FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
FM Talk Outdoors 9-7-2024
It's time to talk about the outdoors in South Alabama, hunting, fishing, and getting outside along the Great Gulf Coast. It's time to take it outside with FMTalk1065 Outdoors with reports, stories, how-to information, and Dr. Bill's Marine forecast. Here's Sean Sullivan and Mike Ward. And where we go, FMTalk1065 Outdoors glad to have y'all along, good to have my friend back in the studio, my co-host, Mike Ward. Well, I'm glad to be back. You are. We're talking about the trip you took, you had the pictures I've been seeing with Mike Wynton. Did a little scouting out of state, we'll talk about that. And just a little bit, also a reminder here that at this point next week, this show is going to be coming to you from the grounds for the G&D outdoor expo. Actually, this show will probably be airing at 7 in the morning. But 11 o'clock, we're going to be doing a show live from the grounds G&D outdoor expo at the grounds. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it's online and go. If you go to Facebook, just look for G&D Farms outdoor expo, even though I think there's a link on the regular Facebook, or just go to gdoutdoorexpo.com. Details are there. It's going to be a lot of fun. We've been talking to folks over the last couple of weeks that are going to be out there. And we're going to be one of those many that are out there as well. You're looking for everything for, I mean, if you haven't bought your seed yet for planting, like WMS, they're going to be there. All these seed vendors are going to be going to have some specials. Yeah. That going on. And you can do the order. You can sit there and see what they got, and then do the order, and then G&D can have it waiting for you. It's not like they're expecting you back the truck into the grounds above the door. But you can see what's brand new, get the deals, and get that booked, and then go pick it up. So, I mean, that right there for a lot of people, is worth it. I mean, if you could just say 10% on your seed, or 5%, or 8%, or whatever they could get maybe 20%, whatever it is. I mean, using, let's just say 50 bags of seed, yep, it'd be well worth it. So you got that going on, then you say, well, I'm not, you know, we already got seed, or I'm not planting, talking about fishing equipment, talking about hunting stands. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the newest stuff in the shooting house world is there, taxidermist, outfitters, all those kind of folks are on one place for the G&D outdoor expo. Pretty exciting. They have some hunting clothing, I'm sure. They're going to have farm equipment, tractors, all that stuff. All that stuff. Yeah. That's going to be exciting. And then Mike and I, doing a showing, come by and visit at the FMTalk 1065 booth. They'll stick us in the corner somewhere. You'll find us though. It's looking. Well, I was looking. They gave us the map, and I was looking outside. Have you said us over here by the bathrooms? It's like, no, that's the front entrance, by the front entrance, I thought we were back there by the bathrooms. But yeah, we'll talk more about that, but that is happening a week from today. And other thing I want to add too, is we get like a couple announcements made here. Congratulations, old man, Chris Blank, and I say that because he and I are about the same exact age, known each other since we were younger boys. Back then, Chris Blankenship, commissioner of Alabama Department of Conservation National Resources, 30 years with the department. Man, I didn't realize he'd been with them that long. Yeah, 30 years. And he posted up some pictures where he or his wife posted them up the other day. You were a baby face when you got in there, Chris. So good for you. Because he looks young. Yeah, he looks young. Yeah, he looks young. Yeah, we're about the same age. A year apart. But he started early, 30 years there. Yeah. That's awesome, man. So quite a testament. Yeah. I mean, good guy and does a good job for us all. The politics of this, and this is not his, probably any endorsement, this is me talking, the importance of having somebody from down here being in the commissioner position is huge. You know, I've watched it every year when it wasn't. That's right. And they don't understand what we have down here. We are so different. No idea. Then the other 65 counties. That's right. I wouldn't just say Mobile Baldwin, let's say Washington, Clark, you know, let's say Connect. I mean, this area, you know, down here is different than the rest of the state. Now as a commissioner, his job is to the whole state and he gets what goes on elsewhere, but he gets what happens here and that's been very important with all the things we've faced from oil spills, right, those issues, restoration, you know, issues, like trying to get somebody from Marshall County, nothing against them, but to understand why restoring an oyster reef is important. They don't get it like we do. Yeah. So we're very lucky to have some more down here that we have to do compared to what they do up in Central Florida state. We get all the same stuff they have. Yeah. Additional stuff. Yeah. So it's really been great to have him in that position. So I have proud to know him, but I'm happy to have him as our commissioner. So congratulations, Chris Blankenship, right, speaking of state stuff, too, I don't want to do this. I always say this because I'm going to do it, but do this as a broadcaster, not as a hunter because the hunter would not tell you that the online stuff is open for like the Sandhill Crane permits, and which I got drawn for last year and really enjoyed that hunt. But Sandhill Crane permits are open. So to put in for that, you go to outdooralabama.com and there's links through there to where you'll go to, it's the, there's like a portal page for the state where you see all the hunts coming up and speaking of which too, there's still these dove hunts. Now last week on the show, Seth Maddox, who's the migratory bird coordinator was on, we talked about dove season, which by the way, noon today, people in the north zone get started next week for the south zone and teal season starting next week as well, but we started talking about some of the management they do on these state SOAs for doves. You know, we think about it and we got these great SOAs for deer and turkey, but they got these dove SOAs that won there by Montgomery is really good. But those are up there still, I think it's prairie glades is the big one there by Montgomery, but there's a couple of these, probably four or five of these state run dove shoots. You have to get drawn. You have to get drawn and they're still open. I thought they would be close, but they're still open because there's like they're hunting each weekend, right? Yeah. So there'll be a hunt now and there'll be a hunt a week or two and it'll be, so that's still open too. So you can go to our tour on Alabama and get signed up for those for a quality good because most people have no place that they love, they don't have a place to dove hunt anymore. People don't have, and that used to be the easiest thing probably for people to get 20, 30 years ago. Well it was easy because you could just go throw weed out and later on you could throw some more weed out and later on you'd throw some more weed out. I mean, that's what people did and they used to have a few doves, but now with all the restrictions on what you can and can't do, things have changed. And that comes from the feds. That's right. That's federal law. But yeah, it's harder for people to find a place to shoot dove, so there's opportunities for the state for you to go get drawn and go on a really good dove hunt, not overcrowded, not the same way they do, the reason the deer hunt and turkey hunt is good with the special opportunity areas is they reduce pressure, you know, and they have structure to it like you wouldn't have private clubs. So you're going to have the essence of a private dove club on one of these shoots if you get drawn. Yeah. Not a gazillion people in there and all that. So check those out and also I think the drawings are open. Maybe you're maybe not for Crow Creek for the duck hunts up there in Alabama. So you're going to apply for the crane again? Mm hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely. Really enjoyed it. We had that much fun doing it last time. Yeah. It's so different. Right? It's waterfowl, but it's so different. The same tail crane hunt. I really, yeah, had a big time. Maybe I, who knows, because I'm now, you know, when you get drawn, you lose all your preference points. I'm at the back, you know, back the line here, so, but I'm going to start building up again. And don't get me started about the gators. I've got enough points now. If I don't win next year, they ought to give you a gator. I mean, I've been guiding people for a decade, but yeah, so, but the sandhill crane is open. The dove hunts are open and the special opportunity, Waterfowl, Crow Creek is open as well through the website. So you may want to check that out. Speaking of the doves, you're talking about the throwing weed out reminder to, you know, you can put weed out and I do the same thing like I'm, so I have millet, right? But then after a while, I, I disc, I colt a pack and a top so weed and I'm using it for two reasons. It's going to give me a chance to shoot doves over it and then it's going to be part of a deer patch. Sure. So, yeah, but you've got like, there's a certain amount per acre you can put out all the stuff's on by. Also they put videos out because of how you have to prepare the soil. If you have something that's ditched up to the point, if you walked across the field, you break your ankle, that's not prepared bed, seed bed, yeah. Just because you ran the disc through it, it's not a prepared seed bed. You got to run like a colt pack over it. A colt pack or a rake or a drag or something to smooth out the dirt. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, at some times people say, well, I did it a distant, but you get to go watch the videos. They kind of go through, treat it like you're trying to plant it. Yeah. But the beauty of weed is you can top sow it, but you still have to have a bed for it, you know, a colt pack or drug or something like that on the dirt. So it's a reminder and the thing that stinks, talked about so many times, you show up on a field this afternoon, walk around, make sure because of game board and checks, even if you didn't do it. We've had these discussions on the show, you know, whether you think it's right or wrong. If you're on that field shooting does, and there's bait there, crack corn, you know, even if you didn't do it, you can still get a ticket from the hunt. That's right. So, I mean, maybe take a little, you know, okay, I'm, you're going to go over by that tree. All right. And I'm going to walk over and talk to Mike and some other people as you do, just look around the ground. Because you hear those from out in the middle of the field, you better go get back in your talk and leave. Right. Speaking of that, a whole nother world of stuff, and I have not, maybe by next week, I'll have got a call in, but the hot, it's ridiculous. The hot thing out there is glitter. Have you heard this? No. Glitter in your dovey. That sounded like crickets in a field for a turkey, which of course, that story, remember we brought that to you this last year with a member of Mississippi's wildlife board, I think. Yeah. You got busted for hunting on a baited field where they had poured crickets out. Yeah. Glitter. Glitter. I had heard about it. Okay. So, and I, this is, this is what I've heard. And so I'm not giving you all, you know, giving you legal advice here. But in the, cause some of my buddies were talking about this yellow glitter people are putting out because the doves think it's corn. Oh. And the, the opinion this came through a buddy, but opinion that came from one game board. Now this is, you know, the opinions aren't the same for the opinion of one game board, that that's not baiting because it's not a food. It's an attractant, but not a bait. Yeah. So it is not illegal. Yeah. So what I picture was amusing the heck out of me is all of us that like to, like to shoot doves, come strolling on in. We're not going into G and D and buying, buying wheat. We're going into party city and haul it. So five got a bucket of gold glitter, yellow glitter. And I need pictures of guns in their doves clubs walking out there with a bucket and slinging it like you're in some kind of Las Vegas night show or something like that. All right. Go glitter. At least the opinion one game warden is legal. It worked. It will give me a bucket of glitter. Glitter prices are going up. All right. We're coming right back. All right. Welcome back. FM talk. One of six five outdoors, Sean Sullivan, Mike Ford, glad to have you all along. And yeah. So Mike asked me the question during the break. And of course, it's a long running joke. I think I complained a little bit about it last week when I had Seth Maddox on the show, which if you want to go back and listen, I just check out the podcast page to our website or anywhere you subscribe to podcasts. Just look for FM talk. One of six five outdoors last week's show, talked all about kind of the shifting patterns of doves, how you make does, how many of the does we shoot or local does. Yeah. This time of year, basically. And he said even through the, I think 90% of our harvest over a year in Alabama or Alabama does. Yeah. And so yeah, it's a, and we talked about Teal Hunt as well in the duck counts for this fall. You can go back and check out that show. But yeah, we were joking on the dove stuff like my, my friend Mike Ward giving me grief. I talk about my frustrations, but my numbers have come up. So your hard work at your place is really paid off because literally I've been out there with you and it'd be like six or eight doves on your property. That'd be it. And I'm going to dovey kind of area. You are. You know, there's agriculture all around you and you got a power line running through your property. Grab them loads. I mean, it's just stock tanks. You know, perfect place for doves and go out there and be no doves. And now you've got 50 or more doves, which, but you've been working at it. Yeah. You've been planting for them. You've been doing a lot of work out there. And a planting and making plays off. Yeah, it does. If they stay. Yeah. But yeah, you're doing, I just do stuff like I'm not doing anything different than anybody else, but like starting a few weeks ago, and I'm in the south zone. So North Stone opens day up, south zone. So next week, I'd take an area like I plant brown top millet and I mow it, right? And I'll let them use that for a while. And then I will dis that and top so wheat, right? And then another row later to mow the millet, let it sit. So I don't get it all done at one time. I kind of take a little bit, you know, get it. That's why you should do it. And get it started like that. And so, you know, it's knock on wood. We'll see. It's paying off. Yeah. You go from six or eight doves to 50 or more. Yeah. I mean, and you keep doing this for several years, I mean, you may have enough to go have a really good hunt. Yeah. And one of the things, if you go back to listen to last week's show too, that Seth Maddox talked about was what you could do on your property to have more doves, make more doves there. Because they're nesting, they're nesting four or five times a summer. You just talk about the different trees and hedge rows where they nest. And how you can, you know, because I told him, I said, we all think about the doves now and how to get them to our field. On the other critters, we're always talking about how do you make more turkeys, how do you make more coil? We never think about how to make more doves, but he said there's some things you can do out there. So it's an interesting conversation about that. Yeah. Also, let's see, update there on, since you've been gone and we're going to get to your road trip fishing wise. If you missed the show a couple of weeks ago, we got a snapper quota, still ahead of us. So we should be fishing snapper until... On the way to the end. Yeah. It looks like it today. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, there's still quota out there. I'm hopefully going to get out there and chase some snappers soon. I also want to go and try to pull some lures. You know, I've always heard the stories of fall fishing in the white marlin and all that, and really haven't done much of that October on fishing. Right. Try to do some of that too. So... This is a hard time of year. Absolutely. There's just so much working at the hunting camp and things you've got to do there. And, you know, I'm going out of town hunting now and going to Kansas and I'm going four or five times up there. It looks like a year. Yeah. So you're not going to be troubling. I think it's hard, but I do have a trip planned to go to Coca-Dree in October. Okay. There are several of us going to go over there and fish out of Coca-Dree, Louisiana, and just go do some deep drop and do whatever. We may go to an efficient whatever. We're going to spend two or three days over there. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. So that may be the only other trip I get to take. And that's right for you. And that's why the quota lasts. That's right. Here on this side, because most people have other things to do and they don't, you know, so yeah. If you get out and still snap a fish, you're still putting a quota to fish. We said, "Me and you've been saying that for 10 years or more. However long they've had all these regulations and stuff going, we've always said that open it up. It kind of takes care of itself. People won't go unless it's a good time for them. You put it two weeks, people are going to go every day it's open for two weeks." Sure. Two weeks. Because that's a derby effect. Yeah. That's right. But now, I mean, I'm not in a hurry. If I don't go the rest of the year, I don't care. Yeah. I'll catch it next year. You know, it's not a big deal. But when you put two weeks, three weeks, whatever on it, then everybody's got a boat is going to go out there and try to catch a snapper. And the other kind of fishing, like last week it was rough offshore and also getting distracted. The inshore fishing, picking up a fish some since you and I've talked and fishing the middle part of the bay. Sure. Fishing reefs, fishing around Dog River, white trout bite. Pretty good. Pretty good. What about speck trout? I didn't catch any speckle trout. We caught, but yellowmouth white trout. Yeah. Some good ones. Yes. We got 10 inch, 11 inch white trout. Yeah. Which suited my fancy and some nice red fish as well. So yeah. Good. If there's white trout in their respects, we just didn't, we didn't hit them. They're moving up mid bay. You know, I hadn't heard of a whole bunch north of the Cosway yet, but you know, it's September now and you start looking, you know, whether it be bird schools or just finding them on a drift, those trout are moving up, white trout and speckle trout heading towards the rivers. So what's the water? Oh. Clarity right now. It's okay. It was, I mean, it was green. I mean, you know, I mean, when like nothing to write home about, it wasn't like crazy beautiful, but it was fine. But it wasn't muddy or anything. It wasn't muddy. Yeah. It wasn't perfect green, but it wasn't bad. Yeah. It didn't seem to bother the white trout. They were, yeah, you put a gulp or a sparkle beetle on the bottom and they, they ate it. Yeah. Well, when the red fish, red fish were eating up, gulp sand sparkle beetles as well. So when it starts cooling way down, it starts getting around 80 degrees, maybe it'll start there, start going to the Cosway. Yeah. We're looking at it. We're looking at it this weekend, right? Yeah. I mean, we're looking at it. Finally, if you're, you know, looking at a long summer, what did I hear somebody say? It's been sunny in 104 for four months, so we'll take what we can get here, highs in the 80s and lows in the low 70s, upper 60s. Yeah. So it was good. We'll take that right now. Absolutely. Anything is better than what it has, man. There's no question about it. But yeah. So the inshore efficient for me has been good to talk to Captain Bobby. He's had Mississippi Sound. They're eating the rod tips off as well, the speckle trout there. So, yeah. Get out from there. So that, and I'm sure in the next couple of weeks, we'll get Captain Wayne Miller on as he, uh, things start to transition on the bass world up on the causeway, you know, by, it just, I mean, it does nothing but get better until, until we get something giant high river, you know? That's right. I mean, it's going to be. Yeah. And I hope we have speckle trout on the causeway. I don't know what's caused the, the, they're actually looking into it now, right? So Dr. Sean Powers with the folks with the University of South Alabama are doing, they've got one person, I do not know their name, a scientist that is starting to look specifically at the Delta and the water flow patterns, the stuff we've talked about, how, you know, the Blakely be so high in the summer and so muddy and why was, you know, what was going on with these river levels and does this affect, you know, when you say it affects the trout, it's not that it affects what the trout are following. Yeah. Right. The shrimp, although there've been times now in the last couple of years, I've been there and lots of shrimp and lots of shrimp and not had trout behind them, uh, but then like last year for a while there, we thought causeway fishermen, we thought it was going to be a good year. There's about two or three weeks. It's pretty good. Yeah. And we, and it started a slow way down and we didn't have a foot, usually, I mean, you can have good fishing. If you get a huge slug of fresh water comes down, stuff like that, it can shut it down. Right. But it just faded last year without any kind of big natural inflow of fresh water or something to shut it down. So it's been really hit or miss the last 10 years for sure. You know, the do, the do nothing, uh, fishing on a causeway is a, was a big deal, you know, really, but it, for 10 years or more, it hasn't. I don't know. Maybe it's just a week or so. It might have been good. Yeah. You know, the last 10 years, but really it hasn't been good for a long time where you just throw a lure out, drift down the river and just catch the trout, you know, right and left. Yeah. And, you know, there's a certain, you got to get, it's for me to go to do nothing, which by the way, to get, I caught those white trout this, this last weekend, do nothing. Yeah. So you still do it this time of year to do nothing, just dragging gulps and, you know, sparkle beetles on the bottom. I'm not there. Yeah. Oh yeah. The white trout, like it just fine. I mean, can't actually pop it. I'm trying to keep it up out of the rocks, but oh, I just gave away my spot, but, um, but, you know, the, for up on the delta, I'm sure you can do it full time, but my best, and what we're talking about and do nothing, what Mike just said is do nothing. You're getting a river. You're getting enough lead depending on the tide and the wind, right? How fast your boat's moving. You want that, that jig to be on the bottom. You're throwing it out and you're putting it in the rod holders. Yeah. And you're just drifting and you'll hit a school and catch some fish and then it'll be quiet for a Saturday. You hit another school and catch some fish. It's, you know, you can tell when you come through them. To me, that's always been better once we get some frost on the pumpkin. Once we've had some cold, it's more of an, I mean, I'm thinking like trips like that for me have often been post Thanksgiving, you know, my biggest do nothing trips. Yes. Around Thanksgiving. The first half to Thanksgiving, yeah, if you get the water clarity and everything is still good and you get in that river and the river, you know, it's not real deep. What about 10 foot deep? It depends on where you are. I mean, 10 saw or you in the raft or you in the Spanish, it's just different places, but just always got to have enough lead to keep that jig on the bottom. Yep. And, you know, it's fun fishing. Oh, it's fun fishing. It's easy fun fishing. Man, I loved it. Yeah. It's a, well, hopefully we'll get maybe a chance at, but we'll talk more about causeway fishing. We'll get Cat and Bobby on here in the next couple of weeks and talk about that. Yeah. So the mid bay fishing has been good fishing down at the islands still been good as well for several times. And like I said, I have a feeling when we talk to Cat and Wayne Miller next time we'll start get a little bit cool, a little bit of shrimp up there and he already catches bass like it's a hand over fist, but as you go to October, it's insane. He goes every day. He keeps up with where the fish are and I guarantee you, we haven't talked to him in a couple of weeks, several weeks, I guess, but I guarantee he's catching them just about every day. So we'll get him back on to it. Not like Bobby. I mean, Bobby goes every day. He keeps up where the fish are, you know, they're deep, they're shallow, they're whatever and what they're feeding on and he catches them, there's just a rare case and he don't catch them. Yeah. It's, you got to stay on them. That's why those guys get booked. That's right. That's guys. Also, we'll come back on and talk about your trip you're back from, but a little bit on the prepping for first season and we'll talk about this more next week's show when we're live at the outdoor expo doing this, but prepping for getting yourself planted. Tell you right now, I get more calls, you see that more calls, text, emails, right? Over time, about one subject I talk about on the show and that is my quartz haircut. No, it is, it's about throw in bow. Yeah. In fact, I do some of my fields differently. I do this, been doing about 10 years. Yeah. I was throwing bow. If you're going to be doing it this year, you get after this rain, you get some dry, down the spray. Yep. So as you'll always ask me, when do I do this? Tell me right now, next few weeks here, get your spray in done. Yeah. Spray, spray, spray. So you're ready to throw in bow a little bit later. So get spray. Coming right back. More of FM Talk. One of the 65 outdoors. All right, welcome back, FM Talk 1065 outdoors and once again, reminder, next week, actually starts on Friday. I'll do midday, mobile live from the grounds, and then Mike and I will be doing, FM Talk 1065 outdoors from the grounds for the GND Outdoor Expo. So you've got Friday, Saturday and Sunday to come out, three days worth of checking out everything that's new out there. And then specifically, like we opened the show with seed manufacturers, seed folks are there. And obviously, Lee and Starla with GND, this is beyond prime season for them, right? They're so busy. But these seed manufacturers, producers, God makes the seeds, but they produce it. They're going to be there, like WMS, which I love that company because they decided, "Hey, let's make varieties that work in the south." So much of it's like tensions like the Midwest or something like that. Let's make seed varieties work down here. They're great, but they're going to have deals here and your chance to order your seed and then go, "You don't have to get it while you're there. You can go pick it up at GND." So that's going on, but we'll talk more about that next week. Speaking of the Midwest and the West and the hallowed ground, Mike's been showing me since we started the show, pictures from a game cam out in Kansas. You know, it does get to a point. I know there's some great deer killed here in Alabama. I just haven't killed them. It makes me want to throw them all into trash can and go to Kansas. It's just something. I mean, everybody knows it, but just to see, I mean, you watch the TV shows, you know, somebody's got one on the wall, but to have a friend like I have with Mike, this is not like he's not sharing, picking the best years like, "Look at this came off this camera." I mean, picture after picture after picture. Yeah. And you just saw just a few of them. You can see, I've got a ton of them. But, you know, a lot of people think, Sean, because I've hunted and fished all my life, that I killed deer lack, killed a buck last year, killed one last year, killed one last year before that I killed deer every year. I have not killed a buck in over 15 years, it may be 18 years or so since I've killed a buck, I remember one you brought back from Kansas, or not Kansas, Canada, yeah. That was at the last, it could have been, no, no, no, I killed, I killed some in Alabama, but it was 18, 19, so years ago, we've been doing this show a long time by the way. But people think, you know, I killed a buck every year or two or three or whatever, you don't in Alabama now. But I haven't. I have not killed a deer. I've not found out anywhere, I haven't killed one of Canada, I've been to Canada since then, but I saw some nice deer, but nothing I wanted to shoot. But I haven't killed a big deer in a very long time. Now, you know, Jay, how close did you get last year, Mike? Well, I missed two with my crossbow last year, that I would have been happy to kill, but it just didn't work out. But I'll tell you a little bit about that too here in just a second. But you know, Jay Graddock, our buddy, got me going out there, went out there, just rode around with him and all, and just got me excited. The first morning I went out there, he killed one that scored 200 and 4/8. And when I saw that and put that in my hands, I said, "This is where I'm going to be hunting." That's right. You know, he got me fired up. And since then, you know, it's taken me, I guess the first time I went out there, it's like four years ago with him, but I have gotten in a club now out there with a friend of mine, and we got, you know, 10 or 12, I don't know, eight, 10, 12,000 acres. I don't know how many. It's a lot of land. It's a good problem to have with you. I don't know how many thousands. And it's nine of us. So, and three of them didn't get drawn this year. So there's basically six of us hunting that. And that's a tough thing about doing that, is getting the least in place where you don't get drawn. You didn't get drawn last year. Yeah, we didn't get drawn last year. My grandson either one, but me and my grandson this year got drawn. And he's so excited, you know, with all this stuff. I bought him a new bow. He's been wanting a new bow, bought him a Matthew's bow. And man, that thing is fine, new, what do you call it, a new lift. You know, all the kids got to have Matthew's bow, you know? So when I got Vernon's and got a Matthew's bow, now what I was going to tell you about me missing two deer last year, hopefully I'm going to have that saw this year. Now I bought a site for my grandson, and I bought one for me. Is that parallax site? It's a Burris oracle two, it's what they call it. A Burris oracle and an oracle two. And what it does, you pull your bow bow, let's just say my crossbow. I put the crossbow and put the site on him, and it's got a rangefinder built in. And I push a button by my trigger finger, it automatically hits that deer and lines up to tell me exactly where what pen is. If he's 60 yards out there, you know, I'll put it on there, and it rains, finding him at 60. It puts my cross head right on him, so all I got to do is pull the trigger. So if one's moving it's... So just like they've done some of that rifle technology where you get that they have. Now it's for archery, yes, and for, that's my crossbow now, with Dylan's compound bow, they got that too. Same thing, you pull it back, you push a button, and it, you put the cross hairs on the deer, you push a button, and it tells you exactly how many yards to say it's 43 yards out there and tell you exactly where it puts the cross hairs. How about that? So it takes the guess and work out. And it also takes, I mean, you can say, right, when you could do that, you could have, because I carry a range, not really in Alabama, you shoot for deer hunting, but I shoot a long bow now, so my shots are so close, but out west I take that rangefinder and I say, okay, that mule deer is at this distance, and I got to figure out what I'm doing, you got to pick up stuff and put it down. With this, it's all there. With the bow, you could say, okay, I got a pin, okay, it rains at 60, here's my 60 pin, but that takes that step out of it, you're saying it does that, as you look, the rangefinder is saying it's at 60, and it compensates, and it puts the cross hair where it should be for 60. That's right. Yeah. But the thing is, deer, sitting out there, standing still, waiting on you, you shoot him, usually he's walking. No, right, you're right. And that's why you end up, you know, with the range, it's always kind of, it's a non-exact science with pants. That's right. You're like, that tree's at 20, you know, where that trail crosses that gut right there's at 30, you know, and then you kind of say, okay, he's in between the two, let's say he's 20, you know, you're shooting between two gaps and pens. It just takes all the guesswork. Where do you get one of these things? Well, you can get them anywhere, you can get them online, or Scott Vernon can order it for you. I don't know if he's got them in stock or not. Fortunately, I know one of the head people at Burscopes, and I was able to get a VIP deal and got two of them from Burs. So, that worked out good for me. But last year, I missed one, and I knew there's a creek crossing, and I already range find it, and you know, it was 50 yards right in the middle of the creek crossing. And I was sitting there with the North wind blowing, so I'm looking up in front of me. You know, I'm looking up front, and all of a sudden I hear something walking in the water, and it's a little creek crossing, and I turn around looking, here he is. He's snuck up behind me, I mean, directly behind me, he had to smell me, and he's walking across the creek. And I mean, I had to do it instantly, you know, just, here he is, he's getting ready to jump up, be up, and gone, so anyway, I just misjudged the distance somehow. So it has changed that, and I missed one, another one that was 80 yards, and I rained to find him, and it was 80 yards, but when I put my pen on it, I guess I just didn't set my pen just right, or whatever, but yeah, right under it. What crossbar are you shooting? A mission, which is a math to use. What kind of, what's your, I mean, you're talking about 80 yards, what kind of rate, I mean, well, they say up to 100 yards, you know, or maybe even a little more, 80 yards, that's about where I wouldn't want to go really any farther than that. But they say 100 yards, you can kill 100 yards. So, wow, yeah, these new crossbows are fine, they're fast, light, air, something in there. They say out to 100 yards, so I don't know. What about, you know, 50, 60 yards is a chip shot. Okay, I mean, because shooting those, like, I mean, I'm on one extreme, right? I got to shoot, shoot a long bow is like having to throw baseballs. I mean, I have to shoot, you know, leading into, leading into both, which starts on the 15th and next month. All right. You know, I got to shoot all the time, every day. You know, some days, it's just four arrows, some days it's 40, but I got to shoot muscle memory. That's all right. So, I got to do that. With a compound bow, I know people always say, well, you just set your sights. People I know that do the best shooting of compound bows, even once they set their sights, they shoot a good bit. Yeah, you got to do. I mean, muscle, muscle memory. That's what it is. So, something I'm unfamiliar with is shooting a crossbow. Yeah. Do you have to do that same thing or is it like a rifle? No, it's like a rifle more. Once you said it. Everything set up, I mean, it's still good to practice with it and get used to where the safety is and, you know, all the things you got to know about the crossbow and how to put the airs in quick and all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, you still need to practice with it, but once you got it set, it's set. I mean, you don't have to really fool with it very much. Yeah, because there's not the drawing of, you're not drawing the string, so you don't have, it's mechanically drawn. It's right, so you don't have that muscle memory issue because, you know, even with a well-tuned compound bow, you got to make sure you're coming to, you know, the right drawing. Right. I'm going to write anchor points. Right. And you have to repeat it. Right. Right. That's what, you know, shooting a compound bow. You've got to do that. Crossbow takes that out because the anchor points exactly the same every time. You got to, every time you pull that bow back, you got to have that anchor point exactly right every time, so when the deer comes, you know, you don't get excited and get nervous and do something to pull it back and cast your anchor point or whatever, you know, because when one of them, one 60, 70, 80s, whatever comes up, you know, you're not thinking, right, I can just tell you that. You start getting excited and getting nervous, so there's a lot of things that can happen there. So, you just need to shoot your compound bow or recurve bow or whatever constantly to be good at it. I mean, I mean, you got to get used to it. So, you do need to shoot it, no doubt about it, but once you're used to shooting it, then you can sit it, you know, in your bag and not fool with it until the next time you go hunting. It's not like using, you know, muscle memory and your anchor points. Because everything is consistent. That's right. So, you do need to shoot it. No doubt about it. But once you're used to shooting it, then you can sit it, you know, in your bag and not fool with it until the next time you go hunting. Okay. It's not like using, getting your muscle memory and your anchor points. Because everything is consistent. That's right. Everything's consistent in that. You know, there's no human element in where that string anchors. That's right. It's mechanical. That's right. So, a lot to get, you know, it's a lot to getting ready for archer season. It's not like gun season, go shoot your gun in, and then you're ready to go hunting. It's totally different. It's a lot of work to do. I don't want to jinx anything, but ammo supply has seemed better lately. Yeah. Now, I've resisted buying a whole bunch, but every time I pass by, what I need, I may buy a box here. I feel like I might have enough ammo for one rifle for the rest of my life. So life's good. But that's good. Yeah, it's good. All right. Good. Be right back. All right. Well, welcome back. FMTalk 1065 outdoors. Sean Sullivan, Mike Ward. Glad to have you along. I know we're talking. It's pretty high texture. It did fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's a pretty high texture. It did fine. That's all equal to range finding adjustable bow sight. The other one that was right beside it. Yeah. On the website. Go back one page. That one right there. There's a room for my crossbow. It looks like a scope. Yep. Yeah. Yep. That's a spad on the end towards the barrel. Of course, this is the tough question, right? It's, you know, how when does this technology get to be at a point where it should be? And I just go, I don't make people angry, but that's what I'm in the business of. Yeah. Then it should be lumped in with rifle season. Yeah. Well, I get it. I understand. Yeah. What point do you get? These bows, though, I mean, even at the long range would be a hundred yards. So that's like a muzzle loader, you know? Yeah. A muzzle loader. But then you deal with the muzzle loader, the whole thing out west, so, because I look at some units, you know, trying to hunt elk and you're like muzzle loader with sites without, you know, with iron sites. Yeah. And now that iron sites in my eyes may not work so well. Yeah. So, I mean, they start trying to limit, you know, well, I just wonder about that because they have, you know, they kind of get a formula that, okay, we can kill X number of deer. We know that we sell this may tags and on average, I'm just drawing numbers out here. Fifty percent of people are successful. Right. So that's why we can have more people, have more archery days, because the formula still leads to only X number of bucks being killed. That's right. So, if we get better on technology and now it's not 50 percent, it's 75 percent of people are, are they going to produce a number of tags for the archery, are they going to short the season? Oh, yeah. They've reduced the tags. Or they've limited, they have limited the tags for sure. I mean, what would you rather, and that's the thing, it's that what would you rather have situation? Would you rather have more days with, you know, restrictions on technology or fewer days to be able to use the technology? I don't know. That's why I would rather go on that. You know, it's, I mean, it's kind of a, yeah. Which one? Well, for me, I mean, we don't think about it here because we don't have an issue of over-harvesting deer in Alabama, but you go in some other states and especially when you go out west, you start talking about mule deer and elk, they're like, we can kill this many of them. We can't kill that much more of them. That's right. You know, I know in Kansas, I buy Jay, he's been going after it for like 20 years, and he's been very lucky and getting, getting drawn every year. But like in our club that we in with nine of us, there were four of us that didn't get drawn last year, three didn't get drawn this year. So you think about that, I mean, that's almost half didn't get drawn last year. And then you got, you know, on the stats, me, I thought I had a place to hunt, but I got drawn unit section 19 and 16, 19. You get like one and then you get some others on the side, you can hunt, but I don't have place to hunt. If anybody's got a place out there, the Kyle County, if you got a place in, yeah, section 16 and 19, I think that's right. Please call Sean. Yes. He would like to go hunting with you. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Because I got the tag. And he will supply the beer. Yes, I will. I will come with that F-150 loaded big time. Yeah. Also, we just quickly, as we talk about both season coming up here at home zone B that most of us are in zone B down here. Remember, so season starts October 15th is opening up a bow season here. That's bucks only. We've talked about this every year, but it's bucks only for 10 days. Yep. So until the 25th. And people forget about it. I, until you just said something about it, I had forgotten about it. Yeah. Yeah. So remember because, and the, the logic behind this is the reason that you move the end of season to February 10th is because of the mean date of conception, right? That the rut is later in places like down here in Alabama. Some places in North Alabama, it's like it would be in Kansas. Yep. Some place, there's different, different peak rut dates. So the reason they gave us in zone B this moved to the 10th, and so people down here could enjoy full rut like people in other areas had. But that being said, they'd be bucking in a doen at a certain time. That means then if the peak rut here is not November, peak rut here in some areas at the end of January, beginning of February, then those fawns are not ready to be on their own as early as they are, relying on mama. Yeah. To survive. And I mean, argument is it's 10 days by law. You and I've talked about it and we've talked about certain, you may want to wait till on in November to shoot, shoot that dough because if you're looking at a, a fawn and, and you've we've talked about so many times, even if the dough comes out, no one assumes you didn't have a fawn with her. Right. Because that fawn could be minutes behind or laying in the grass and you kill that dough and you've essentially killed that fawn too. Yeah. That's right. So that's why, that's why down here, you can't shoot, you can't shoot dough till the 25th. Yeah. You just have to use your judgment. After it's legal time to shoot them, you just, you have to use your judgment. So yeah, just, just a heads up, but it's, it's not brand new. We've been doing this five, six years, maybe, maybe seven, something like that, but just for everybody to remember. So both season, you have, be shooting bucks, whacking bucks starting on the 15th, but no dough shooting until, you know, the 25th. So there you go. Yeah. And that's in zone B, different rules in the other zones, but we're all down here. That's right. And so not concerned about up north and the less you hunting up there. Not many people down here are going four hours north to hunt. I tell you what, if I was, if I was back as a 21 year old guy, 22 year old guys, seeing some of the deer that have come out of the bankhead national forest, y'all, if you, if you're younger guy or gal loves to hunt, go, go dig around on that because there's not a ton of deer in there, but there's some sure enough good deer that come up from northwest Alabama, Lauderdale, South Florida, Winston County, Fayette County, down there, the bankhead national forest. I mean, some 160s, 70s and better. And you hear stories, people say you'd go in there and you may only see, you may not see a deer. You may see two or three deer today, but you had a chance that some really fine bucks come out there. And a lot of it is, it's kind of a younger person's game too, and you put on your hiking boots because it's now, and you're going to hike in a spot and probably carry a common stand on your back and all that. But you get an opportunity to have a shot at a deer that somebody at probably the most expensive hunting club two hours south of you in the black belt may not get a shot at. So it won't probably get a shot at it. Yeah. But I think it's a little healy up there too. It's mountainous. Yeah, it's kind of like you say, it's a young person's game, yeah, to hike up down those big hills and go back in the woods two or three miles. But that's why I said it was like, if I would have been aware of it, or maybe I was, I don't know, if I'd have been aware of it in my 20s, that had been something I'd love to do. You know, crazy. I like to do stuff that's hard. Go do the hard thing, but that's, but not only are you going to do the hard thing, you have an opportunity to kill some of the biggest bucks in Alabama. That's right. So check that out. All right. We'll do this again next week. We will be at the grounds for the GND Outdoor Expo. Hope to see you there. Stop on behind. We've got FM Talk 10065 goodies for you and we'll let Mike show you some of these pictures from Kansas. Looking forward to it. All right. I'll see y'all then. [MUSIC PLAYING]