Just when you thought you'd heard it all about deer urine, deer scent attractants, deer behavior, and deer farming,  along comes a Richard Cook, the formulation master wizard behind Cooks Fatal Attraction deer scent lures.   Unlike many brands with expired diluted product, Richard raises deer, collects specimens, and ships his extremely fresh undiluted product quickly. It's like shopping for organic anything directly on the farm itself.   We take a deep dive into Richard's deer scent operation.

How do you know when you've found a good hunting spot?  You know it for sure that it's a good spot when you kill your first good buck there.  Allison Rauscher knows this well. After doing her on the ground homework, and then picking the right tree in the right spot on the right property, it all came together recently for Allison one evening on a bow hunt in Wisconsin.  She downed one of those Wisconsin monarch bucks that most have only read about. 

John Eberhart joined us last on Episode 209, where we broke down John's tactics and answered questions based on listener curiosities.  This time is a little different. Jay, now with a few saddle hunts under his belt and a first hand account of what it's like, hits John with numerous questions from the novice to the legendary saddling hunting expert. Jay and John engage in many details of saddle hunting overlooked in the first interview.

Marc Warnke says that it's not so much the hunting strategy, but it's the spot. That means hunting where hunters don't typically hunt and hunting where wheels can't go.  This means sleeping on bulls or bucks, which means you're not coming out each day. And that also means hauling in food and gear that one or two hunters couldn't possibly manage.  So how?  Well, Marc turned to pack goats to get to these remote areas with all the gear needed to hunt great spots for days on end.  The rewards...

It's a game of chess according to Cameran Derefield. There's a king and a pawn.  Which is which, welp, that's to be determined at the end of the deer season.  Studying annual journals about buck behavior and with heavy game camera monitoring, Cameran believes that he can see the target buck's next move and plan accordingly.  It's not instant success, but it is methodical and persistent and generally speaking, Cameran is the one calling checkmate. 

If you were to meet Jess Martin in person, you probably wouldn't instantly think buck buck deer killin' machine.  But make no mistake, Jess is well on her way to making a name for herself as just that.  A true hunter and outdoor enthusiast, Jess spends much of her time in the big mountainous woods of Rangeley, Maine.  Through tracking and woodsmanship Jess has figured out how to pattern and chase down those big bodied Maine bucks and she shares with us her approach.  OUR SPONSORS:  Minus 33...

There's a long standing northern tradition, especially in New Hampshire and Maine, where wool meets deer hunting. John Glidden is no stranger to this concept.  At age 61 and as President of the company, John reports to work almost daily at the Minus 33 Merino Wool Factory. John prefers tracking the bucks of New Hampshire in the fallen snow over just about any other form of hunting and developed the woolen company out of a need and desire to stay warm in the cold mountains of New Hampshire.

Blake Garrett knows a thing or two about deer hunting because he's seen a thing or two about deer behavior.  Blake takes his approach to deer hunting with scientific overtones.  Studying buck behavior over several years using game cameras and observation, he's noticed some interesting patterning year to year, enough to develop and scientifically test his theories.  Blake is big into positive deer reinforcement when it comes to deer hunter habits and endlessly avoids  negative deer encounter...

Chase the dream. Don't listen to the doubters. That's how Ethan Featheroff approaches each day. Ethan, after killing a 200" buck despite having a torn shoulder joint and a separated bicep, knows how to fight through pain to accomplish a goal.  Ethan shares with us his stand approach system, how he pushes the deer trail with his game cameras, and why he prefers hunting early season over any other time.

Dave Paulides returns, this time with a new movie called Missing 411 The Hunted.  An expansion of his book Missing 411, Hunters Unexplained Disappearances focuses on 5 cases all involving a seemingly capable hunter.  The movie explores further details of the cases and dives deep in explanation using maps, visits to the terrain, expert critics, and interviews with those directly involved or affected.  You will leave with far more questions than answers.   The events showcased in Dave's movie...

When you need to hunt to survive, you learn how to hunt efficiently and effectively.  Phil Vanderpool's hunting journey began in a similar fashion. Today Phil is among the most recognized and respected personalities in the outdoor industry.  Phil broke into the outdoor commercial world when he started filming his hunts using a VHS camcorder. We discuss Phil's upbringing, his tactics and strategies for hunting big bucks, and discuss in detail his near 4 year hunt for a monster buck he named...

It's a story that starts 120 years ago, with a small hunting cabin in southern Ohio.  For Joe Godar, a member of a group called the Hunting Junkies, it's a home away from home now with a new cabin on the same 50 acre parcel filled with numerous food plots and treestand locations to hunt any wind.  We discuss Joe's plan for 12 month cycle of food sources, dual planting times during the year, one at a time arrow practice shots, and how to eliminate target panic early in the season.

Per the QDMA Whitetail Report, hunters pursue whitetail deer more than any other species and whitetail hunters contribute financially more than any other hunter segment.   Because of this impressive impact QDMA releases an annual report that goes deep into data and identifies trends that affect the whitetail's world and the hunters that hunt them.  We thought that it only appropriate to invite Kip Adams back to discuss the highlights of this year's report, as we did last year. 

We've focused a bunch on the bow shot, but perhaps we over looked the long range rifle shot. Unless you've had the need to take a 700 yard kill shot, you may not realize how much information is needed to calculate a well placed bullet.  The science is fascinating and the apps are endless. To clear this up, we invited long range hunter and shooting competitor Anthony Stallone to break it all down before you squeeze the trigger on your next long range target.

There have been far more 300" non-typical bucks killed since the early 2000s than ever documented before the year 2000.  So what gives?  Is it genetics, is it food, what can history tells us? Gordon Whittington, the Editor in Chief of North American Whitetail joins us for a second time to explore just that.  We discuss all this in detail and dig deep into the Luke Brewster buck story, the monster Illinois buck from 2018, currently featured in North American Whitetail Magazine.

Although Harmon Carson is known as the Bayou Bowhunter, he sharpened his  bowhunting skills in the in the mountains of Colorado.  Harmon credits his dad for lots of his skills, but not necessarily in the traditional father/son teaching sense.  In many cases, Harmon learned to hunt because his father would escort him into the woods, but from then on he was on his own to learn the rest - methods that might not fly today. Nonetheless, those lessons made Harmon one heck of a good bowhunter - no...

J.C. Hall might not be on the trigger most of the time, but he's hunting all the time.  When he does hunt for himself, it's a quality over quantity kind of thing.  These days J.C. is frequently on tour with the likes of country singer Aaron Lewis where he's running the camera or editing for the show On the Road Outdoors. JC is an interesting guy with a colorful past - he studied golf at Penn State, was a pit crew member on the NASCAR circuit, and is now a producer for Open Season TV.

So you want to book a whitetail hunt with an outfitter, but you don't know exactly where to start.  Maybe this is your first time or maybe you're rebounding from a horrible experience and you're attempting not to repeat.    What questions should you ask?  What are the red flags? What's should you expect to get when you spend your hard earn money ? We explore all this an more with Jason Selman of Hero Shot Outfitters.

After 35 years of hunting and after burning out a camera man or two, there's no sign of Chuck Paddock hunting less.  Chuck is a busy business man and is part owner of Open Season TV. Chuck doesn't consider the work surrounding Open Season actual work as it's not his how he makes his living. But he sure does love to hunt and he enjoys bringing his hunts to life for others through video. Chuck's big things are low pressure, careful entry and exit routes, and an abundant use of game cameras. 

The Bearded Butchers, otherwise known as brothers Seth and Scott Perkins, grew up learning butchery as part of the family business They carried their knowledge into the hunter's world by hunting for and butchering all types of wild game. And what goes great with meat?  Spices!  So the brothers ventured into the spice business   In this show, we explore all the Bearded Butcher secrets to successful deer processing, how jerky can break down deer hunting barriers, and how you can do it too. 

Every conversation we've had with their crew has lead to some deep thinking related to hunting, industry challenges, and solutions to keep hunting alive for generations to come.    We reflect on Matt's 2018-2019 deer season and then we turn to Brandon Adams, a long time MLB crew member, and learn how he prepared for a season he called the Oklahoma Slam which involved taking one of each of the 5 big game species in Oklahoma in a single hunting season.

The arborists are probably the first to harness the power of the tree harness, but what about the rock climbing community? According to Greg Godfrey from the tree harness company Tethrd, we need to give credit to each. It's a deer hunter meets arborist meets rock climber kind of story. We discuss with Greg the products that Tethrd offers, how to use them effectively, and how their system can safely make you a lighter more mobile deer hunter.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE RIFLE SEASON - Holiday Special Written by Tim Biebel

It's hard to imagine that a bicycle would have anything to do with deer hunting.  For years we've relied on our vehicles- our trucks and our ATVs and our UTVs to get us deeper into the woods to our hunting spots.  But a bicycle? Well, turns out, with a little ingenuity from some outdoor enthusiasts and a re-design of the legendary mountain bike - fatter tires, better suspension, a motor, and a hardcore battery like what you'd find in the futuristic Tesla automobile, the all terrain electric...

Long gone are the days of film game cameras.  The standard game camera  now is digital with an SD card.  But now the cellular game camera is making strides in both quality and price point. Will this be the new standard soon?    We thought we should explore the cellular game camera because everyone seems to want one but many don't know enough about them to jump in.  So we grabbed our good friend Kimber O'Dell from Covert Scouting Cameras to break it all down for us.