Hunting in Kentucky ?

[Country Boy]

Contacted a guide there but it sounded too good to be true. What is the real scoop on hunting in Kentuckey and what does a tag cost ?

[Graybeard]

I seem to recall that when me and Mrs. GB went up to visit with her cousin ButlerFord45 for a hunting trip it cost us less than $200 each for out of state hunting licenses but am not sure how much less. There was no draw like out west it was just over the counter. We hunted on his land and stayed at his home so no clue on cost for the guide and such.

We saw one doe and got no shots. I could have taken the doe but it was really my wife's hunt not mine and she wasn't up to the distance or short time frame for the shot opportunity so didn't try for it.

Now I visted with a fellow once in NE KY near the Ohio border and he took us to visit a park nearby and I saw quite litterally hundreds of deer that evening. While hunting with him tho in the woods behind his home we saw no deer. So on two trips to KY for deer hunting I've seen a total of one doe while hunting and got no shots at all.

[kyelkhunter3006]

Straight up, you can kill some BIG deer, both antlers and body in KY.  If you speak Boone and Crockett, I know people that have killed bucks from 120 up to 180 B&C.  Several of them were over 200lbs dressed.  I killed a doe that won the big deer contest one year (we judge by weight, she was over 150lbs field dressed).

You can also go out one day and see 50 deer in a field, and then you'll not see any in there again for weeks.  Don't ask me why, I've given up trying to figure it out.  One of the farms I hunt, literally, we only kill deer every other year.  It's been that way for 14 years now.  The deer are always there, there's always tons of sign, we have feeders and licks out, etc.    I don't know.  I've read in many articles that an adult deer lives it's life out on only so many acres of land, but I'll be darned if I buy it. 

So lets just say that it can be frustrating at times, but the pay-off can be big.

[trophyhunter]

Deer hunting in KY is pretty good the number 5 typical was taken in Ky there are about between 40 and 60 b&c entries each year I believe.  there are severel nontypicals that score over 200 with some in the mid to upper 200s I killed the one in my avatar also posted in picture forum it scores 173 gross and it weighed 242 lbs dressed. in KY alot of KY is a zone 1 and you can buy unlimited doe tags but only 1 buck a year.  This Has helped the  herd in Ky. I normally take about 5 does a year with not much problem.
 

[docmagnum357]

We own a 300 acre farm in N.E.Kentucky.  The deer there are indeed larger, and there are some excellent trophy animals in the N.E. corner of the state, if you are into that (I am not).  One fellow killed a non typical on our farm that had 29 points over an inch long.  I know nothing about the B and C scoring system, but it was an impressive looking animal.  Out of state licenses were less than 150 dollars the last ime I bought one.

The problem I have, on my own place, is unauthorized hunters.  There is a general attitude that you can hunt wherever you want, and no one can do anything about it.  This is true for all practical purposes.  With the population density so low, there are few resourses to pay conservation officers, and deputy sherrifs have other fish to fry as well.  It seems that reesponse time is so slow that the tresapasser is gone long before the law can get there.  I wonder if they would dawdle if I shot some @$$hole for poaching?  Probably not.  It just seems that game laws are a low priority  when resources are stretched thin.  I wouldn't feel good about leasing my property to anyone knowing that the neighbors would wander around hunting anytime, anyplace, in season or out, and leasors would be getting screwed.

I really thought about planting food plots, placing salt licks and other things to make a better habitat for deer, but it would be a waste of time and money.  I would hesitate to book a hunt in any of the more rural areas of Kentucky if I were you.  Your experience will most likely be like Greybeard descibed.  Pleny of deer in parks and other protected areas, and non in any area that is more rural, and doesn't have constant law enforcement patrol. 

What i have decided to do is just let the Rat Ba$t@rds kill all the deer.  The only way to get rid of the "hunters" is to get rid of the deer.  I truly wished it was legal to poision the deer there.  I just can't understand how it is right for me to pay income taxes and property taxes, so that some worthles POS can draw a disability check and ride around on a newer four wheeler than I have, with a better rifle than I have, With all the time in the world to shoot "my" deer.  Not to mention the fact that there is a huge national park less than ten mile s down the road.  I wonder who contributed more to that, me or the "disabled "guy?  If he is able to drag a deer out of the woods, he should get off his @$$ and get a job, don't you think?

Sorry for venting here, but as you can tell I have just about had it with "deer hunters" who are nothing but poachers.  I like to hunt,too, although mostly for meat, and not for sport. The only way I have ever even seen deer on our farm is to get out way before the season starts, and wouldn't it be something to get a ticket for shooting deer out of season on your own place?   ("everybody else does" is not a legitamate excuse) I am currently looking to join a club in SC or Georgia.  Trouble with that is the clubs are mostly for trophy hunters, and they don't usually apreciate you piling up the first five or six does you see, if it is even legal. I guess I will just take my vaction time, work a little overtime, and buy a beef.

     



   

[kyelkhunter3006]

Brother, I know what you mean.  My wifes uncle has 1000 acres in Lewis County and he's got the same problems you do, if not worse.  We gave up trying to do plots, licks, and stuff.  They took a couple of nice trophies off the land a few years in a row, and now the locals are just all over the place when no one's down there.  Now we practice, "if it's brown, it's down".  If we don't kill it, someone else is going to.

[docmagnum357]

That's what i have decided.  I really ain't in to trophy hunting anyway.  I would like to taake some of our bus kids from the church, or some of my clients hunting, but it would be a waste of time.