12-1-24 Deer Harvest Numbers From Around The Area

On tonight's show, Jim and Scott discussed deer harvest numbers and trends. They also took calls from listeners on the timing of the rut, concerns about buck to doe ratios and observations about the modern gun deer season.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, folks, I promised we're going to talk about
some of the deer numbers that have come in from Kentucky,
and we're going to give you some reports out of
Indiana as well. They operate a little differently. Scott, if
you will to fill us in on what the numbers
look like at this point and buck to Doe and
some of the variations in the weapons.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, we'll talk state wide numbers right now, because we've
got some percentages that we were hoping with balance out
to give us some better harvest ratio numbers with last
weekend being the close of the Kentucky modern firearm season.
But it's actually not any better news, Gym. We're running
right there at that sixty male harvest percentage to you know,

(00:47):
forty percent on female deer. We are staying where there
is you know, a substantial amount one hundred and six
thousand deer. Basically we're legally telea checked in to the
department for being killed with a firearm, whether that's during
the quota hunt or the state wide season. We're running
around forty four hundred deer with a muzzleoder. We're almost

(01:10):
we're knocking on the door of ten thousand deer being
killed with a crossbow, and I'm glad to see that
with our traditional and modern archery equipment sticking string type
vertical bows versus horizontal bows, we still have thirteen thousand
deer being harvested with traditional or compound archery equipment. So

(01:33):
good to see that because a lot of states, as
you know, and I think we'll tend to see this
trend happen in Kentucky. We'll see where the crossbow harvest
will actually exceed the archery harvest after a certain number
of years. And I see more and more folks going
that route for the right reasons and the wrong reasons.

(01:53):
And we can discuss that tonight at another time, But overall,
a lot of folks still holding a buck tag in
their pocket from the folks that I associate with. So
I know that our male deer harvest is going to
continue to go up as folks get ready for the
late muzzloader season and trying to put late season tactics

(02:15):
in place with archie equipment. And I do think that
we'll see an influence of our dough harvest. Depends on
what gives us over these next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yes, sir, Scott, if you will give the muzzleloader number
against cross Bowl, I'm real interested in that.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Come back again. I had a hard time hearing you.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Muzzleloader number versus cross Bowl. What was it again? Please?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, your muzzleloader harvest for the whole state, it's forty four.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
One hundred, basically four four.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Hundred and seventeen deer legally checked in on TeleCheck with
a muzzleloader and crossbow is ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
And that's as of you know tonight, So.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
More than twice as many at this point now are
being killed with Crossbow's mother lord, which that's a very
interesting statistic and we'll we'll dive into that on another
program now, folks, again, we're doing open lines tonight. I
want to give those numbers again because we'd love your
comments about these numbers and about what you're seeing in

(03:24):
your area. There five O two five seven one eighty
four eighty four. It's five seven one.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Eight four eight four or toll free eight hundred four
four four eighty four eighty four.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Uh, Scott, that trend you talked about in the other
states has been very consistent across the board, and what
has happened and as you mentioned, We've got late another
Loder season coming, so obviously that number is gonna climb.
It'll be interesting to see where those numbers into. I

(04:00):
don't have any feel for that, honestly, because it's gonna
depend on what you mentioned. Weather. It's going to be
a big factor.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
We look Jim.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And what we're able to do with outdoor radio, and
you know, talking with folks across Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, the
states that we travel in, and you know, we we
don't want to take the platform on a Sunday night
to act like deer hunting is terrible. We all love it.

(04:32):
We've got a deer herd that we're all very passionate about.
The problem is is we're seeing, unfortunately, more and more
time Afield is letting our eyes and our harvest prove
that our deer herd is not doing very well when it.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Comes to.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
The sometimes the buckted old ratio, sometimes it's on the
trophy deer ratio. And what I want to say is this,
it's time that we start looking at restructuring a lot
of things for both Kentucky and Indiana specifically. We're probably
at a point where we need to start reevaluating zones.
It's probably at a point where we need to start

(05:15):
reevaluating whether or not we're just over the counter states.
We probably need to even look at what dates our
hunting seasons run, with which weapons we are able.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
To hunt with.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
And none of this is brought up by me to
bring negativity towards the value and the importance of deer hunting.
And it's not to focus on just harvesting big trophy deer.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
It's brought up because of the fact that there's so.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Many everyday working people and young kids that aren't getting
the experience of deer hunting that I used to have
when I was younger. Now, a lot of folks in
the older age class fifty sixty, seventy years old, they'll
all tell you that we have more deers than ever before.
I just want to see things get back Jim to

(06:02):
where if EHD and CWD and non resident and resident
perspectives of our dear herd and our harvest are are
going to impact something that we care so much about,
not just on heritage and tradition, but also on the economics.
We're facing a situation we're going into twenty twenty five,

(06:22):
twenty twenty six a lot of people, biologists and commissioners
and coordinators for multiple states are going to have to
come to the table. They're going to have to row
up their sleeves and get to work.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yes, sir, Yeah, there's no doubt of that. And there's
another thing I'd like folks to chime in about tonight,
if they get a chance for those hers out there
that were put under some of the CWD regulations where
they weren't allowed to feed deer and or you know,

(06:58):
put out there on etc. What their observations were about that.
Did it alter their hunting? Did they feel like, you know,
it hurt, did it help? You know, We'll take it
as it comes, because I'd like to know what's really
the pulse out to the Obviously, we usually feel like
we got a pretty good handle on it. But tonight

(07:19):
it's a great night for us to again open those
lines up and hear from folks about what they're seeing,
you know, the kind of things that are going on
in their areas. So matter of fact, we got a
caller in right now, let's go to time from Butler County. Hey, Tom,
welcome aboard.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
How you doing today's darn Thanks for taking my call. Hey, Tom,
you do it okay, doing fine, doing fine. I wanted
to call in because I've got a big concern and
reference to the buck dove ratio. I mean, we've got
just right at twice as many bucks being taken as
our dough population is exploding, and it's going to hit

(08:05):
a point where, you know, nutrition wise, the big bucks
won't have enough nutrition to get Big Illinois run into that.
That's why they take They do a dough, you must
take a dough first. I'm leaning to that side right there,
because people need to start shooting some doughs to get

(08:25):
the balance back right, you know the way, and our
harvest logs are showing it. I enjoy your show. Keep
up the good work.

Speaker 7 (08:33):
Thank you for letting me to speak.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Thank you so much, Tom.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Tom Butler County Folks that aren't familiar with it, what
used to be known as Old Natural Parkway just right
outside of Bowling Green and the Green River region, substantial
amount of woodlands, cattle.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Pasture, a lot of agg production.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Jim, they're right there at that sixty forty split on
the buck to dough harvest. And if Tom's not left
as yet, wondered what his opinion would be on requiring
non residents to possibly either have to do some type
of quota or points to to come over here in

(09:16):
Hunt in Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Okay, Tom, Tom's not Willida, and we'll addressed that later.
I got a lot of other callers on. Let's go
to Patrick, who's calling from leg today? Patrick, Jim, how
are you? I'm doing just Fencer, I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 8 (09:41):
I'm doing it.

Speaker 7 (09:43):
Just to speak on the dear season I had in
the Spencer County area.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Patrick, you dropped out on us. If you would call
us right back and we'll get to you right away again, Folks,
we are doing open lines tonight. The numbers are five
seven one eighty four eighty four or eight hundred four
four four eighty four eighty four. You know, Scott, Tom
touched on a real important point about the nutritional imbalance

(10:25):
that occurs when you've got too many Does anybody that's
managed properties like you and I have for many many
years sees the results of that because the doughs during
much of the year actually dominate some of the better
food areas when they're farming, for example, because the bucks
don't have antlers once they're testo throne drops, they're very meek.

(10:48):
They tend to be pushed out into some of the
less productive food areas. Button bucks in particular suffer for that.
And that's the that's a big deal.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
The first to Jim.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And when we think about this, I've got a good
friend of mine, Kyle Coley, down around.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
The Murray area.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
When you talk to people from down in the western
part of the state, the deer density, there are a
lot of folks over the last couple of years that
have really had some concerns about seeing low populations of deer.
They've tried to manage and do things on their own.
There's other people that are seeing higher amounts of deer
than ever before. What's really interesting about this deer density

(11:37):
situation is I do believe that the average deer hunter
is starting to come into realization that are buck to
dough ratio in some areas is really out of whack.
And what that's happened, or what that's allowed to happen,
is that the quality of deer have gone down and
they're seeing where not only is it tough to grow

(11:58):
a big deer, Jim, it's harder to get in and
off a farm without being detected. And that's that's something
that if people are going to look at strategy in
order to kill a big buck, you got to be
able to get in there and get out of there
without being detected. And it's not all about the horns,
but you get to the point where der denity is
so thick that you can't even internect you your property
without putting deer on alert.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
You're stacking.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yes, sir, We've got Tom back on the line from
Butler County. Hey, Tom, Hey, sir, I got disconnected there, Yes, sir,
go ahead. I was just you know, I agree with
that sixty forty split there and being able to hunt
a farm. When I come out this afternoon, I got
busted four or five times in different areas. It's just

(12:46):
there's so many dos concentrated into areas and I think
a lot of that concentration we're going to see worse
in the coming months is food source. You know, every
time you get real close to the food plot I'm
setting up, they're talking to you all the one just
looked out here with a thermal. There's fourteen doors in
a five acre field. That's a lot of goats in

(13:09):
one throw, buddy.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
And they are eating that, they're eating that clover field
down hard. It h you know, and we do it
extensive dough management here, but when you're pulling them from
so many different properties, good food plots a whole deer,
but when you're holding so many doughs, it's hard to
get a buck on his feet. It's all give a shot.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
When when would you have if it was up to
you and you had a magic one, when would you
prefer there to be a modern firearm antler list only
deer season in Kentucky for your county?

Speaker 3 (13:46):
But I won't even make you say it for the
whole state.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
I mean, I would say, well, you Western Kentucky is
a little bit different than Eastern Kentucky, but not by much.
But I would I would shoot for that range of
Halloween aspect time frame right before the rut starts kicking off.
But this year, from what I seen, I had more

(14:13):
chasing and rut activity from the week of Halloween till
the second or third of November. So the opening day
of gun season here was actually the second wave that
we caught, and my cameras, you know, confirm what I
was seeing. But I've seen a lot of good mature
bucks that Halloween weekend chasing them first dose that were

(14:35):
coming in.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
So yeah, trying to figure out, you know what what
do we do on these counties that have such a
high you know, ratio of those because Jim, what's your
I mean, what's your opinion. There's a lot of time
out there for hunters to harvest those. It just doesn't
seem like they're doing it. Where do we where's to disconnect?
Because something's happened, hunters are not taking those anymore.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Uh, Here's what I think when you look at the harvest,
I think you can easily and very accurately point your
figure at the number of non residents that are hunting
here now, and they're not doing a job at all
on the dose because they got all the dose, they
can shoot us home. And if you if you put
against season and here's the other thing, you put a

(15:22):
dough on the season on, you're really cutting at the
archers and the crossbow hunters because your point there Tom
that area late in that October period is when those
guys are really able to enjoy harvesting deer with archery equipment.
So that part's complicated. Anyway, I got to go to

(15:44):
break here fellas again open lines tonight five seven lore
and eighty four eighty four or eight hundred four four
eighty four eighty four. The breaks was presented by SMI Marine.
Remember you never get sold by my friends at SMI
and folks. Again, we're talking all things about deer season tonight.

(16:05):
We've liked your thoughts about the number and quality of
dear you're seeing, any problems you've seen and heard with disease,
any number of things. The numbers again are five seven
one eighty four eighty.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Four or eight hundred four four four eighty four eighty four.
Uh Patrick, thank you for calling back. Your signal dropped
out of his brother.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
What have we got parts?

Speaker 7 (16:33):
Yeah, I just wanted to give you a little updated
and what we've been experiencing this deer season. Like I said,
I hunt over in like the Spencer County area near
Taylorsville Lake and did our partner harvested a couple of
days already. But it's in terms of like the bucks

(16:55):
movement and the rut this season we hundred quite a bit.
I mean literally every weekend there during the gun season
and the weekend before archery saw a bunch of small
butt and then we'd see our you know, more of
our mature bucks at night. But this past weekend we've

(17:16):
seen a ton more rubs opened it and they're hammer
and our scrapes and our target bucks. We've got a
couple of daylight pictures this week and this weekend that
we've seen, and with the dark tarsls and everything makes
us think maybe like we've the ret for you know,
in that area might have come a little later because

(17:38):
we just really weren't seeing a ton of peak red
activity during the gun season.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay, was there a lot of pressure around you that
could have influenced your lack of daylight settings or are
you saying you just weren't seeing the bucks really moving
much at all?

Speaker 7 (17:59):
We saw, we saw what if you deer. We've hunt
about two hundred and thirty acres and there's only me
and one other person who hunts it, so it's not
a big pressured area. But it's a lot of smaller deer,
a lot of young bucks, but just not a whole
lot of chasing activity. Just wanted to let you know
and your listeners know that it seems like, you know,

(18:19):
some of the larger bucks that we have here in
the last week or so with this real cold snapp
it's it's fired them up, and we're seeing a lot
more them on the on the cameras that we have
in the areas where there are some community scrapes and
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Patrick's going over in that area quite a bit. How
would you say your buck to do ratio is over there?
My experiences, I would say there's six to eight TH's
per buck.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
Yes, I would say at least that we did have
a couple of sits earlier in the season where we
saw you know, three or four small bucks at once.
You know that they were four horns or of little basket,
you know, six pointer, young, real young deer. But to
end gun season there was I saw twenty one does

(19:11):
want the final morning of gun season there and not
a single buck. So I'm looking forward to as you
slower season.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Over in that area.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
More than likely that's probably where I'll play my ace
for punching my buck tag like you have seen. I
have seen also that the last week has had some
of the bigger, more mature deer up on their feet
and their noses down to the ground a little bit.
And my perspective and experiences for that area is the

(19:44):
bucks now just don't have as many doves available to them,
so they're having to get out and look for it
a little.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Bit, if that makes sense to you.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
So, on a management perspective, this two of you hunting
that property, I would highly encourage you to look at
your dole numbers and and just taking a knee jerk
guess and reaction from listening to what you said, it
seems like probably one of your best management tools will
be maybe to limit the amount of doze on the

(20:11):
property if you're wanting to see a little bit more
aggressive rud activity in the years to come.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
All right, Patty, appreciate your perspectives, buddy. All right, we've
got to Corey call it, yes, sir, Thank you much.
We've got Corey calling from Green County. Hey, Corey, welcome aboard. Hey,
how's it going going good? Sir? How are you?

Speaker 8 (20:38):
I'm doing great?

Speaker 9 (20:39):
Uh, just just listen to your program and just wanted
to call in and weigh in a little bit on
opinions on dough harvest dough numbers. Where I hunting in
Green County. I've got a couple of different farms. I
own a farm and I have a family farm that
I hunt to manage. On one farm, I see great

(21:02):
dough numbers. I see, you know, we flow fluid drone
over it last year after season and took numbers, and
I was seeing, you know, right out of fifty to
fifty buck to dough ratio. On my personal farm that
I own, you know, those a little bit more than Bucks,
but it's a little bit smaller farm, so it's a

(21:23):
little bit harder to manage. I agree with what people
are kind of saying, like, yeah, dough numbers are kind of,
you know, not where they need to be. But in
my opinion too, where are areas in the United States
where dough numbers are where they're supposed to be. You're

(21:46):
always probably going to have more dose than you're with bucks.
And that's that's okay. That's not saying that those don't
need to be managed. My thing is, though, we're talking
about managing them in the sense of let's change seasons,
let's let's do different things with fish and wilife to make.

Speaker 6 (22:10):
The numbers right.

Speaker 9 (22:12):
Why aren't we talking more about incentive for hunters to
kill those. You know, I work three jobs. I form,
I work a public job, and I have a small
job on the side where I work, and I don't
have a whole lot of time to hunt anymore, but
I still feel my freezer. And the reason because of

(22:34):
that is I'm educated in what benefit you know, deer
meat provides to my family. You know, we save a
lot of money by processing deer and putting that in
the freezer. And like, it's no trouble to me. I
could kill I could make time to kill twenty dose

(22:56):
in a season if I if I, if I wanted to,
if I had the free and I wanted to do that,
I could. You know, why aren't we talking the hunters
more of Blake? Here's benefits to killing those. It's a
great source of meat. And a lot of people say,
I don't like deer, I don't like to eat deer.

(23:16):
If you grind up deer in hamburger and put it
in hamburger, hemp or in chili, you cannot tell that
that's what it is.

Speaker 6 (23:24):
So that's that's.

Speaker 9 (23:27):
Them being uneducated on the benefits.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
On that side of it.

Speaker 9 (23:31):
But there's also programs like Hunters for the Hungry. Why
are we encouraging hunters to not only kill deer.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
But to do something with them.

Speaker 9 (23:40):
Let's not talk about you know, oh, well, we need
to kill the deer, kill the doze out so our
food pots will be better for our bucks, so we'll
have a better buck population next year. That's great.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
What are you doing with those dose?

Speaker 9 (23:56):
Why aren't we talking more about the beneficial side of
and the useful part of that?

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Well, I can tell you this, Corey. You're you're playing
to the tune that we've played on the program forever.
I mean, we are very very in sync with everything
you're saying there that there's no better cleaner meat than
dear meat. There's many, many reasons to be a field

(24:24):
of harvest doves, and honestly the one thing, and I'm
gonna point back to it, and then we got other
callers backed up, so I might have to keep moving.
But I think a lot of this embarrass because a
lot of the hunting pressure from non residents in Kentucky
who come here and all they want to kill is bucks,
and the harvest records and what have you need to

(24:46):
be scrutinized. And I think it's gonna be a big
surprise to people because they've got those doors at home.
They don't come here to kill those. They come here
to kill bucks.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
So well, what.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
He's talking to is what's happened is the horns have
been prioritized over the nutritional factor of harvesting deer. A
buck can still provide you quite a few meals, and
field the.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Fork is all important.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
But you know, we're living in a society that is
not dependent on going to the field, being nomadic or
providing necessarily a natural source of protein on the table.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
So I agree with you, Corey. We advocate every day.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
We need to see people from agencies and departments and
folks like you and I. But at the same time,
I heard you mentioned about being a producer in agriculture.
Sometimes it's just a little bit easier for people to
go to the meat display case and pick up some
ground chuck or some chicken breasts than it is to

(25:45):
manage their time to be able to get out in
the field and then.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Process throun deer utilize a process or So we're all
on tight.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Schedules, and anybody that's paid attention to hunting over the
last ten or fifteen years, every point that you say
is fact just getting people to prioritize the wildlife management. Honey,
I appreciate you guys taking the call. I think I
think a lot of it's going down to we're hunting
for an Instagram and.

Speaker 10 (26:12):
A Facebook post anymore.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
I couldn't agree with you lord for it. I totally
agree with your partners. I sure do. All right, folks,
I gotta go to break here. We got to Paul
Holding from Hart County and Mark from break Ridge. We'll
get to you fellows the scenes we get through it
to break again. The numbers if you want to chime
in tonight five seven one eighty four eighty four or

(26:36):
eight hundred four four four eighty four eighty four. This
break is presented by moncill Property's Heart Realty. Check out
their listings m op h A r trealty dot com.
All right, folks again, we're taking your calls tonight about
dear season and observations you've got if you want to

(26:59):
tell me, number was A five seven one eighty four
eighty four or eight hundred four four eighty four eighty four.
And then in that regard we got Jason little part
of song from Turkey's for tomorrow. Jason's thanks for calling in, buddy,
what's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (27:16):
Hey?

Speaker 11 (27:16):
I tell you what I just I wish I still
had a buck tag. I mean, that's what's on my mind.

Speaker 12 (27:23):
I mean, you know how it is.

Speaker 11 (27:26):
No on a serious note, guys, appreciate you'all having me
on for a few minutes. I was out this morning
actually trying to chase some feathered friends, so to speak,
and put a little variety on the grill for the evening.
And I tell you what, I saw more more bucks
sign and actually at daylight, across the water from me,

(27:48):
I watched two mature bucks lock up and fight for
ten minutes. I mean, I thought I was in the
last week of October when they're you know, you start
sending the big mature bucks, start moving around and and
cruising and then they'll have these interactions. But what I
saw today was a ton in this last week, really

(28:12):
a lot more activity. And I tell you what, it
just seems like, with this warm weather we had this year,
it seems like everything was just a little bit delayed.
I mean, I understand really well that the photoperiod triggers
the rud et cetera. But I think a lot of
these really quality mature bucks were just not moving as well.
You know, a lot of people have some nice deer

(28:34):
this year, but good not if there are still some
great deer running around right now.

Speaker 10 (28:38):
And I think the.

Speaker 11 (28:39):
Best is yet to come, to be honest with you guys.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Well, I do expect and Scott and I have talked
about this a lot. Lake Muzzlord to be pretty special,
because no doubt there's gonna be some those come into
that lad ESCs. When you got as many dose as
we've got, that's an inevitabilding and the big deer tend
to be more I ton light iris a lot of
times during that particular season, So we're looking forward to

(29:06):
that for sure.

Speaker 8 (29:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (29:08):
Absolutely. I during the gun season, I was hunting over
in Taylor County, and I mean it's we tend to,
you know, harvest quite a few doughs over there. And
what what I saw on the opening days of gun
season is I couldn't buy dough tag. I couldn't find
a dough nothing but young Bucks run around and I

(29:31):
finally got on a decent highball deer this year, something
kind of unique, and it was very tickled about that.
But but yeah, I just saw nothing, but Bucks did
not see a dough. It's the first season a long
time that I have not seen the dough in the
first four days and season, which is crazy that.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
A little bit with your row at Turkey's for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
It seems that there's been some small game hunters out
and about in the last few days that have come
upon some turkeys that have got some health implications going
on that is easily seen. Can you tell us a
little bit about possibly maybe any influence of the drought

(30:18):
with turkey health and if we were to find a
bird that had health complications, how we can report that as.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
We got premature.

Speaker 11 (30:29):
Absolutely, I'll be fast and furious. Yeah, we've had some
avian poks birds that have popped up out in western Kentucky.
We have heard of some other wackeded birds during these droughts,
really hot, dry years, and it seems like birds are
dislike deer, they'll tend to want to congregate more around

(30:51):
more water sources, which is typically where you find a
higher prevalence of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes typically transfer this virus from
bird to bird, which is not good. It's it's a
it's a very nasty disease and when birds do get it,
it can be spread from bird to bird really through

(31:13):
the scabs or even through basically inhaling, like the dander
you know that's on the birds feathers, that bird flops
around a little bit and and all of a sudden,
that dander's in the air. And you know how birds are,
they tend to be together, even on the roost, and
all of a sudden they can impact other birds. You

(31:34):
could see isolated issues of decline or population problems. So
if you see something out there, folks with turkeys while
you're out there hunting, small game, hunting, you name it,
please reach out to the state agency online. There is
a link there that you can fill out. You can
look up wild turkey diseases, avian pots, whatever you want

(31:55):
to do, and you can find it pretty easily on
the kd f w R website and fill out the survey.
Let them know what's going on, and if you can,
if it's a dead bird or bird that you can't collect,
it'd be great to get that turned in.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, very very good, sir, Well, Jason's always good to
hear from me. I'm sure we'll get you back on
the air somewhere down the road because you're all doing
some great work there turkeys for tomorrow, and we'd like
to hear them all about.

Speaker 11 (32:22):
It, well, I appreciate it, looking forward to coming back
on And if no one knows right now, we're giving
away so many guns and things right now, you need
to go on to our website Turkey for Tomorrow dot org.

Speaker 10 (32:35):
Check us out.

Speaker 11 (32:36):
We have a lot of cool giveaways everything from turkey
hunts in places like Hawaii, Mexico across the US to
really nice firearms for the next twenty days. So appreciate
you having me on, brother.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yes, sir, I'm glad to hear from me as always Scott.
That Turkey situation with the disease. There's so many good
studies going on right now, and I think we're gonna
find out a whole lot more about what's going on
out there through those studies like Turkeys for Tomorrow and
some of these other agency people are doing. Mark from

(33:12):
Breakers County, I ask you to be patient.

Speaker 8 (33:15):
With his partner.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
I got to go to the news break here. If
you'll hold on or give our guy there to station
your number, we'll call you back. Paul from Hark County,
if you'll hang on or we'll get back to you.
So got to go to newsbreak here, folks again. The
numbers tonight five seven one eighty four eighty four or

(33:35):
eight hundred four four four eighty four eighty four. This
break is presented by SMI Marine. Go see them. They'll
take great kill you. If your boat's not winter asked,
you better go see them, and remember you never get
soaked by my friends at SMI. All right, folks again,

(33:58):
we're talking tonight and taking your calls about the gun
seasons that wrapped up here in Kentucky and is continuing
in Indiana. The numbers are five seven to one eighty
four eighty four or eight hundred four four four eighty
four eighty four. We've got Paul from Hart County, Mark
from breaker Ridge, and Jake from Taylor. I'll go down

(34:21):
to the list as we got you. Hey, Paul, welcome,
my boy. What have we got for us?

Speaker 8 (34:27):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (34:29):
I'm doing great? How about you? Pardon all?

Speaker 10 (34:32):
Doing pretty good?

Speaker 11 (34:33):
Doing pretty good.

Speaker 10 (34:34):
I was talking to Scott earlier today and kind of
telling him a little bit about what our experience was
down here for me. Had we had a lot of
bucks chasing the early gun season, really really hitting our
dose hard, and but our goal on our property is
what we did this year because we've had a major
like buckadoe ratio that's just way out of white. So

(34:58):
we've spent the last few years really on our farms
trying to kind of bring it in to check a
lot more, taking out a lot of doves and you know,
taking care of that. But you know, there again, six
miles away, I got another farm in Hart County and
it's probably had a two to one ratio. So I

(35:19):
don't have the population on this one, but the balance
on one of my other farms just six miles away
just about perfect.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
I see. Do you have any any obvious reasons for that?

Speaker 10 (35:35):
I think just pressure. I think on the one farm
which you went turkey hunting with me on, you know,
in the past, that had a lot of crept to it,
so we had a higher abundance of deer there. I
think just because it felt safe in the native grasses.
They had the woods and natives, and they had water
with the rivers, so they really didn't have to leave.

(35:59):
And now it's been converted back into more of cattle
fields with a lot of beans and corn on it
as well, and so we lost some deer that moved
over to different areas because of light of cover, but
it's always had a high density of deer my place

(36:19):
six miles away. I think it's just more due to
pressure and not as much edible like bean fields, their
cover crops a lot more smaller cover crops, But I
just think they're spread out here more because of pressure.
I have a larger amus population around me, so they
tend to harvest quite a few deer through the year themselves.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Calling listening to people calling in at how important it
is for people, even within the county they live in,
to know how to manage their properties on their harvest,
not just based off of the zoning regulation. What I'm
getting at there is we are going to be the

(37:05):
best stewards of our own land, and it's very important.
Paul knows, Jim, I know, you know, and a lot
of people out there understand this. When the more you're
on the property three hundred and sixty five days a
year and know how that population can and cannot go
up and down or be influenced because of food pressure,
habitat work, or agriculture, the better off that you are.

(37:28):
And it's important that you don't just spend a few
days on your farm each year during the modern farm season,
to figure that out and utilize the drone services and
trail cameras and scouting to help you make those management
decisions that you need to on what and win the harvest.

Speaker 10 (37:48):
Yes, yeah, I agree, Paul, I'd be for me. It's
a three hundred and sixty five day deal for me.
We're constantly monitoring managing our deer, trying to make sure
that they got what they need. So I feel like
we have a pretty good pulse of what we have
going on on our places.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Paul has another interesting topic Jim to bring up, and
that is all of us as hunters go to the
field legally, and we know that there's some regulations and
some rules that we need to follow.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
And Paul's had.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Some time in the field down in and around LBL
and has had some experience with the wild hog pharo
hawk population along with dealing with some deer that are showing.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
Signs of sickness and illness.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
And through our conversation today, Paul, there was some things
that come up that we're alarming and a concern to me,
And if you don't mind sharing those in a way in.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Which we can bring.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Advocacy in a positive of what happened I would love
to do so tonight on the air.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (38:55):
The you know, I've honed LBL on an all for
twenty plus years, ever really came across the hogs hard
at all, but the last several years I've seen more
than I have the previous twenty and whenever we've seen
hogs like not this year one of my hunters with
me did see hogs. But last year I called multiple

(39:18):
times the number to try to give them the location
of the wild hogs so that they could do their
traps and stuff for them. And it's been almost two
years later and I still haven't gotten any response from
Laying between the Lakes on that, nor some of the
fishing wal life people that I've tried to lay that

(39:39):
out to, which is really concerning to me. And I've
also had a case where I called on what I
felt like was a sick deer so that they could
monitor or harvested or whatever they needed to do for testing,
and didn't get any responses back either, And that's a
concerning part and me that nobody's reaching back out uh

(40:04):
for that.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
That's really unfortunately, Paul, who you did well, Paul, appreciate
you calling in tonight. Partner and we'll be in touch.
Back down alive here. Okay, all.

Speaker 8 (40:16):
You too, Paul.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
He's going to Mark. He's called from break Ridge County. Hey, Mark,
thanks you for your patience. Hello. How you doing doing great, sir?

Speaker 12 (40:27):
How you guys doing tonight?

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Doing real good? Mark? We hope you're doing well.

Speaker 12 (40:32):
I'm doing well.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (40:33):
My question has to do with the recent finding of
a c w D and a uh pen raised deer
this year to break Rinch County and and what it
did to our you know, what they're asking us to
do regard regarding to our season and everything and as
far as uh not being able to put out minerals

(40:55):
and and different things like that. And also stand those
guys gotta gotta make money, and it's a more of
a a cattle business like instead of you know, and
I'm more worried about what it's going to do to

(41:16):
the uh future of our deer hunting. And a lot
of the c w D is brought in and found
and pen raised deer, and that's that's, you know.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
I don't know if it's.

Speaker 12 (41:26):
Worth the money they're making off pen raised deer and
shooting branches and and all that. Is it worth you
know what we have as a you know, Kentucky's one
of the big deer places to go to. Now I
go to Missouri and and then to a few different places.

(41:47):
You know, I just know the economic economic economic impact.
What's better, you know, what's what's better for the state
and the outdoorsman.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, to make sure that.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
It's not going to have such a dramatic impact on
the economy. And one of the things that we can
all continue to do is just to advocate to make
sure that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has,
in my opinion, to say over what is or what

(42:21):
is not done with captive deer domesticated deer herds. I
think it has shown that there doesn't need to be
such an influence on behalf of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Whether they trump the department or not, but we need
to make sure that maybe the deer are regulated only
by one agency versus two, whether they're domesticated or they're

(42:46):
a wild herd. And I think the majority of the
people that I've talked to, and Jim, I'd be interested
in what you've heard, but most people want the Kentucky
Department of fishing wildlife to stand up and advocate for
the wild deer heard more so than the domestic deer herd,
and have a little bit more control and power over
those domestic herds.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Mark to your point, the economic impact from deer hunting
is in the billion dollar category and the captive deer
herds are minuscule in comparison economically to benefit to the state.
And the fact of the matter is if the it's

(43:30):
kind of like the parks before the horse here is
what I'm getting at. If the deer herd, the captive
deer herds are endangering the wild herd and there is
a collapse in the hunting opportunities and or desires, it
will be totally devastating to the Department Official Wildlife. So

(43:53):
it is in their best interest to take very judicious
steps to see the that doesn't happen. And the follow
through on their testing and a lot of other things
has been very relaxed, quite frankfully, and we need to
see a more aggressive stance about that. So I'm in

(44:15):
agreement with you. It's got to be hunter's first, or
else there'll be so many deer out here and nobody
to hug that it'll get real crazy, real quick. It
certainly so.

Speaker 12 (44:28):
It's if you look it up, you do any kind
of research at all. It puts the fear of God
in you to if you're in an area that has CWD.
I just came back from Missouri, as I mentioned, and
they just had they gave I know what, I know
a landowner who only owns forty acres who got extra

(44:50):
ten tags. He could kill bucker, another bucker, ten more
bucker doze over his limit. And they just had a
five day season that ended today. It's a special c
w D season and you don't even have to turn
the deer in. They're just massacre and the deer herd.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
I hate to hear that because that's been tried before
in Wisconsin, those states and it doesn't work.

Speaker 8 (45:17):
What's going on?

Speaker 12 (45:18):
What's going on Wisconsin? If you know anybody in Wisconsin?
What's going on with the deer numbers there? They reintroduced
wolves and now the deer herd and the upper Upper
Peninsula is basically gone.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yes, that's true, that's that's definitely true. But there there
was a as you know, an unbelievable harvested deer in Wisconsin.
They found it wasn't working and they moved off of that. So,
uh that's been traveling hadn't showed very good results.

Speaker 12 (45:48):
Missouri is in full Uh it's Katie bar the door
out there. They want you to kill, kill, kill, and uh,
they don't care if it's a buck or a dough.
And you know, I went out there for a year
and they had a four point restriction on one side,
you know, in the in the in the big bucks
were all over the place, and the and the herd
was great. They have a they had a doe season

(46:11):
and they have a two buck. They had a two buck.
You can get a buck with a bow and a
buck with a gun out there. So they're they're now
advocating for just a slaughter of deer.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Well, I got an idea they're gonna have regrets about that. Mark,
thanks you for calling. Appreciate that. We'll continue to monitor
that and stay on top of what's happening in Missouri.
We don't restrict ourselves just through the local areas.

Speaker 12 (46:38):
Do you know, do you know what they're what? Do
you know what they're doing with the deer farm and Breckenridge?
Are they you know, are they putting the deer down
or what are they doing there? Do you know?

Speaker 1 (46:51):
I do not. They initially said they were not gonna
do that, They were gonna do some more testing, and
they have shut the operation down. In other words, there's
no deer going out of there, and I don't know
if they're going to destroyer.

Speaker 8 (47:05):
They heard or not.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Have you heard anything different than that recently, Scott.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
The best thing that I can tell you to do,
Mark is to go back and watch the special called
meeting that they had in Breckenridge County. They do make
attention to what is going to happen to that deer herd.
More importantly, though, Mark, take the time this week to
call your commissioner and just explain to them what your thoughts, process,

(47:33):
and concern is, especially coming back from Missouri and being
a resident in Breckinridge County. I'm just standing on my
ground that I don't think us as white tail deer
hunters and license holders need to be at the mercy
of the domesticated deer herd. I prioritize our wild deer
herd before I do agriculture production of the domesticated deer herd.

(47:56):
And I think that the Kentucky Department of fish and
Wildlife needs to be the authority and make the regulations
and not necessarily being a shared responsibility between the Kentucky
Department of Agriculture and Kentucky Department of Fishing Wildlife. Collaboration
is good, but I believe in this situation, in this scenario,
this is my opinion only. I feel like that we

(48:18):
have been at the mercy of the domesticated deer herd
and so of the importance of the economic revenue and
the benefit of the wild deer herd to the commonwealth
of the State of Kentucky.

Speaker 12 (48:28):
Okay, man, I've got thanks guys, Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Mark, thank you so much. I appreciate your comments. Got
to go to break here, folks. This break is presented
by Malso Properties Heart Realty. Check them out. They've got
great listings for you, all kind of fallums, vacation homes
and wildlife management properties for sale MLP h R Trealty
dot com. All right, folks, getting the numbers ninety five

(48:55):
seven one eighty four eighty four eight hundred four four
four eighty four eighty before we got check from Taylor
County's been on hold. Hey Jake, welcome aboard.

Speaker 10 (49:07):
Hey, how you doing Jim, thank you for the call tonight.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
I was.

Speaker 10 (49:12):
I was going back and I wanted to reiterate on
I think it was Cory from Green County talking about
talking about the DOE, talking about the DOS and and
and stuff like that. But I want to talk about
out of state hunters. I mean, it's so hard for
Kentucky hunters to go somewhere else to hunt.

Speaker 5 (49:34):
If that makes sense.

Speaker 10 (49:35):
And it feels like that our that our state, we
let everybody in at any time. I'm in the Green
River Lake, wm A. And I can't tell you there's
a little gas station there in town. I can't tell
you how many people are in our gas station and
they're literally looking to kill a buck or a Facebook
or Instagram or a TikTok. Like, we have to have

(50:00):
something in our state to regulate the people coming from
out of state to here, because now it's the mecca
of it. I mean, Kentucky's been on the Big Buck
look Out and and they're all coming in here and
they're shooting deer. But we have our low rate, the
fact that we've gotten people here.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Now that we've got them here.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
We need to make an adjustment like we've had we've
we've got them here.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
We've grown the marketing, we've grown.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
The attention to the state of Kentucky, and we're to
the point now where we can limit these non resident
hunters to have to earn points or apply for quotas
just like we do because we are a trophy buck
Steak and we're not going to have a loss of revenue.
All we're trying to tell our department, Oh, is it
is time for us to make a change.

Speaker 11 (50:48):
That's it, dude. You hit it.

Speaker 10 (50:50):
You hit the nail on the head right there. And
I run a thermal service. I have a thermal Deer's
you know, deer service, and I did that. I put
my drone up today, it up yesterday. I found I
found there for two people in the past two days.
And it blows my mind at the amount of dos

(51:10):
that we have. I mean, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
It really is.

Speaker 10 (51:13):
The places places that I went to, and you have
you got and you can tell so easily that there
may be thirty forty dos in a pack. And the
people asked me, They're like, are you not are you
not going to check them? No, I'm not checking them
because you're you're deer over here is gonna be the
one that's dead over here to the lake. I'm not

(51:35):
checking twenty dos and.

Speaker 6 (51:36):
I can find Yeah, I gotta go to bat.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
I understand.

Speaker 8 (51:45):
Right on me?

Speaker 1 (51:47):
All right? Both, We got the Dan Douglas on the
line from Shelby County. Hey, Dan, how are you doing
the seasonings?

Speaker 5 (51:54):
Hey, good evening, gentlemen. How you guys doing.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
We're doing great?

Speaker 5 (51:59):
Ope you had under I'm still still recuperating from all
that wonderful family time and too much turkey this week.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I resemble that remark, All right, Dan, what do you
got thought?

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Man? The deer season here on my little farm in
Shelby County. So far, it's been an unusual season. I've
owned this farm for ten years, and I've seen some
things happen this year that I hadn't seen previously. I
saw the the does push their fawns off pretty early
this year, before before Halloween. This year, I started seeing

(52:40):
the does running their fawns off. And that's that's a
couple of weeks earlier than we typically see. We typically
see that right before or right at the beginning of
modern firearm season here on this farm. I'm not sure
what that looked like across the rest of the state,
but I personally think that full moon had something to
do with that. I think the full moon really affected

(53:01):
the way the deer were moving, the way the bucks
were moving and behaving. I had some really nice mature
deer on camera right up through the end of October,
and they basically disappeared the time between Halloween and the
opening day of modern firearm season.

Speaker 8 (53:19):
Here.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
I did have one young gentleman who was fortunate enough
to take a mature deer on opening day, killed a
really nice nine pointer, and we've had one other buck
taken off of the farm. I had a gentleman bring
his kids in. I had a nine year old girl
and two six year old twin boys getting the blind
on the last day of gun season, and the nine

(53:42):
year old girl was fortunate to be able to take
her first deer ever. She killed a four point buck
that day. But looking forward on my farm, I think
the acorn mast is definitely fading, and I think that
we got a really good chance of having a good
lay season with the muzzleloader season coming up and the

(54:02):
remainder of archery. I'm I've got my hopes up for it.
Sitting on a buck tag in my pocket. I'm feeling
like it's going to be pretty good.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Also feel one your comments, your comment it's about the
moon in that early movement really mirror what Scott and
I've been hearing all across the region. Actually, there was
a flurry there in October. And I'm a big moon
faced guy. You probably realize that. And I think I
definitely played his part. And and the you're comment about

(54:33):
them running the the young deer off is spot on
two from what I've heard from most guys around the region.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
Yeah, did you have another collar part? It leaves me
optimistic about about going forward here. And the other thing
that leaves me extremely optimistic. I I saw larger and
more productive flocks of turkeys, Uh what spent during my
time in the woods season this year than I've ever

(55:02):
seen on this farm. It kind of reminded me of
back when I was a teenager in the mid nineties.
I don't know, Jim, I know you're a big advo
good of trapping, and while I haven't gotten into trapping
here on the farm yet, A good friend of mine
was out turkey hunting with me this spring and he
killed a coyote and I had A couple of guys
come in specifically to do some predator hunting this year,

(55:24):
and they were fortunate to take several predators, both both
coyotes and raccoons off the farm this year. And I
think between that and possibly being on the edge of
that cicada hatch, from what I can see on this farm,
the turkey population is way up. I really hated to
hear that gentleman from Turkeys for Tomorrow talk about the disease. Fortunately,

(55:47):
I haven't seen any of that on either my farm
here in Shelby County or my family farm in Washington
County this year. I'm hopeful that that doesn't impact us
anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Yes, sir, absolutely absolutely, Well damn we appreciate your comments. Again,
they mirror what we've been hearing across the region. And uh,
we're very much like you. I mean, I know Scott's
looking forward to late Archer and mussel Od. He's had
a lot of family obligations, of course work that's in
the way, and uh, I think we're gonna have a great,

(56:20):
great late season hunt this time. I expect a lot
of those to come in heat late because of the
imbalancing the herd and that's gonna make these bucks come
out and start cruising again. We'll see if we're we're
accurate about that or not. But I really appreciate timings.

Speaker 5 (56:36):
Dan, Yeah, Jim, if you could, if I could, I
know you're short on time here. I heard the gentlemen
talking about not being able to get in touch with
the Fish and Wildlife Department there. I just wanted to say,
you know, the conservation is a participation sport. You've got
to be reaching out to your commissioners. You've got to
be reaching out to the biologists, the people at the department,

(56:59):
UH and myself personally. I've been writing some opeds and
doing other things trying to stay actively engaged in conservation.
I went through the same thing. I've had multiple issues
at the Fish and Wildlife Commission that I've reached out
to them and that they hadn't got back to me,
certainly in a timely manner. There's one particular issue coming

(57:20):
up next week where the Commission's looking at transferring Otter
Creek to Mead County, and I reached out to the
Commission about that on Thanksgiving Day, and I'm happy to
say I did get a brief response from Commissioner Roads
this afternoon about that. But for those folks that are
having trouble getting in touch with the department and with

(57:41):
the biologists, I would strongly encourage you to keep trying
and maybe even show up for a commission meeting. The
next one's on December of the sixth, and there's some
hot button issues going to be talked about in that meeting.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Yes, sir, well, Dan appreciate all that time in and
I'm really shorry to hear you've been having trouble hear
him back from commissioners. That's again, that's a timent we've
heard a lot here in the last year or so
and it's it's disappointing. But any rate, thanks for calling
in partner. I appreciate you joining us.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
Yes, sir, thank you.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
All. All right, let's go to Andy, who's been on Holday? Andy, Hey,
how you doing.

Speaker 8 (58:20):
Jim's good to talk to you, Yes, Sir'd like to
hear from you, sir, yep. So we talked earlier about
about a gentleman we both think highly of. I know
you were a close friend of him, and that was
that was Kenny Shockley. Yes, sir, I spoke I spoke
to his son, Robert, who's my best friend, uh, a
few hours ago and told him that I was gonna

(58:42):
be speaking with you tonight and h and he was
a static and he's looking forward to that January squirrel hunt.
And we talked about we talked about some old Turkey
turkey calls, and he's going to have a box for
you to go through in January and look at and
see if you can pick anything else socifically that Tom
Turpan style yelper that you were talking to me about

(59:05):
earlier today.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
So okay, cool, Yeah there, that's five star family all
the way around. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (59:13):
Yeah, he might be even listening. I know he's uh,
since his father passed, he's having to, you know, take more.
He's taken on the whole business now family business. But
he said he tried to turn in and he may
be listening out there. So Robert, hope you're listening, man.
But yeah, I you know, I talk about deer seasons.
You know, I think it's all perspective. You know, somebody

(59:34):
will say our season's down, and then on another side
of the county or the state, somebody's saying there's seasons up.
It's just a lot of things, Uh, you know, I
didn't spend a lot of time in the woods, but
when I was in the woods, I did see deer,
and I saw a lot of dose. And actually this
evening when I was driving up talked to you earlier.
I was down by Murphysboro, Tennessee, and then drove back

(59:55):
up to Kentucky through Hopkinsville and I counted over thirty
some odd Oh was you know deer in a wheat
field on the bypass in Hopkinsville and there was still
deer to get the count that were just out of
my sight when I drove by. And I don't know
if it was discussed, but you know, giving hunters more
opportunity choice extend the modern firearm season, maybe on the

(01:00:18):
front end back end, but have strictly antler rest days,
so that if we choose to go to the woods
and we wanted to do some dough management, we have
more opportunity to do it. And it's not in the
during the rut period where we're all looking for bucks.
So if we want to shoot a dough early in
the season, that's our choice, and we can do that

(01:00:39):
with our modern rifle in a designated rifle season and
then do it on the back end now too, And
I also think that gives more children more used opportunities
to harvest deer in the season too. It's just hard
with all the activities that we got going on nowadays
with sports and school and other things. So that might
be an option for something to bring up to the

(01:00:59):
leged slaves are there to discuss is expanding that modern
rifle season for us to have more opportunities to harvest?

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Does? Okay? Andy, Well, appreciate you coming, Scott. You got
anything else there?

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
When he brought up Hopkins County, Hopkinsville one of the
bigger problems that we see, and we'll discuss it later
on on another show. But when that ground is leased
and folks are coming in and only harvesting a buck
and they're only in town for a few days. I

(01:01:37):
have seen where it's hard to get access to a
lot of these properties in western Kentucky because of the leasing,
and it really throws deer.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Harvest out of whack. So there's a lot of different.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Ways to examine what's going on with the deer density,
the deer population, and when it comes to antlerless deer harvest,
I do believe we've hit point where if we don't
have a special antlerless season after the main rut, I
think we're gonna be facing this doe battle for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Okay, well, Andy, thanks so much for calling partner. I
appreciate your comments and your insight.

Speaker 8 (01:02:16):
Thank you, Jim, appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Yes, sir, and you tell Robert all we'll be in touch.
All right, folks, got to go to break here. This
break is presented by s and My Marine. There are
eleven four hundred Westport Road, just north of the Gene Snyder.
Go see him. Get your boat winn Rise and they've
got deals now on twenty twenty four boats and the
new twenty twenty fives are in. There's incentives on buying now.

(01:02:41):
And remember you'll never get soaked by my friends at SMI.
All right, folks. Up next, we got Larry from down
in Webster County in the western part of the state. Larry,
great to have you on with us tonight.

Speaker 10 (01:02:55):
Yes, sir, I appreciate it. Bring me thanks to Jam
and Scott.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Uh. Larry, you are a very serious deer manager and
an excellent big buck hunter, if I must say, and Uh,
there's a lot of odd things about this season and
some of the differences. And you're part of the state
and the other's what's your perspective on this season and
the rut when it occurred, and you know, just your

(01:03:22):
overall thoughts on where the herd is.

Speaker 10 (01:03:26):
Well, I think it's been pretty crazy.

Speaker 11 (01:03:28):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:03:29):
The one good thing we've got a lot of acrons,
which kept the deer quite a bit off my corn
and quite a bit off the foot plots.

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:03:41):
And then we had the drought. We've had hot weather
I personally on my farm, which is not good. We've
had I had I think I counted ten or eleven
straight days of either north east or a southeast wind,

(01:04:03):
which is not good for the deer that I was
hunting this year, which I've had history of. This is
the third year I had history of. This year it
was my target buck, which I did. I did wind
up taking that deer. But yeah, it's been weird, and
it's I call it a trickle in rut. It's just

(01:04:24):
really here. It seemed like, you know, it never really
just slammed like it usually does. To me. Now, this
is where I'm at. Speaking for others, I can't, but
for my immediate area, here in my farms. It was
just a gradual you know, just a gradual run that
never really escalated to a you know, a hard peak,

(01:04:45):
if that's if that means anything there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
So yeah, Scott, I know you've probably got a question
for him here about when he actually saw the the
rut and or chasing and some of them brilliance you
were talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Well, I thought it was interesting all November to you know,
us going back and forth on the phone and texts,
and then you know, you've got Brad Graham and Larry
and myself, and it was just eye opening to me
how different the rut was and so many different areas.
And it did seem that early on in October the

(01:05:27):
deer were a little bit more aggressive into the rut
than probably what I wrapped my head around.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
And I was just going to see if Larry felt
maybe the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Same way, if any point in time he maybe thought
that he was seeing pre rut activity when really it
was more rut activity right in front of our face.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
And we just got who dude.

Speaker 10 (01:05:47):
I actually did. I made a point I think to
Jim that you know, usually in October first week you'll
see scrapes, but I saw an amazing amount of scrapes
the first week, and which just led on and on
and then and even now i'm visiting, I've got some

(01:06:09):
rope scrapes out that they're that they're hitting as well.
But the early activity was good, but it wasn't. I
had one target buck on all the farms that I
hunt that I would have wanted to take. And in
the weather, the wind, a little bit of a new
granddaughter coming into the picture kind of kind of put

(01:06:31):
the mix on me this year. And I wound up
taking my deer with with a rifle on the eleventh
of November at two point thirty in the afternoon and
actually did rattle that deer in I was doing some
blind rallying. I got in there at two o'clock and
I was between two food plots that both which had

(01:06:52):
my target buck on camera, and I backed up and
I had a great wind, and within five minutes after
hitting a rattle bag, while he came in just looking,
I mean just hard looking, and I came straight in.
I actually shot him at eighteen yards.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
So that made you.

Speaker 10 (01:07:15):
Wish he had your bowl exactly that exactly as we
spoke before. Yeah, it never works that way, but it
I mean it was great to take him, and uh
he actually got to the taxidermist before I could score him.
But I think he's you know, he might be touching
one hundred and sixty inch at fourteen points, and it
just was kind of a redemption on getting this deer.

(01:07:39):
I had a lot of encounters with him last year
and I didn't one day was score. So this year
was it was my turn.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
Larry, I'm the quick.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Where are we at in the state of Kentucky to
evalue eight or over the counter? But policy with the
non resident, especially in the west from part of the state.

Speaker 10 (01:08:03):
Uh what in what respect? Scott, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Have we have we reached the point where we probably
need to go back and look at whether or not
our our.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Butt take is available to non residents just over the counter.

Speaker 10 (01:08:18):
I mean, there's so much debate about that. I go
both ways. I see it. You know, I really can't
answer that right now without just sitting down and talking
and you know, breaking it down in pieces. But uh,
I think I think we are very leaning on that.
We are leaning on our tag pricing. Uh so you know,

(01:08:42):
official Wildlife wants us to kill deer uh out of
staters is is a big part of our revenue. Uh
but and that plays a big role in that decision,
I'm sure. But yeah, it's uh uh, it's a tough call.
It is tough call, lots of.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Debate, yes, sir, well, well, as again, we've promised this
and we're gonna do it here in the very near future.
We're gonna do a full show about it, and we
want folks input because there's just a lot of aspects
to that. There's the aspect of local hunters not being
able to find places to hunt because the amount of

(01:09:20):
leasing non residents are doing. There's the way non residents
are harvesting deers opposed away residents having the past or
as you said, it's it's complicated, but we're definitely gonna
address it. Larry, thanks so much for calling in and
congratulations on another giant buck. You've got a little habit
of doing that. But all right, yes sir, all right, folks,

(01:09:47):
that's a rap. We'll be here next week, same place,
same time. Be safe out there, God bless everybody.