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Conservation doesn’t run on vibes, it runs on people showing up year after year. That’s why we brought on Tom Ryle (WDFW marketing and creative media manager and Washington’s R3 lead) and Kelly Riordan (R3 hunting coordinator) to break down the R3 program: recruit, retain, reactivate, and the “why” behind it. Hunting participation has declined nationally since the 1980s, and Washington is staring at an aging-out curve that can shrink license revenue and long-term support for fish and wildlife management.

We talk about the real funding mechanics that many outdoors folks only half understand: license dollars, Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on hunting gear, Dingell-Johnson support on the fishing side, and how those dollars keep science happening in the field. We also dig into the group that decides a lot of Washington’s future at the ballot box: the huge middle that isn’t anti-hunting or pro-hunting, just curious and often uninformed. If we want healthy habitat, thriving wildlife, and durable public support, we have to connect more people to the outdoors in ways that feel safe, welcoming, and practical.

Kelly lays out how retention actually works through mentorship and community, including the ORAM pathway from awareness to confident participation. We get specific about opportunities like turkey clinics, butchering clinics, foraging education, shooting sports as a gateway, and how partnerships with NGOs, landowners, schools, and even city programs can scale impact. Tom also shares why mywdfw.org exists as a more approachable resource for new hunters and anglers who get lost on a big government website.

If you care about Washington hunting, fishing, wildlife stewardship, and conservation funding, this conversation gives you clear next steps to participate or help others start. Subscribe, share this with a buddy, and leave a review so more people find the resources and mentorship that keep the outdoors alive.

To reach out to Kelly Riordan: kelly.riordan@dfw.wa.gov

To reach out to Tom Ryle: tom.ryle@dfw.wa.gov

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You know that sinking feeling when you realize you forgot something critical, rushed a shot, or made a choice you can’t rewind? We’re leaning into that reality with our guest Asha, because the woods have a way of teaching lessons the hard way and then turning them into the funniest stories a season later. We trade honest, embarrassing hunting mistakes, not to glorify failure, but to help you build a better process and a better mindset for the next sit.

We start with a classic: a new turkey hunter belly-crawling into what he thinks are birds, only to get waved off because he’s about to shoot someone’s decoys. From there we shift into the heavier side of hunting ethics, including how hunters handle the emotional weight of a wounded animal and why “hunters are just killers” is a lazy stereotype. We talk ethical shot choices, what respect for wildlife really looks like, and why good hunters will spend days trying to finish what they started.

Then it’s rapid-fire practical: forgotten quivers, forgotten bows, missing headlamps, and the value of a simple gear checklist and a repeatable routine. Aaron tells the painful story of leaving a rifle on the roof of the car and hearing it bounce into the ditch, which leads into buck fever, shot process, and how quickly small mistakes stack up. Asha shares the legendary four-by-three encounter that ends with an arrow buried in a fir tree, and we cap it off with ground blind window mishaps that prove one rule: always know where your arrow is.

If you’ve ever blown a hunt and wanted to quit, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with your hunting buddy who “never makes mistakes,” and leave us a review with the most embarrassing lesson you’ve learned in the field.

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You can hunt blacktail for years and still feel like you’re doing everything right, until you realize you’re solving the wrong problem. We bring on Ryan Heuberger and Cully Scroggins, our newest Blacktail Coach pro staff members, to talk about what changed for them once they started matching their effort to the realities of Pacific Northwest blacktail deer behavior, habitat, and pressure. If you’ve ever stared at miles of “good looking” timber and hit vapor lock, this conversation is built to pull you out of that fog.

We walk through the learning path we keep seeing work: locating to find the right area, advanced locating to find the right spot, then establishing a set so your ground blind, tree stand, trail cameras, and drippers all work together. We spend real time on the bedroom door concept, what sign actually matters, and why chasing a perfect giant track can distract you from the highest-percentage pattern a mature buck is following. Ryan and Cully also share why in-person field days make thick cover finally click for visual learners.

Then we zoom out to community and momentum. We recap Hunters Gathering at Cascade Camp and Conference Center, what made it special, and where it’s headed next with more instructors and new hunting tracks, including predators. We also lay out the Blacktail Coach 2027 calendar, course capacities, deposits, package options, and how Patreon supports the show while giving you tools like early access and the Ask the Coach Zoom call with OnX screen sharing.

Subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more blacktail hunters can stop spinning their wheels and start hunting where the big bucks actually live.

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We leave the spreadsheets and blacktail strategies at home and hit record from Boars All Day in Groveton, Texas after a full weekend of hog hunting with our Blacktail Coach crew plus Dan, and Mike from Nockaholics and the Everyday Archer podcast. The promise up front is simple: more stories than lessons. The reality is even fun hunts come with real decisions about ethics, shot choice, cost, and how much meat you can actually bring back when you are packing coolers like luggage.

You’ll hear how “target rich environment” still doesn’t mean “easy.” Hogs move fast, they don’t pose for the camera, and a tiny mistake can turn into a miss, a scramble, or a follow up. We swap the funniest moments, including the infamous piglet saga, the reality of paying by the pound, and why pacing yourself matters when hogs weigh way more than they look. We also give you a practical planning nugget for first timers: roughly a quarter of a hog’s live weight ends up as take home meat, which changes the math on what you shoot and what you can transport.

Then we go deep on one of the most relatable hunting storylines there is: missing, regrouping, and getting it done. Mike walks us through his aoudad bow hunt, DJ talks about filming and being the steady voice behind the shot, and we dig into why video review can help you learn from both hits and misses. We wrap with Mark’s patient one shot hog, plus a grounded talk about feral hogs in Texas as an invasive species and why responsible harvest and meat use matter.

If you enjoy hunting stories that feel like real camp talk, subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave us a review so more folks can find the show.

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You can find great blacktail habitat and still never see the buck you actually want. That gap is what we call advanced locating: going beyond “thick stuff over there” and learning to identify the bedroom door, the specific access point and travel route that tells you where a mature buck spends most of his time and how he moves without getting exposed.

We talk through why the classic “52-acre range” idea helps and also hurts when you turn it into a neat square on a map. A buck’s real world range is made of usable acres: the cover, feed, and protection he will actually choose, plus the skinny green belts that connect safe pockets. We share a real example of a specific buck that only shows for a couple weeks a year, then use that story to explain why ridges are not hard walls, why hunters project their limits onto deer, and how tools like OnX LiDAR make benches and subtle terrain features easier to spot.

From there we zoom out to seasonal movement. Summer pattern is not hunting-season pattern, and everything a deer does is purposeful: water, nutrients, safety, and breeding all change the map. We finish with field-ready sign reading, including what to look for in tracks, dewclaws, solo travel, scat, and the difference between dominance rubs and annual rub lines, plus how habitat age can shift rub activity over time.

If you want to stop guessing and start making decisions that hold up in the woods, subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review telling us what part of locating you want to master next.

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Ten Washington Slams doesn’t happen by accident, and Alex Cheney isn’t interested in lucky stories that can’t be repeated. We sit down to unpack how he finishes his 10th Washington turkey slam in only eight days, and what that says about scouting, roosting birds, and running a simple, consistent turkey hunting playbook under real spring pressure. If you’ve ever wondered what “getting it done” actually looks like across Rio Grande, Merriam’s, and the notoriously scarce Western Washington Eastern wild turkey, this conversation gets specific.

We talk through three very different hunts: an opening-day setup in pouring rain where patience and light calling let hens do the convincing, an Eastern that materializes at 10 yards with zero gobbles or warning, and a Merriam’s hunt where one small detail turns a near-bust into a punched tag. Along the way, Alex explains why the “silent Eastern” myth persists, how to think about being within earshot, and how decoy positioning and calling choices change as the season shifts.

The best part is the mentorship thread. Alex shares Jayde’s first solo turkey hunt, Zach’s jump from years of frustration to a first Eastern using OnX pins and smart tweaks, and the day Beau Brooks finally hears a Washington Eastern gobble after 14 years of trying. We also cover practical gear decisions like mouth calls to eliminate hand movement, turkey vests and chairs for longer sits, and when realistic decoys are worth the bulk.

If you want more turkey mentorship or turkey classes, we want to hear from you. Subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more Washington turkey hunters can find the show.

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Four days can change the way you hunt when the learning is real, the egos are gone, and the “secret sauce” is actually shared. We’re wrapping up the Hunters Gathering with quick testimonials from the people who lived it, from our instructors to the hunters who showed up hungry to learn and left with a plan.

Trent Fisher talks about the difference between seminar knowledge and field coaching, and why seeing a setup in the woods creates the light bulb moment. Richard shares how elk hunting felt intimidating and impossible until he learned a simple system for locating elk and watched it applied on the ground. Jeff breaks down why this kind of weekend matters for legacy and for protecting the hunting heritage we care about, and Wyatt Fisher gives an honest take on growth, mistakes, and why helping someone else succeed can feel better than punching your own tag.

You’ll also hear what made the event feel like “adult summer camp” in the best way: meals together, campfire stories, an embarrassing story contest, and the kind of connections that turn into real hunting partners across Washington, Oregon, and California. If you’re looking for practical hunting education, mentorship for new hunters, and tactics for blacktail deer, elk, turkey, and bear, this one shows what the weekend is like from the other side of the table. Want to join next year? We’ll be back the same weekend in early April, and huntersgathering.com goes live by June 1 for sign-ups.

Subscribe, share the episode with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more hunters can find this community.

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Trail cameras can be addictive for the photos, but the real payoff is what those clips reveal about animal behavior and repeatable movement patterns. We’re joined again by John Nicholson from Trail Camera Adventures to get practical about turning trail cams into a true scouting system, especially for hunters who feel like they’re “doing everything right” but still can’t make the data translate into daylight encounters. If you’ve ever pulled a card, seen a mature buck once, and then watched him vanish, we dig into why that happens and how to respond without burning the spot.

We get specific on gear and setup: what makes a camera “good” depends on your application, from high-resolution footage for editing to reliable detection for hunting intel. John shares why certain tiny micro mini cameras have been consistent letdowns, why default settings are a beginner’s best friend, and how SD card choices can either streamline your season or create constant frustration. We also talk video vs photo mode and why video captures the small details that change decisions, like approach routes, body language, and what other animals are trailing behind.

Blacktail hunting is a major focus, including how sensitive mature blacktail bucks can be to flash, LEDs, and subtle camera cues, and why blackout or no-glow trail cameras matter. From there we connect trail camera strategy to core-area discipline: home range realities, perimeter hunting, rut “racetrack” loops, and how wind and thermals can influence the direction a buck chooses. We close with unforgettable trail cam stories, from buck fights to bobcats to bears, plus a cougar moment that reshaped how we think about predator behavior.

If you enjoy this kind of deep-dive scouting talk, subscribe, share the episode with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more blacktail hunters can find the show. What trail camera question do you want us to tackle next?

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