The Big Outdoors -- 10/4/25

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, good morning, and welcome to the Big Outdoors News
Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati home and the Cincinnati Reds
and the best Bengals coverage, and the UC Bearcats and
the Xavier Musketeers.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
We got football? Am I right? Danny?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Am I up to date on that? Not being a
sports Gerbil, You're correct? Thank you very much. Okay, Well,
we're going to do something this morning. I've never had
an opportunity to do in thirty two years. And I
don't know why it took me so long to get
to it, but you know it, sometimes it's just the
way it is. And I have John Akers with me.

(00:35):
He is with the Kentucky Department of Fishing Wildlife and
he is a program coordinator for their twenty twenty five
fall auction, which is today, by the way.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
And am I right on that? Did I have a
date wrong?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
No?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Today's October fourth? So so is it today or is
it Monday the sixth?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Monday? Monday? Okay?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
All right, Okay, my apologies, I'm misreading something anyway, John,
this is I'm I.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
How do I want to say this?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I've never seen so much equipment that's been confiscated by
an agency and it's maybe something boy I'd like to
look into this for like Montana or Colorado. God knows
what might come up, So tell us what is going
to be happening, and then you know, get into some
of the parameters.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
We've got plenty of time this morning, so have.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
About it well. We will open the gates chip at
about seven o'clock. We'll have a registration area where we'll
have a lot of people in excess of five or
six hundred at a time trying to get in and
get registered for the auction. Auction won't start typically till
nine thirty. We'll prolong it for a half iron if

(01:47):
we have a big line of people still getting registered,
but typically it starts up at nine thirty eight. At
ten o'clock in the morning, we will start out with
confiscated items such as cameras, crossbows, guns, traps, anything that's
used in the process of the violation of the Fish

(02:07):
and Wildlife regulation. Then those can be confiscated by the
court and their issue does for resale. And we we
actually work off of a rig that was placed in
our statues many years ago. It's forty five a point
four two thives. But everyone's to look it up and
it's the surplus and excess property ability to auction those

(02:34):
items OFLF and so.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
And of course none of this can be viewed beforehand
before the auction.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Day, correct. And the point point to that is chip
we could have people come in and look things over
for two or three days and then sometimes and it's
happened before. I'm missing parts off things. You know, things
are misplaced, the tags are torn off. So to make
it fair to everybody that shows up and registers at

(03:03):
the auction, we let them view the morning of the sale.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, Now where will this take place? And we'll repeat
that again at the end of the or the end
of the morning.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
So it's at our office headquarters on number one Sportsman's
Lane here in Frankfurt, Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Fantastic. So this is this an outdoor event indoor.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
It is, Okay, rainer shine, It's an outdoor event, So.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Be prepared depending on what the weather is going to be. Yes, sir, okay,
just I guess some of the what are some of
the parameters? What as I noticed, some things are available
only to Kentucky residents. Other things are available to anyone

(03:47):
from outside Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yes, things that are surplus equipment that we purchase as
an agency can be bought by anyone. Things that are
confiscated and addition to firearms that we either own or
have confiscated can only be bought by Kentucky residents. Okay,
and that's part of those statutes.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Okay, fantastic, So everybody, you be prepared for that. I
mean if I was a sportsman or something and somebody looking.
But you can look at this the equipment online, correct.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, a listing. A listing is online. Now there's not
pictures involved, but do your homework. We've got them divined,
you know where they're They're understandable in the language, and
you can look at you know, there's a gun on there,
we tell you what kind it is, what size, caliber,
and hall. If there's a tractor, we list the type
of tractor it is or ATV's the same way. We've

(04:37):
got some Yamall big Bear four hundreds I think in
it this year, and a Caboda UTV. So there's there's
a variety of of of off road equipment. There's a
variety of farm equipment that we use on our wm as.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
This is how long does something like this take to
accomplish from start to finish.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well, I start collecting things twice a year. We have
an auction the first Monday in May and the first
Monday in October, and I'll start taking items in from
staff across the state. Law enforcement will typically bring in
confiscated goods towards the end of that season prior to
the auction, but we store house at catalog getting start

(05:20):
getting it compiled a couple months before each one.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, listen, you sit tight, John Acres.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
I'm quite fascinated by this, and I just recently got
into auction, going to auctions, and I'm retired, okay, so
I'll get a little time on my hands, and I
find it quite fun. And sometimes food's great with a
food truck. So John, you sit tight. We'll be back
with more in the Big Outdoors News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.
Back in the moment, seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
My guest is John Acres.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
He's the program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish
and Wildlife. I guess what you'd call a bi annual auction,
which is coming up at the Office Complex Outdoors on
Monday morning, October sixth, and John welcome back. So, you know,
on a typical auction day, how long does the auction

(06:14):
actually run? And I'd love to hear that COVID story too.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah yeah, okay, okay, Well, typically chip an auction to
run from nine to two or three o'clock, you know,
four or five hour auction is a standard auction. It
depends on how fast it goes and how fast people
are raising their hand and pushing through things. We don't
We don't antagonize the auctioneer to elevate prices and drag

(06:39):
it on. We want to sell it and move it
and be done with it. And so we run through
them pretty good sometimes.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
But that's quite good. Yeah yeah, Now.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Let me I'll give you the COVID side of that.
When we were we were in COVID and we were
mandated not to have any public access or any kind
of uh you know, personal contact. We canceled our auctions
for about three years. I think it was a photo
of five auctions total. And so in the course of that,
business went on as usual, and as things broke down

(07:10):
and we decided to buy and trade things in we
collected farm equipment and surplus property that was bigger than
I've ever seen, and I've been there for about thirty
five years. So when that morning broke and nobody had
been to an auction in three or four years, we
had a line out to the highway almost of vehicles.

(07:32):
We had a line of eleven hundred and twelve hundred
people in line at one time getting registered, and the
Sheriff's office actually shut down Highway sixty coming into the
complex on both ends because the traffic was backed up
all the way in town. So anyway, so we know
not to save them up anymore like that.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Well, you know, I hope you don't have to do that.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I imagine the state police, Kentucky State Police were just
awfully happy, weren't they.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Well they helped us work that, one preacharged. So yeah,
very nice.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I think you do know some people you do not?

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, well I know them now better than I did before.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
So yeah, yeah, So.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
At your auctions, did you sign up when you get in?
When you get there, you take cash, check, credit card?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Is how does that work?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Chip? We'll take cash, credit card, check. If you bring
us a check and you buy an item or a
volume of materials more than five thousand dollars, you need
a letter from your bank show them that you are
covered to that purchase. Fair enough, but typically you know,
people will pay cash because there is a virus premium

(08:47):
and there is a three percent on credit card use.
So like other auctions, I think that standard across the
world now. So if you buy some one hundred dollars,
you're going to end up paying about one hundred and
thirteen or something.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
So yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
So in the case of firearms, if you buy a
firearm at this auction, does that can you take it
with you or do you do you have to go
does it have to go through like a you know,
an ffoul licensed individual.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Here's here's the process of that. We have the guns here.
We don't let people handle guns anymore because people are
crazy these days, and so we hold the guns up
on an auction block. They show it to the public,
they show size of it. They don't work the action,
they don't point it towards people. We do in a
safe manner, and people see what the gun is. People

(09:40):
that have looked at our listing before know what that
gun is, and they can see how good it looks.
And if there's a gun that is damage broken or
illegal in any way we have those destroyed with they
don't go to the auction block. These are good guns, now,
well they have a rust or scratch on them or something.
Sometimes it's possible because you know, we don't have some
those treats are gun that we've been and we've confiscated

(10:02):
from someone. So in the process of that, you bat
it gun. It has a lot number, We take it
back and put in our building. Nobody handles it. When
they pay for that item, they take that receipt and
payment and they go down to and we have a
contract with the nearest gun store and that's Gilbert's Guns.
This is about a half them out in the roof

(10:24):
from us right now, and we take the guns to them,
they take possession of them. Then FTL Licensed dealership and
that's where that process of the background check has to
be performed.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Okay, is that on site, Dens, that's gun store on
It's not on site.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
No, no, you can't. In the other days, we used
to do it them on site, but we don't anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Okay, Okay, Well that's for those out there that are
are not in favor of my second mannerment rights.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
You've heard it from the tour.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
So sit tight more with John Akers with the Kentucky
Department of Fish and Wildlife's two two five action in
just a moment on the Big Outdoor seven hundred WLW
Cincinnati News Radio is seven hundred WLW Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Danny, did I mention what's happening around here today? I
think I forgot?

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Did I?

Speaker 1 (11:12):
First segment?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, Well anyway, Gary Jeff's up at the bottom of
the hour with his usual cast of characters and Michael
k Allen the same thing from nine to noon, and
blah blah blah blah blah. That's the day, and it's
gonna be a hell of a lot of fun. That's
how I look at it. You know this is around here,
I know, I know. Thanks Danny for helping me out there.
John Akers is with us. He's with the Kentucky Department

(11:34):
of Fish and Wildlife program coordinator for the twenty twenty
five Fall auction. I know we need to we need
to catch up on some additional rules here regarding firearms.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
So you get it out there.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Shut me to get it out there.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
I want you to get it out there.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yes, okay, here's what it is. And on all these goods.
Chip everybody has to pass a background check, and so
we do that off site at a FTO licensed dealership
which is just right down the road. So after the
auction of the guns is completed, just the guns only,
we will have staff, our law enforcement guys will take

(12:12):
those guns down and process them over and give them
to that dealership and they will in turn take paid recipients.
After they pay us, they'll go down to the receipt
and they'll do the background check. And they've already got
a listing of the guns, so we've expedited us pretty good.
All they have to do is look up the serial
number of the gun, but the person's name on if
they fill out the background check, and then they see

(12:34):
if they pass. As long as they pass, they can
pick up the gun that day when they're done. If
there's a hold on it, sometimes there's a twenty four
hour hold, sometimes there's a three day hold or a
seven day hold, they'll have to come back and as
soon as it's cleared.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
So well, you know, I'm looking at your list of
fire arms and it's quite quite impressive, and you know,
just doesn't matter, I guess, just a point of discussion.
Just do these things like go for maybe half their
value or something like that. I mean, I you just
never know.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm torn between this answers. So I'm gonna give it
to you this way. No, they don't. They don't sell
cheaper than you boum its store. Okay, sometimes they'll be
worth more because sometimes they're somebody's grandfather's gun and he
went it back. Yeah, and so if there's some little
value to it, who knows what it'll go for. But
in most cases, I would bet in most cases the

(13:29):
value of the guns are probably eighty to ninety percent
of what they're worth.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Well, it's it's an auction, and you just you know,
you just know, you never know. And this this is
a darn big one. So I got to ask you, John,
what else is your responsibility with Kentucky Department of Fish
and Wildlife? Because you're a very nuts and bolts gonna guy.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, let me see if I can simplify without spending
the rest of the day on it. I'm the I'm
the guy that that monitors are inventory agency. If we
have trucks or boats, or motors or guns or any
kind of equipment at our three camps. We have three
conservation camps in the state. All of the equipment our

(14:11):
agency utilizes uses and is in possession that are fixed assets.
And a fixed asset is like a tool or a
commodity with a serial number. We don't inventory corn or
chemicals or things like that that we utilize. That's that's
a usable commodity.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
So if you can, if you can imagine anything worth
five hundred dollars or more that you can purchase in
the state of Kentucky, that fish welefid use. I have
it listed and a monitor, it's whereabouts and who's in
possession of it?

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Okay, and that's all your your all your game warnings
and biologists.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
And audio staff, field staff. Yeah anything.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
I never gave that any thought whatsoever in thirty two years.
Somebody has to keep track of all that crap.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Well I can. I can make it uglier. The second
part of that is the vehicles. I monitor the insurance
on the vehicles and the damage and the repairs through
our fleet management program people, so it does stop.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Did they give you an award every year?

Speaker 3 (15:21):
I got one one year. Yeah, okay. I have to
retire to get it so well that that's that's just awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Let's uh, you know we're going to hit a break
here shortly. But I and you're with the agency thirty
two years.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
I've been here since eighty nine. I retired for a
year and then they talked to me into coming back.
And and I've dropped my keys on their desk two
three times that they won't let me quit. So but
I'm working on them. I'm working on Okay.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So have they given you an apprentice yet?

Speaker 3 (15:58):
You know I've got one coming next believe it or not.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, because obviously that's what they hadn't planned on, is
that they needed to get somebody in there with you, okay,
for you to train to do it the way it
should be done or has to be done to satisfy
all the regulations, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
I'm I'm glad you've recognized that, and you said it
for me. I won't have to go preach it again,
so good.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, you know, tell me I'll call your boss.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Okay, we'll give you a number when we hang up. Okay,
all right, but.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
I'm not letting you go yet because I got a
two minute wrap up. I want you to come back
and give us the particular this again. Thanks all right,
John said, tight with that, I'll be back at a moment,
chip Park, The Big Outdoors News Radio seven hundred w
l W, Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
News Radio seven hundred w LW. Hey, we're back The.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Big Outdoors News Radio, seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati, Chip Park.
My guest, John Acres, Kentucky Department Official, My life and John,
I've had a fun morning.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Good good.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
I can't thank you enough for the time, and you've
enlightened me on a number of different fronts. So give
people the particulars for the auction. Your twenty twenty five auction.
Monday morning, October.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Six, YEP Gates gates a little at seven o'clock, come
in and register. We'll start the auction if depending on
the registration how well that's going, about nine thirty, sometimes ten,
we'll we'll wait a little bit, but it'll start here
at the at the confiscated area where we keep guns
and confiscated items, and then we'll progress on down the

(17:38):
field into the surplus items, surplus vehicles, farm equipment, UTV's, ATVs,
that type of equipment tools. Just generalize stuff that is
on the list. If anybody wants to get online and
look at it on our website.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Okay, well, I'll tell you what. That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
And folks, gosh, you got Christmas coming up, so get
out there and get something right. John Acres, thank.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
You very much. And I'll look up catching catching up
down the road.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
But you know, if you retired, then I gotta I
gotta work with your apprentice next time around.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Well, I'll make sure I introduce them. Please.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
You appreci all right, take care of that. We gotta
get out of here. Gary Jeffers.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Next The Big Outdoors News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Be Safe in the woods and safe on the water.