Hello, and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Tonight, you have tuned in for our live question and answer show.

All about fall hunting.

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

Starting off to my immediate left here we have Doctor John Hast who is our bear and elk program coordinator.

How are you doing?

I'm doing great.

Next we have Joe McDermott, who is our deer program coordinator.

I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions for you.

And answering all of our law enforcement questions, back on the panel again, you've been here a few times before.

We have Sergeant, Sergeant Paul Sorrell.

Game warden in the fifth district.

We've seen each other out in the field a few times as well.

I think you've checked me a couple times here in the last year or so.

Most recently down at the dam.

Yeah.

Thank you for everything you do.

So, John, what do you got going on now?

I know that, this is a busy time of year.

All of our hunting seasons are coming in, but you guys have been staying busy year round.

It's really the habitat rules and regs, all the work that you guys do.

It's a year long job, but right now is when everybody starts enjoying all of your hard work by getting out and hitting the field.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So we got our elk hunters in the field.

You know, last week, and they're cranking along, killing some elk.

So just fielding some calls from those folks.

One of the big things we've been doing here over the last really five years now is our elk habitat work.

So, anybody that's hunted some of our big public properties in the East, hopefully you're noticing, some prescribed fire that we're doing we're doing, a lot of aerial herbicides burning.

But we burned about 14,000 acres since that started, in 2022.

Wow.

So putting some acres on the ground and trying to make a difference.

So when you're in eastern Kentucky, which you're pretty much talking about eastern Kentucky right now with this area, what what are you trying to eliminate?

What what species of plant are you kind of trying to get rid of?

Yeah, the main thing autumn olive, and sericea lespedeza which is a kind of a little plant that just both of those two things, just take stuff over in a blink of an eye, and, they don't leave any good forage for everything else that uses that area.

Yeah.

If you've been on the landscape down there, those autumn olive bushes get so big and there's literally nothing underneath them.

Yeah, and and fire and spray is the main two ways.

What are you hoping grows back to replace that?

That would be not only a good cover but a food source as well.

Yeah.

A lot of times we see just good nativev forbs going back.

Ragweed, Polk weed, anything like that.

We've got some areas of we've, we've had warm season grass planted after they reclaimed the mine.

And that stuff will actually come back.

Okay.

We are seeing good regeneration if we can get rid of the autumn olive.

All right.

But I know you deal with bear and elk and most of those are in eastern Kentucky, but you also, deal a lot with our small game.

So you'll be answering some of our small game questions that come in at, today as well.

Joe, whitetail deer.

You spend you spend your year talking and dealing with whitetail deer.

If you're a deer hunter in the state of Kentucky, archery season is already open.

Some of our other seasons are right around the corner.

What is a what does a deer hunter really need to know that could be different this year than years past?

For sure.

The best thing that I can, point out for folks is that we made, about 30 county zone designation shifts.

So each county has its own set of rules and regulations, right zones one through four, where people are pretty familiar with that.

This year, we actually made about 30 counties more liberalized so people can harvest more deer than they could in the years past.

Okay, so would that be an indication that the deer population is growing a little bit?

Yes, sir.

Yeah okay.

So more about 30 counties have changed zones.

So out of those counties, if you before you go out into the field, you need to know what county you're in and what zone.

So the rules and regulations for zones have they changed at all as far as zone one what you could and couldn't take zone two, three and four.

No changes there.

It's all been stagnant since about 2018.

Something in there?

Okay.

But yeah, the biggest thing right now is just to get people aware that these county zones have changed.

Right?

So they're, they're legal and, and, able to enjoy that.

Okay.

All right.

Paul, I know that, for you guys, it's, it's really, talk about the season changing.

Well, for you, it's a big change.

You guys have been on the water spending all the time out there checking people, making sure they're safe on the water, and checking fishing license.

Dove season came in.

Now archery season for deer is in.

Squirrel seasons in.

You guys are making a shift and hitting the hitting the fields now, right?

Yeah.

It's, September 1st is always a welcome change in pace.

We spend pretty much from May up until sometime in September, focusing on boat patrol, fishing, any body of water.

You know, we're on it some way, shape or form.

And this summer, it was pretty hot.

So, even though, open day dove season was pretty hot as well, but it was it always feels good to, to get out there on the 1st of September and start working dove fields, and then right after that, just going straight into archery season and start fielding calls and answering questions and everything else that we do.

Yeah.

The, the, the calendar says that, you know, it's hunting season, the weather is not exactly cooperating.

Any of you guys been in a deer state yet?

I have not.

I've been once.

I've been once.

I've been once.

I'll tell you what.

We probably all went to same day.

There was one day it rained a lot that morning in the evening was kind of nice and cool.

That was the day I got out.

Deer were moving, saw quite a few deer.

But man, I don't know about you guys.

That 95 degree and high humid is not my not ideal for deer hunting.

And mosquitoes.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, I can't wait.

The weather is going to be changing this week, and we're going to be getting some cooler weather.

Spend more time out doing some deer hunting.

Id love to hit the dove field again.

And you know what?

I've been seeing plenty of pictures.

There's been a lot of squirrel hunting going on, and so a lot of opportunities.

We got questions coming in.

We're going to start getting to those, but we've got something we're going to do first, and that is trivia.

We've done this in the past.

We have eight questions.

We have our panel of experts here that are going to answer these questions.

And we'd love for you to play along at home.

So underneath your chairs you'll have a white board and a dry eraser here.

We're going to answer these trivia questions.

A they're all hunting related, but they're pretty broad range of questions from small game, a little bit of everything.

So let's get this done and, please play along.

Question number one, which Kentucky fur bearer species is North America's only marsupial?

You have A the raccoon, B a beaver, C Possum, D muskrat.

Anybody have an answer?

All right, everybody ready?

Do we lose points for spelling?

You know.

You know, you can just put, the letter if you like.

We'll go through.

All right.

We up three for three.

Good job guys.

Opossum.

So.

Okay, what is, the actual, the definition of a marsupial would be what?

Has pouch.

Has a pouch.

So opossums have a pouch, and, they raise their young in there for a period of time and then turn them loose.

Right.

All right, next question number two.

After harvest, when can a hunter officially have their deer scored for Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young?

Immediately, A. B, 30 days.

C, 50 days.

D, 60 days.

Now, a couple of you guys are actual licensed.

Boone and Crockett, Pope and young, scorer.

So I hope you get this right now.

All right, who's got?

Everybody got their answers.

All right, A immediately, B 30, D D 60 days.

All right.

That's good.

We haven't missed a question yet.

Nice job guys.

All right.

Now it's getting a little tough.

This is not exactly what you call general knowledge.

We're going to test if you've been watching Kentucky Afield.

The next question is during a recent modern firearm deer season, I harvested a doe using a pistol.

Do you guys know what caliber pistol that I was using on that on that show?

A, 45 ACP, B 454 casull.

C 9MM.

D, 357.

What do you got?

I'm gonna with B. B. B. Man, you guys all got it right.

A 454 casull that is right that, that was two years ago, I guess, took a deer, using a pistol a 454 casull.

Any you guys ever pistol hunted?

Yeah, I have a 44 Redhawk that I like to use.

Okay.

Single shot or, All right, there you go.

I'm using.

That's what I was using a Ruger Super Redhawk.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

Very nice.

Have you ever pistol hunted?

Nope, nope.

All right.

It█s kind of like archery hunt.

Just a lot louder.

Yeah, but a lot of fun.

All right, next question four.

What is the daily bag limit for squirrels in Kentucky?

A, 4.

B, 6.

C, 8.

D, 12.

What do you got.

All right.

That's four for four.

Everybody's got it right.

I'll tell you what you squirrel hunted in the last couple years.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what.

It's it's a lot of fun.

We have a lot of squirrels in Kentucky.

And so going out and getting your limit if you want six squirrels is something that if you want to get out there and find you a good spot, you can do it pretty easily.

So all right, if you enjoy squirrel hunting, and it█s one of things that you've gotten away from you█re like, man, I haven't squirrel hunted in a lot of years.

As soon as weather breaks, get out there and give that a try.

I think our deer season Archery season has gotten so long that people sometimes forget about the small game stuff, and I still think that's the best way to get a kid introduced into the outdoors.

Squirrel hunting, hunting with a dog, rabbit hunting, those dove hunting, those type of things are a lot of fun.

Next question.

We're on to question five.

When using a trail camera on public land, a hunter must label it with what?

A, their full name.

B, their phone number.

C, their address, or D, their Fish and Wildlife customer I.D.. What do you got?

Oh, everybody's got D Fish and Wildlife.

Their customer ID, so what's the exactly the reason for that, Paul?

That's a it's a way that us game wardens, we can look up that FW ID number and get that person's information, make sure that that's correct.

And at the same time, it doesn't give your personal information out there to.

Yeah.

To anybody else or general public that might be wandering through there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You don't really necessarily want everybody know it's your camera, right.

Correct.

You can just put your Fish and Wildlife I.D.

number and there you go.

You guys know who it is.

They know it's theirs.

And but yeah, all their information is not being displayed.

So.

Fish and wildlife, I.D.

number.

Now, if a person's like, man, I don't even know my number.

How can they find that?

It's on their license.

Yeah.

It'll be that long number that'll be right there under the rest of your information.

Yeah, it says it right there on your license.

Right at the top.

Yeah.

And you can also log in and get your under my profile and pull all that stuff.

All right.

All right.

Next question.

What type of shot is required when hunting waterfowl in Kentucky?

A, USFWS approved nontoxic shot.

B, steel shot only.

C, any non lead shot, or D lead shot.

What do you got?

Maybe we got a decision I might lost I might have lost this one.

Might have just.

The answer is A. Yeah.

So any approved nontoxic shot that is the answer.

A. Nontoxic is the key word.

Well, is that what he said I didn't listen very well.

I'm sorry.

C was any non lead shot.

So.

Yeah.

All right.

Next question.

Seven.

What is particular on you particularly unusual about black bear reproduction.

This ought to be your question here.

Female.

A, females can delay implant implantation.

B, females give birth every six months.

C , males raise the cubs.

D, black bears mate for life.

What do you got?

Going with A. All right, we got A. Everybody's got A, good job, guys.

All right.

Down to the last one.

And I don't think we have a tie break question.

So, we'll have to arm wrestle after the show to see who wins.

Next question.

Is, which sex of whitetail deer typically disperses further from its birth area?

All right.

This is either males, females both equally or neither.

So which sex of whitetail deer typically disperses further from its birth area?

A females, B males, C both equally, or D neither.

What do you got?

B males all of you got it right.

Good job.

Ill tell you what we ask that about whitetail deer.

But we probably could have been about a whole lot of species there.

I'm sure bull elk is probably the same way.

Bears are the same same thing.

So a lot of the males typically hit that sexually mature range.

And they're yep, they're gone right.

All right.

So hopefully you enjoyed our, our trivia here.

You guys did great.

Nice job on all those.

Now we're going to get to your questions.

So you can start sending those in.

We have a couple of already that have already come in right now.

Very first question here.

One second, very first question.

Can you explain how the quota hunts system works?

And are there points involved?

Now, if someone asks about a quota, they didn't talk about which quota hunt.

Yep.

Who wants to talk a little bit about our quota hunts and how those work?

I think my species probably has the most of them right now.

So, we have, quota hunts where they offer some type of, different opportunity.

Usually it's firearm opportunity on our wildlife management areas across the state.

Hunters can apply for them during the whole month of September.

And, to look to look up where the quota hunts are.

We've got almost 40 right now between, physical KDFWR owned WMAs and state parks.

So there's a really good mix across the whole state of opportunity out there.

And so there's almost 40 of them.

And you'll notice two in this year, a lot of the dates and stuff are changed.

We try to be a little more creative with some of the offerings.

The hunt offerings, to try to give different opportunities out there.

So, just because you've hunted Kincaid Lake every year for the last five years, right?

Maybe give it a check.

Just give it a little quick look before you make that application.

But it's, it's it's very easy to find here.

And it does use points, like you said, for ours, for, for whitetail deer.

And how much does it cost to put in?

$3 to apply.

$3 to apply per hunt for quota.

Yeah.

Right now we've talked primarily about whitetail deer.

It's that time of year.

But September is a month for a plot to apply for any of our quota hunts.

Yep.

So I know we've got whitetail deer quota hunts.

We've got waterfowl hunts.

We've also sandhill crane.

Pheasant.

Yeah.

So what what I'm I'm probably missing a couple too, what other hunts do we have that September's a month you sign up right now.

I think those are really the big ones.

We have the, obviously, we now have the new dove hunting opportunity, but that's a little earlier in the year.

So I think September, covers your your main points with everything except the elk.

You know, I mean, it's still.

Yeah.

The elk hunt.

Okay.

Obviously is earlier in the year.

So if you're interested in a quota hunt, being a whitetail deer or any of these other species we've talked about, this is the month you have until the end of this month, September, to apply.

So next time you're on the laptop, log in there.

Fill that out.

$3 to apply per hunt.

And what percentage of our people for for deer hunts get get drawn?

Pretty good odds.

And it'll show you in the in the quota hunt tables in here.

It'll tell you exactly how many points it required to draw last year to help you gauge your success.

But, a lot of the hunts don't take that many points to draw.

We cycle through hunters pretty good.

Plus, if you if you pay attention to on some of the hunts, we award you extra preference points for the taking of antlerless deer.

Okay, so if you go out on the right hunt, You know, you can you can hunt every year.

Okay.

There you go.

So if you if you've lost a farm or you're looking for a place to, looking for a place to hunt this season and you don't know where you're going to go, September's the month to sign up, and it looks like the, chances are pretty good you'll be drawn.

All right, next question.

Has any interesting data come from our collared deer project?

That, that is a project.

That sound like mine again?

That is your collared deer project.

Tell us about what it is and how long it's been going on.

Because, man, it seems to me like, we did a segment with this with you in the field two years ago.

Oh, I'm talking about what we did years ago.

Oh, that was that was for graduate school.

That was, yeah.

Before you were even a full time, employee here.

But, sure, we went down and you called me one night and said, hey, we just had a doe give birth.

I think it was Clay County.

Yep.

Clay County.

And off we went to go try to locate this deer.

Really cool project.

Tell me a little bit about it and what you've learned from this.

Well, so we do have two separate ones.

The one that you're referring to was my master's research.

We were we looking at eastern Kentucky deer populations, basically.

We, you know, they're very restrictive in the harvest allotments that we allow.

You would expect to see a lot more, productive growth on the female portion.

But we weren't doing that.

So I was trying to figure out why that was.

So we were, capturing adult females and their fawns to look at specific mortality.

So basically, what's killing them and why, how and when, what rates to try to figure out what's going on with that population.

The other one that we have right now is in far western Kentucky, around the Ballard area around our original, wild detection positive.

One of the main things that we're looking at there is deer dispersal rates and how that transitions to, implications for chronic wasting disease management.

You know, in this book here too, you can see we've got several CWD surveillance zones.

There are the, the project that we're looking at right now is trying to refine these CWD surveillance zones so we can put more effective regulations on hunters and make sure we're, you know, casting the right size net in terms of our sampling intensity.

So it's been really impressive so far.

We haven't had any, any really, really big movements, but we have had quite a few movements, you know, so most of these deer dispersing out 4 or 5 miles out of their natal range and then making a new home.

So it's been it's been pretty cool to see, especially in that, super ag dominated landscape, right, where there's not a lot of trees and they'll have to make a little bit more movements.

But, yeah, it's been really exciting.

The biggest move we have if somebody asked about something interesting was, 13 miles.

Okay.

So the furthest move you had from any deer that you've collared has been 13 miles.

In that study.

Yeah.

But that we were talking about when we have a positive for CWD, which has happened down in Ballard County, we need to know how far to kind of tighten up the restrictions or test.

Right.

Yep.

Well, we're kind of finding out that the deer weren't moving quite as far as you thought.

Right.

So we'll still see.

You know, it's early, it's early.

Yeah.

It's it's early on.

So that's what you're seeing.

So yeah halfway through and we've got they're all so the thing that was really fun, that was difficult about the project is we were catching them as fawns, a six month olds or eight month olds and then watching them make this dispersal.

So we had to catch them last winter.

And then now over the next two months is when they're going to start moving all over the place.

Yeah.

So it's about to get really exciting.

So would you let me know where those are collared and if they disperse or come closer when I rattle or grunt call, that's what I do.

I need to know, are these deer responding positively or negatively to my call?

So next question here is, this will be my son's first time deer hunting.

He's 14 years old when it comes to tags.

Does he get his own deer tags?

Or since I have the hunting license, do also have tags for both.

So what?

A person that's taking a 14 year old.

What licenses are they are required for each.

So well, first thing is whether or not that 14 year old is going to be hunting on his parent's property.

So if they are the landowner and they are legal dependents of that landowner, they are license exempt until they're 16.

Okay.

At between 12 and 15, if they're hunting somebody else's land, say, a buddy's farm or whatever, then they would have to get a youth license.

So a youth hunting license and a youth deer permit, or like a youth sportsman's license, and then the deer is always going to get checked in under, whoever harvested that deer's social security number.

So if you take a youth out hunting and that youth shoots a deer, that deer needs to get checked in under that youth social Security number through the tel-a-check whether they call it in or if they do it online.

This is the question that comes up every single year.

I get this phone call, the youth season opener, every single year.

Hey, I took junior out here hunting or my daughter out hunting, and they don't need a license, so I don't have to tel-a-check this deer.

Right?

It comes up every year.

The department knows even if they don't have a license, when you put their social in there, we we want that animal tag back to the individual who harvest it regardless if they need a license, if they're ten all the way up to 15, they will have a license between 12 and 15, right?

Correct.

Before 12, they won't have anything.

Right?

Correct.

They still tag that deer under them because even if they don't have to have a license, it comes up.

We get this question every year.

So, I appreciate you explaining it.

Next question, can you hunt black bears in the Daniel Boone National Forest?

And if so, what sign would you be looking for?

Yeah, absolutely.

The whole Daniel Boone's open.

It is closed for chase and hunt with dogs.

Okay, so stipulations on archery and our gun season.

Absolutely.

It's open.

What, is that a good place, Daniel Boone National Forest?

Yes.

Especially down like southern.

The southern end of it.

McCreary up through Pulaski.

And then the Red bird area will be two of my top picks for for bear.

And I would look and see what the acorns are doing.

So we've got our our small game folks just completed the the mass report for the fall so that should be coming out here pretty quick.

If there's a good acorn crop, they're moving less and you've got to go and find them and, you know, still hunt them.

Or kind of hunt them like deer.

If there's a lower acorn crop, they're going to be moving more.

So there's some opportunity that a bear just might come on past.

Man, every.

All wildlife.

They they really enjoy those acorns.

Yeah.

What time of year did the acorns really start falling?

Because I know a lot of times, Joe, we talk about it, here in the state of Kentucky, those deer in the fields, the crops get taken out.

All of a sudden, everybody's like, man, the deer just disappear.

We don't see any deer.

They're gone.

Well, they've made a move havn█t they?

And that was acorns start falling and the easy crops are out of the field.

They've made a move into the into the hardwoods.

What time of year do you really need to kind of start tailoring your locations that you're hunting for either small game with acorns or for bear or deer or elk?

What time of year is that?

I like them like third or fourth week of September.

I'm seen white oak and red oaks on the ground in the East, last couple times early, you know, early gun elk season.

If I'm out there working there, there will be acorns on the ground at that point in time.

Okay.

So you really it's coming up soon.

So you start to start kind of making those moves and checking those stands that are in those hardwoods, because that's where that's where the deer are going to be when the acorns are there.

Right.

All right.

Next question.

How many deer tags come with your hunting license.

This is a little bit tricky.

Question isn't it.

It is.

There's they're called tags permits or you know, there's there's different names for them.

But, to be legal, you got to have two things.

Gotta have a hunt license and a Kentucky deer permit.

And on that statewide permit is good for four deer, whether it's four antlerless or one antlered and three antlerless.

Only ever allowed to get one antler deer each year.

And that's any any exposed bone is considered an antlered buck.

But then, of course, you know, in zone one, counties where you have an unlimited, number of does or antlerless deer that can be harvested, you can buy that additional deer permit and continue hunting and filling other people's freezers.

So with your general tags that you that everyone purchases to deer hunt, you get four for deer, but it's still have to look back in what zone you're hunting.

Are you one, two, 3 or 4?

Correct.

Regardless of which one it is, the restrictions might be a little more restrictive for which weapon and what you're taking, but regardless, you one antlered deer.

Correct.

Now is the youth license also have four.

Is it still have a it have it still has four.

Okay.

The license exempt youth, I mean, where they don't need an additional deer permit or anything else like that, as long as they're in the zone one county, they can.

Okay, they can pop as many as they want.

Okay.

So you can take additional antlerless deer in and throughout the state as long as the zone allows that.

Correct.

And you can go buy those additional tags if you've filled your four, you can buy antlerless tags or bonus deer tags and with like 15 or 20 bucks.

$15 for two.

Yeah.

So there you go.

So it comes with four.

And one of them are, antlered deer and 3 or 4 antlerless.

You are only allowed one and you can buy additional depending on what zone you're hunting and and continue to hunt them.

Correct.

All right.

Next question.

Here are their daily quota limits on Black Bear this year.

Or is it open to hunt for the duration of the dates with the bear limit of one.

So I guess they're talking about the the quota being not per person, but it's for how many can be harvested.

Yeah.

So we had that up through part of the 2022 season.

And then through the reg process we got rid of the quota.

So it is open dates that are in the guide.

It's open.

The only reason you need to call in is to get some info on doing the physical check of your bear after.

Ok.

You can still call the same old, our main phone number and get that worked out.

But you're not calling it to know what the season is open the next month, and that's that.

If you're a bear hunter, that's really makes it nice and easy for you, because in the past, of course, we were being very restrictive.

We didn't want to over harvest in the past, you had to call at the end of every day to verify that the season was still going to be open the following day, and that is no longer there.

The the dates are that what the dates are?

If you plan on taking a hunt, you don't need to make sure you're on day one.

If the season is, how many days is the season?

Correct.

So we got three.

For archery season, we got three days in zone one and five in zone two.

Okay.

For this fall we've got we passed regs through our commission to make them both five.

Okay.

And that might go through sometime later on this fall though for the October archery this year it's still going to be the three and the five.

Okay.

So when it's open it's open those those days and you don't have to worry about calling and checking to see if it still open.

All right.

Next question is the antlerless firearm season at the end of the month taking place this year?

I've been hearing both ways.

So this is an interesting question.

Let's talk about whitetail deer and this antlerless season.

That was to people are talking about.

And, that was proposed.

What what's going on with that?

It's, just at this time, we're we don't have anything currently proposed for this season, for this September or the January season's, the you might still see some confusion because we do have the CWD antlerless season that goes and occurs during those same dates.

For zones one, two and three counties in the surveillance zones.

But, we don't have any other one statewide seasons, currently in effect.

Okay.

So the answer to that is there is not antlerless firearm season at in September this year.

Only in CWD surveillance zone counties there is.

Okay.

CWD surveillance zone counties.

And you can look at your guide and figure that out.

There are what 30 counties?

23 in the CWD surveillance zone counties.

23 counties.

So check that out.

That is an opportunity to get out in it.

And if you do take place in that hunt for antlerless during that time in the surveillance zones, are there are there monitored monitoring things you have to do to.

Yes.

Sample.

Get your deer sampled.

Yes, sir.

Sure.

That it doesn't have CWD.

We'll have, mandatory submission requirements in our CWD drop off sites, which are just chest freezers that we've got a lot of really, really good partners across the state that allow us to put these out there, make that resource available.

And the important thing that I will tell anybody here is that the testing is all free.

Right?

You get a little peace of mind.

Yeah.

Help us out with our sample.

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you were looking to fill the freezer earlier and you're not a bow hunter, this is a great opportunity to get in the CWD surveillance zone.

Take one, using a firearm, and then get it all tested right there.

Help the department provide us the sample, get it tested prior to your consumption.

Everything's all good to go.

All right.

Good, good.

Good stuff.

All right.

What are the most common issue issues that, that you are seeing during this fall hunting season?

What are the most issues, the biggest issues you're seeing out there?

Probably the the most common issue that we run into is, a misunderstanding of the harvest log and, confirmation number.

Of course, nowadays, you know, everybody's got digital copies of their licenses.

We've got the app where you can pull up a copy of your license and show it that way.

But, what we see more most often is somebody harvested a deer.

And to be completely legal, you shoot the deer, you track it, you find it, and then the first thing that you should do is validate that harvest log.

And that's where you document the date, the county, the sex and the species.

And that puts you in legal possession of that deer, because depending on where you hunt, you might have you might not have service to to call and tell a check it or to do it online.

But validating that harvest log puts you in, legal possession.

And then you have until midnight the day of recovery or until that deer leaves your possession or before if you're going to process it yourself, you got to have it, checked in and have the confirmation number.

Yeah.

So, you know, if you if you're hunting and you're successful, you pretty much before you move that deer, you need an ink pen and, and your license or you need to make out a harvest log.

If you print, if you print your license off.

Still, you know that harvest log is attached to the license.

I've even told, taken, you know, where somebody might check in their deer online right there, and they'll screenshot that confirmation page that they get after they've checked it in, that has all the necessary information.

Or even if you make a note, in the notes section of your cell phone, as long as you've got that information documented, you're that that's suffices as legal possession.

Okay, there you go.

That's good information to know.

I'm sure you've seen some creative ways that people have written down their information.

Pieces of cardboard napkins.

I've used a couple of these techniques.

You know, you throw an ink pen in your in your pack, and, you know, the next thing you know, you get out there and it's not working really well, and you're scratching it in as good as you can to try to.

That's what I've been through, some creative techniques to do that.

So check your ink pen, make sure you have an ink pen in your vehicle or on the on your person so you can get that done.

Sure.

So next question.

Can you clarify the, clarify the raccoon hunting dates and regulations?

Can thermal nightvision be used?

What about that?

Yes.

So the way the regs states is any means to which make visible make wildlife visible at night.

So it doesn't specify that it has to be lights.

And you know, a thermal can be used to hunt raccoons at night once the shooting season comes in.

Okay.

Which is October 1st.

October 1st is when that comes in.

Okay.

All right.

There you go.

Next question.

Says they tried dove hunting for the first time, and was unsuccessful.

Do you have any tips?

So, this individual wants some tips for dove hunting.

Who has any tips for dove hunting?

Biggest tip█s probably Scout.

Scout the field, scout a set of fields just go, you know, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00.

See what's coming and going on the lines.

That's probably the best bet.

Yeah.

Which is a better spot.

We don't really know why they were successful.

If it was, you know, trying to find the best location in the field, not successful shooting or if you just didn't see any birds.

But I'll tell you what this was.

This was a tough year.

I don't know what what you, saw as far as, out in the field doing some.

Opening day was what I saw.

It was so hot.

You know, mid afternoon season, didn█t start til 11.

Yeah.

By then it was already too hot and there weren't any birds flying, but about 4 or 5:00 it really picked up.

It picked up?

Yeah.

The best advice I can give is check to see what, choke tubes you're shooting in your shotgun.

Because sometimes that can make a big difference.

I would say give the late season a try.

You know, people, everybody wants to dove on the opening weekend, and then it kind of gets forgotten about and it stays open.

And, you know, sometimes years like this where it's so incredibly hot, you can have a really successful dove hunt later on that season stays in for a while.

I don't know the exact season dates, but dove season is.

Right now it comes in on September 1st and goes out October 26th.

It comes back, November 26th.

Okay.

And I'll tell you what.

What, who who said something about choke tubes?

I just ran into this exact same issue with a hunting buddy of mine, and we went out, and I've seen him shoot.

He's a really good shot.

And he wasn't a really good shot this day out in the field.

And I'm like, what is going on?

And we sure enough we pulled his choke tubes and he was shooting full choke or turkey.

Turkey choke.

Yeah.

Turkey restricted tubes and big difference in a pattern when you're out there trying to hit a bird.

You're shooting a pattern this big versus this big.

So that's a, that's a very good tip.

Check those, choke tube shoot the shoot the right type of ammo.

Don't want to be shooting four shot right and shoot the right choke.

The right choke tube.

And, they'll definitely increase your chances.

That's a great tip.

Next question.

What is everyone's favorite fall hunting activity to do themselves and why?

What's your favorite fall hunting activity?

I really enjoy early Woodduck.

We were talking about the CWD dove zone, and that's on a don't busy next weekend for wood duck and teal.

But I'm going to hit up the CWD antlerless season.

Okay, so there you go.

You'll give it a try.

There you go.

I'm going to give bear chase my, first crack out of this year.

We'll give it a shot, see if I can pull something out.

There you go.

Have you.

You've never been to Kentucky before.

No.

You know, me either, Joe.

That's something that I would like to try myself.

I keep hearing about more and more and more bears in Kentucky, and, you know what?

Maybe I may go give that a try.

I hope you get yours right after I get mine.

What, What what's your what's your favorite activity you're looking forward to this year?

Got a few good deer on camera, so I'm looking forward to the temperatures dropping and spending a little more time in the tree stand.

With my bow.

But I. I'm mean, I'm not in the best part of the state, but I always can't wait for the duck season.

Okay.

So.

Okay.

Waterfowl is is a good time in my opinion, and it's plenty.

Plenty cool enough by then.

So.

Yeah, that's that's the key thing for me.

I really enjoy the, the archery hunting, but I want it to be cool enough that, you know, if you take something, it's not a rat race to get down and get it recovered.

Right.

Save the meat.

And then, I'm a beagler, so I, I want to run those beagles and get out there and hopefully those ticks die off and, get get out there and chase some rabbits and really enjoy those, those two activities in the fall.

So I'm looking forward to both of them.

All right.

Next question.

Are there any resources for scouting public land available through the department.

Yeah, absolutely.

So are the big thing that we that the, public land managers have really updated in the last year, maybe two years, is just the mapping that we've got for those public lands to the point of not just the toppo map, not just an aerial view, but they've got fields planted in something, they've got areas that they've done prescribed fire and herbicide treatments.

So you can see all that and it is a real nice interactive map.

Okay.

Very cool.

So it's not just boundary lines and what to expect when you get there.

They're showing you what habitat works being done there as well.

Okay.

It's almost like that on the fish side.

It's like there's a brush pile right here and it's got yeah, it's got this, this and this and it and it's 20ft deep and you're kind of getting additional information on the, on the hunting side or what to expect when you get there.

Absolutely.

Very very cool.

That's good.

I've never used that.

And so that's that's on the department's website.

Yeah.

It's part, if you go to our maps section or you can even search Sloughs WMA, and that'll come up and get the maps.

You can, you can get a link right there.

Okay.

Very, very good.

Looks like this person is specifically interested in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

We've got a lot of people interested in that this year.

But are there any rules on camping or not camping on public land while hunting?

Yeah, that would be, unless, you know, something different I direct.

I've got a lot of elk hunters on public land.

I'd direct them to actually call the U.S.

Forest Service.

Yeah, and just get.

So they've got regs that differ across the area.

They've got some established campsites, but generally you can do dispersed camping as long as you're so far from the trail that they would have all that info.

Okay.

All right.

So reach out to the U.S.

Forest Service who actually owns the Daniel Boone National Forest.

And, and check in with all that.

But generally, you think that camping is is allowed in certain areas.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

They've got some really nice campsites in spots and then dispersed in other spots.

Okay.

There you go.

Sounds like that person is going to take it all in and weekend a little camping, hunting a little hiking, a little bit, all of it.

So, next question.

What are the hunters orange requirements?

It is, it is, is it required when rabbit or squirrel hunting?

What are the hunters orange requirements.

So any time that there's a, deer or elk firearm season in, any type of hunting that you're going to do in the woods, the Hunter orange requirements come into play.

So typically that first weekend of modern gun season for deer, you know, squirrel and rabbit go out and they come back in.

But if, if you're rabbit hunting, squirrel hunting on a WMA or private land or wherever, during a, a gun season for deer, then you have to wear the hunters orange, you know, visible from 360 degrees on the front, on the back and around your head.

And then it has to be solid and Kentucky, you can't wear the the camouflage pattern hunter orange.

The only time.

It's not, it's not, mandatory is if you're waterfowl hunting.

Okay.

Depending on when waterfowl starts, if it overlaps with, gun season, if you're waterfowl hunting, you don't have to wear hunter orange.

So what?

Tell me how this works, this year, we've got this, CWD surveillance zone, and we're going to have the we're going to have individuals that are going to be rifle hunting or modern firearm hunting.

Right?

If you are hunting, archery, hunting in those counties during that time, you also need to wear hunters orange, right?

Correct.

What about if you're hunting a different county that's not open and your archery hunting?

If it's not in that CWD surveillance zone, and there's not a gun season in effect and then you do not have to wear hunter orange.

So you really need to know what hunting seasons are going on in the county you're hunting.

Correct.

Year round.

So not only the season or what you're pursuing, but what other seasons are in, because that could change the rules and regulations based on what you're hunting, even if you're archery hunting.

Sure.

So, know, the rules and regs.

And I tell you, if you go on our department, FW.KY.GOV on the website.

There's a, there's a little cheat sheet, that█s a one pager that will show you all the season dates on there.

And that's a good thing to have.

And you can also get it in the, in the hunting Guide where it will show you all the season dates.

So it's a good thing to know what's going on around you, not only from a safety aspect, but from a legal aspect.

Right?

Correct.

From the safety side, I kind of like to know what other people are doing.

If I start hearing shots, you kind of know what's going on.

So, know, know what's going on around you in the woods.

Next question.

Are, are bears expanding state wide?

If not, why are they being seen across the state so much?

Tell us a little bit about bear movement and what's going on with our bear population.

Absolutely.

So it's expanding in places in the East, but definitely not statewide.

You know, we've had bears roam in central Kentucky and west Kentucky for 20, 25 years now, just occasionally in the summer.

And we're pretty good for, you know, we've had of kind of a bear roam roam around Bowling Green.

We've had two bears up here in the Bluegrass.

Last summer we had a bear or the summer before all the way in Fulton county.

Furthest county West.

So it's again, we were talking about males reestablishing, you know, dispersing and reestablishing their home range.

Bears are the ones, you know, a deer might go on a 13 mile trip.

They'll go on a 1300 mile walk about, you know.

They get kind of kicked out of the out of their moms care.

You've got other dominant males trying to actively kill them.

And so they just take a walk.

Yeah.

And so that's why we're seeing them in the, in the, you know, in places that, that they're not, you know, the rest of the year.

So those summer months, June to September, and they make the news, everybody gets them on the ring camera, trail cameras and, kind of as they make their like, their path around.

We've got one in Henry County probably right now it's it's been three months, you know, in and out of Lexington and kind of through Shelby Count So, and those bears will make their way back down to the eastern Kentucky mountain area later on in the fall into the winter time.

That's the that's the goal.

They they get out here, they find good territory.

But then they don't find a girlfriend.

So they'll wander back if they can miss the car bumpers and, and that stuff, they'll they'll find their way back.

Yeah, yeah.

And what about, as far as expanding.

Are bear numbers increasing, decreasing, staying steady?

What what's the thought?

Yeah.

So we've got them increasing in places steady in others.

So some of our core counties Harlan, Letcher, Belle and Pike.

We really tried to keep that at zero growth.

That's where the vast majority of our harvested bears come out of those counties.

McCreary and Wayne, Clinton.

We're not killing as many down there, so we're actually seeing growth down there.

So the numbers are actually growing.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, bears are a cool, cool thing to see, but but you really don't want to be attracting bears.

And by leaving garbage or leaving food out for bears, do you?

Yeah, not at all.

Nuisance bears are a pain in the butt, aren't they?

They are.

Yeah.

You don't want one.

If they if you're not giving them a meal, they'll go back up on the mountain and do their thing.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's illegal to.

Right?

It is.

You need to make sure that you're taking care of, garbage and and waste and not and not attracting bears by feeding them.

All right.

Next question is, do, do squirrels migrate to find food?

And if so, how far?

Who who knows anything about migrating squirrels?

I've heard tales of of squirrel, Kentucky squirrel migrations in East Kentucky.

I've never seen it.

I think it would after my only.

My only thoughts on that was just an absolute mass crop failure.

And they're forced.

But I've I've had some some old an old fellow down at Robinson Forest told me that he just saw hundreds coming across the ground and going through the tree tops.

I'd love to see it.

I would love to see that, too.

I think in, you know, as blessed as we are, the variety of acorn crops that we've got food, I don't know, they're going that far.

Weird things happen from time to time.

So who knows what.

There could be a such thing as a squirrel migration.

But how they're communicating to that, I'm not aware of that.

Follow the leader, I guess.

Next question.

I've never deer hunting before.

And, do you need to be in a tree stand, or can you do it from the ground, or can you stalk them?

This is a good question.

If someone's never deer hunted before, I would probably tell you don't start out in the tree stand, right off the bat, very first time.

If you're not real comfortable with shooting or climbing in a tree stand, or you not really good with scouting.

What?

That's one thing about a tree stand.

When you put yourself in that tree, that's where you're at for the rest of the day.

What would you recommend someone who's picking up?

You know, he didn't say if you go to archery hunt or rifle hunt, but they're going to deer hunt for the first time.

What do you recommend?

Yeah, I mean, I think a tree stand█s an advantage, but I also think it complicates things.

Yeah.

I got I got the bug to become a saddle hunter.

Yeah.

And now I've got more stuff and, you know, I'm thinking about it this year.

I really need to go in the backyard and set the thing up and practice for an hour before I, do it in the dark.

Yeah.

You know, with a bow in my hand.

So I used to do a lot.

One of my favorite things to do during Modern Gun season, after kind of the crowd at the farm died down is just take a walk.

Yeah.

And it was pretty darn successful.

And you're just taking a nice stroll, still hunting.

Checking out the good places.

I also did not get nearly as bored while I was walking around as I do parked in a in a tree stand.

So.

now you're doing that with a bow or gun hunt?

That would have been gun.

Yeah, taking a walk would█v been gun, yeah.

What about you?

Have you ever you ever spot and stalked?

Yeah, I've done a little bit of it.

I'm not, That graceful, I guess.

So I successful, but I try, I think, ground blinds would be what I would suggest to the new hunters.

Utilize them all the time to take, you know, my daughters or family.

It's good.

It's not intimidating.

It's, safe.

Right.

It's, You can be really well concealed.

The only thing I would pay attention to is if there's gun seasons.

Right?

The Hunter orange requirements on the blinds.

But aside from that, that's that's the route that I like to take the most for sure.

What do you see?

How do you see new hunters being successful?

I do honestly, to be successful.

I mean, I think you need to learn how to read some sign, whether you're whether you're going to tree stand, hunt or blind.

Hunt out of a blind or stalk, knowing where to look and where to walk.

Yeah.

Is, you know, can lead you in the right direction.

I mean, but in Kentucky, I mean, it's anything's possible, especially when it comes to deer.

You know, I if I was going to spot and stalk in Kentucky, would be gun the season, you know, just knowing the terrain, knowing what you know where to look and and using the terrain to your advantage and just taking your time.

I'll tell you for a for a new bow Hunter, if this individual's new and they're new to bow hunting, I would I would probably recommend learning how to use a tree stand and getting in a tree.

But especially for young kids.

What I've noticed is if you take a young kid and you get them out there and what do you do?

You put them out there, on a shooting bench or shooting sticks, and you teach them how to shoot, and then you put them in a tree stand and they're not real comfortable.

And now the wind's moving a little bit, and and all of a sudden, your range that you're able to take a deer just got decreased significantly.

They don't have the experience to be able to stand up there and hold that, hold that rifle steady and the wind's moving.

That's why I think if you can get them out, even if you don't have a blind and you know which way the wind's going in the face, in a way that you have the wind in your favor and build yourself just something to conceal behind.

You're probably, yeah, able to shoot a wider range just because they're stable with that, with that rifle or shotgun.

Probably going to be more successful today.

I'm still at my 15 year old.

We're still going out and hunting when he's 14.

We're still hunting a lot of times on the ground.

I have had him in a tree stand.

He's more comfortable shooting off of the sticks and shooting longer distances.

So a lot of different ways you can look at that.

If you're bow hunter, I'd say get comfortable on a tree stand.

If you're a brand new gun hunter, you got options.

But, you can be successful on the ground, that's for sure.

Next question are Flying Squirrel legal to take during the fall squirrel season?

No.

I'm gonna say no.

no, yeah.

No, they're not considered a game species.

Okay.

So the only squirrel species that are legal to take or the red squirrel or the grey squirrel.

Okay.

Flying Squirrels are really small too.

So, yeah, I don't know what you'd be doing with something that that size, but they're really cool if you get to see one and they're pretty rare.

Yeah.

To actually see them.

But they're really cool to see the flying squirrels.

Not legal to harvest.

Correct?

All right.

Next question.

How would someone go about getting in a career like the guest here have, how do you become a biologist or a game warden?

Well, is a good question.

We got somebody interested in, we always need.

We always need game wardens.

As a matter of fact, we just had, just had a listing, right?

For, Yeah, we just had, class 31.

Just started, last week.

Okay.

Another class of, recruits.

And last year we had classes, 29 and 30.

Okay.

So, so every year we're having 1 or 2 classes.

We have for the last several years.

Yeah.

How long you been a game warden now?

Nine years.

Nine years.

And is this something you wanted to do pretty much all your life?

Once I kind of figured out what path I wanted to take.

Yeah.

This was something that always kind of, drew me closer to it because it kind of put two things together.

I grew up out in the outdoors, and.

Yeah, I like being outdoors.

What?

What type of education requirements for a game warden?

So no longer requires, a degree.

Okay.

In the past, there was there was a requirements, specific degrees, and then it was a degree that was an associate's, but now it's 21 years of age.

High school diploma, valid driver's license.

That's the basics of it.

You get all that, and then you can apply whenever there's an opening.

You'll do it through the through the personnel website.

And then there's a lot of other steps to take after that.

But that's the that's the beginning of it.

That's what gets the ball rolling.

I know you guys, both originally from Kentucky.

Both went to school for wildlife management.

Both of you, right?

Tell me a little bit about, about your path and how you got into this.

Yeah, well, I, I didn't know I got a biology degree.

Not knowing what in the world I wanted to do.

And then, the best thing that happened to me, I got a tech job up here in the summer of 2006 and realized that all things that are fish and wildlife, that I got to be outside, I got to do science, and they kind of took it from there and went back, went back to school for a little bit and came back.

Okay.

So, okay.

So and you're originally from, eastern western Kentucky?

Yeah.

Davis County overall area.

Yeah.

And went to UK.

Did my, did my graduate work at UK.

Got my undergrad at center.

Okay.

All right.

Very good.

How about you?

Basically the same story.

Biology degree from a smaller school then, went and ultimately did, graduate work at UK and, that's where I got my master's from.

But, then he basically picked me up off the street.

He called me and said, hey, I need a guy, but I need somebody down here.

And it was like a 3.5 hour drive to get there.

And I was there, I think seven hours after he called me.

Oh, wow, they're ready to work.

So that kind of stuff, I do end up hiring or supervising a lot of students.

I would just encourage these folks the the Degrees important stuff to, get out there and get after it.

Try to get that experience, try to get that networking because so many students are coming through into the workforce and they█re fresh.

Yeah, right.

Having a little bit of something there to help set you off, just sets you aside from somebody else that█s good.

So, the experience can hurt the pocketbooks.

But it's very important for the folks that are in these, you know, trying to get into this profession to have some of that, you know.

Oh, yeah.

Just in some way, if everybody's got that piece of paper because it requires that have something beyond that, some field experience would definitely help out regardless if it was paid or not.

Yeah, exactly.

So get out there and get some field experience.

Plus too, when you hire somebody that already has some love experience, they already know that they they're probably going to like it.

There's a reason they're there to apply.

They've been through a little bit of it and they realize, hey, I want to keep doing that.

So, so so there you go.

It's important to know, like what exactly you want to do because there's there's a lot of different divisions with Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

So I get that question a lot when I do school events and stuff.

People don't realize we have accounting positions and HR positions and communicating communicator positions.

And obviously you guys are seeing a lot of, either out in the field or, you know, as a game warden, but, there's a lot of opportunities.

So if you have interested in them, interest in the department, you know, everyone goes through the same exact path.

You go through the, fw.ky.gov and fill out an application and check out a any openings that may come up there.

You can have them sent directly to you.

So I highly recommend doing that.

So.

Well, this was this was a great show.

I appreciate you guys coming out, and answering all of our questions.

I'm looking forward to getting out and spending a lot more time in the field as these temperatures come down.

I think we got one more week and the temperatures are going to come down, and it's going to get really, really, really nice.

So thank you for joining us today for our fall question answer show all about hunting.

Hey, are you looking for something to do?

Join us on September the 26th here at the Salato Wildlife Education Center.

It's a national hunting and fishing day and the admission is free.

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

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

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