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

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 day, and a real debate on e-bikes, crossbows, and where hunting technology should draw the line.

This is the Recovery — we go back to last week's episode and pull out the details you can actually apply to your next hunt.

• Follow along on social! IG - @modernwhitetail YouTube - @WHTLDEER

  Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! -Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow -Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 ridgetop gives a mature buck room to bed safely. * Mature bucks favor cover where they can see 0 to 60 yards, not an impenetrable jungle. * If a spot is hard to get to, that is often exactly where the big buck lives. * How hard you press one spot should depend on how many other options you have. * When you find a new food source, check the downwind side before you hang cameras. * Cameras tell you where a buck isn't, which narrows down where he actually is. * A big track that other deer haven't walked over means a buck was there recently.

And So Much More!

Follow along on social! IG - @WHTLDEER TikTok - @WHTLDEER YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! - Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠[bit.ly/PaintedArrow](http://bit.ly/PaintedArrow) - Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 before most hunters ever leave the couch: his early-season playbook, the wind theories he swears by that go against almost everything you've been taught about deer and scent, and the mental shift — from hoping to expecting — that took him from a guy hanging stands on a prayer to a guy who walks into the woods already knowing.

Whether you're hunting five acres or five hundred, this conversation will change how you think about opening week.

Topics covered:

• Targeting one specific buck a year — watching him all summer with a spotting scope instead of leaning on trail cameras
• Reading the early-season food shift as acorns come in, and timing food plots to peak that first week of the season
• The scent-smoker experiments that led to his light-and-variable-wind theory, and why he stops worrying about wind direction once it goes dead still at last light
• The "Sticks" buck — j-hooked downwind and still walked into range, thanks to thermals
• Why tree stand height matters less to him than reading wind and visibility in the moment
• Weather vs. the moon — why a midday thunderstorm moves the needle more than any moon phase
• Ohio's changing buck age structure, the impact of technology on hunting pressure, and his take on fair chase
• The shift from "hoping" to "expecting" success on every sit — and what changed
• Building Hardcore E-Cycles — how access, scent control, and time of exposure shaped the bikes
• The buck that got spooked by his e-bike left on a kickstand, and what it taught him about deer and unfamiliar objects
• A rundown of the Maverick, Ace, and Mountain Tamer e-bikes, and what to look for before buying one

  Follow along on social! IG - @modernwhitetail YouTube - @WHTLDEER

  Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! -Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow -Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 short and how narrowing it down to a few shooters shaped the trip
• Trey's bed-to-food setup on a coulee and fence corner, and how to "slice the pizza" so your wind sits just off the deer's approach
• Building makeshift ground blinds with back cover and shooting lanes so you can draw at close range
• Why backing out when the wind isn't right beats forcing a hunt, and why glassing can matter more than time on stand
• Tre's first encounter with "Splits": why grunting to stop an already-alarmed buck backfired
• The second encounter: a high shoulder hit, the recovery effort, and confirming the buck survived
• What trail cameras miss, including one photo from a night when 10 deer were in the field, and the same buck in the same corner a year apart
• Cameron's chase for "Mirror," and how a buck changes where he beds in a long cattail slough depending on the wind
• Reading a north wind, the "farm country drop-off," a young buck at 5 yards, and a 29-yard double-lung shot on a near-perfectly symmetrical giant-bodied 8-point
• Cameron's miss in fading light: why seeing your pin against a sunset backdrop is so hard, the case for a sight light, and how the miss helped him slow down for the kill shot
• How lunch with a stranger named Bob at a gas station turned into 1,500 acres of permission
• Plans for the rest of the season and the Ohio opener

Up next: Friday's early season masterclass with Steve Pinkston. Listen before you hit the woods this weekend.

Follow along on social! IG - @modernwhitetail YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! -Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow -Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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. * Map work helps eliminate low-odds ground before boots ever hit the property. * Boots-on-the-ground scouting confirms the sign and movement maps cannot show. * Rut timing follows photoperiod, while weather changes daily deer activity. * Big bucks may be breeding long before hunters expect the chase to begin. * Cold rain can improve scent conditions and create better movement opportunities. * Great setups come from reading terrain, cover, wind, pressure, and experience.

And So Much More!

Follow along on social! IG - @WHTLDEER TikTok - @WHTLDEER YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! - Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠[bit.ly/PaintedArrow](http://bit.ly/PaintedArrow) - Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 map and when to abandon it, and why getting busted on a mature buck isn't the end of the hunt.

This is the Recovery — we go back to last week's episode and pull out the details you can apply to your next hunt.

🎧 Haven't heard the full interview yet? Watch/listen here: https://youtu.be/SvhBnAsXHGI

Chapters: 00:00 — Intro: missing last week's upload, filling an ND buck tag, first in-person Recovery 01:26 — Aaron's numbers: 13 years to his first buck, 10 states hunted, tags filled in 7 01:45 — Thing 1: Get mobile 07:24 — Thing 2: Private land is defense, public land is offense 13:24 — Using trail cameras to qualify your theories — not replace your scouting 21:12 — E-scouting: a good starting point, dangerous if you fall in love with the map 30:14 — The six-encounter buck: why getting busted isn't the end of the hunt 36:06 — Thing 5: The best hunters are the most adaptable 38:21 — Cameron's full recap — all 5 things, back to back 38:36 — Glass vs. trail cameras: which one would you give up? 40:17 — Closing thoughts

Follow along on social! IG - @modernwhitetail YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! -Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow -Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 tip the odds your way.
• Observation stands 250-300 yards off a kill spot gather intel without burning the stand.
• A daylight trail camera photo is the one reason to go in before conditions line up.
• The red moon is about the moon's position overhead or underfoot, not its phase.
• Mature bucks on a feeding pattern often move less than 100 yards from bed to food.
• Standing corn is food and cover, so the last field left standing can hold the oldest buck.
• Deer can duck a shot when they see a lighted nock coming.

And So Much More!

Follow along on social! IG - @WHTLDEER TikTok - @WHTLDEER YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

• Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding
• Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_
• OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt
• Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow
• Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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) — check out the rest of that series for more conversations with guests like Bill Winke, Jeff Sturgis, and Adam with Land Legacy.

Chapters

0:00 – Cold Open

0:19 – Welcome to the WHTL Podcast (Presented by onX)

1:16 – Meet Aaron Warbritton / Setting Up the Top 5 Rules

1:43 – Rule #1: Have Fun and Enjoy the Process

3:03 – The Story Behind Rule #1 — Letting a Giant Buck Walk

6:33 – Rule #2: Obey the Wind

9:24 – Rule #3: Take Close, High-Odds Shots

10:59 – Hawke Optics

11:11 – Rule #4: Setup Is Everything

13:12 – Rule #5: Adapt to the Conditions

16:11 – Playing the Long Game: Scouting All Season

19:15 – How Much Scouting Pressure Is Too Much?

27:33 – Finding the Best Stand on Any Property

31:03 – How to Access a Pressured Spot

36:00 – Hunting Tough Bottoms and Reading Thermals

39:03 – Why Trail Cameras Are Overcomplicated

46:17 – Where Mature Bucks Bed and Travel

50:16 – Outro & Where to Find More

We'll see you next week — October 1st is getting closer every episode. Catch up on the Whitetail Cribs series and don't miss the Michael Waddell Whitetail Cribs kickoff event in Henry, Illinois on September 18th.

Follow along on social!

IG - @WHTLDEER

TikTok - @WHTLDEER

YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

-Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt

-Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow

-Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

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 lessons — and why he treats them like offense and defense
• Why private land gives you cleaner, faster feedback, and what public land teaches you that private land never will
• How annual trail camera data can mislead you if you don't know whether a pattern is buck-specific
• Aaron's approach to scouting — when to trust the map, and when to abandon it
• The one system Aaron admits he still hasn't figured out
• Using trail cameras to qualify an area instead of chasing the app
• Glass vs. cameras — which one Aaron would give up first
• The closing lesson: why the best hunters are the most adaptable, not the most skilled

This is a conversation about compressing the learning curve — the stuff that took Aaron over a decade to figure out, broken down so you don't have to learn it the same slow way.

Find Aaron Olsen: Next Step Outdoors — YouTube & Instagram Instagram: @nextstepoutdoors YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextStepOutdoors

If this episode helped you, the most useful thing you can do is leave a quick rating or review — it's the main way new listeners find the show.

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 imperative hunt is the next one, not the one you kill on.
• A bright white flashlight and a slow tree read make blind morning hangs work.
• Pulling one sapling over with paracord is often the difference in a shot.
• The doe bleat can works because most hunters think it's too kitschy to carry.
• A buck already with a doe has no reason to answer aggressive calling.
• Setting your pack on the ground leaves scent that shuts deer down at 50 yards.

And So Much More!

Follow along on social! IG - @WHTLDEER TikTok - @WHTLDEER YouTube - @WHTLDEER

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

• Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding
• Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_
• OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt
• Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow
• Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/