This is a good question.

So Kentucky is kind of a big place and it depends...

This week on Kentucky Afield.

We went live on social media to answer all of your fall hunting questions, and we're bringing you those answers right now.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Tonight, you have tuned in for our annual fall hunting question and answer show.

Joining me, I have a panel of experts to answer all of your questions.

First up, we have John Hast, who is our Elk and Bear program coordinator, also very experienced with deer.

So you'll be answering all of our deer questions as well as the bear and elk questions.

Absolutely.

Next, we have Jacob Stewart, who's our private lands biologist.

So any of you landowners who have any questions about how to manage their habitat on their own properties, You'll be here to answer them.

And you're also very, very well versed with small game.

So any small game questions will have to go to you, Jacob.

Yeah, Thank you Chad.

And next up is a very familiar face.

We have Sergeant Rufus Cravens, who is our conservation officer from the sixth District.

You'll be explaining all the rules and regulations that people may have questions.

And I know there's some have already got a couple of questions.

Sure.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you for having me.

Hey, it's a long sleeved sweatshirt weather, so you know what that means.

It's fall hunting season and it's our seasons have been in for a little bit now.

Our deer archery seasons about a month old.

You guys been in the woods yet?

Yep.

Killed a limit of doves opening day.

Dove season█s already been here and it█s still in.

A lot of people think dove season is a one weekend deal, dove season goes in, comes in and goes out and it comes back in all the way to January.

Right?

Yup.

So do you ever do any late season dove hunting?

I just opportunistically.

Okay.

All right.

That's a good opportunity, though.

It.

It is.

Yeah.

Well, how about you?

How you been out in the deer stand yet?

Yeah.

Yeah, I actually got a deer last night.

All right.

Yeah, me and my dad.

So it was a fun night.

Oh, great.

Great.

And, Rufus, I was talking to you before the show.

You said not yet.

Yeah, no, not yet.

Hopefully pretty soon I'll be out.

All right.

Well, great.

Well, hey, we have some questions coming in.

If you'd like to submit a question, you can do that right here on Facebook.

Just go on to KY Afield and post your questions right there below the show.

So first question we have is from Andy.

And he wants to know if could Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife consider a one year ban on those individuals who have been selected for an elk tag?

Yeah, great question.

So we actually do it a little bit better.

So we've got a three year ban.

Okay.

So for anybody drawing a bull cow or a bull or a cow for the elk draw sits out for three years before they can even apply again.

Okay.

So will the system not even let you apply or just shoot it out if you do apply?

Correct.

It basically locks you out of the elk quota hunt.

Okay.

So if you get drawn for bull or cow, you're out for three years, you're not eligible to be drawn or even to put your name in for consideration.

Absolutely.

All right.

There you go.

Brian from Instagram, what do private lands program biologists do?

Well, there you go.

There we go.

It's a well, we give advice on how to manage your property for whatever wildlife or non-game species that you are looking to manage on your property, to make sure we have good populations for viewing, hunting pleasure, so and so we provide we've got 17 biologists across the state of Kentucky on our web page, you can find a link to the biologist that covers your area.

So you just go online and look up to my contacts and you can find the person who covers your area to come out and give you free advice.

You said something really interesting because you said whatever you want to see on your property.

So it's not like you're not coming with the exact same plan to make every single piece of property that contacts you the greatest small game habitat ever or the greatest deer hunting property.

You you ask the landowners, what do you want to see on your property?

What do you what do you want to put this time, effort, energy, what's your long term goal?

And you kind of use that to make your recommendations, right?

Yeah, that's great.

It's, it's, it's their goal and objective for their property, not ours.

I will try to, to lead them to, you know, what the potential is for their property as well as, you know, what's on the landscape around them.

So it's, it's, it's all about them and working into their schedule because management is something that needs to be done based on your goals and objectives to make it worth your while.

Yeah, but good habitat is good habitat, but good habitat for grouse might be different than white tailed deer versus turkey.

So yes, you kind of find out what they want to see.

And yeah, and we can write you a plan to cover a whole lot of different species at once.

I mean, the idea is to put that habitat for 365 days of the year so you can support those critters.

I get lucky enough to get a lot of piece of property out there and some of the best pieces of property I've been on.

They'll start asking me about the private lands biologist and I don't know all of you guys, but most of the really nice piece of property that I go hunt on have had you guys out to write them a plan and they're following the plans so that kudos it does work.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Next question here is from Eddie Richardson.

Are electronic decoys legal for dove hunting and is steel shot required on Miller Welch WMA?

So electronic dove decoys like the Mojo and different brands, they are legal for dove hunting and then Miller Welch WMA is you can use lead shot it is not restricted to steel only or nontoxic on that particular WMA.

Now some of our WMA█s obviously do have nontoxic shot.

Where's the best place to locate that information?

Either in the the dove guide, the hunting guide or you can go online and check that out and it'll it'll list if that's the specifications for that particular WMA.

Are there also usually signage signage up at the WMA parking lots that let you know if it's required?

Generally there are but I would you know those can be unfortunately, those can be taken down or knocked over or anything like that.

So I would always check the guide or check online as well.

What's the number one thing when you when you go out to the dove field and you find a person that's not compliant, what's what's usually the issue?

I would say the top three that we that we probably issue citations for, at least in the sixth District are either they'll have a hunting license and no migratory or they'll have a migratory and no hunting license or unplugged shotgun.

Yeah.

So it's usually the three biggest the three most common that we run into.

Okay.

All right.

And another thing on those on the dove fields is the HIP survey.

A lot of people are still I won't say a lot, but but it's common to run into people who are forgetting to do that HIP survey that they can go online under our, you know, our website, sign in under their profile and take that hip survey and then write that number down, either screenshot it or write it down on their license so that they've got that number and are in compliance.

Next question is from Larry Wayne.

Can you give an update on CWD in Western Kentucky?

And is there still no baiting?

This is a good question because there's a lot of things going on with CWD right now based on what happened a year ago.

Tell us a little bit about where we're at with CWD and what the baiting ban looks like.

Yeah.

So the good thing going into this fall is we kind of knew what to expect this fall.

So last year we got the notification that CWD was closed in Tennessee.

Like the first week of September.

So none of that stuff was in the original printed hunting guide.

So this year for 2022, all the rules and regs concerning CWD and the surveillance zone in west Kentucky are printed in the hunting guide and on the online version as well.

So with that, most of the stuff is the same.

So the baiting ban is still in effect.

Carcass transportation rules.

We will still have some days of mandatory check.

So what is different this year?

We won't be doing a mandatory check on the muzzle loader season so early and late, and we will only be doing mandatory check on opening Monday, opening Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the middle Saturday, Sunday and Monday and the Saturday and Sunday of the closing weekend.

Okay.

So just trying to increase efficiency.

We know when our hunters, most of them are out there recreating on the weekends, we can get the sample that we need without having to drag that out through all 16 days of the season.

By doing that, you're probably going to be still sampling.

What?

Well, I'm sure you guys did the math.

80, 80, 90% of the harvest, I'm guessing you're probably a little bit less, but it gets us it gets us the sample we need to continue to say that the we don't have it down there yet, which is what we're after.

And and do you know, for people who think about deer season when deer season's in or right before it and really haven't thought about it again, an update on CWD is, we've done thousands and thousands of samples.

Right?

And still zero positives here in the state of Kentucky.

Is that correct still?

Correct.

We did we did about 4700 in the five counties in West Kentucky and then about 7000 total across the state, which is kind of the threshold we need for for the surveillance that we do.

No no detections whatsoever.

Okay.

All right.

Well, that's great to hear.

And hopefully we can you know, every year every year we can keep it out.

That's that's that's 1 year better.

It is.

Hopefully with we're saying the same thing next year when we sit here and talk.

Oh, lets talk about baiting.

yeah.

Baiting, wants to know about baiting.

What is allowed and not allowed as it pertains to baiting for deer.

Yeah.

For sure.

So in the in the surveillance zone, no baiting.

But so that's going to be that's going to be any kind of grain that's going to be salt.

It's not going to be food plots and it's not going to be stuff within the curtilage of your home, close to the house, bird feeders, that kind of stuff.

Outside of that, you know, open to open the deer corn, just about anything, anything you want as long as you're outside of that five county surveillance zone.

So in that five county zone, you don't want anything that pulls deer unnaturally.

We're talking trophy rock, salt licks, corn.

Any any of those type of things are not allowed in those counties.

Correct.

And that's just to limit, you know, the potential for nose to nose contact of whitetaile deer.

That's the number one way this disease spreads.

All right.

Next question here is from Jake Mills.

They want to know what's the best food plot for deer hunting in Kentucky?

This is this is a good question.

I'm sure a lot of a lot of eyeballs and ears perked up when I heard this.

Tell me what you would plant it, and I'm sure it's going to be a mixture.

But tell me what you would plant if you wanted to get the best food plot for deer in the state of Kentucky.

I mean, as far as a deer attracting plot in the state of Kentucky, clover is a good all around, long lasting attractant.

Then you have either summer or winter annuals.

So winter you got your your your kale, your winer wheat, your crimson clovers, that kind of stuff.

In the summer you got your soybeans, your corn, your milo.

And you know, the best thing I can tell you is a food plot is a wonderful thing to put out there for attracting to hunt over.

But you need to go further.

It needs to be part of a bigger management plan.

It needs to be part of the idea of here's a food plot, here's Clover next to the food plot to make it more useful to the deer for a longer period of time.

Very seldom do you see a food plot that█s wide open.

That a deer will walk to, a trophy buck will walk to and eat in right off.

But if you have cover, they feel comfortable coming to it.

They'll come to it sooner.

While It's daylight.

So you can actually take a good chance of harvesting a bigger deer.

So a food plot is one part of a management plan and needs to be only a part of a management plan.

So.

So, Clover and then you're in your annuals.

Do some winter, some summer and rotate them, is the best thing.

What is one of the weirdest things that you have been out and like what are you got there and and someone has planted something and they say the whitetails love it because I hear some I hear all kinds of things that people plant.

you won't believe how how the white tail come to it.

You know I. I guess I never heard anything really weird.

I guess one that I always hear that is really good for deer, that I ain't really seen them use much chicory.

Okay.

You know, people say, oh, the chicory is a good thing for deer.

I've never really seen deer hit chicory that hard.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, there may be somebody out there calling me a liar, but I haven't really seen it.

I have a couple of friends that are contractors and they say that the cheapest grass which I know fescue is bad, but they're saying that contractors mix when it first comes up.

Apparently it has some clover in it too, so you can't keep a deer out of it.

So the weirdest, the weirdest thing I'd say it's would I would I would steer away from the contractors mix.

You don't want to fescue that.

That kind of stuff in there.

But the clovers though, all the clovers if you want a good long lasting easy to maintain plot good clover plot, you can█t beat it.

Interesting.

All right.

Next question from Geoff Thompson.

Want to know, are black powder revolvers legal during the muzzleloader season?

Yes.

Okay.

What what is the more the more restrictions on black powder hunting for a for a handgun?

Are there any particular rules or restrictions there?

That's a good one.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I'll check the guide.

Hey, listen, I█ll check that out.

If one of the questions are not fully answered, you can always reach us.

Not just during this call in show at 1-800-858-1549.

And we will definitely get you an answer.

But Rufus is going to check the the hunting guide.

The hunting guide is not only for hunters, they█re for conservation officers as well.

That's right.

Exactly.

Things change and different things.

So sometimes you have to look it up.

You know that's one of those questions that, you know, revolver hunting with black powder revolver hunting is not super popular.

So it's not a question that you probably get a whole lot, but uh.

There is no caliber restriction on that for rifles, muzzle loading rifles or handguns.

No caliber.

Any caliber.

Okay.

There you go.

Next question from Roger Blair when does raccoon season start?

Wants to know when he can get out there and do some trapping or raccoon hunting.

Hunting season comes in October 1st.

So raccoon hunting season.

Yes.

So October 1st to February 28th, it looks like for hunting November 14th through February 28th for trapping.

That's what's in my notes here.

And then during the hunting season, it's nighttime hours only for that opening weekend of modern gun deer season.

Okay.

Okay.

So are you are you still seeing quite a few people doing some trapping?

A little bit.

Not not as much.

I've been on about 16 years now and used to you check a lot of people trapping don't see as many now see more people setting snares out for coyotes, but it's more of a nuisance they're doing it for as opposed to trapping to get the furs in the pelts to, you know, to sell them.

And that's sort of thing.

What about raccoon hunting is that's still pretty popular?

I'm sure it is in some parts.

And in central Kentucky, where I mainly work, you know, Clark, Madison, that kind of area, there's still people that do it, but nothing like ten, 15 years ago when, you know, you could go out on a Friday night when it first cooled off or season first come in and you're running four or five groups of hunters in one evening, and now sometimes you're in you can work 3 or 4 hours in the evening to find one.

Yeah, I tell you what, it's a lot of fun.

If you ever work behind a good a good coon dog, it's a lot of fun.

Oh, that's that's interesting because I don't get as many calls from people wanting to do that.

And the shows that we have done have been a lot of fun and really, really popular.

So I just was wondering how that how that's going.

Damon Bishop said he's owned landed Kentucky, but he lives in Indiana.

Can he hunt his property without a license?

He pays taxes on the property, so he thought that he could hunt it.

No he cannot.

The way our laws are written, only residents of Kentucky who own land in Kentucky are licensed and permit exempt.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you if you if you live outside of Kentucky but own land in Kentucky, then you're required to have a nonresident hunting license, nonresident deer permit, whatever species you're hunting.

You know, that's the nonresident versions of those.

I get this question quite a bit.

You know, people that own houses in Kentucky or lake houses or whatever, I hear this quite often and people always say, Well, what about owning a fishing license?

Because I'm a resident in Kentucky in the in the summer, but I'm not a resident Kentucky.

And I'm like, if you have a resident license in two different states at the same time, you probably got a problem.

Right.

Yeah.

You're in violation somewhere.

You're in violation somewhere.

So that's, you know, if you got a hunting or fishing license, if you've got two residents at the same time, even if you're not doing both those activities, you've probably violated one of those states, right?

Yeah.

Our resident definition it it says in their permanent domicile.

Okay.

So just, you know, just want to clear that up a little bit because I asked one of the questions that I get quite a bit.

That█s a good question.

Justin Caldwell, how healthy is our elk herd?

Yeah, they're doing great.

They█re doing great.

So we're doing lots of work to, I guess the best way to say it, cover every conceivable, you know, side of, from elk health, to reproductive rates, to how our bulls are doing.

We're getting ready to wrap up a very extensive calf mortality project that we've been working on.

You might have seen a couple Kentucky Afield episodes where we were catching them with the helicopter, and that was part of that study.

Getting ready to develop a new population model coming up this winter.

The biggest thing that we're finding out is these elk have just gotten smart.

You know, for a good portion of my early career, I was a professional elk hunter.

We were darting them, and, you know, that's that's made it on the show as well.

I mean literally hunt these things day in and day out.

And it even got hard for us.

Yeah.

So we know they're there and they are just absolutely crawling up in the darkest holler they can find.

They know when hunting season starts, so it's going to take a little bit more boot leather to get them found.

Yeah.

Nowadays than it would maybe ten years ago.

Yeah I remember that in the success rate of people that are being grown, it's kind of showcasing that, is it not?

It is.

It went down, and then we're we're kind of in this plateau period here the last five or six years where it's been right there, still, you know, upper 40%.

Yeah.

So a guy that I work with here, we just got back from a unit in Colorado that was 13% success rate.

13%?

So we're still well above, you know, most of the places you're going to get into out west.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then my next question was going to ask you, how does that compare to out West?

There you go you're kind of letting me know.

You know, I was involved with some of the Elk Restoration Project even before my time here at the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

And it wasn't really difficult to just get an elk back then.

You had a piece of property where they were.

They were relocated close by and there was something for them to eat.

You pretty much get in range and those days.

It takes a lot more time scouting, prep work, a lot more time on foot now doesn█t it?

It does.

I liken it to, I've spent several seasons, several Septembers in Colorado on public land and it is very much the Kentucky elk and the public land Colorado elk are one in the same now.

The same behaviors.

You know, they obviously don't want to get shot in the fall.

So they're, you know, their full time job is is staying alive through the fall.

So it's a little bit tougher.

Tougher quary these days.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Next question, Thomas, said, where are some good places to hunt and fish and Everts, Kentucky.

Everts, Kentucky.

Everts, Kentucky.

I think I know where that is.

That█s Harlan County.

Yeah, down in southeastern Kentucky.

Yep.

We got I think Martins Fork Lake down there, the Cumberland River, if I'm not mistaken, runs through part of that.

What about hunting?

What do we know down there as far as hunting?

Any anybody know?

Yeah, we've got lots of public land down there.

So Cranks Creek, Martin's Fork WMA, Shillelagh creek, Asher Hunting Access Area is right up.

You know it's down the road from Everets.

Okay, those are big.

Those are kind of big mountain properties.

Plenty of room to roam, with good variety, everything from bear to the whitetails.

Small game.

Yeah.

You know, as far as this isn't a fishing show, but that's very, very, very close to where our state record largemouth bass came from.

I do believe.

I believe that in that really close to where I can't think of the name of that that little lake out there that we used to put trout in.

But we're the new state record is from, is right there in Everts as well.

Yeah.

So there's, there's, there's a lot of opportunities down that way.

Gerald Brian, how long is bear season in McCreary County?

When does Bear Season come in?

And I was going to ask him, but you're the bear biologist.

Tell me, what are the dates?

So things are a little bit interesting this year with with our regulation changes we made last September.

The one thing we've got a couple things that are in flux that we should have lined out here in a week or two, and we'll get that updated online for the folks that are archery hunting and gun hunting, we've made no changes to that to those opening days.

So October 22nd for archery, December 10th for gun season.

If these regs do go through, when we get them finalized, we'll actually get rid of the quota.

So it'll be a set season length.

Okay.

So, you know, if you're taking time off from work and you're an archery, crossbow or gun hunter, you can still lock in, you know, same Saturdays that it always opened on.

Tell me something that if you if you're bear hunting, it's kind of a fairly new opportunity here in the state of Kentucky.

If it's something you have some interest in, what is something that a bear hunter would need to know in Kentucky?

Are there any particular things that people like, Oh, I didn't realize, like a particular size or a caliber, particular caliber that they need to shoot or scouting or baiting.

Tell me a little bit about how baiting is not allowed.

You're baiting comes into it pretty often.

I get that question a lot this time of year.

And just generally you can't bait for bears, but we know that there's areas out there.

Your neighbor might have a deer feeder out, something like that.

My general my general advice and Rufus can jump in is if, you know, if it's not on your property, you don't have to know it's there.

So, you know, you don't need to go surveying your neighbor's land, like hunt your section there and don't hunt over bait.

Yeah.

The other thing is bait includes scent attractants.

There's lots of lots of products made like bear bombs.

It'll be like aerosol spray.

That is a scent.

Any, any.

You know, liquid or scent spray is also considered bait per our regs.

Okay, what about the size of a bear?

Is there a particular size that that a bear needs to be to be harvesting in Kentucky?

Yeah.

So they need to be 75 pounds.

And I will say that we have a few that are close every year, but normally they're not closed if they're un-field dressed.

So we, we require 75 pounds of bear.

So bring all that bear if you feel like it's on the small side.

Yeah.

75 pounds, we picked that weight because young of the year are well below it and yearling bears are usually about 100 pounds at that point, so they're well above it.

Gotcha.

Okay, we're not trying to get anybody tripped up, so we kind of put that in a place where there's not many 75 pound bears.

Okay.

Yeah, there you go.

So there are some things you need to kind of look at that if you're going to if you're going to go bear hunting because, you know, it's it's a new opportunity here.

And I know a lot people think bear hunting.

That sounds pretty interesting.

You know, beautiful mountains of eastern Kentucky.

I'm going to go down and try to find a bear.

What about what about what's the legal rifle for, a rifle restriction for bear?

Yeah.

So right now, it's it's the same as our elk reg, so it's .270.

You know, .270 bullet diameter.

Gotcha.

Oh.

Is, is what's required.

These regs that we've got coming down the pipe will back that down to 6.5 mm.

Okay.

So you know the 6.5 Creedmoor that kind of stuff has gotten popular.

They're more than adequate for a bear.

And that will that will open those up.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Next question is from Danny Stevens.

When is youth deer season this year?

Hey, it's right around the corner.

It's right around the corner.

October 8th and 9th.

Okay, October 8th and 9th.

So that is just a few weekends away, right?

It's not this coming weekend, but the following weekend.

Okay, October 8th and 9th.

What is a youth deer hunter, or person taking out a youth deer hunter kind of need to know?

Okay.

Well, so if they are age, if they are under the age of 12, then they are licensed and permit exempt.

They do not have to have a hunting license or a deer permit age 12 to 15.

They would be required to have a youth deer permit, a youth hunting license, or they can buy the youth sportsman's license, which includes both of those.

They would be required to wear the Hunter Orange and then age 12 and older are required to have the Hunter Education certificate as well.

They could be license exempt as well if they're hunting on their own property regardless of their age.

You know, if they are that 12 to 15, then you know, they could be they would be license exempt, license and permit exempt on that as well.

The person that's taking them out, the adult, they do not have to have a hunting license or a deer permit.

They would also have to wear hunter orange though as well.

And then if they were to harvest a deer, that deer has to be tele-checked just like anybody, any other deer.

And they would use the Social Security number of the youth that actually takes the deer.

We get that question a lot out in the field.

A youth kills a deer and the parent might think that they're supposed to use their their Social Security number instead of instead of the youth.

So they, whoever took the deer is the one you would use.

So this is a question I get every single year during youth season someone will call me up and be like, Hey, my grandson, they got their first deer today.

And I'm like, Well, that's great.

Well, they're not required to have tags we don█t have to telecheck it, right?

And that, you know, it's a little bit confusing because we don't have a tag.

You think, okay, well, we're legal to hunt without without having to be recognized by the agency or the Department of Fish Wildlife.

The harvest of that animal still needs to be telechecked.

And when you call telecheck what are the what prompts are they going to go through?

It's it's going to ask for like the Social Security number to start with.

And then it's going to ask if it was private land, public land, what type of weapon was used, if it was male or female, and then if it was a button buck then it would be male, not visible.

Then if it's a you know, if it's a buck I believe it's going to ask the antlers spread.

I believe, is what it asks on there.

And one of the very first question right off the bat ask you if you're a youth under the age of 12 and you're checking this deer on a statewide license.

If you're a youth under the age of 12.

That's right.

That's where you want to go right there, right?

That is correct.

Yes.

You don't have to have a license.

That's that's where you're going.

It's the same as using your state wide license, Right?

Correct.

How many tags does a youth under the age of 12 who doesn't have to buy a license, they're entitled to one antlered animal.

And what anything else they are allowed to a second deer.

Yes.

So they since they are licensed and permit exempt, they would be- it would all depend on what zone they're hunting in.

But for instance, if if the youth was hunting in zone one, then they could take one antler deer and an unlimited number of antlerless deer.

Okay.

And that is what will all be included basically because they are licensed exempt.

Okay.

So if you wanted to take two antlerless deer opening morning in a zone one.

They're allowed to do that.

That's correct.

Yes.

Okay.

And then if for the if they buy the youth hunting license and youth deer permit or they buy the youth sportsmen, that includes those that permit is good for four deer.

Okay.

A total of four deer.

Again, they need to check the guide for what what zone they're hunting in and then the bag limits for that zone.

You know, if they're in the zone four, then they're obviously a lot more strict on their bag limit than if they're hunting in a, you know, a zone one.

So youth deer season, it's a great weekend.

Usually that's when the deer movement is really kind of starting to pick up.

You start to seeing a little bit of deer move in and doing some rubbing and starting to potentially do scrapes.

And it's a great time of year to get a youth out, but youth in those age groups, they are also going to have the regular hunting season under the same rules and regulations.

Correct.

So, you know, we've had some pretty mild years and November is not a bad time to take a youth out either.

So it's a great opportunity.

And then later in the year, we have a another youth season right in December.

What's the dates on that?

You know, it's it's the Saturday and Sunday after Christmas, I believe this year it's December 31st and January 1st because it's on the weekend.

So depending on what the weather's like, if you got a youth that that for whatever reason, schedule doesn't allow them to get out there, parents or grandparents or whoever takes them doesn't get them out there.

There's another opportunity later on in the year, right in the new year.

Sure.

To get to get children out again.

I don't hear a lot of people using that that season as much.

Yeah, I occasionally check a few, maybe a handful here and there, but not not near as many as you do during the, you know, the actual Youth Weekend.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So and something else to mention on that too, safety wise.

So that youth that's under the age of 15 hunting with that firearm, the adult that accompanies them, the adult can only accompany two hunters at once.

And then that adult has to be in a position to take immediate control of that firearm.

So they have to be with the youth at all times while they're actually- and everyone, regardless if for hunting or not hunting, needs to have hunters orange and that vest and hat.

that is correct.

Yes.

Unbroken orange like the camouflage orange camo doesn't work.

You know, a small discoloration like a logo or something like that is perfectly fine.

All right.

Next questions from Mike Barber wants to know what can be done to help his rabbit population on his property.

He said it seems like the foxes are killing all his rabbits.

First off, what are you seeing about rabbit population?

Are you hearing much about rabbit populations here in the state of Kentucky?

Oh, this year I've seen a whole lot and I've heard some pretty good results on rabbits as far as rabbit populations.

As far as rabbit populations and foxes, you know, I'll come back to cover protection for those for the rabbits escape cover.

That kind of stuff.

Is, is is key.

You can also utilize trapping.

You know, we have a trapping season to enjoy and partake in and trap some of the foxes.

But the main thing is, is to provide cover for escape from from the predators , being a hawk, fox, bobcat, coyote, anything is some kind of cover so they can get away.

You know, it's amazing.

I've seen a lot of rabbits this year.

It seems like this is going to be a really, really, really good year for rabbits.

It's amazing, rabbits, You know, you may see a couple of rabbits that are being taken by hawks or by foxes or coyotes or wherever it may be.

Rabbits are really they they survive due to numbers.

It's a it's a breeding game, is it not?

Because you look at the hunting guide that I was looking at, that the other day and it talks about an Eastern Cottontail, how many times that Eastern Cottontail may have offspring in a year and how many offspring are in each of those litters?

It's not uncommon for a adult female rabbit to have nearly 20 offspring a year, right?

Yeah.

So it's it's a numbers game, though.

Some of those are going to be picked off and taken.

And that's that's just unfortunately, part of the game, by hunters or by other means.

But if you want to increase your chances of those offspring, cover right?

Yeah I mean the more you can ensure that that offspring will survive, you know, by cover and protecting them the more you have to hunt.

Yeah.

And if you went to a place last year and you didn't see that many rabbits, you might want to give it another try this year because one or two females that place might be loaded this year.

Could be.

It happens fast.

Dan, how many acres do you need to have to manage your habitat on your property?

More is always better, but depending on where your property sits, how it sits and your again goes back to your objectives for your property is where it goes.

But you know, it's always good if you have a small piece of property.

It's a wonderful opportunity to go knocking on your neighbor's door and say, Hey, let's work together.

Let's come up with a plan that we can maximize the benefits because deer 640 acre say home range.

The more you manage that, the better off everybody is.

Yeah.

So you're not just on that one big buck on camera.

You produce multiple big bucks on a group of property.

So, you know, the size, you know, the more you have, the better.

But I do think please give us a call.

You know, we can go talk to you and see what your objectives are and see when do.

I mean, if someone calls you up with 15 acres of property, would Department of Fish and Wildlife send an individual out there to kind of help them out?

Or if they have a certain number where, you know, we do like to say, you know, 20 acres or more, but at the same time, call our biologists they may have some time.

They may pull a map up, you know, get your address, give you some advice and see because, you know, again, there may be some good opportunity there depending on what you're trying to manage.

Well, yeah.

Okay.

There you go.

So give your biologist a call and you can reach your biologist on our website.

If you go on there and pull up your county, you can find your conservation officer, your private lands biologist, your fisheries biologist.

All of those individuals can be found right there at the Department of Fish and Wildlife website.

At fw.ky.gov, there's a page where it drops down, its either a map or you can drop down by your county and see all of your contacts.

Yes.

Even your conservation educator that's assigned to your county.

You can find all that information right there.

Very useful.

Next question.

Dan, how many acres do you need?

We already just did that, Andy.

Any CWD found in the surveillance zone last year, we talked a little bit about this.

Answer█s no.

Yeah, so tested about 4700 samples that we certainly couldn't have done without our hunters.

We had over 95% compliance, right?

Yeah.

So that blew us away.

Looking back on it, everybody was happy to come see our folks at the check stations.

And I think honestly, everybody had a pretty good time down there.

Yeah.

Enjoyed talking to the, you know, different hunters down there.

So but either way, no detections whatsoever from that zone or across the state.

interesting enough so people confuse sick deer for sick deer, regardless of what the issue is and why it's sick.

The other disease, not CWD, but HD.

Yup.

we had some hot spots this year, right?

And kind of around the louisville area.

Yeah.

Just, just here very recently that should be winding down.

█As cold as it felt this morning.

You know once that first frost hits it kills the midges that move that around so and that certainly with with HD also kind of known as blue tongue different but but the same those deer get that or did in a few days.

Yeah.

CWD differs because they can have that for 18 months to two years.

Yeah.

Okay.

So with CWD you're not necessarily seeing sick deer and we wouldn't expect to see any where we're at here in Kentucky.

You know, we want to find it early.

We're likely, you know, if we find it, we're going to find it in a perfectly healthy looking deer.

So that's really why we did the mandatory check stations last year and had to get those samples.

Yeah, because they're not just sticking out there.

You know, we're running around picking up sick deer.

So, you know, last year we went down and went to a check station and took a deer to a check station.

And it was it was much quicker and it was actually fun and educational.

Yeah, but if you're an area and you want to get your deer checked and you're not near check station, there's other options to get that done as well because you're talking about most likely a CWD deer when when you if you were to take the CWD deer not in Kentucky, because there's not any there that we know of so far.

But if you were to take a CWD deer, you may not visibly know that it has that.

You know, you're saying that it's going to be perfectly healthy if you want to get that tested.

There's a process for that as well.

Right?

There is.

We've got a great system.

So it's in the hunting guide.

We've got a list of freezer locations.

Okay.

These are mainly sporting goods stores, county ag extension offices.

We've got you'll see a little chest freezer.

We've got them wrapped, you know, with a with a decal on them.

You'll know what it is.

We've got everything you need right there to remove the head of the deer.

So if it's a doe, just remove the head of the deer.

We'll have bags.

We'll have tags to fill out.

You pull off the end of the tag and leave with that 4 to 6 weeks.

We should you should be able to look up your results of that test.

We encourage people to use that.

It's there for the taking.

They're pretty well evenly distributed across the state.

We don't have them everywhere.

It's it's a program that we're growing, but it's relatively easy.

We've got one right out front of our office here in Frankfort.

So the process is really easy to check that too, you go on the website.

There's a box.

So you go in there, you put your number in, bam.

It tells you, it gives you all your information and tells you that the deer was not did not have CWD.

That's all I've ever seen.

I've only checked one and yeah, it's luckily that's all it's ever showed.

But so it's a pretty easy process if you want to get that done.

It is.

all right.

I'll tell you what I am.

I have enjoyed these last couple mornings getting up with the need to put a sweat sweatshirt on to go outside it.

It's been great.

What's your favorite type of hunting?

What do you like to do the most?

And I'm looking for I'm a waterfowl hunter.

Grew up in Western Kentucky.

That's kind of in my blood, but my probably my favorite weekend of the year is early muzzleloader season.

okay I don't like being cold the weather's usually nice the deer usually moving and it's kind of really for me kind of the first time probably in the tree stand.

Yeah.

Typical fall.

Jacob.

What's your favorite type of hunting?

I like a couple of bird hunting, quail, grouse.

I got a good bird dog I like to hunt behind.

It's just an enjoyable time to get out and see Kentucky.

I mean, it's a good opportunity all the way across the state.

Woodcock.

Quail, grouse.

I mean, you can literally go from east to west and have something to hunt and check out some of our WMAs.

I mean, there's, there's some good opportunities on those WMAs for all those.

It's interesting.

Rufus.

What if you got one more day to hunt, What's what's that?

What are you going to hunt?

Probably spring turkey.

Okay.

Yeah, I enjoy spring turkey quite a bit.

And, I go down south every year and hog hunt down in Alabama.

I enjoy that quite a bit, too.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a lot of fun.

It's that's one of the beautiful things about here in Kentucky because I love the early archery deer season, but right behind that is hunting behind a pack of beagles rabbit hunting, I mean, those two things are probably my favorite.

But if you ask 20 different sportsmen and women in the state of Kentucky, what's their favorite hunting activity, you might very well get ten or 15 different answers.

And people would immediately think, oh, well, it's going to be deer hunting, but waterfowl, turkey hunting, super popular, some of the small game hunting, the different ways that you can deer hunt here in the state of Kentucky and now bear and elk hunting is becoming more and more popular.

There really are a lot of opportunities, which just makes me smile and almost giddy to know that that time of year is here.

Now we get to experience all that over the next three or four months.

So if you're a person that you really say, Hey, I'm a deer hunter and I deer hunt that opening weekend at Deer Camp every single year.

If you love it and you really enjoy it, look for other opportunities because the state of Kentucky offers so many different, different opportunities throughout the year, throughout the fall.

And even, you know, we're talking about spring turkey hunting.

So there's all kinds of opportunities out there.

So that's interesting because no one said the same thing here.

Of course, it's a small sample size, but I always ask people what your favorite and it's you never know.

It runs the gamut.

Waterfowl to turkey, to deer to who knows what.

So I hear people say frog gigging, you know, that's their favorite, favorite thing in the world to do.

So it's just it's really cool.

All right.

Next questions from Gabriel.

He wants to know how long an elk is pregnant.

How long the elk in pregant?

How long is an elk from conception to birth?

How long?

You know?

Yeah.

So the peak of our rut is about September, I think September 17.

So we do some studies can measure, you know, fetuses from our January hunt.

I'm gonna have to remember back to my to my dissertation defense.

I think it's somewhere between 240 and 260 days.

Okay.

So most of our elk calves we sort of have a peak birth date, right, about June one.

Okay.

So, Gabriel could be one of your counterparts testing your intelligence.

He may have stumped you just about ten days, you know, give or take.

You know where there.

next question is from, Griff, Who wants to know what determines the change in deer zones for a county?

That's a good question because there's quite a few factors that go into that.

He wants to talk about what it takes to change a zone.

Yeah, I'm happy to.

We get those questions pretty frequently.

So we've got sort of a foundational deer model that predicts the number of deer per square mile by county, but that's just one of the tools that we use.

And so, you know, we're here to talk to the hunters, you know, through our through our commission and sort of strike a balance between what we're seeing out there and what our models say.

You know, we're taking in everything from, you know, road kills in that county.

The crop depredation permits that we may or may not be issuing for that county for agricultural damage.

And just more or less kind of kind of coming to a compromise and putting that in the zone with our zone system.

Really, if you're at two or three, that's kind of the sweet spot.

That's where we want you know, just just is a very generalized description.

Zone ones have too many deer, in zone four we would like to raise that population.

So really, if you're in a two or three, you're out there and we don't there's you know, there's not a lot of benefit from bouncing from a from a 2 to 3.

So, you know, that's kind of how we've got them boxed in.

But it's certainly something talk to your commissioner, talk to us, raise whatever concern it might be.

And we'll we'll compare that to what we're saying.

You know, it's interesting.

I probably get once a week you get a phone call from someone throughout the state of Kentucky that wants to bring up some thought or idea they're having on a rule or regulation change.

And a lot of times, like the really good rules are regulations are good, good thoughts.

Right.

But they're wanting someone to bounce this off of.

And I got zero impact.

But for a person who really wants to kind of make their suggestion or their thoughts or what they're seeing in the field known to the Department of Fish Wildlife, there is a method in place and a way to do that.

Well, tell me about that.

Yeah.

So, ah, you know, the beauty of the system, our commission system, we've got set up, you've got a representative.

So all that's on our website, you can see what commission district you're in, see who represents you and basically have a direct line to input suggestions.

I myself personally love, love hearing from our hunters.

That's a big that's a big benefit of this job.

So, you know, if there's something that you don't agree with or, you know, even better or something you do agree with that we█re doing, call us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Happy to talk with you.

But interestingly enough, If a person calls you and makes a suggestion that you go, wow, that's a great suggestion.

You can't just go and make that change.

No, there's a process.

There█s a process that requires multiple commissioners getting input, public input.

They█ll have a time for a meeting for other people to put in additional thoughts and ideas out there on the table, get the biological side aspect into it and it has to be voted on and passed and it's usually at least a year, at least at least a year and sometimes even longer than that.

So if you do have a suggestion and it's a good idea and you contact your your representative or the Department of Fish Wildlife takes a little bit of time.

It does, yeah.

We can't make it.

We can't change anything overnight, which is good.

Yeah.

And that's good because we don't want the rules and regulations changing every single time you turn your turn your head, you know, one would know any of the rules, right?

Yeah, that's right.

So but yeah, that's a there there is a process in place to get to make your thoughts known.

And we appreciate that input.

All right.

Next question from Logan.

What are some of the hidden gems or overlooked public hunting areas in the state of Kentucky?

Boy, this is a good question.

So Kentucky is kind of a big place and it depends on what you're hunting for, right?

Yeah.

But tell me some.

We'll go through the room, talk about some opportunities that they that they you know, people will live either close to you or some areas, you know, people go to and hunt with success and you go, man, it's just not that pressured either.

What would you say?

I'm going to say right off the bat, and it's something our small game biologist might kill me because he took a nice turkey out there this spring.

But some of our some of our properties in the east that are traditionally our elk properties that are strip mine properties that we've got an agreement for public access are underutilized for some of the some of the less popular seasons and even for for deer and turkey season.

So, you know, what comes to my mind, Boone Forest WMA, elk forest WMA, and Asher Hunter Access area.

Okay, there's there's parts of Bell and Lesley County with almost 150,000 acres and I'll throw Ataya WMA in there as well, acres that you can't even think about hunting in an entire season.

And we'll be down there working October, November and not see anybody.

Nobody.

All day.

Yeah you know that's that's pretty common.

Those places are great.

You can camp, you can really feel like you're kind of having a back country adventure hunt.

Oh, yeah.

You know, try not to try not to run into a bear and see some elk.

So that's that's my tip.

There you go.

That's a great tip to.

If you want to start a new family tradition or get some friends together and start a start a deer camp.

And you don't really have a good spot to go to.

Yup.

Here you go.

Absolutely.

You can't get any more wild wilderness and the opportunity to take a big deer down there or a big turkey.

Some of the you know, the numbers, a lot of them are zone three and four areas.

But some of the biggest deer I've seen the state of Kentucky have come from eastern Kentucky.

Yeah, there are some really, really big deer down there.

The numbers aren't as big, but there are some big deer there.

Where's your secret hunting hole?

Tell us your secret hunting spot.

I don't I don't know if I want to do that.

And it's the well, and this is something that I'm and I'd hate to stay on that, but I'm actually planning a trip for myself.

I told you I like to hunt upland game birds.

I mean, I've I've flushed and shot at quail, grouse, woodcock, rabbit all in one day.

All these places that John was talking about, there are wonderful areas to to go in and take part in.

And and it's big country.

You have a wide room to run, especially Turkey on running and gunning.

I mean, they're really good pieces of property and all of our other, you know or you know, or high priority areas that the department just identified.

Right now, all those are wonderful areas with good management getting done on them.

So I really hate to pick one of them and say, you know, this is a gem, they're all gems.

So and in in in certain parts of the year, certain species are under on and on.

Some of them.

And then do keep in mind they are public areas.

So when you go there, just be- be ready for that.

Rufus you have a place that you go and check hunters and you go there.

You go, man.

I can't believe there's not people here today.

Well, that's a good spot.

Probably that too.

In the region that I work in, the area I work in the most is Miller Welch, Central Kentucky, WMA there in Madison and then veterans in Scott County.

Okay.

Those are pretty well utilizers usually always somebody there doing something on one of those WMAs whether it's taking a walk or hunting or shooting using the range like the at the Miller Welch WMA or you know they have a lot of the trap.

That one's kind of a little bit different WMA than most of the rest of ours, but they've got the trap ranges and all that stuff down there, so.

I tell you, the one I would- the one I would throw out there.

And it's funny because I got a phone call last week about how come we haven't been out and showcased all the hunting opportunities that exist on Fort Knox.

Now you're talking about a big piece of property.

No, they have their own biologists.

Well, we don't do a lot as an agency on Fort Knox, but they have biologists that do some work out there.

And apparently there are an extensive amount of hunting opportunities on Fort Knox, Kentucky.

And I don't know how many thousands of acres or 100,000 acres That is?

it's massive.

And we all know about the quota hunt.

But there are other hunting opportunities out there outside of the normal firearm deer season.

So that's something you might want to look into as well.

If you're looking for a place to go and hunt, that may be an opportunity.

So all right.

Next question here.

Let's see here.

All right.

Earl Lowe, moving forward, is it possible to have bear regulations in place earlier in the year?

So they're going to have more time to plan?

I would I would love that.

That's our that's our goal every year.

And I thought that we were well ahead of the curve last year to get there.

You know, my goal every year is to get them in the guide.

We've changed them often because we've we're we're adapting to a growing population.

We're adapting to to a group of hunters that are learning and kind of maybe want different things as we as we go along.

So that's always the goal is to get it in the guide.

Unfortunately, with kind of coming off the tail-end of COVID, everything has been slowed down.

You know, the various hoops that that regs got to jump through have gotten a little bit tighter here lately.

We've got a lot of opportunities here in Kentucky.

And, you know, fall is just getting started.

We've got a lot of hunting seasons ahead.

I've got a lot of things that I'm looking forward to.

I know you guys, not only do you work for the department of fish and wildlife, but you you participate in the outdoors as well.

And you talk about coming back from Colorado.

What's what's the favorite part of your job?

What do you, i mean you get to do a lot of cool things with bears.

And we've done shows with you.

We've been out holding bear cubs and we've we've went out and caught elk you know, we've done a lot of cool things.

What's your favorite part of your job?

Strangely enough, my favorite part is talking with our with our elk hunters over the summer as they prepare for the hunt.

Oh, yeah.

And with with Joe and I going to Colorado, we were kind of all doing the same thing.

I was just preparing for a hunt somewhere different.

Yeah, that's a lot of fun.

And when they're successful, there's nothing better than that.

Oh, yeah.

So, Jacob, what's your favorite part of your job?

The interaction with landowners, you know, having the ability to talk to them and show them what their potential, their property is and then watch them follow through with that and then to talk to them about the results they've seen from that and you know, when they go out.

So we're talking about the hunting aspects of this, but habitat management█s 365 days a year, you know, providing what the wildlife needs for the whole year.

And then when you do get to go hunt the enjoyment of taking a deep breath and enjoying your scenery and, you know, hopefully harvesting because you have put that habitat on the ground.

So the interaction of landowners is, is my favorite part of the job.

Yeah.

Rufus, what's your favorite part about being a conservation officer?

I would probably say that the interaction with the sportsmen and the landowners as well, I enjoy getting out there, you know, driving, driving out on patrol or whatever and see a landowner, just pull over and talk and make conversation, see how things are going.

Sometimes that leads into information or tips that I use like “Somebody was through here the other night shining a light” or, you know, something like that.

But building those relationships is, you know what one of the things I enjoy and then and it's not just as a conservation officer, it takes it takes the whole department to do that.

But it's just the thought of knowing that we're we're giving back to the resource and that we're we're hopefully making it better when we█re gone than it was when we came here.

You know, I grew up with my dad and I used to always say that he had time to take me hunting or fishing, but now that I'm older, he made time.

He didn't have the time.

He made the time.

So, yeah, you know, when I can remember we saw very few deer back when I was growing up in the eighties and stuff like that.

And what it is now.

So and it took the officers before me, the biologists before me and all that to get it to where it is today.

So just knowing that that we can make that difference to leave for the next generation coming up better than what we even had it.

Yeah.

You know, for me, I think it's a I think I've been in every county in the state of Kentucky at some point in time.

And seeing that the different focus and the different opportunities that exist and how passionate people that are outdoors, I mean, talking about a passionate group, these people, they just they they they count the days down to whatever opportunities they want to participate in.

They count today's down, mark them off calendar.

And so it's very interesting in a world that we live in today where it's so tech driven and everybody wants to be on their cell phone or on their computer screen, the favorite part of every one of our jobs was the interaction with other people who also like to do those type of things.

And I'll tell you what, if you if you if that means something to you, you know, think about getting those kids off those computers and get them off those off those phones and getting them outdoors.

It's a great opportunity to experience a lifestyle that may mean a lot to them for years and years and years in the future, because the favorite part of all of our jobs, no one said it was filling out an expense report or, oh, you know, that's the unfortunate things that have to be done.

It really is a unique opportunity to communicate with people who like some of the same things that we like and or maybe they█re calling us to tell us they don't like one of the things we do.

You still kind of like hearing other people's aspects and their thoughts on it.

So very, very cool.

Well, I'll tell you what, I've enjoyed tonight's show and hopefully you've enjoyed it as well.

The opportunities this fall are out there.

We got the youth season right around the corner.

Small game hunting is probably one of the best ways to get out and get some exercise and see the entire commonwealth here in the state of Kentucky.

So make sure that you get outside and make time for the kids the next generation and just enjoy getting out and seeing the wildlife.

I want to thank all you guys for joining us today.

Thank you for tuning in.

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

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

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