done.

What other things do hunters need to make sure if you're a new hunter or if you're a hunter that, you know, maybe it's been a few years.

What are some things you need to look out for to make sure that you're abiding by all the rules and regulations?

Like what?

What are the most common citations that are out there?

Sure.

That are avoidable.

Yeah.

And majority of it is just spending time and doing research before you go out, just like you would do any other research before you're taking on a new, hobby or something.

The biggest thing is license violations.

People don't have the correct license.

Another one is hunter education.

They might not have that.

Maybe they came from another state and they don't have a copy of it with them, which that's, you know, if they did get it from another state, we recognize it.

So that might be maybe a little bit extra back work they'd have to do to get it.

Hunter orange during the rifle season is another big thing.

They think they can take it off when they get up in the tree stand, or when they get into a blind.

And, basically that that is not for it's for your safety to have the hunter orange on and so that others can see you.

So that's, that's kind of one of our, big hits as well, I would say overall is just the licensing, you know, knowing what type of license you need whenever you're hunting big game, the, the one day, five day, seven day, those aren't going to work.

You need to have a resident hunting license if you are a resident of Kentucky.

Telechecking is probably another one of the top five or so people forget to telecheck.

If it is by midnight of the day that it was recovered.

And that's what a lot of people think they have 24 hours.

So once the animal has been recovered, you have till midnight of the day it was recovered to telecheck and you can do it on your phone.

You can do it on your profile.

So it's very, very easy to do.

A lot of people get that confused with the harvest log.

They assume that whenever they get the deer and start moving it, they have to telecheck it.

And then they're like, well, what if I don't have cell service?

So the biggest thing is, once you find the find the animal and you start to move it away from where you found it, you need to fill out the harvest log.

And that is going to be like the day, county, sex, species.

And that's your harvest log for.

Let me ask you a question on that, because, now cell service is getting better, and everybody seems like they've got their cell phone on when they're deer hunting now.

Right.

If you were able to go onto your my profile very quickly and go ahead and telecheck that animal.

And you are now going to telecheck that animal and you're going to debone it, leave everything else out there and you're bringing out you're bringing out just what you want right?

What do you need as far as a harvest log when it comes to that?

If it's already been telechecked and everything do you still need to attach a harvest log to the meat that you're bringing out.

So if you have it on your person, that that will suffice once it leaves your possession.

That's whenever you need to carry that number.

And like if you're going to drop it off at a buddy's house to maybe they wanted to have the meat.

That's whenever you need to transfer that confirmation number.

Okay.

So that we know that it was legally acquired.

Gotcha.

I tell you what that, it seems like with the whole issue with transporting deer and worried about diseases from location, location, this whole idea of deboning in the field is something that I've catch myself hunting a little further away, carrying some bags and deboning and then bringing out what I want.

And, you know, it makes it a lot easier, to do that.

And if you hunt in a place where you have cell service, I mean, by the time I get to the vehicle and put it on ice, pretty much pretty much done if it stays in my possession.

Right.

And that's the thing is, once you actually start beyond dressing it, you do need to telecheck it then.

So I did say midnight, but that's once you start deboning it, once you start doing further than just, field dressing the deer, then you need to telecheck it beforehand.

It's very easy to do it online.

I think I can go through that process and click the boxes quicker than I can call the telecheck number and go through it.

And so try that.

You may want.

If you've never tried that before, you may want to give it a shot because I found that to be actually easier.

So.

Well, I have been in a deer stand this year too and I will tell you, it was I was able to take a doe pretty early on and been seeing a lot of deer, been seeing a lot of deer.

So I saw quite a few bucks.

And, I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

We've already put a little bit of venison in the freezer.

I've already made some jerky.

I love this time of year.

Football seasons in.

You know, having a stick of jerky for my drive in the deer stand or sitting on the couch is nothing better.

So.

Got the stove fired up.

If you never tried to make your own jerky.

It's really simple.

You don't need a whole lot of, gear.

You can literally do it in your your oven.

Have you ever done it that way with your oven door open?

Oh, I have yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Works out great.

Yeah, it works fine.

Yeah.

We've done a recipe before on that and that we've I've had some on the way in today.

So get out there and take a deer and consider making some jerky.

So.

Well, we, we've gone through most of our general topics.

You guys have anything else you want to talk about that you're excited about this year?

No.

All right, well, guess what.

Now we're going to move on to trivia.

So we've got ten trivia questions.

And in the event that, someone ties we do have a tiebreaker question if we have to use it.

So underneath each of your chair, you should have a dry erase board and a marker.

And, if you don't mind, I'll have you keep scores yourself there and, play at home.

This is a lot of fun.

Know some of these questions are a little easier.

Some of them are, I suspect that, we'll get no perfect ten.

So don't feel bad, because some of them are a little more challenging.

So play along at home.

Hopefully this is fun.

All of these are going to pertain to either animals in the state of Kentucky, habitat from the state of Kentucky, or potentially legal firearms or hunting methods in the state of Kentucky.

So let's go.

This is, this is going to be a lot of fun.

Our very first trivia question here, which Kentucky upland game bird makes a drumming sound that can be heard during the breeding season?

All right.

On, all of these are going to be multiple choice.

I'm going to give you four choices.

A is the woodcock, B is the rough grouse.

C the bobwhite quail D the dove.

Which Kentucky upland game bird makes a drumming sound that can be heard during the breeding season.

A woodcock, B rough grouse, C bobwhite quail, D dove.

Everybody got their answers already.

Oh, you guys are quick.

All right, what we got let's turn your answers around.

It looks like we we're three for three.

That's the way to start nice job.

Everybody gets a tally mark.

There we go.

That B is the rough grouse.

Have you ever heard that sound?

It's, It's a it's a beautiful sound.

It's a little bit tricky because all these animals make sounds, but the drumming sound was the key there.

Nice job.

Next question.

What is the purpose of velvet on a deers antler?

A cool their body, B absorbs moisture, C provides nutrition and growth to antlers, or D repels insects?

What is the purpose of velvet on a deers antler?

A to cool their body, B to absorb moisture, C provide nutrition and growth to antlers, or D is to repel insects.

Everybody got their answer.

Everybody.

All right, let's see them.

All right.

This this group's good.

That's two for two.

Everybody's everybody got them all.

The answer.

The answer is C. It provides nutrition and growth to the antlers.

Very good job.

That's two for two for all of you.

Question number three what is the term for the distance between a bowstring and the grip when the bow is at rest.

All right.

When the bow is at rest the term between the distance between the bowstring and the grip when the bow is at rest A is the draw length, B is the string gap, D is the knocking point.

Excuse me, C is the knocking point, D is the brace height.

What is the term for the distance between the bow string and the grip?

When the bow is at rest?

A draw length, B string gap, C knocking point, D brace height.

Everybody got their answer?

Wait a minute here okay.

You confident?

Okay I'm confident yeah.

All right.

I know you're a traditional archer, so you probably know this.

Oh you do know this.

Man three for three.

Nice job.

It was a guess.

The answer is D, brace height.

Now the trick there was the at rest when you got to bow at full draw.

That's called something different.

What's that called?

Draw length.

That's a draw length.

All right.

The brace height is the distance between your grip and the string when the bow's at rest before you draw it.

All right.

Nice job guys.

Let's go on to question number four.

Right now we've got don't have to really give out the the the the score here.

It's 3 to 3 to 3.

So here we go.

Nice job.

Next question.

This popular hunting cartridge was developed in 1952 and was later adopted as a military cartridge.

A 30-06, B 6.5 Creedmoor, C 308 Winchester, or D 243 Winchester.

All really, really successful popular deer hunting rounds.

It was developed in 1952 and later adopted as a military cartridge, A 30-06, B 6.5 Creedmoor, C 308 Winchester, D 243 Winchester.

All right, everybody got an answer.

I'm not confident, but I got an answer.

Alrght.

Pretty confident.

All right.

The answer is C, 308.

All right.

Hopefully you're playing along out there.

Hopefully you are also four for four.

We've got three four and four right.

Yep.

All right next question.

Let's move on to number five during the Kentucky Elk restoration.

Hey this this should be yours.

Let's hope so.

Elk were translocated from the following states, except.

So they came from three of these states except.

All right, A Colorado, B Oregon, C Utah, D Kansas.

All right.

During the Kentucky elk restoration, elk were translocated from all the following states except.

A Colorado, B Oregon, C Utah, D Kansas.

Everybody have their answer?

All right.

All right.

Sorry.

He█s not even waiting for the answer.

He already knows he's like, sorry.

This one surprised me.

I have to tell you, this one surprised me a little bit.

I've been around for a while, all the way back to some of the elk reintroductions, and the answer is A Colorado.

All right, on to question number six.

By what year had Kentucky completed its deer restoration across all 120 counties?

All right.

I don't know what year it started, but this was the year it was completed for deer restoration across all 120 counties.

A 1979, B 1999, C 1998, D 1986.

What year had Kentucky completed its deer restoration across all 120 counties?

Sergeant black well, I'll tell you, this is tough because I don't hear any law enforcement questions in here yet.

That's okay.

Oh, these are all these are wildlife questions.

Habitat questions.

So it's a little tough, but you're doing good.

Hit me with them again.

Alright.

Here's your years.

1979, 1999, 1998, 1986.

All right.

What do you guys had?

All right.

The answer is B 1999.

It was still 1999.

When did it start?

70s maybe?

Yeah, I think like a really good Kentucky Afield article on that.

Okay.

Recently.

I knew that I knew the deer and elk overlapped for a year okay.

All right.

So you're using you're using general or broad knowledge of all the animal species you've been involved with to eliminate a couple of them.

But there you go.

That's right.

The deer and elk restoration overlap.

So 1999 man.

That's that's something just 26 years ago.

So, that, that that's that's pretty interesting.

You think about how many deer we have in every county in the state of Kentucky now and we were we were still relocating deer until 1999.

Yeah.

Well.

Success story.

Yeah.

What's the score here?

Well, we got Thomas.

We got three, three, three, four, four and six.

All right, man, we may have to.

I'm coming for you.

These deer and elk questions man.

You've got these deer and elk questions.

Oh my gosh.

The next one is also an elk question.

All right.

How many elk were translocated to Kentucky during the entire restoration period.

So this is a total number.

This is going to be a little tough.

How many elk were located translocated to Kentucky during the restoration period?

A 1497, B 1556, C 1541, D 1567.

And I'll be honest, you guys, this would be a complete stab in the dark for me.

Just I would have to just pick one because I would have no idea.

It's say the numbers again.

All right.

The numbers.

These are the total number of elk that were translocated to Kentucky during the restoration period, 1497 1556 1541, 1567.

All right.

Well, let's see yours first.

He's right again.

The answer is C. There you go.

Oh man.

Y'all got it I would not got it.

That's a number that's out there.

Yeah.

The answer is C 1541.

How many different states.

Obviously we know wasn█t Colorado.

How many states do you have.

Five states.

And not Colorado for a total of 1541.

All right.

There you go.

Nice job.

All right.

The next one is not a deer or elk question.

All right.

The next question is about rabbits.

All right.

Which species of cottontail rabbit found in Kentucky can weigh up to 6 pounds?

Eastern, swamp Appalachia, or mountain rabbit.

Oh, there you go.

There are your answers.

I think this one's a little tough, too.

I'll be honest with you.

Everybody got an answer?

You got an answer?

All right.

Yeah.

We'll lets see them.

There we go.

Swamp rabbits.

You know, it seems like, cottontails could get close to that 6 pound range, so that sounds like up to.

Wait a minute.

Thought it might be a trick.

Yeah, yeah.

You guys, you guys.

I was wondering that, too.

But you got stuck to your guns and got that right.

I believe I've seen some swamp rabbits maybe that way 6 pounds.

But, you know, I don't know.

So there you go.

6 pounds.

That's right, swamp rabbits.

Here we go.

This is going to be up your alley, too.

Okay.

What is the minimum score required to attain an all time Boone and Crockett record for typical whitetail?

All right.

What is the minimum score required to attain an all time Boone & Crockett record for typical whitetail?

Here are your answers or your solutions here.

A 160, B 170, C 180, D 190.

Now I know you're an official Boone Crockett scorer.

No I am not.

You're not.

Are any of you all official Boone & Crocket scorer?

No, no.

Okay.

All right.

Its a shot in the dark.

I don█t have to worry about it.

I'm going with a guess.

Oh, really?

Okay.

I figured I thought some reason I thought you were a Boone & Crocket scorer.

So what is the minimum score required to attain an all time Boone and Crockett record for typical whitetail?

A 160 B 170 C 180 D 190.

All right.

And what are your answers.

A. It's B. Oh man.

Thomas you got it.

170?

170.

Come back time.

I think that there's a what is there a three year something number that might be a little bit low.

There might be, might be in the 160.

But yeah an all time 170 inches, anybody here ever taken a buck that was 170in?

No.

That's a big deer.

That's a big that's a big, big deer.

All right.

You're making your comeback.

I just it's not rigged.

Haha.

You're starting to wonder now.

Has the solution starting to get the flag out this.

Now that he's ahead, he's.

Yeah.

He's got lucky.

Yeah.

He's gonna throw a few.

What's our what's our tally now going into our last question.

What do we got?

I got six.

Six.

Six.

I got eight.

All right, all right.

Well here we go.

Here we go.

We're going to get down to question number ten.

All right next question.

Which species of migratory bird is nicknamed after a choice cut of beef.

All right.

Which species of migratory bird has a nickname.

That is after a choice cut of beef?

A redhead, B Canada goose, C mallard, D sandhill crane.

All right.

Species of migratory bird that has a nickname that is, after a choice cut of beef A redhead b Canada goose C Mallard d sandhill crane.

Everybody have an answer.

What do we got?

Ribeye in the sky.

Ribeye in the sky.

All these questions were actually taken off of our, our website.

So, every one of these answers are on there somewhere.

A ribeye in the sky.

Sandhill cranes.

If you guys ever hunted sandhill cranes?

No.

I haven't but I've eaten them.

You have.

Yeah.

What did you think.

Delicious.

They are.

They really are delicious.

Wow.

I was lucky enough to go out with one of our, retired law enforcement officers down in Barren County.

I was lucky enough to get out and take a sandhill cranes, and they are delicious.

Very close to backstrap, but just even better.

Do you believe that?

So.

Wow.

Really, really, really good.

The ribeyes in the sky.

All right.

That was, So that was our last question.

So our tally ended up being seven, seven and nine.

Well congratulations, John.

That was brilliant.

I appreciate the elk questions.

Next time we'll have more for small game questions in there, All right.

Now we've got a few minutes left we're going to get to.

And I hope you enjoyed this format today.

We decided we wanted to do something slightly different and maybe get some information out there that you didn't know you wanted to know.

If you ever have any questions regarding rules and regulations, obviously you can always go to the website.

You can pick up the hunting and fishing guide.

You can also always call our info.

Line 1-800-858-1549.

Now let's get to a couple of our questions.

How do you go about hunting on public land during gun season for a first time hunter?

Any tips on scouting?

And public access?

Who was it who would take this?

This could be.

Yeah, anybody.

I know our website is.

Yeah.

I mean, full of information.

Okay.

They do a phenomenal job of breaking down each wildlife management area and giving you GPS points, telling you what the access parts are like, where to park at.

I would definitely start there and find out one that's close to you and then maybe kind of spread your way out.

The next thing on the legal side is, make sure that you have all of your license requirements in line.

That can also be found on our website or in the hunting guide that you can pick up at any Walmart or sporting goods store.

Just read through that pretty religiously and make sure you got everything.

And if you still have second thoughts on not knowing if you have everything, I mean call our 1-800 number and ask an info specialist.

Yeah.

You know, and so you got to be real cautious because some of our public lands have quota hunts.

So it's not open during the normal fire season.

So make sure that you do your research on the front side.

Scouting is always good.

You may even want to stop by the office and talk to someone about, hey, where are you seeing deer?

What type of food plots have been put out?

But I'll tell you this, a lot of people get out and hunt on these pieces of property.

Find you a spot that's, If you're young and able or willing, find you a spot that's a little off the beaten path.

That's a that's a great place to get out there.

And everybody walks past the food plots.

And you got ten people out there in the in the off the beaten path area.

They all and sitting there looking at each other.

So, you know, you do want to find a food source.

And then after you find the food source, make sure that if you're willing to go, ask those people that work these WMAs, that, hey, where's the spot that you would go if you were going tomorrow?

And, it's always a good way to start you you worked at quite a few WMAs.

Yeah for sure.

I mean, the only tip I would have is, you know, just because your gun can shoot that far doesn't mean you need to see that far.

So get in that thick, thick cover, timber harvest is a really good option.

Any kind of really thick cover.

Deer are going to kind of pool up there, when they're being hunted.

So, yeah.

When the hunt takes place and there's more commotion in those woods.

They're going to find some thick cover, aren't they?

Absolutely.

And you might want to walk a little bit.

Don't just pick the, you know, 15 yards away from your parking spot.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's, that's that's what everybody else is probably going to do.

So you if you walk a little bit, you probably have better success.

Yeah.

You have you guys harvested deer on public lands.

Yeah.

Yeah, I have too.

Thomas, if you ever harvest a deer on public lands in Kentucky?

I don█t think I have.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what.

It's a great place.

There are some great places to get out there.

We have a lot of public access property.

So the main thing is like, say, plan your hunt, make sure that, make sure that, you know, the boundary lines, the places you can park and access and, especially if you're willing to do the deep boning method to go out there and you got to bring out whatever needs to be checked.

But, especially if you're taking CWD samples.

But, man, if you would be willing to walk out there and bring your bring your debone meat out, man, that's a good way to go about it.

Next question here.

How many does can you harvest per year?

So talk to us about how many does can be harvested.

So the main thing depends on what zone you're in.

And if you go on our website or look at one of our hunting guides, it's right there in your in your face.

I mean, all you got to do is pick your county, match it up with the color code for the zone and then go from there.

So zone one is going to be your most, wide open on antlerless deer.

You're deer permit allows for four deer.

So once you have collected your four deer you can buy additional deer tags which allows for two more deer to be harvested.

But that's only in your zone one which is unlimited antlerless.

Zone two and three and four, they're going to be a little bit more restrictive, have a little bit more, conservative dates and seasons on them.

Zone two I'm really familiar with this.

One of the counties I worked, it was four deer only.

And it could be one antlered, three antlerless, or all four could be antlerless.

But once you hit that, then you're done.

And kind of piggybacking off that with the the CWD Zone this special season we have this weekend, those do count towards your bag limit.

Okay.

So, I've had a few phone calls asking about that since it's so brand new and special they think these are, like, unchecked deer.

No.

They go towards your bag limit.

So which majority of the counties are for the most part, zone one I believe.

I think there's a few Meade and Breck and those are zone 2.

So one buck, regardless of what zone you're in, unlimited and zone, zone one.

And then zone two, it's four is the max.

Once you hit your four on all of your statewide tags, you need to then go buy a bonus addition.

Used to be called a bonus antlerless but no longer called that anymore, because you can take four does and go by your bonus permit and then make that your buck tag right.

A lot of times people were like, oh man, they think they lost it.

They think they lost their buck tag.

That's not the case.

You still get the tag carries, it carries on over, in the zone ones it does.

Yes.

There you go.

So, plenty, plenty opportunities out there.

Speaking of opportunities, this next question here is about youth hunters.

So we've got new opportunities for youth hunters.

We'll talk a little bit about that again here in a second.

But, can a youth hunter from a different state hunt in Kentucky during the free weekend on a family farm?

Yes, yes, they can do that.

They still need to telecheck the deer.

Yeah, yeah, of course using their If they don't have, probably won't have a driver's license or anything.

But make sure you get their Social Security number so that you can telecheck in on that.

Okay.

So you got to check it regardless of how it was taken.

Correct.

What your youth or non youth.

Let's talk a little bit about the youth season one more time because youth season this year is a little different than it has been in years past.

Tell me about this year's opportunities for youth season.

So it's extended.

How many more days?

I think it's nine days total.

Yes.

So it runs through the starts of youth, the normal youth weekend and runs through the early muzzleloader.

Yeah.

This year it's usually the youth deer season for a firearm is going to run October 11th through October the 19th.

I think this is one of the best things we've done here in Kentucky.

As busy as our kids are nowadays.

And, you know, you got a weekend.

You never know what the weather is going to be like.

Kids who do travel, sports, they have other obligations.

Now.

They've got an extended window for youth season.

I think this is really, really good.

So the youth have got an opportunity between October the 11th and the October the 19th.

Well, that's the next question is just about how the black bear in eastern Kentucky are doing.

They're doing great.

Yeah, they're doing great.

So we're seeing the harvest is going up and up every year.

More encouragingly to me, we've got, we're selling more bear permits every year.

So we've almost doubled that.

So I like to see that because there's people getting interested, you know, it's relatively new, but it's become a part.

You know, I've never harvested a bear in Kentucky or any other state.

And I have only tried bear that was bought, like, feel like, jerky or whatever.

You know, what's bear like?

It's good, it's good.

And it's it's one of those things the people that cook it really well do a really good job, but it's one of those that you kind of just got to know, gotta, gotta think, you know, plan ahead and, you know, find a good recipe and have at it.

I think when it's done good.

It's as good as anything really.

Yeah.

Well that's fantastic.

You know what?

It seems like that opportunity keeps growing in state of Kentucky, you know, it seems like there's more and more and more bear.

Yeah.

And is that continues to grow.

Like how many counties are open for bear hunting.

We got 47 of them, which is I mean, the eastern half of the state.

So a lot of opportunity.

All right.

We got another question here.

It's, do you have any recommendations for the best shot gun and shot size to use for various small game?

What do you guys recommend for, small game hunting?

If you're going to take one shot gun, what would you.

What would you have?

Oh, I got I like a 20.

That's what I always rabbit hunted with growing up, bird hunting with it.

A 20 with some seven and a half.

Can't go wrong.

Yeah, yeah.

What you thought?

I can agree with that.

Yeah, I like a 12.

It's what I've always hunted with, but, I like sixes, quite a bit.

And it just kind of splits the difference on, you know, especially if I'm going to run into a squirrel, you know, but.

Yeah.

Seven and a half for birds for sure.

Yeah.

But your thoughts Thomas?

They say, starting out.

What's that now?

Did he say just starting out?

Well, it's just like.

Do you have any recommendations for best shot gun sizes and shot sizes for various use for small game.

Yes I would, I would go with 20 gauge.

Make it a little bit more challenging in some aspects and I would say six seven and a half shot.

Do you know what's interesting about a 20 gauge shotgun is that, you can turkey with it with, with the loads that are out now, a lot of your hunters are moving down in gauge.

Instead of hunting with 12 gauge, they're moving to 20 gauges because you can get long range and great knock down.

It's great.

It's a great shotgun for, rabbit hunting, squirrel hunting, bird hunting.

And I'll tell you what I know.

I started out a matter of fact, it wasn't till about 10 or 12 years ago I did all my deer hunting with a rifled slug gun on a 20 gauge.

You can buy a 20 gauge, and it put a slug barrel on there.

And you've got a turkey gun, a deer gun, a rabbit got a squirrel gun, a bird gun.

You can kind of do it all.

Don't tell my wife that I only need that one gun because she'd be like, what's the rest of them for?

But you know what?

If you want to get into hunting, a 20 gauge with a with a slug barrel, you've covered most of Kentucky.

Yep.

Yeah.

So that's a that's a really good opportunity.

Now bear hunting and elk hunting, shotguns allowed with the rifled slug barrel?

Yep.

It is okay.

So you have covered everything then.

You pretty much can do it all.

Any of you guys ever deer hunting with a slug barrel?

Never have.

I've killed deer with a slug just out of a straight bore barrel.

Yeah, not a rifle.

Not a rifle, but it's straight bore barrel.

Yeah.

You know Fort Knox.

They kill a lot of deer out there, and they're shooting.

They're not shooting high powered rifles are they.

They're using, a slug gun, so.

Oh, slugging for bucks that, that's a that's a fun way to go about it.

You know, if you're range is, people shoot them with scopes, too nowadays.

When you can, you can, you can reach out there 100 yards, 80 to 100 yards.

You can still still knock them down.

So if you're looking for, a Christmas gift or a do it all kind of gun, I think that the 20 gauge is, 20 gauge shotgun is a hard one to beat.

Well, this has been a very interesting live show, and I hope you enjoyed it.

And we're hitting the woods doing plenty of hunting.

We've outlined a ton of opportunities in the field.

The seasons are opening up almost every single week.

Our deer season is open now and youth season is right around the corner.

Hopefully you guys have enjoyed the new format.

There are plenty of opportunities to get out and hunt and fish here in the state of Kentucky.

Hopefully you're planning on taking advantage.

And remember hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next week, I'm your host, Chad Miles and I hope to see you in the woods or on the water.