A Hunter's Legacy

At 42 yards, a 170-inch Iowa whitetail stood in front of Taunie, working a scrape line and offering her a shot. She had the opportunity she'd been waiting for, but she refused to release an arrow at a distance she wasn't comfortable with. Sometimes the hardest part of deer hunting is knowing when not to shoot.

Raised in a family where hunting was a way of life, Taunie learned everything from her father. From childhood hunts to her first archery buck, when she had to draw and let down four or five times just to control her nerves, their time together helped build her passion for whitetail hunting.

Today, Taunie manages food plots and hunts the timber, creek bottoms, and agricultural fields of southern Iowa. She shares the work behind growing mature bucks, hunting the rut, watching scrape lines, and becoming a more independent bowhunter. Beyond Iowa, she recalls an unforgettable wolf hunt in Ontario, sitting in a small blind in temperatures reaching 28 degrees below zero.

On A Hunter's Legacy, Taunie shares what Iowa bowhunting has meant to her family across generations. From southern Iowa deer hunting and mature buck management to passing down whitetail hunting traditions to her son, her experiences show how the memories made together can mean more than the antlers on the wall.

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A rattlesnake beneath his backpack, a black bear with cubs just yards away, and almost no drinking water left on a New Mexico mountainside. For Texas hunter Wes, his first backcountry mule deer hunt delivered more close calls than opportunities to fill a tag.

Growing up hunting alongside his grandfather, Wes developed an early love for the outdoors. But between working offshore in the oil industry, raising a family, and chasing business opportunities, hunting slowly disappeared from his life. Eventually, he realized he was spending more time working than making the memories he wanted his children to grow up with.

That realization brought him back to the woods. Today, Wes explores Southeast Texas public land by canoe, camping on remote sandbars and hunting whitetails, wild hogs, and small game through thick timber and river bottoms. From deer hunting and whitetail hunting to still hunting and spot-and-stalk archery, he has traded comfortable hunts for adventures that demand more preparation and persistence.

On A Hunter's Legacy, Wes shares the dangerous mistakes that changed how he approaches backcountry hunting, the challenges of Texas public land hunting, and why introducing his children to the outdoors matters more than another paycheck. His experiences with New Mexico mule deer hunting and wilderness survival show that sometimes the greatest reward comes from the hunt itself.

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Growing up in his father's taxidermy shop in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, Jake was surrounded by hunting long before he could fully understand it. His earliest memories include sitting beside his dad during deer season, dragging his first buck out of a creek, and learning what it takes to consistently kill mature whitetails on Pennsylvania public land.

But Jake's path didn't stop in the deer woods. After becoming a professional baseball player, he walked away from athletics to chase another dream: making a living in the hunting industry. With little money, no mentor, and a camera in his hands, he spent years teaching himself how to film hunts while chasing whitetails across the country.

Jake shares the reality behind building a career in the outdoors, including the missed opportunities, financial sacrifices, and unsuccessful hunts nobody sees. He also talks about Pennsylvania deer hunting, killing 140 and 150 inch public land bucks, hunting from the ground, scouting mountain terrain, and why understanding deer behavior matters more than expensive equipment.

On this installment of A Hunter's Legacy, Jake's path from professional baseball to full-time hunting filmmaker shows what happens when a lifelong obsession becomes a career. From Pennsylvania public land deer hunting to whitetail hunting tactics and self-filmed bowhunting, his experiences reveal the work that happens long before anyone sees the finished film.

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Joseph did not come from a hardcore deer hunting family. His dad skinned deer for neighbors and quit hunting before Joe was old enough to hold a gun, but Joe grew up watching big bucks come through the garage and dreaming about the day he would be the one chasing them. At fifteen he got a wooden Martin compound bow from his dad's coworker, pieced together a setup on a Dairy Queen budget, and started sitting fence rows and creek bottoms by himself waiting for a deer to show up. It took six years before he killed his first buck. He has been making up for lost time ever since.

Joe hunts whitetails across Illinois public land, runs over a hundred trail cameras, works night shifts at a nuclear plant as a union iron worker, and spends every available daylight hour scouting. He has killed elk in Utah and Colorado, chased mule deer out west, and during the 2024 season completed what he calls the Illinois Grand Slam by shooting five bucks in one year. Two of his best bucks came within two and a half weeks of each other, an eleven pointer followed by a 181 inch giant he killed by hunting the bedding area while everyone else hunted the bean field. He also talks about the time he got pulled over by a cop in a construction zone, talked the officer into writing him a ticket with a court date on November sixth specifically so he could take the day off work to hunt a buck he had been patterning for weeks.

This episode covers Illinois public land whitetail hunting, elk hunting in the West, trail camera strategy, and what happens when somebody treats hunting less like a hobby and more like a second job. A Hunter's Legacy is built for guys like Joe.

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Colin grew up in Vermont on a sixty acre hobby farm where his grandfather took him fishing before he was old enough to carry a gun. His neighbors ran a gun shop out of their house, there was a spring fed brook behind the property full of brook trout, and by the time he was ten years old he was walking the woods during rifle season trying to keep up with his dad, his uncles, and his grandfather. The family tradition was simple. You walk the first couple years without a firearm, you learn the land, and at thirteen you get your first rifle. He has been chasing whitetails ever since.

Colin eventually chased a woman across the border and has been hunting Ontario and Quebec Crown Land for the better part of a decade. He talks about what it looks like to still hunt hardwood ridges in the Northeast the way his grandfather taught him, the first time he sat in a duck blind and watched thousands of mallards dump in overhead at shooting light, and the morning his grandfather rattled off four rounds fifty yards away, pushed a giant buck directly between him and his brother, and his brother nearly put a thirty thirty round over his head when he hit the deck. He is also building a beginner hunting guide platform called First Tag, aimed at getting new hunters into the woods without feeling like they are starting from zero.

This episode covers Ontario and Vermont whitetail hunting, waterfowl hunting, Crown Land access, and what it looks like when a guy raised in deer camp tries to pass that same thing on to people who never had it. A Hunter's Legacy is exactly where Colin's story belongs.

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Share the show with a buddy who lives for cold mornings, heavy packs, and quiet woods.

Colin grew up in Vermont on a sixty acre hobby farm where his grandfather took him fishing before he was old enough to carry a gun. His neighbors ran a gun shop out of their house, there was a spring fed brook behind the property full of brook trout, and by the time he was ten years old he was walking the woods during rifle season trying to keep up with his dad, his uncles, and his grandfather. The family tradition was simple. You walk the first couple years without a firearm, you learn the land, and at thirteen you get your first rifle. He has been chasing whitetails ever since.

Colin eventually chased a woman across the border and has been hunting Ontario and Quebec Crown Land for the better part of a decade. He talks about what it looks like to still hunt hardwood ridges in the Northeast the way his grandfather taught him, the first time he sat in a duck blind and watched thousands of mallards dump in overhead at shooting light, and the morning his grandfather rattled off four rounds fifty yards away, pushed a giant buck directly between him and his brother, and his brother nearly put a thirty thirty round over his head when he hit the deck. He is also building a beginner hunting guide platform called First Tag, aimed at getting new hunters into the woods without feeling like they are starting from zero.

This episode covers Ontario and Vermont whitetail hunting, waterfowl hunting, Crown Land access, and what it looks like when a guy raised in deer camp tries to pass that same thing on to people who never had it. A Hunter's Legacy is exactly where Colin's story belongs.

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Share the show with a buddy who lives for cold mornings, heavy packs, and quiet woods.

Buck grew up in West Virginia with a grandfather who bought him and his brother thirty thirties when they were two years old. Not because they could shoot them yet, but because he already knew where they were headed. By thirteen Buck was sitting on stumps in the hardwoods while his grandfather pushed deer through the ridges, learning to hunt the old way before anyone called it a tactic. His first deer came on a Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving with his grandfather and his brother standing right there, and he says it still might be one of the biggest deer he has ever shot.

Buck hunts whitetails across West Virginia and Maryland, chases elk out west, and spends the off season at a reloading bench that belonged to his grandfather, teaching himself a craft the old man never had time to pass down before he died. He also climbs poles for a living, running fiber optic internet through the mountains of Preston County, and recently became a first time dad six weeks before this episode. He talks about the Wednesday evening drive hunts his grandfather ran through the West Virginia timber, what it felt like to take his first elk hunt out west with his dad and his brother, packing out a bull in the dark on legs that had never carried that kind of weight before, and the shot at six hundred and fifty yards on the last day that he probably should not have taken.

This episode covers West Virginia whitetail hunting, public land elk hunting out west, reloading, and what it looks like to carry on a hunting legacy started by two grandfathers who did things completely differently. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Buck's.

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Aaron grew up on a reservation where white guys could bird hunt but could not touch big game. That did not slow him down. He and his brother were outside every chance they got, BB guns in hand, chasing anything that moved, and by the time they had access to big game country they were already wired for it. His dad was more of a bird hunter. Aaron went a different direction entirely.

He has since built a life in Montana that most hunters only dream about, chasing elk, mule deer, antelope, and black bears with a bow he makes broadheads for out of a camper he and his wife moved into after selling their house to launch Expire Archery, a titanium broadhead company machined in Montana. He quit eighteen years at UPS after a dog attack put him on the operating table and made him realize he did not want to go back. So he and his wife went all in, she runs the social media and the business side, he talks hunting with anyone who will listen, and they are figuring it out in real time.

His hunting stories read like a highlight reel. A mountain lion at five yards while he was texting his brother at lunch. A bull elk at seven yards that he called in on a logging road ten minutes before a doctor's appointment he had to cancel. A black bear at six yards the year before, in the same drainage, same scenario. This episode covers elk hunting, bear hunting, and mule deer hunting in Montana, what it looks like to bet everything on a dream, and why Aaron thinks you can never actually eliminate your scent no matter what you spray on your boots. A Hunter's Legacy is built for guys like Aaron, everyday hunters who are all in on the life.

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Phillip was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that meant no organized sports, broken bones, surgeries, and a dad who pushed him through the woods in a stroller with big rubber tires just so he could hunt. He killed his first deer at seven years old, standing in a ground blind on a broken femur, held up under the armpits by his father while he pulled the trigger on a muzzleloader. The smoke cleared, his dad ran to the deer, came sprinting back, picked him up and carried him down there. That was the moment that started everything.

Phillip is twenty four, married with a two year old and a little girl on the way, and hunting is the axis his entire life spins around. He grew up in southern Indiana in a deeply rooted hunting family with a dad he describes as the best hunter he has ever seen, a man who can call turkeys into areas that have no business holding turkeys and who has spent his career finding giant bucks on public and private ground. Phillip has been chasing both ever since, killing every buck during the same week of November for years running, taking a vacation from November eighth through the sixteenth like clockwork, and choosing turkey hunting over deer hunting every time somebody makes him pick.

This episode covers southern Indiana whitetail and turkey hunting, growing up with a physical condition that never slowed him down, what it means to grow up in a family where hunting is not a hobby but a way of life, and the difference between hunters and killers. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Phillip's.

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Harrison grew up with three uncles willing to take him hunting and a dad who had mostly checked out of the deer woods by the time he was old enough to care. The first few years were slow, mediocre ground and not much to show for it. Then his uncle moved him to a better farm and everything clicked. By the time he was a teenager he was hooked, chasing whitetails across Indiana and making yearly trips to Wisconsin where his uncle owned ground that felt like a completely different world.

Harrison manages a farm full time, runs insurance and landscaping work on the side, and has three kids under seven at home. He hunts private permission ground in Indiana where giants are possible, and he knows it. He has killed three eight points between 138 and 141 inches on different pieces of ground, all on his own terms. His most memorable deer came on the last morning of a brutal eight day Wisconsin gun season at negative ten degrees, in a stand he had never hunted, on the three year anniversary of his father in law passing away before they ever got to hunt together.

This episode covers Indiana whitetail hunting, Wisconsin gun season, deer camp culture, ground hunting, and what it looks like to build a hunting life when your dad was mostly out of the picture. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Harrison's, from first bucks on family farms to giants killed in the cold on the last morning of the season.

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Share the show with a buddy who lives for cold mornings, heavy packs, and quiet woods.