Dear Hunter Podcast

In today's episode, we give an update on how we spent our time in the outdoors during November with Cody hunting the whitetail rut and Erich training his new bird dog, Waylon. We give an update on our Bucks to Birds Campaign, and finish the episode with a very strong message for the deer hunting community.

In our most meaningful podcast yet, we're introducing The Bucks to Birds Campaign. A conservation collaboration unlike any other, The Bucks to Birds Campaign is a coalition of deer hunters, upland bird hunters, wildlife managers, and conservationists all across North America coming together with a common goal in mind -- saving the ruffed grouse.

We talk about how the campaign came to be and how you can help give the Ruffed Grouse a positive future. If you'd like to donate and make a difference to this campaign, please visit:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/buckstobirds

In today's episode, we're joined by wildlife biologist and hunting land specialist, Rans Thomas, to talk about a truly revolutionary product in the wildlife management and conservation world, the HuntPro App. HuntPro is a patented, image recognition platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to enable outdoor sportsmen, natural resource agencies, and hunting property managers to quickly and easily identify species, measure wildlife populations and track wildlife activity behaviors using game trail camera photos. Rans gives us the rundown on how the app came to be, his role in its development, and the many groundbreaking, revolutionary features the app offers today's hunter and wildlife manager.

If you're a hunter, wildlife manager, or trail camera enthusiast, this an episode you don't want to miss!

In today's episode, we're joined by our good friend Jason Snavely to have a good, old fashioned, shoot from the hip, roundtable discussion about the following topics:

How to take quality trophy photos Why it's important to take respectful pictures What makes a good, skillful hunter? What does it mean to be a professional hunter? What makes a good wildlife consultant? The difference between a wildlife management consultant and a hunting consultant. And much more!

Today's show is the official kickoff to deer season episode! In the first of what will be a series of episodes dedicated to deer season, we talk about our expectations for the upcoming season, introducing new hunters to the sport, hunting for reasons that make you happy, and how to determine what makes a buck a "shooter" or not.

Good luck to everyone in the woods this fall and stay safe!

Today's episode is an important one, as we're joined with Hunter Pruitt of the National Wildlife Cooperative as we discuss an often overlooked aspect of wildlife management and conservation, wildlife cooperatives. Hunter introduces his new project, the National Wildlife Cooperative, and how he feels it can benefit landowners, wildlife managers, hunters, and wildlife enthusiasts all the same. We also talk about how important relationship building, community, and the human element are for the future of wildlife.

In today's show, we're joined by filmmaker, producer, and storyteller, Robbie Kroger of Blood Origins to talk about the narrative and perception of hunting. We hit on many different topics including:

• Changing the perception of today's hunter
• The importance of real, authentic storytelling in the hunting community
• How to communicate with nonhunters
• Finding the reasons WHY we hunt
• Holding hunters accountable while eliminating the division within our community
• And much more!

On today's show, we're again joined by our good friend, Sam Leatherman, to try and answer an almost impossible question - What makes a good hunter? We discuss the following topics:

• Does killing animals necessarily make you a good hunter?
• Can you not kill animals but still be considered a good hunter?
• How being respectful, passionate, and ethical makes you a good hunter.
• How do we measure good hunters?
• The role social media plays in how we view good hunters.
• Who is the best hunter we know and why?
• And much more!

In today's episode, we provide an update on the hunting and wildlife management projects we've been working on so far this summer! 

- Erich provides an update on his bird dog, Waylon

- Cody gives an update on his hunting property, Rockin' Chair Ridge

- We talk about Vol.2 to our Guide to Wildlife and Whitetail Management

- We share updates on how our food plots are looking on our properties, both successes and failures

- How Covid-19 has impacted us personally

- And much more!

It today's episode, we examine how we as hunters use the word conservation, and whether or not we're using correctly. We discuss:

• Is buying a hunting license enough to call yourself a conservationist?
• Conservation vs. restoration vs. stewardship
• How hunters can contribute more to conservation beyond just buying a hunting license. 
• Do we use conservation as a crutch to justify hunting?
• How we as hunters can better communicate our role in conservation
• How to explain to nonhunters how hunters are, in fact, conservationists.