Airbows, Velvet Seasons, and Conservation

Things get a little fiery this week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. There are a couple key pieces of legislation in Oklahoma right now that could have huge impacts on the way people enjoy the state's natural resources. This is a hold nothing back episode where John takes on the hard topics around laws and regulations that the sportsmen and women of Oklahoma and beyond deal with on a daily basis. The podcast starts off with some of the usual hot topics. Should Oklahoma remain a 2 buck state or go to 1 buck tag? Are crossbows really having a negative impact on the quality of the deer herd?

If those topics don't get your water boiling, there's more. A bill to start an August velvet deer season has already passed the senate and moved to the house, and could go into effect as early as next year! Not enough you say? Did you know there are people pushing to get airbows legalized for archery season in Oklahoma? Have you seen trail cameras are now banned on public land in Kansas? Topics like these can no longer be ignored, and they are only becoming more common.

[00:00:00] Hey guys and gals, welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by Arrowhead Land Company. Here you'll be educated, entertained, and equipped to get more out of your outdoor experience. So hold on tight because here we go.

All right. Y'all got your ears on. Y'all ready for this? Welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast. I am John Hutz Smith, and welcome to today's show. I'm just gonna throw this out here right now, right here at the beginning, today's podcast. It's got a little fire behind it. To give you a little backstory here, yesterday the emperor himself, Mr.

Dan Johnson, out of Iowa, he asked me to be a guest on his. And Dan's been doing a, anything but deer series which I liked. And so he asked me about hog hunting. I said, yes, [00:01:00] let's do this thing. So I was all excited, had my notes together and everything. Dan calls me to do the show. and he was basically like, Hey, if it's okay with you, I wanna throw hogs out the window,

And I said, okay. And basically Dan had been informed of some legislation thrown around in Iowa. He was pretty fired up about it. And so he asked if we could do a episode on kind of laws, regulations, and that type of, Which I was all for, I wasn't very prepared. Again, he hit me with it basically right before we hit record.

He was asking me a bunch of questions about Oklahoma. He was asking, am I happy with the regulations here? Do you think most people are are there things you would change? How do you feel about this topic, that topic? And I really enjoyed the conversation, but again, I was unprepared.

But it also, it just, it really got me thinking about a lot of stuff. It got me thinking about, our regulations. Am I really happy with them? I had recently learned of some legislation in Oklahoma that that I was, a little concerned with or fired [00:02:00] up about. One of them was sent to me by a listener.

The other I found out about a board member on Oklahoma's National Wild Turkey Federation. And then after all this came about another listener sent me another topic from Kansas that kind of had me fired up. And so basically it just, it really got me thinking about all this stuff.

And and I copied a page out of Dan's book today. I took to, I. Posted a whole bunch of questions, got a lot of feedback that I'm pretty excited about, and I'm gonna share all that with this, with you guys in this episode. But again, take it a step back, it just it made me realize in almost in a shameful way, that.

I have just not utilized this platform and this podcast in the most beneficial way. And again I felt a little shame for that. We've we've had conservationists on here, we've had guides, we've had common folks. We've had a lot of people on here. We've talked about a lot of different things, but I don't know if we've ever had an episode like I am planning to have today where we [00:03:00] really.

Get down to the nitty gritty, gritty and cover some like tough topics. And so that is my goal for today. I'm not shying away. Again I'm, I'm gonna talk about some legislation that is being discussed right now. Gonna talk about, some things that have been passed in the previous year, some hot topics.

We're gonna cover a lot of things today and I'm very excited about it. So I hope you guys are too. Yeah. And when you guys listen to this, my, my hope is that you don't just listen to it. I want you guys to really listen to these topics, listen to the things I'm saying, and and a lot of this is gonna be somewhat my opinion, but honestly I've been sitting in my chair for the last.

Hour and a half researching all these topics also. So I'm not just, pulling this outta thin air. But I want, as you guys listen to this, I want you to think, how do you feel about these topics? How does this impact you? How does it impact your children future generations? And not only that, let's say you listen to one of these things and it really strikes a chord with you in one way or the other.

Maybe you really don't like one thing [00:04:00] that I talk about. I want you to think about. , what would you do about it? If if you really are against something or for something, what would you contact your senator or your congressman? Would contact game and fish or the wildlife department, what, would you actually take action against that thing or for that thing, whatever it might.

Again I'm pretty fired up right now. I've been thinking about this all day. This was not my plan for this week's episode. I'll throw that out there right now. But again, just yesterday talking to Dan about all this stuff, it kinda, it just really fired me up and I've been daydreaming about it all day.

I've been sitting in this computer researching it, and so again that's the plan for today. Just me, like I mentioned. And so we got a lot to cover. I got my notes typed up. I feel pretty prepared for it, and I hope you guys are excited for it. And my hope, again, like I hope you listen to this and I hope you send this episode to everybody, because this is, we're gonna cover a lot of hot topics in our state.[00:05:00]

and so yeah, . I don't wanna take up too much time because we got a lot to cover. Like I said, I also don't want to cut our partners short, so we are gonna do a quick little commercial break here before we get into it. So that's what we got on the dock for today. I hope you guys are ready. Turn it up loud because we're gonna get into it right after this.

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You can collect those photos, upload them to Deer Lab, and use all the same advantages you used to keep taps on that trophy buck to hunt down that big bore or strutting Tom. Give it a look@deerlab.com and don't forget to use code Oklahoma Outdoors when you sign up. Although we have had some crazy weather in the last few weeks, things are finally warming up, and that [00:07:00] means it's time to hit the water and do a little fishing.

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These are large 10 plus acre lakes well managed that you get to all yourself. So go to private water fishing.com and get fishing. and we are off. I'm going to try to slow my talking down. I'm a really fast talker. I've learned when I do podcasts, so gonna try to slow it down and I wanna make one thing clear right from the beginning.

This is not a rag on the wildlife. Department podcast quite the opposite actually. I want to, actually, I'm gonna start off by bragging on the Wildlife department. Our first kind of conservation topic is, wild turkeys. It's no secret that Turkeys and Oklahoma and really across the country, Turkey numbers are way [00:08:00] down.

And, last year we saw the wildlife department. Change regulations. We saw the season taken back a few weeks. They, being a southeastern Oklahoma guy didn't really bother me much because we've always had that shorter, April 15th start. But they went nation or not wait nation, they went statewide with that and then they also took the limit down, which I thought was great.

If you're a hardcore Turkey hunt hunter, Yes, that is unfortunate. But the good news is if these steps work, they can change it back. We can become a two bird state again. They can move that season forward again if they need to. I think that's one example that I wanted to start off with of the wildlife department doing their research.

Listening to hunters, knowing what's going on and adjusting accordingly. And so most of the topics we're gonna be covering today are deer hunting related. That's just one thing. Like I said, I wanted to point out that one thing that they do well. This podcast tends to be a little deer heavy.

It's [00:09:00] just the way things are. It's, my biggest passion. I think it's a lot of people's biggest passion. If you talk to anybody in the hunting industry, They know that whitetail is king. One of the most famous deer hunters in the country is Mark jy. I have heard Mark jy on more than one occasion talk about he really prefers Turkey hunting over deer hunting, but he knows basically whitetails pay the bills.

And they do whitetail hunting. There's, it's it's across the board. They cover almost all 50 states. You can hunt 'em from east to. And it's just a, it's just something that a lot of people love, including myself. And so again, most of the topics we're gonna be covering today are whitetail related.

But I wanted to throw out the Turkey example. Quail are quickly disappearing again nationwide, especially in Oklahoma. Oklahoma used to be a huge quail hunting and upland bird game upland bird state. But that's just another example of things that are falling off, and I don't think the wildlife department is to blame it all.

I [00:10:00] think that is changing. Agriculture practices that have changed that I think that's pretty much been proven. When I was growing, All I ever heard was it's the fire ants, it's the fire ants. The fire ants are killing the quail. I think that myth has been put to rest. I'm not saying they didn't hurt but I definitely think now we know that it's, loss of habitat.

Farmers are, they're just, farming is so much more efficient now. They're not leaving grain, they're not leaving stubble. They're farming right up to the property boundary to the fence line. They're not leaving that brush that cover for that. The birds need to. And so yeah, again, just one more small example.

But what I really want to talk about is we're gonna get into some hot deer topics and what better way to start it off, we're just gonna jump right in. We're gonna talk about one buck, verse two buck. It's something that I hear all the time from, it's a nationwide deal. It's not just Oklahoma.

But I have seen. Social media groups dedicated to Oklahoma becoming a one buck [00:11:00] state. And so I wanna, I just wanna discuss both sides about it. I get the argument, I understand the best argument I have ever heard to become a one buck state is that it makes people more accountable.

I had JD Strong on our state's, commiss. He talked about how, it's less than 10% of people fill both buck tags. But I understand the argument where a lot of people are like, yes, but because you have that second tag, it makes you more likely to shoot a smaller buck on that, using that first tag because you still have that second one in your pocket.

And I get that. I understand that. . But I also, the main argument that I always hear is, such and such state beco could become the next Iowa. Everybody looks at Iowa. Everybody looks at their management. They have great deer hunting management. They're very, honestly, they're very trophy focused.

They are a trophy state. But one of the main states that I hear that from is Illinois. [00:12:00] Illinois. They killed giant deer in Illinois also. It's one of the top boot and Crockett states of all time. Everybody's oh, if Illinois only became a one buck state, they would be better than Iowa.

My argument against that is Iowa is not a one buck state. It is a two buck state. Now the way their regulations work is basically you get an archery tag. , they then have a shotgun season that is clo actually closed to archery. You cannot hunt the shotgun season with the archery tag. And then once that shotgun season is closed, you can then get a late season tag, which I believe works for muzzle loader or archery.

So it is a two bucks state. And then actually I was, I know this because I was just talking to Dan about it yesterday. If you are a landowner and their requirement is only like four acres according to. , you can then get a landowner tag also. And so if you are a landowner in Iowa, you can theoretically kill three bucks.

And so I just don't think the whole. [00:13:00] If you become a one buck state thing, I don't think your problem is solved. Missouri, two bucks. State Tennessee, two bucks State, Texas, three bucks state. All these other states, they kill a lot of really good deer and they're seen as great whitetail states and they're not one buck states.

So I'm not necessarily saying that Oklahoma should stay two buck or one buck. I'm just laying out the facts that I just, I don't think it's as simple as you change this one simple regulation and all of a sudden there's 200 inch deer running around everywhere. Oklahoma's a very unique state.

I talk about that all the time. It's very diverse. You have mountains, you have grasslands, you have, basically desert. And that's another thing, one regulation is not necessarily gonna be great for the entire state. When I was talking to JD Strong, we talked about the whole two buck verse, one buck.

And he assured us that it is, they're not just doing this just because, it's all scientifically based. And another thing I wanna point out is, how many do tags you get in Oklahoma? On [00:14:00] top of two bucks you can kill four doughs, or you can kill all six doughs. Parts of the states have the additional holiday antlerless season where you can kill two more doughs.

All this tells me like they, they are trying to get deer off the landscape. They are saying that we have an abundance of deer. If we were in trouble of running that at deer, They would be cutting those dough tags. If you're trying to grow a population, the way you do that is you stop taking out the females.

That's how they grew. Deer populations, when they were almost extinct, you, they had no dough tags. It was only buck. Now the populations have expanded and now they say, Hey. You can kill some doughs. Not only can you kill some doughs, we are encouraged doughs. I've had multiple guests on this podcast talking about that, how, they kill so many doughs a year.

And I honestly, I am guilty of not killing enough dough probably. But again, going back to the whole one buck verse two buck, I just, I think there's way more to it and me personally, I [00:15:00] love the two buck state or the, we're a two buck state because personally I typically use that second tag as more of a management tool.

I have in my little trophy room at the ranch I have probably. Five, at least five bucks. That score under one 30 that are all five years and older. I've killed five year olds. I've killed up to eight year olds, and I, and that the eight year old I'm talking about, I have seven years of pictures worth of 'em.

And I know it wasn't a year when I when I first got a picture of him. And that deer at his very largest, might've scored 1 25. And if you're a one buck state, that deer's never going to get killed. If I had one tag, I don't care if that buck is six. If I have a six year old, 120 inch buck, and I have 170 inch, four or five year old buck, I'm going for the big buck all day.

And I know most of the people out there probably are you. You may think you're not, but when it comes down to it, if you [00:16:00] have one, just like I was, everybody was saying how, if you have two tags, you got that extra if you shoot a small one. It works the opposite way. If you shoot that small deer with your first tag, there is no trophy.

And to me it's more of a mindset, and I think that's improving every single gear. And honestly, I think it's more the younger generation that is, is propelling this idea. And there's a lot of negatives to social media, but I think one positive that has come from that is just people see what is possible.

If you. If you let that younger deer walk, it could turn into what on Facebook or Instagram or whatever like that. And people are experiencing that all over the country, including Oklahoma. And again I feel like it's the younger crowd almost teaching the older crowd like, Hey, Look what these guys have done over here.

They quit shooting two year olds and now all of a sudden they're having these big three year olds, and then maybe they quit shooting three year olds and all of a sudden they have these [00:17:00] giant four-year-olds. And so again it all comes back to the mindset. If you are using the two bucks system as an excuse to just shoot a buck, then.

Things are not going to change. But if you come at it from a conservation mindset, from a management sign mindset of, Hey, there's a, whatever, you're the biggest buck on your property, number one on your hit list, if you're really hunting that deer, trying to kill that deer. And then say maybe that old warrior comes by that old eight point that's, six or seven years old and he's just never been very big, but he is pushing deer away and you get a shot opportunity at him and you use one of your tags on that buck and hey, that's an accomplishment.

Shooting any mature deer is an accomplishment. I don't care how big the antlers on his head I know some people claim they do. I honestly don't think a deer knows how big his antlers are. All he knows is, Hey, I got an attitude. I got the body size. I can push people around. [00:18:00] And so keeping that mindset, really hunting for age but also hunting for genetics, that's again, in a one buck state.

You're never gonna be able to coal without sacrificing the good deer that you really want to kill. And Yeah, I might have got on a little bit of a soapbox there. If you can't tell, I personally, I think I am a fan of the two bucks state for all the reasons I just said, and so I'm gonna leave that one at that.

I told you I was gonna get fired up this episode, so we're gonna move on. I can't say we're gonna cool down at all though, because we're going to go straight into the next hot topic. We're gonna talk a little bit about crossbows, and right out of the gate. I might get some hate from some fellow hardcore bow hunters, but if I'm being completely honest, I don't see crossbows near as negatively as most people do.

Again, starting with the positive. They're great for young hunters. They're great for older hunters. They are a fantastic [00:19:00] dough management tool. We were talking about earlier how the state in general, we need to take more doughs. They're quieter than a gun. You can use 'em more often than a gun. So yeah, CrossBoss are great for those types of things.

And then also just. I think when a lot of hardcore bow hunters are angry at the crossbo, they just picture, some Joe Blow rifle hunter who all of a sudden instead of getting to hunt two weeks of the year, he gets to hunt three months and he's killing all the deer and everything like that. But I.

I just don't see the more relaxed guy who, walks to his stand after daylight and lights a sig in his sand. I just don't see him all of a sudden becoming a big butt killer overnight just because he gets to hunt with a crossbow. You, excuse me. You still have to get close. You still have to be silent.

You still have to make movement in front of. A Whitetailed deer while they're at close range.[00:20:00] Does it allow a person who may have only been able to shoot 30 yards to shoot 50 yards? Probably. So I know from experience that makes a huge difference. The 2% buck this year I had him broadside at 44 yards.

It was low light conditions. I didn't feel comfortable shooting with the compound. If I had a crossbo, that buck would be dead. He would be on my wall right now. So I can't say that it doesn't make a difference because yes, it does. As far as movement, it takes a whole lot more movement to draw a bow than it does to just lift a cross bow, aim, and shoot.

I get that, but I, I don't think people are buying. Again, that kind of not as hardcore hunter, I'm going to say not that on, not that rifle hunters can't be hardcore. But generally your more hardcore hunters are going to be your bow hunters. I just don't see them all of a sudden becoming this killer.

I, they're not. Shooting a hundred yards. You still have to play the wind. You still have to be smart. So just overall, I just don't see [00:21:00] cross bows as near of a big deal. There are so many people that, the big line in the hunting industry is I'm okay with crossbows, just not in archery season.

And I get that. I get the argument as a vertical bow hunter. The fact that somebody has a little advantage over me, does it bother me? A little bit? Yeah, a little bit. But again, for all the reasons I just listed, I just, I don't see it as near as big of an issue as most people make it out to be. So again, that's my 2 cents on cross bows.

Liking 'em, like 'em or hate 'em. I think they're here to stay. I don't see them being banned anytime soon. So yeah I just, again, I would encourage people to think about it, think about the benefits. It gets more people in the outdoors. And so I guess if I had to, if I had to lean one way or the other, I guess I would have to be pro crossbow.

And I apologize to all my fellow hardcore bow hunters out there. All right, we're gonna switch gears just a little bit. We're [00:22:00] gonna talk about some of these things some of these legislation, things that are out there right now. And again, I feel like I haven't used this platform.

Enough to inform you guys about stuff like this. And so there are two big things that I wanna talk about. One is more exciting than the other. And I'm not, again, I'm not really trying to say pro or against these things. I really just wanna inform you guys of the facts as far as I can see and let you guys know that these things are up.

First one, I say I'm a little torn, but I'm pretty excited about, and if I had to lean one way or the. Senator Blake, a k a Cowboy. Stevens passed the, this bill has passed the Senate and has moved onto the house. It is Senate bill 9 1 0 and it is for a early velvet deer season. I'm gonna read a quote here.

It says, Senate bill 910 aims to create a nine day archery season for bucks in velvet. That would start the Saturday morning [00:23:00] prior to the last weekend of August and go to the Sunday evening of the last weekend of August. So if that sounds confusing, just imagine our current muzzle loader season the last week of October and move that to August.

And that's what they're talking about. So they're talking about in. August velvet season from the start. I think this sounds awesome, . I I have always wanted a velvet whitetail. Last year I went to Nebraska to try to shoot one. Didn't get it done. The idea of being able to hunt a velvet whitetail on my own turf that I can prep for and scout for and everything.

it has a lot of appeal. And so to break this down for you guys a little bit more I did a little bit of research on this. So this is being proposed to start in the 20 24, 20 25 season. So next year they're talking about doing it as a draw. So you would have to draw a velvet permit. It wouldn't just be [00:24:00] go out and.

They're talking about at first it would only be open on private land. And again, none of this is finalized yet, but they're talking about opening it just on private land. If you kill a buck during this velvet season, it would count as one of your two for the entire year. So it's not like a bonus tag.

It would count towards your normal bag. and they're talking about reserving 90% of the tags for residents, which I feel is a very good thing. If you're talking about this where I find a little bit of a, not necessarily an issue or problem, but one thing that kind of struck me wrong. Is if you read about this, the two main reasons they are talking about introducing this season is one more opportunities and then two revenue stream and tourism.

The more opportunities I get it's an extra season, extra nine days. Oklahoma has a lot of opportunity already. I'm just gonna throw that out there. We have [00:25:00] one of the longer seasons, if you're looking at states, east of the Rocky Mountains, most of the range of the whitetail.

Oklahoma has one of the longer seasons already, so we already have a lot of opportunities. An opportunity to Velvet buck is more rare. There are very few states with that. You've seen. More states have a velvet season over the last few years. But a lot of those states, if you actually do the research I'm thinking of Tennessee here.

Tennessee introduced a velvet season because they're having problems with C W D, and so they are using that. Basically bucks are easier to kill in the summer before they, disperse and move and they're actually trying to kill more bucks to get rid of C W D. And so that's a big reason Tennessee introduced it.

I don't know about Kentucky. I know they have a velvet season. I'm not sure if they had the same reasoning as Tennessee. Some states. South Carolina, have they start late August or early September. They just have a whole lot of deer there. Again, they're trying to lower numbers. [00:26:00] And so I get the more opportunities thing, I think.

One thing that struck a chord with me again on the next part the revenue stream and the tourism I assume based on this wording is they're talking about out-of-state hunters because, , if you draw the tag, you are gonna have to pay, I believe, residents, from what I read, residents are going to have to pay for a velvet permit.

I don't know if it's like you have to buy a tag and a velvet permit or if they're just talking about, it's an additional tag. I just. What I'm trying to get at is I don't see a lot of extra revenue coming from residents and especially tourism. And so I'm reading this as they're trying to get more money from out of staters.

If you're trying to get more money from out staters, but you're limiting out of staters to only 10% of the tags. I just don't see how those two things go hand in hand. Again, I'm not against it. I just don't see how one of your main reasons can. Raising additional funds, but you're limiting those [00:27:00] funds.

Again, not necessarily saying for against I like the idea of, letting more residents have, especially if you're gonna do a draw, which I believe is what they're talking about. I do obviously, Catering to residents a little bit more. But if you're saying one of your main reasons is to raise money off of outta staters and you're limiting outta staters, I don't really get that.

And same with the whole private land only. I just don't know if adding a nine day velvet season is enough to get an out-of-state or a reason to come and get a lease in Oklahoma. I think people who, obviously Oklahoma has plenty of people who lease from outta state, but I think those people are gonna lease no matter what.

I don't know if adding a velvet season is that much more of a reason to get them. I could be wrong. I'm not sure. So again I don't wanna keep saying for or against, but I just don't know if the reasoning matches the reasoning the state is giving. So again, if they pass this, I'm all in. I think it sounds awesome.

I think sitting in a stand or [00:28:00] a blind the last week of August sounds miserable, but I would probably do it at a chance of development bucks. Yeah, mostly I'm just wanting to let you guys know about. We'll get this. Again. This is Senate bill 910 if you want to go do your own research. So wanted to get that out to you.

This next one I wanna talk about, I don't have near as much information on. I tried to do more research and honestly, I just couldn't find it. This one was sent to me by a listener, and it's an article from the Archery Trade Asso Association, aka the ata. . And the article is saying that there is legislation right now to legalize air bows during archery season in Oklahoma.

So I believe la I believe it was last year in 2022, Oklahoma legalized air bows in the state of Oklahoma during rifle season. Very important part there during rifle season. According to this article, they're currently trying to pass it [00:29:00] for archery season, which is way different. You're talking going from two weeks in a season where you can use a rifle anyway to making it legal for three months.

And to me this is a really big deal and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I'm very against this. I think there's a huge difference. A lot of people are gonna be like crossbows are legal. What's the difference? I think there's a huge diff difference. You're talking about a air powered gun really.

It technically shoots a arrow and not a bullet. But this you literally use. Compressed air to power this thing. And they're shooting arrows much faster than a crossbo. They're way handier. They're not as clumsy, they're small. You can shoot, I wanna say I, I looked up an air bone and I think like that one on one tank of air, you could get like 14 shots out of it or something like that.

And I tried to do some additional research on this. I could not find [00:30:00] anything online. And I even tried to go to the link from the Archery Trade Association from the page that I was given. I don't know if I waited too long or what. I couldn't find it on their website. And so I wish I had more information for you guys, but I honestly don't a, anytime I tried to search anything, all I got was articles from last year when they passed it for rifle season.

Yes, I, this is another one where I would really encourage you to try to do your own research reach out to, your local politicians and stuff. I think this would be a huge loss if this was legalized. I was talking about, earlier I was kinda laughing at, the guy who walked out there lights a cig and, shooting deer.

I think this weapon would give that guy the guy who's not very hardcore, who's just out there to be out there. I think this would give him a huge advantage. And I think this would be, Devastating for the management. It, it definitely the trophy potential of Oklahoma. That was definitely a soapbox.

I said I wasn't gonna try to sway, you guys definitely tried to sway you [00:31:00] guys on that one. So yes I will continue to try to do some research on that and find the actual legislation. And if I can find it, I'll get that out to you guys. But definitely be paying attention, be looking. Be looking forward on the ballot.

Again, if it's in legislation, that means it could be up for a vote soon. Yes, be very aware. I think we need to keep air bows out of archery season. One last quick note. One of the in the article I read one of the, an ABO manufacturer, actually they were against air bows being used in archery season.

So if the people making these things say they're not a. I don't think they're abo. All right, let's move on. . All right. I want to get into the polls that I talked about on Instagram. I put out how about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? I put out five questions a day on my Instagram page. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Outdoors podcast.

If you not following me, you should. And I wanna talk about the results because they're very interesting. I did not. [00:32:00] What I expected, honestly. But I'm excited to share with you guys. First off, I wanna say that again, these came from my Instagram. All of these were seen at least 60 times.

At least 60 people saw the questions. All of these were voted on at least 20 times. And then one thing that I thought was very interesting was, All of these had difference, different amounts of votes. And so I don't know if people just voted on ones they felt more passionately about or if some were maybe ashamed to vote on one or not.

But I thought it was interesting that of the people who voted, they didn't vote on all of them. So I just wanted to throw that out there from the beginning, cuz I thought that was interesting. So the first question that I asked was just very simple. Are you happy with Oklahoma's rules and Reg.

This one was very even, which I didn't expect. 52% of people said yes. 48% of people said no. I really thought that the yeses would [00:33:00] take this more. Yes. One by a very small margin. But I expected more people to be happy with it. Maybe that's just because I feel pretty happy overall with the rules and regs.

Yeah, that, I don't know. I just expected more people to be happy with it. I would love, if you're listening to this and you voted no, I would absolutely love to know why. . And yeah please send me some messages and tell me why. The next one. The next question is, do you like the current dates of our muzzle loader and rifle seasons?

This one was dead. Even 50% said yes. 50% said no. I didn't really know what to expect on this. I didn't really have a feel for it. I'm torn as someone who's not afraid to pick up a rifle. And recently I've gotten a little bit more into muzzle loader season. I kinda like the dates. They are not in the heart of the rut.

We're not sitting there, early to mid-November with a [00:34:00] rifle in our hands. But you do have the advantage a lot of time. The deer are still rutting a little bit there at the end of November, so it gives you a chance. I said when I was on the podcast with Dan, he was asking about, our gun seasons and stuff, and I said that if you really want to.

Affect the quality management of our Whitetailed deer herd in Oklahoma. I think the better season to move would actually be the muzzle loader season because there is a stark difference between the first weekend of Muzzle loader and the second weekend of Muscle Loader. That first. things are pretty dead.

But by that second weekend, if you, especially if you get a cold front, things are moving. And in a lot of young deer especially are moving because it's getting close. The dough aren't quite ready, but the bucks are ready. It's a great time to kill a mature buck. But it's an even better time to kill one of those two or three [00:35:00] year olds.

And and plus, Pre rut. That's what it's called, the pre rut. And so you're also taking out bucks before they get a chance to breed any dose, most likely. And Again, personally, I think if you're really wanting to make a difference on the quality of our state herd, I think you need to move that muzzle loader up a season.

Do I want to do that? I don't know. Again, me in my personal bubble, I've taken some great deer that last this year in particular. I think it was the, yeah, the last Saturday of Oakland's muzzle litter season, I killed an awesome 10 point buck, very mature, five or six year old. , but there are people out there who are not as disciplined as me and they're gonna take that younger deer.

And so yeah, again, I don't know how I feel on this one. Apparently neither do you guys, cuz it was 50 50. So yeah just something to consider. All right. This one I had some fun with. I really enjoyed the answers on this. Is it was how many [00:36:00] doughs did you take? And I actually gave three options on this one.

So I gave a zero and then I gave a one to two, and then I gave a three plus something that I thought was funny. I only had one person say that they killed zero doughs. I'm going to assume that they're. Only person who saw that and killed zero dose. I think that they were just the only one brave enough to click the button.

The majority that answered 58% said they killed one to two. And then I had more than I expected. I think I actually had 10 people say that they killed more than three dose, which I. Took that as very encouraging. I was very happy about that. And not a whole lot to take away. There again, I think, there's probably a lot of people who saw it who didn't take any dough and just didn't click the button.

But again, it looks like the majority of people do shoot one to two doughs a year, and I think that's great. I'll again use a personal example this year. I personally did not kill any doughs, but I did bring in a friend who [00:37:00] killed a dough. I kinda let that take the place of, basically, I gave him a dough that I would've killed.

On the current property that I'm hunting, usually what ends up happening is my brother, during rifle season, he goes out and kills two. . He hasn't, I don't know if he's ever killed a buck on this property. He's killed some on our other property. This is the, I think this is the first year, maybe last year, the first year that I, that more than two bucks have been taken off this property.

And so we've usually been around that one to one deal. Like one buck for every one. And and again, I'm trying to keep things in perspective. We're in more of a low deer density area. I almost feel bad saying this, but I just, I don't know if it's quite as important for us to take those in our area.

Yes, we probably could stand to take some but it's just I feel like management wise, it's not. As big of a deal for me to take more dough I do need to get better at it. I know that's a very [00:38:00] important aspect. But yeah, it's something that it's something that I'm working on. I'll throw that out there.

All right, moving on. All right, next question. Again, another answer that surprised me. Do you think Crossbows have had a negative impact? And I'll also throw out there that this had the most votes out of all the question mo more people voted on this than any other one. But surprisingly, only 41% of people said, 59% of people said no.

So it seems that a lot of people took my stance on it as maybe they don't like it, but it's not quite as big a deal as most people make it out to be. I did think it was funny that one got the most votes. So yeah, take that as you will. This last question. , I thought maybe the most important question, but it actually had the least amount of votes.

Maybe people didn't understand. I, I was limited by, I could only use so many words in the poll. Maybe people didn't quite understand what I was trying to say. But the question was, and I used a picture of my daughter, will [00:39:00] your kids had the same opportunities that you did? Basically I thought it was pretty clear, when your kids grow up, will they be able to enjoy?

The outdoors in Oklahoma just as much as you did when you were a kid. And I am happy to say that 68% of people said yes, that they do believe that 32% said no. And. Kinda like I mentioned at the beginning, all of this stuff we're talking about, all of this stuff is going to affect future generations.

That's a big reason that, we're all doing this in the first place. Yes, we all love to enjoy it, but I would venture to say, you, you hear people all the time talk about how they used to be really into hunting, but then they had kids and now they're much more into their kids hunting.

I'm not to that point yet, and my kid's not old enough to hunt, but I could very much see that. I can very much see me taking. Just as much, if not more enjoyment out of her enjoying the outdoors as myself. And so I thought that was a really good question [00:40:00] and I was very pleased to see that most people believe that.

They think that the, basically that the future is bright. That's all the questions we had. I'm trying to think of any other topics. I did think of one thing that I forgot to mention. I almost hate to, but I'm gonna go back to the old the old one buck verse two buck thing, cuz I, this thought came to me.

I was listening to a podcast today at work, and Dr. Bronson Strickland from the Mississippi State Deer Lab was on as a guest and he got asked a question. Like Coaling, does Coaling work in the wild? Is it worth it? And first off, the short answer is no. Basically you, there's no way you could have enough control in a wild deer population to really like coal and manage four genetics.

He does say however because this is something that can happen on a large. . Most people when they're out deer hunting, let's say they see two deer out in the field and they may not know the ages of the deer, but let's say you see an eight [00:41:00] point and then you see a larger 10.9 times outta 10 people are going to kill the larger 10 point.

It makes sense, right? But what he was saying is, You know that eight point out there may actually be older and more mature than that 10 point, but because it has better genetics and bigger antlers, people are going to kill that 10 point. And again, across a large scale, this is what usually happens. And so what can happen is in, in an area, You can basically hurt yourself because you are selecting the better genetic animals and letting the worst genetic animals live and continue breeding.

So after a period of time, , your genetics basically are going to decrease because you keep killing the genetically un superior animal. And so again, going back to the whole one buck verse two buck thing, if you are not good at aging [00:42:00] deer, if you're not good at looking out there or going through trail cameras, recognizing the deer and your age and stuff basically you could be hurting yourself by shooting.

A larger immature deer instead of an older mature deer. Where I'm going with this is is I think having a second buck tag to shoot that older un superior deer. I don't know, that's not the way, right way you're supposed to say insuperior, but but yes, being able to have. An extra tag to take a management buck, I believe is a good thing.

And it can help reverse that. You can take out an older deer with less desirable antlers and still have a tag to shoot that awesome buck that you want to hang on the wall. Yeah, I just thought of that while I was going, I meant to throw that in there earlier. And I wanted to make sure I said that.

So sorry. It's outta. But it is what it is, alright. Man, that's all I got for you guys today. I hope that you guys took this in. I [00:43:00] hope it was educational, I meant for it to be. If you have any questions, please let me know. If you have any input, please let me know. I would love to hear from you guys again.

Man posting all these questions on Instagram today. Got a lot of feedback and I. Oh, shoot. I almost forgot. I had one more thing. I didn't put it on my notes. I had one more thing I wanted to talk about a listener. That's what reminded me. Responded to one of my questions and ended up sending me a link.

And apparently according to this, Kansas has just banned the use of trail cameras on public land. That is just, it blew me away. Honestly. That is not something you expect from a state like Kansas. I know some Western states have. I believe it was either Utah or Nevada. It was a, a really dry state.

Basically their argument was, Tons and tons of people were putting trail cameras on water holes, and it was, water is a limited resource and it was preventing animals from coming to [00:44:00] those water holes. And they're afraid that it was causing stress and animals were dying. And so they ban trail cameras, but that is not I'm going to assume that's probably not a problem in Kansas.

I would love to hear, I should have done some more research. I would love to hear the reasoning behind it. Again, it was only on public land, not private. That I, again, that just to me screams that it's not a ecological reason. It's more of a social reason. But just on this whole conservation hunting rights topic.

Guys, this stuff is happening. It's happening close to home. We touch Kansas, that is not very far away. You're having rules and regulations changed bec because of social issues and not scientific issues, and that's what we need to stay away. One thing that Dan was talking about is, or was who you know, who should.

[00:45:00] Be in charge of the rules and regulations. Should it be politicians or should it be the people who work at the wildlife department? And obviously, overwhelmingly everybody said the people at the wildlife department, but that's not how it goes everywhere. To be completely honest with you. I'm not exactly sure how it works here in Oklahoma.

I've used the word legislation a whole lot tonight, which leads me to believe that politicians have a pretty big say in what happens in our state and with our wildlife. And again, Kansas is not Oklahoma, but it's close. It's happening in states all across the country.

All across the country. Excuse me. An interesting case that just happened up in New Jersey , their current governor, one of the things he ran on, Was banning bear hunting. He said We gotta, ban bear hunting. It's bad. I believe I'm correcting this. I believe New Jersey has, if not the highest, the second highest, but I believe it's the highest bear per capita number in the United [00:46:00] States.

They have, more bear, more bears per square mile than any other place. And they banned bear hunting, and I guarantee you it was not because they needed to, because of any scientific reason. Basically, he fell to peer pressure. And then what happened? He banned bear hunting like he said he would.

And then like less than a year later, all this. Sudden they're having all these bear animal encounter like pet encounters and stuff attacks, and all of a sudden bear hunting's back on the table because he didn't listen to the science. So yeah, all that to say, ah, guys, this is all very important and I want to apologize for you guys or to you guys for not being more proactive on topics like this.

So I'm going to try to do a better job. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Again, please send me any feedback that you have, any topics that you may have. Again, some of these topics that we just talked about, I learned about from you guys, from the listeners, and so send me anything you got. We'll try to [00:47:00] talk about it on here.

We'll try to get the word out and my throat hurts, so I'm gonna go ahead and stop talking. Guys, thank you so much for listening to this week. Shoot me an email, hit me up on Instagram or. Let's get the word out there and and I'm going to try to do a better job, so I'm gonna go ahead and round this out.

I love you guys. Thank you guys for listening, and until next week, I will see y'all right back here on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast.

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