The Bowhunter Podcast

The 2026 Archery Trade Show is just around the corner, and we're expecting a host of new saddles, climbing sticks and related gear to debut in early January. Saddle-hunting authority Greg Staggs, host of the popular Staggs in the Wild YouTube channel, joins us to recap his successful fall whitetail hunts and offer his predictions about what the New Year has in store when it comes to equipment trends for the mobile bowhunter.

January has always been a big month for the bowhunting community, and in 2026 it's going to be bigger than ever thanks to the inaugural Archery and Bowhunting Super Show, a two-day consumer event being held on the heels of the annual Archery Trade Show in Indianapolis. ATA Chief Executive Officer Jeff Poole joins us to discuss this exciting new event, which will give bowhunters an opportunity to attend the archery industry's largest annual gathering to see all the new-for-2026 bows and bowhunting gear up close and personal. Add in the NFAA's Rushmore Rumble and S3DA Indoor Open tournaments...

As November winds down and the holidays loom, the rut is waning across the northern two thirds of the whitetail range. Bowhunter Editor Christian Berg, Digital Editor Drew Pellman and Social Media  Manager Tony Jenniges recap their recent hunts, share observations and insights gleaned along the way and look ahead to late-season hunting and upcoming coverage of the 2026 Archery Trade Show in January.

With archery deer seasons now underway, what's the best way to make your trail cameras work for you. Moultrie's Mark Olis joins us to discuss how in-season trail-cam placement differs from pre-season placement and how you can make the most out of your trail-cam data to be a more efficient bowhunter this fall.

Derrick Dixon, founder of Whitetail Research, has been setting the deer-hunting world on fire of late, thanks to the amazing insights he has gathered on mature buck movement and behavior. Armed with a high-tech, infrared drone, the Missouri resident has literally been following mature bucks on the daily, recording their travels and interactions to piece together patterns and glean new understanding about arguably the greatest mystery in all of bowhunting – why mature bucks do what they do. Dixon joins us to discuss his amazing, ongoing research projects and how what he's learning can, and can't, benefit us as hunters.

If you bowhunt long enough, it's going to happen. You hit an animal, and the shot placement is not ideal. The decisions you make after the shot are critical to maximize your odds of recovery. Noted Colorado bowhunter Jace Bauserman recounts his recent elk hunt and the multi-day, 30-mile effort to recover his bull.

Believe it or not, peak rut dates across the whitetail's range stretch all the way from July to February — an incredible span of eight months. But when is the peak of the rut where YOU hunt? Big-game biologists Brian Murphy and Jim Heffelfinger from HuntStand join us to discuss how they compiled breeding data from across North America to map peak whitetail breeding dates across more than 5,000 counties and parishes, along with peak breeding dates for mule deer, blacktail deer and elk.

The EHD virus is ravaging the whitetail herd in Southeast Ohio, where landowners are reporting hundreds of dead and dying deer across multiple counties. We discuss the current situation and the outlook for the upcoming archery season with noted Ohio deer hunter Emily Konkler and Zach Haas, an aquatic biologist and inventor of EHD-fense, a new tool in the fight against the virus.

After decades of effort, Pennsylvania has finally repealed its centuries-old ban on Sunday hunting. Travis Lau of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Nick Pinozzotto of the National Deer Association join us to discuss this historic change, what it means for bowhunters and the future of deer management in the Keystone State.

Mock scrapes are a fantastic tool — not only for hunting but for taking an inventory of your local deer herd and patterning buck movements in advance of the season. This week, the crew from BuckStik joins us with tips on how to create, monitor and hunt mock scrapes, and how incorporating their innovative products into your scrape setups can attract more deer and keep them coming back to your scrape sites!

For more information, visit

https://www.litfoutdoors.com

https://www.buckstik.com

 In 1959, legendary bowhunter Harv Ebers used one of his self-made, left-handed, recurve bows to take down the world-record caribou in Alaska. Today, at age 90, Ebers is the last living original Pope and Young Club member — and he's still inspiring fellow bowhunters such as fellow lefty Tom Vanasche, who last year used the same bow to take a Wyoming whitetail, 65 years after its maiden hunt. Ebers and Vanasche discuss their special friendship and the ways traditional bowhunting transcends time.

Maribeth Kulynycz, the newly elected president of the Maryland Bowhunters Society, may be the first woman ever to lead a statewide bowhunting organization. But that's just the latest accomplishment for Kulynycz, who has been blazing trails in archery for years and working tirelessly to promote and protect Maryland's bowhunting heritage.

Public land is getting more crowded all the time, and permission to hunt private land is getting harder to secure every year. Buying hunting land of your own may not be financially feasible, but a long-term hunting lease can provide many of the benefits of land ownership at a fraction of the cost. Aaron Sutton and Mac Christian from National Land Realty join us to discuss the ins and outs of leasing and how a lease can provide you with a high-quality hunting experience.

West Virginia bowhunter David Miller grew up pursuing whitetails in the mountains of Appalachia. Later, he discovered many of the same tactics work for pursuing elk and mule deer in the mountains of the American West. Drawing on years of successful Western adventures, Miller shares his top tips for Eastern bowhunters who want to pursue their Western big-game dreams.

Every year, turkey hunters across America tag some really unusual gobblers with colors that just don't match the local flock. Are these birds mutants, escapees from a the local turkey farm or some kind of hybrid between domestic and wild turkeys? A new project called WildturkeyDNA, spearheaded by the National Wild Turkey Federation and its partners, aims to find out — and turkey hunters get to participate in the science!

Love them or hate them, crossbows are occupying an ever-larger space on the bowhunting landscape. What does that mean for the future of our sport? Brad Fenson, a highly successful hunter and author of our new crossbow column, joins us for a fascinating discussion about the changing bowhunting landscape. 

KUIU's Justin Shaffer is an extreme mountain hunter who chases everything from sheep and goats in Alaska to high-country elk and mule deerin the Rockies to ibex in Mongolia. Your 2025 bowhunts might not be that rugged, but that doesn't mean you won't benefit from getting in shape for your adventures. Jared talks about his approach to bowhunting fitness and how taking care of your body will make you a more effective predator in the field.

Prime Archery's new-for-2025 Form is the first aluminum-carbon hybrid bow in history. Prime's Brian Anderson joins us to discuss why the company was willing to try something completely different to bring bowhunters a rig that not only looks unlike anything you've ever seen but offers some significant performance advantages.

Deer season may be winding down, but that means gear season is heating up! Colorado bowhunter Jace Bauserman joins us to recap a pair of successful, DIY rut hunts and discuss some of the recently released new-for-2025 archery gear.

Regardless of how your season has been, you should be thankful to be a bowhunter. With the Thanksgiving season upon us, Editor Christian Berg and contributor Eddie Claypool reflect on their many blessings and the privilege of enjoying the great outdoors.

The late archery season can be a great time to tag a mature whitetail buck — if you have the right conditions and know how to approach the hunt. KUIU's Micah Sirek and Thomas Krick join us to discuss the keys to late-season success and also highlight KUIU's new Super Down Haven line of cold-weather hunting apparel.

Like most bowhunters, Michigan's Jim Bouchard knows the challenge of hunting highly pressured whitetails. He owns no hunting ground, has no food plots and competes with many other hunters on every property he hunts. Yet, in spite of the challenges, Bouchard is highly successful and filled both his 2024 buck tags in October. Bouchard details his proven, out-of-the-box tactics for locating and hunting mature bucks that have become masters of survival.  

All bowhunters get excited for the whitetail rut, but sometimes Mother Nature can throw you curveballs with warm weather and other challenges. Jake Shaffer, owner of Branded Outdoors guide service in Maryland, shares his top rut-hunting tips for mid-November, including how to adapt to hot weather, tactics he's learned from hunting the flatlands of the Eastern Shore and what to do when the deer seem to disappear.

Would you pay $180 to shoot a 170? Well, that's essentially what Nebraska bowhunter Zeke Pipher recently did, tagging a 174 7/8-inch monster on a 25-acre conservation property where he made a $180 donation for hunting rights. This week, as the rut heats up, sit back and listen to Pipher's amazing story about why you should always expect the unexpected when hunting mature whitetail bucks.

It's Halloween Week, and we're getting amped up for some ghoulishly good whitetail action. Christian and Mark discuss the most recent trail-cam intel on scrapes and rub lines, and then we get with Rob Babbit from King Whitetails in Kansas to learn what he's seeing and preview our upcoming King Whitetails rut hunt for Bowhunter TV. 

The whitetail rut is just around the corner, and this week we speak with two of the nation's most successful DIY buck hunters about how to get mature whitetails in bow range! Tethrd's John Eberhart and Greg Godfrey have successfully hunted bucks in more than 20 states and recently published the Ultimate Guide to DIY Bucks, a comprehensive, three-volume book that covers everything you need to know to punch more tags. 

Tethrd co-founder Taylor Chamblain is a deer-slaying ninja who operates in the shadows of Washington, D.C. Just a few miles from the White House and a stone's throw from CIA headquarters, Chamberlain uses his saddle gear and businesslike approach to deer management to help suburban homeowners combat a burgeoning whitetail population. Along the way, Chamberlain has a ton of fun as he fills his freezer, helps feed the hungry and even tags a few trophy bucks.

When a blood trail runs dry and sign becomes non-existent, recovering a wounded deer can be like finding a needle in a haystack. But drones are quickly changing the deer-recovery game, turning nightmare scenarios into dreams come true. Mike Yoder from Drone Deer Recovery in Ohio joins us to discuss how the legal, ethical use of cutting-edge drone technology is helping hunters recover deer that are mortally wounded and investigate non-lethal hits in a way that causes minimal disturbance to wildlife.

The popularity of saddle hunting is growing by leaps and bounds, particularly among DIY, public-land bowhunters who embrace a mobile strategy. This week, Latitude Outdoors co-founder Kevin Leach joins us to discuss how saddle-hunting gear can give you an important edge when it comes pursuing mature bucks on heavily pressured public ground.

Depending on where you live, whitetail season is either here, or opening day is just around the corner. This week, noted whitetail guru Bill Winke joins us to discuss tactics for the early weeks of the season. What is the best approach for the season's opening weeks, and how can you put yourself in position to succeed without jeopardizing your chances for success during the rut? 

Consistently taking mature whitetail bucks from highly pressured public lands in the East isn't easy. From mountain bikers and hikers to small-game hunters and fellow bowhunters, the disruptions are many. On this week's podcast, avid bowhunter Justin Ahart of Pennsylvania, who regularly hunts heavily pressured public parcels in New Jersey, shares his tips and tactics for scoring when human interference rises and deer sightings dwindle.

Dan Infalt, aka "The Hunting Beast," is one of America's most successful public-land whitetail hunters, consistently taking mature bucks on heavily pressured ground. We dive deep to explore Dan's unconventional methods and why hunting differently than the average deer hunter is the key to success. "If you hunt the same as everyone else," Dan said, "you get the same results."

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Bowtech recently launched the Honor, a limited-edition bow that celebrates the company's high-tech heritage while also supporting Folds of Honor, a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the families of military members and first responders killed or disabled in the line of duty. Bowtech's Todd Snader and Folds of Honor President Col. Nick Nichols join us to discuss how the bowhunting community is helping support this important mission.

Whitetails communicate in a variety of methods, and bowhunters can up their odds of success by using that to their advantage. This week, the guys from BuckStik join us to talk about how gland secretions play an important role in whitetail communication and how the company's innovative, all-in-one licking branch, rubbing post and mock scrape system can be a game-changer in the woods.

Last fall, Tethrd invited 12 experienced saddle hunters to its first-ever Huntin' Camp, a weeklong, DIY, deer hunt that forced participants to hit the ground running on a large tract of Indiana forest none had ever visited before. By week's end, an incredible six of the 12 hunters had put a buck on the ground — a testament to the effectiveness of saddle-hunting tactics. Tethrd co-founder Greg Godfrey and Tethrd ambassador Dustin Moll join us to recap the hunt, share key insights learned along the way and preview the upcoming 2024 Huntin' Camp.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has eliminated non-resident, over-the-counter, archery elk tags, starting with the 2025 season. We discuss what this change means for tens of thousands of non-resident elk hunters from across the nation, as well as what it means for Colorado's resident bowhunters and the long-term future of Colorado's elk herd.

Bowhunters are always searching for the next big-game trophy hotspot. Pope and Young Club Executive Director Justin Spring and Director of Records Tim Rozewski join us to discuss the trends in where record-book deer and other game are coming from in recent years, the impact of new technologies on "fair chase" and their organization's conservation efforts and educational initiatives.

Next to Fred Bear, there may not be another name in bowhunting more iconic than Chuck Adams. With an record-setting 226 Pope and Young animals to his credit and a 40-plus year hunting career that has spanned the globe, Chuck is a living legend who remains as passionate about archery today as he was five decades ago.

When it comes to scent control, former western hunting guide and avid bowhunter Cole Tanner of Ozonics has seen and tried it all. On this week's podcast, Tanner dishes some great hunting stories, shares tips for best scent-control practices and discusses how ozone technology, including the company's brand-new HR600 unit, can be a game-changer in the woods.

When it comes to bowhunting, there is perhaps no greater and more challenging feat than completing the Archery Super Slam, taking all 29 North American big-game animals with bow and arrow. It's so challenging, in fact, that fewer than 50 people have ever done it. The latest is Tom Edgington, who joins us to share the incredible stories of his 20-year quest.