New hunter Sarah Seufer shares the podcasts that helped her get started hunting as an adult.
When I started hunting three years ago, I had only vague ideas of what it would be like.
While I grew up eating deer meat from the whitetails my dad hunted on trips to southern Ohio, I didn't shoot or hunt as a kid. It was something Dad did on vacation with his buddies and I just wasn't that interested.
It wasn't until my late 20s when health struggles led me to devour wellness content that I became curious about hunting.
Health podcaster Daniel Vitalis of ReWild Yourself talked about hunting as part of a holistic lifestyle. It was a way to procure organic, grass-fed meat and connect with the Earth. I started to see hunting in a new light.
Now, I've been at it for a few seasons. I've taken two squirrels and one deer, and I'm archery hunting with a compound bow this fall.
I wish my dad could have been my outdoor mentor. Sadly, he died years before I re-discovered hunting. But I am grateful for all of the writers, podcasters and other content creators out there sharing their knowledge.
Mostly, I've learned about hunting by getting out in the woods and trying it for myself. But I've learned a lot from other hunters, too.
This list of podcasts is for new hunters and hunting-curious adults, especially those chasing deer and turkeys in the southeast. There's plenty of how-to information, but there's also biology, ethics and conservation. My hope is something on this list sparks your excitement and gets you one step closer to your hunting goals.
The Hunting Public
Hunters Aaron Warbritton and Zach Ferenbaugh from the popular YouTube channel host this show, which features tactics for public land hunters. Many new hunters don't have access to private land, they start out hunting state and national forest land. This often means hunters can't use bait piles to attract animals. And other hunters are competing for the same prime hunting spots. Mostly, there aren't big agricultural fields to set up on.
So Aaron and Zach travel around the U.S., filming their hunts and sharing their creative solutions to these public land challenges.
On the podcast, they sit down with the other members of their hunting team and discuss their hunts in detail, distilling lessons for listeners. And they cover specifics for hunting different areas. For example, Episode 138 - Hunting Mississippi River Bottoms and Episode 139 - Hunting the Georgia Mountains.
They also go beyond hunting tactics and bring guests on to talk about other topics like the importance of physical fitness and having a positive mindset to improve your chances of success as a hunter.
Deer University
This show is all about deer biology, ecology and management. Its hosts are Dr. Bronson Strickland and Dr. Steve Demarais, who teach wildlife management and run the Deer Lab at Mississippi State University. They're also lifelong deer hunters.
"Don’t take for granted what your buddy says or what you read in a hunting magazine," they say. "We’ll train you to think like a deer biologist."
Episodes run about an hour long and are either one-on-one chats between the two professors or interviews with other researchers.
In Episode 30 - Buck Movement Patterns During the Rut, the professors interview their graduate students, who monitored bucks with GPS collars and identified the focal areas they used.
The students key in on the types of cover bucks favor, listing specific plants (like goldenrod) that provide both security and food to wary bucks. Hunters can scout for these habitat types and look for signs that bucks are spending time there.
Other good episodes for hunters: Episode 13 - The Science of Antler Rattling, Episode 41 - Buck Habitat Selection During Hunting Season, and Episode 42 - When Are Deer Attracted to Acorns?
The Wannabe Hunting Podcast
Amos Medford, an "adult-onset" hunter from Florida, takes listeners along as he interviews experts from every corner of the hunting world. He learns tactics from more experienced hunters. And he talks about ethics, conservation, and the role faith plays in his own hunting.
Amos is humble about his level of experience and has a deep reverence for nature. In Episode 22 - My First Buck, he tells the story of the buck he took last fall after many seasons of hunting.
Rather than being dismayed that he hasn't taken a big buck with a certain size rack that could grace the cover of a magazine, he's grateful and overjoyed to have harvested this buck, which will feed his young family. He has a full-time job and a newborn, and as such, accepts where he is in his hunting journey.
It's a refreshing listen and fun to learn alongside a fellow new hunter.
The Stickboys
Dalton Lewis and Ethan Rodrigue host this podcast about traditional bowhunting. Even if you're not a traditional bowhunter (I'm not!) you might like this one.
Traditional bowhunters have a smaller effective range and have to get very close to wildlife to take ethical shots, therefore they focus a lot on woodsmanship. That is, they want to learn everything they can about wildlife and how animals interact with their environments.
In Episode 140, they interview Emile LeBlanc, a traditional bowhunter and wildlife biologist who has hunted and studied deer for over 50 years. And in Episode 115 they talk with hunter Nathan Killen about hunting for antler sheds after deer drop them in winter, and how that can teach hunters valuable insights to take into the next hunting season.
ReWild Yourself and Wild Fed
Daniel Vitalis focuses on human biology and ecology, looking to, as he says, "free [people] from the degenerative effects of human domestication."
He started out in the health industry, looking to find the right human diet to promote optimal well-being. He was a raw food vegan, but eventually found his way to hunting and eating wild game.
With ReWild Yourself, Daniel focused on nutrition as part of a holistic lifestyle. Now that he's finished that show, he's making WildFed, specifically focused on hunting, fishing and foraging for wild foods.
The ReWild Yourself archives and WildFed are full of content to make you think more deeply about what it means to become a hunter in our modern world, including:
- ReWild Yourself Episode 170 Heart of a Māori Hunter - Toa Hunter Gather
- WildFed Episode 65 It Shouldn't Be Easy. Hunting, Hardship & Reward with Donnie Vincent
- WildFed Episode 86 Who Are We? Hunting and the Stories We Tell with Arthur Haines
I hope this list inspires you to take the next step on your hunting journey! Get out there this fall, even if it's just for a scouting trip. Every minute spent in the field can teach you something if you let it.
Check out our other hunting stories for more inspiration:
How To Start Hunting as a Complete Beginner With Small Game
Squirrel Hunting: the Right Game for Young Hunters
