The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests - Podcasts

01:04:43

#436 - The 2026 Rut Calendar: Every Key Date That You...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/10/06

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Jason Michael. We Discuss: The 2026 rut calendar: key October and November dates based on solunar movement charts. Southern hunters can add roughly one lunar month to every November rut date. For mature bucks, the wind should be almost perfect for him and almost wrong for you. Setting up at 30 to 40 yards instead of 20 can keep a crosswind from busting

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57:11

MDRN Whitetail Ep. #7 - 3 Early Season Tactics We...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/10/02

Steve Pinkston hunts for the wind every other bowhunter is taught to avoid — and he's killed his last ten bucks doing it. Cameron and Tre Kerns go back through last week's conversation to pull out what's actually usable: whether Steve's "light and variable" wind theory holds up the same way in hill country as it does on his flat Ohio ag ground, why food source changes don't move Steve's deer off their bedding, the rain-triggers-movement pattern Tre's used to kill multiple bucks in the middle of the

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59:30

#435 - 30 Years Hunting Public Land: Johnny Stewart's...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/29

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Johnny Stewart. We Discuss: * Early October is food-driven, so look for pockets of acorns, not a whole forest of mast. * Probe into a new area a little at a time instead of hiking every inch and burning it out. * Start e-scouting with the historic wind and focus on leeward, east-facing ridges and fingers. * Roughly 300 feet of relief from creek to

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01:08:28

MDRN Whitetail Ep. #6 - Early Season Big Buck...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/25

Steve Pinkston has killed three bucks over 200 inches — and never entered a single one in the record books. Owner of Hardcore E-Cycles and a member of the Whitetail Addiction team, Steve has spent over 45 years chasing whitetails with a bow, and since 2011 he's hunted the Ohio rut just twice. Since 2019, he hasn't carried a tag past October 13th — five of those kills came on the first sit, three on opening day. In this episode, presented by Hawke Optics, we break down how Steve fills his buck tag

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57:44

MDRN Whitetail BONUS: Lessons Learned From An Early...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/23

Cameron sits down with Tre Kerns to break down their sixth early season trip to North Dakota: two target bucks, tricky winds, and hunting mature deer from the ground at 15 yards. It's an honest recap of what went right and what didn't. One buck ended up on the tailgate, one got away clean, and one shot didn't go the way anyone wants. Along the way they cover the lessons that will carry into the rest of the season and beyond. Presented by Hawke Optics. Topics covered: Why this year's hit list was

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59:48

#434 - The October Weather Window That Can Completely...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/22

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Brian Tanner. We Discuss: * Overcast mid-October days can create longer, more productive deer movement windows. * Topography funnels cruising bucks when a setup accounts for wind and thermals. * The Green Mile uses cover and barriers to guide deer across wide-open ground. * A stand only works when access keeps your scent out of a deer's travel route. *

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41:22

MDRN Whitetail Recovery Ep. #5 - 5 Things To Apply...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/18

Aaron Olsen took 13 years to kill his first buck with a bow. Since then, he's hunted 10 states and filled tags in 7 of them. In this Recovery, Cameron sits down in person with Trey Kearns — on location in North Dakota — to break down the 5 things from last week's conversation that you can actually take into the woods this season: getting mobile, treating private and public land as two different tools, using trail cameras to qualify your theories instead of replacing your scouting, when to trust the

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01:09:19

#433 - 46 Years, Four 200-Inch Bucks: The Patience...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/15

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Adam Hays. We Discuss: Hunt the wind that makes a mature buck feel safe, not the wind that's perfect for you. The best time to hunt a stand is the first time you hunt it, so save it for your best night. Let other hunters pressure deer on bad nights while your kill spot stays untouched. Stack a good wind, weather pattern and moon on the same evening to

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51:02

#432 - Aaron Warbritton's Top 5 Rules to Hunting...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/08

Aaron Warbritton of The Hunting Public joins the WHTL Podcast to break down the top 5 rules he lives by every season to consistently kill mature bucks — plus how he balances scouting pressure against the information he needs, how he finds the best stand on any property (public or private), and why he thinks trail cameras are one of the most overcomplicated tools in modern whitetail hunting. This episode is a crossover from Aaron's Back 40 series over on the Wired to Hunt feed (MeatEater Network) —

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01:13:55

MDRN Whitetail Ep. #4 - The Best Hunters are...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/04

Aaron Olsen (Next Step Outdoors) took seven years to kill his first deer with a bow, and thirteen years to kill his first buck. Then something changed — in the last five or six seasons he's hunted ten states, filled tags in seven of them, and built a mobile, saddle-based system from scratch. In this episode, Cameron sits down with Aaron to break down: Why getting mobile was the single biggest lever for leveling up as a hunter How private land and public land teach you two completely different

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01:06:32

#431 - Why You Should Stop Reading the Forecast and...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/09/01

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with K.C. Smith and Tyler Jones. We Discuss: Hunt the calendar first and let the weather be the tiebreaker. The warm-up day on the backside of a cold front can out-hunt the front itself. A stable wind matters more to a deer's comfort than a dropping temperature. Treating the whole season like a five-day hunt sharpens every access decision. Your most

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42:22

MDRN Whitetail EP. #3 - 5 Don Higgins' Tactics That...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/28

Don Higgins has been bowhunting for 49 years — and today he hunts fewer hours than at any point in his career. In this Recovery, we go back through the biggest, most usable takeaways from the full conversation: the discovery that changed how he reads wind and bedding forever, the ethics behind walking away from 19 out of 20 hunting tips, the patience it took to sit on a buck for three full seasons, and the mistake that took him over a decade to correct into a precise rule. This is the breakdown

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01:01:39

#430 - The 70 Rule: Why 80% of Your Daylight Deer...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/25

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Brandon Barlow of The 70 Rule. We Discuss: Up to 80% of daytime deer behavior repeats in the same areas year to year. Cameras over corn and field edges produce deer photos, not repeatable data. Browse damage at nipple height marks the bedding mature bucks actually live in. Mature bucks catch REM sleep in bomb-shelter cover with no vantage point. Deep

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01:02:07

MDRN Whitetail EP. #2 - 49 Years of Bowhunting for...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/21

In this episode of MDRN Whitetail, Don breaks down the principles that actually built a 49-year career chasing giants — not the tips everyone's already heard, but the ones he had to learn the hard way. We get into: The "same time, same place" theory Don first wrote about in 2003 — and how tracking one buck's annual pattern for six straight years led to a first-morning kill Why hunting "the fringes" isn't about staying on the edge of everything — and how a 2-acre patch of cover next to an elderly

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01:00:00

#429 - Half Your Summer Bucks Will Be Gone by October...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/18

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Kaleb Greiner. We Discuss: Roughly half of summer bucks relocate before October in pressured country. Cereal grains want to be six inches tall on opening day, not two feet. The best summer camera in ag country sits 20 to 80 yards off a pond. Deer walk through an open gate instead of hopping the fence beside it. A creek drying up can move a buck

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17:43

MDRN Whitetail EP. #1 - Where Technology and...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/14

Welcome to MDRN Whitetail — where woodsmanship and technology collide. I'm Cameron Derr, and I didn't learn to deer hunt from a mentor. I learned it from editing YouTube hunting content — first on The Tineman, then as Creative Director at Exodus Outdoor Gear, where I produced Trail Cam Radio (the Exodus Podcast, now WHTL), Whitetail Cribs, and hosted the Deer Gear Podcast. Every guest I edited became an unofficial teacher. Since picking up a bow in 2016, I've killed 10+ bucks — including a couple

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59:38

#428 - How Jason Michael Breaks Down 5,000 Acres of...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/11

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Jason Michael. We Discuss: Mature bucks have distinct personalities, and each one has to be hunted differently. A buck labeled nocturnal is usually only nocturnal on your 80 acres. Red oaks carry the November acorn crop long after the white oaks are washed up. Big public ground gets read faster with short probes than with mile-long loops. Wind speed

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01:00:52

#427 - Make Mature Bucks Hunt You: The Mock Scrape...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/08/04

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Jeff Hopkins. We Discuss: A buck's tarsal gland leaves a scent fingerprint that bottled urine can't copy. Frozen tarsal glands soaked in glycerin gel make your own dominant buck scent. Wax paper under a mock scrape keeps your lure from soaking into the ground. The direction a buck kicks scrape dirt tells you which way he's traveling. A mock scrape

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54:53

#426 - How Rare Is a Booner, Really? This Thermal...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/07/28

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Jack Huston. We Discuss: Buck-to-doe ratios average 2.3 does per buck, far tighter than the 10-to-1 hunters assume. You need to remove at least 20% of your doe herd in a season to actually shrink deer numbers. Improving timber stand quality can boost a property's deer-holding capacity by 50%. Mature bucks average one per 88 acres of habitat,

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54:16

#425 - The Biggest Lie The Archery Industry Tells You...

The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics,... ·

2026/07/21

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back on the road in Georgia with Travis "T-Bone" Turner of Bone Collector. We Discuss: Confidence with your bow setup comes from accuracy, not chasing raw speed. Spend real money on your rest and release — everything else is negotiable. A 450-520 grain arrow with 14-18% FOC is the sweet spot for whitetails. Fixed blades test your form; mechanicals forgive small mistakes at

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