Not everyone will experience the thrill of the hunt, and that’s a shame. Nick and Kelsey Deutz, the Co-founders of Traditions Hunting, talk about their family hunting traditions. Telling the stories of how they first got into hunting, Nick and Kelsey go into choosing locations and various strategies for effective hunting. More importantly, they share the joys of passing on the love of a good hunt to their own children. Traditions give children a taste of something their own parents and grandparents similarly experienced, and that first experience is where the love truly begins.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Families’ Hunting Traditions With Nick & Kelsey Deutz
We’re going to head out to the North Dakota, in Fargo to be exact, and connect with Nick and Kelsey Deutz. This is interesting because you’ll find out that Kelsey has been a hunter ever since she was a little girl. Her dad took her out, she did drives and everything that us guys “have done.” Along came Nick and all of a sudden, they got married and they started hunting. It’s a great story about how a young lady gets ahold of her man and told him, “This is how we’re going to hunt.”
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We’re heading out to Fargo, North Dakota and people might wonder, what are we doing in Fargo? This is a whitetail show. Nick and Kelsey Deutz are going to tell us all about why they live in Fargo and kill some big bucks. Nick and Kelsey, welcome to the show.
Bruce, thanks for having us.
It’s exciting to have you guys. Let’s start off with you Kelsey because this is a little different setup. Usually, it’s the guys, the husbands and the significant other that get their girlfriends and wife into hunting. That isn’t how this all worked out, was it?
No, it’s the opposite in our situation.
I was a waterfall hunter and I met Kels and her dad. They have 6 or 7 big bucks in their garage and I was like, “Those are nice bucks.” I got a bow and I started bowhunting, and ever since then we can’t quit.
Kels, talk to me about the hunting tradition with your dad and how you grew up hunting.
Ever since I can remember, 3 or 4 years old, I was always out hunting with my dad during rifle season. He always brought me. Back in those days, everybody pushed things, so I would be out there about the same height as the grass walking through there trying to push deer out for my dad and uncles. I did that and practice shooting when I got older. I did the hunter safety and I went from there. I got a tag and we were hunting partners from then on.
When did you take up archery?
That’s after I met Nick. He did get me into that. Before, I just rifle hunted with my dad.
How did archery come to be?
I liked bowhunting. I would target practice and we went out one year with no efforts. I didn’t know what we were doing and I just tried it. Ever since then from day one, I got addicted to it and then she’s like, “I’ll try it.” I got her hooked on it, so every fall, we’re bowhunting rather than gun hunting. It’s an addiction. It’s replaced hockey and it’s full-time. I like archery and what it entails rather than gun hunting. Gun is a tradition of North Dakota and it’s what someone, families and people are always going to do, which is fine. The idea of bowhunting is what hunting is. You’ve got a scout, the wind has to be right and your stand placements got to be right. These big bucks aren’t big bucks for no reason. It’s a cat and mouse game. You might be able to show up one weekend and shoot a big buck, but if you want to do it year over year, you’ve got to learn your land, you’ve got to manage your deer. You’ve got to understand how they move throughout your land. That’s what I liked about the bowhunting aspect of it rather than gun hunting. That’s where we’re at now and why we’re addicted to it.
Another thing that enticed me to do it as well though is the lottery system here. I didn’t get drawn one year, so I liked the idea of being able to buy the bow tag over the counters, so I was guaranteed a deer every year and the opportunity to go hunting every year.
Let’s talk about that, Nick. If somebody wants to come from out of state into North Dakota archery hunting, what do they have to do?
They can get the tag online, NorthDakotaGameAndFish.com, to buy the license or they can pick it up at any Game and Fish store in North Dakota like Fleet Farm, Scheels or Cabela’s up in Grand Forks. They can get a take that way. I believe it’s right around $260 to $270, so it’s not that expensive compared to an Iowa tag or Kansas tag. With the gun, they can also apply for lottery for a gun tag and lottery is challenging to get out of state.
I’m a nonresident and I came up there to hunt, is there public land? Because I don’t know anybody. I don’t know any farmers. How would you find out the places?
That is one great thing about the North Dakota Game and Fish and it’s support system for public land and out of state hunters. They have a plot program that they have with the farmers. They have WPA, Waterfall Production Areas. They got Wildlife Management Areas that you can hunt. There are thousands of acres in North Dakota that are open to public hunting. If you find the right spot, there are good bucks and that’s one thing we do is scout public land ourselves and try to find areas that don’t get hunted, have high pressure and find the big bucks. That’s what I do every year. I usually go north to the Pembina Gorge way up by Walhalla. There are great deer up there and it’s a great hunting ground. It’s a different country than what I’m used to. The land is not like Iowa or Kansas where you’ve got big, thick woods, pinch points and ridges. If you go north up there, it is like that. There’s some good deer up there. We try to do that every year. If we have a good one on our own land, we’ll hunt our own land and if we don’t, we’ll try something else like public lands. North Dakota Game and Fish does a great job allowing public hunters to come in.
The size of the bucks and age class of the bucks, if somebody says, “I want to go to North Dakota,” what could they expect to see? Are we talking 150s? Are we talking 5.5-year-old deer? Talk to me about that.
It’s not Iowa and it’s not Kansas giants, however, there are a few every year that are that big. On average, you’re going to see a lot of 130s, 135s and 140s range. This is our land speaking. Every year, we’ll have 3 or 4 right around 150 to 155 and then you get 1 or 2 bucks that are pushing 5.5 years old at 170 to 175. Her dad’s got one deer on the wall that’s 175 and a bunch of 155s and 160s and the same here. We’ve got a couple of 160s and 140s. There’s good deer and if managed a little bit better, it can be a lot better. The Game and Fish is going that route. They went from one extreme to the other and in early 2000s, 2005 and 2006, they were giving out hundreds and thousands of tags. They’ve cut that in half with the lottery system. The deer herd are coming back. We’re starting to see more quality deer. Her dad would be a testament to this because he’s been around the land for 40 years on the farm there. He has seen the deer herd be great, he’s seen it be terrible, and he’s seeing it come back.
Kelsey, what’s the size of the deer that you’ve taken over with your dad?
Her first one is 151. She shot that when she was fourteen in the youth hunt.
That was the first year that I ever shot. It’s 20 inches wide and 12-inch tine. I was definitely hooked from there.
He’s even got a summer coat. He’s a blonde white-colored deer.
It has a nice short hair. It’s a gorgeous mount.
Is that on your website?
Yeah. It’s beautiful on the website. We’ve seen your picture.
If somebody wants to reach out and find about you, where are you on social media? How do they get to your website?
Our website is TraditionsHunting.com and we’re on Instagram. We don’t use Twitter a whole lot, but we do have an account there. We post regularly on Instagram and Hunting Traditions is our tag. Those are the only platforms we use and we don’t have anything else. If they want to message us, Instagram is probably the easiest way. It’s the most successful platform out there and it’s engaging. The algorithm that Instagram has come up to see the content that you want to see is great. You don’t get flooded with stuff you don’t want to see. We spent a lot of time there. We do a lot of learning that our two guys staff talk about things. You can learn about the equipment and the new stuff that’s coming out on the market and what works for you and what doesn’t. We’re on there quite often if anyone wants to get ahold of us.
Let’s talk about the rolling hills of North Dakota. How do you do stand set up? Let’s talk about that because it’s not flat in Nebraska or parts of Kansas, but it’s rolling hills and there are not a lot of trees. Is that correct?
That’s correct and that’s exactly what it is. Her dad is a cattle farmer and we have a lot of passion land. He also is an agriculture farmer as well. There are croplands and they tend to find big marsh grass and rock piles. We’ll sit out in the middle of wherever they feel safe. We’re fortunate to be in the spot where we have a lot of miles where there are no roads. The only way to get to the middle of these sections are fields where they tend to hide because it’s the safest. You can only get to it by a four-wheeler or if you own the land, that’s where they tend to a hideout we found out. We were doing a lot more scouting during bow season or in the summers prior to bow season. We find that it’s not the trees that are scarce in North Dakota, but it’s the thick grass and the CRP grounds that they tend to hide. We don’t have the big timbers like Iowa or Illinois. When it comes to treestands or ground blinds, we probably have six ground blinds to every one treestand. We don’t use our treestands often.
Once you get a bow and you start bow hunting, you just can't quit. Share on XOne learning thing we had about treestand placement was we get our spring, summer, fall and winter. When the leaves are gone, you almost can’t use the treestand if it’s in the middle of the open because there’s no cover. They’ll see you plain as day if you ended up hunting in the late season. One thing I found out about our treestand placement was the deer can see it from a mile away, no matter what cover you have. When you move and the trees got no cover, it’s a worthless spot. That was good learning for us there. Another learning incident was knowing where their beds are. If you can find out exactly where their beds are, you should know where to put your ground blind based on where they’re betting and where they’re eating. Especially in the summer with their summer patterns. North Dakota is one of the earliest seasons opening up on September 1st. You can catch them in their bachelor groups and they’re still full velvet. If where that bedding ground is, you should be able to do a good job of putting your ground blind.
In 2016 was a prime example of where not to put it. We were probably too close to their bedding grounds and we just didn’t quite point where they were bedding. After one of our friends did shoot a deer, we found out that we were 40 yards from their bedding grounds. We figured that that was too close. We got a game plan for where to put it and hopefully, that’ll help us put one of our biggest deer down. We got a big one on camera and we had a shot at him, but he blew up. He’s an 8×6 and he should be a dandy.
You told me that you’re hunting areas 1.5 to 1.75 hours away.
It leaves us Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and the hunt is about it. We try to get up there as much as we can. We’ll take Thanksgiving off, we’ll go up there, spend Thanksgiving with the family and hunt up there. Usually, the best time to probably shoot a buck during bow season is the first week of September. In 2016, we didn’t take the full first week off. Sure enough on Tuesday and Wednesday nights on daylight, we had two of our biggest bucks sitting in front of our camera. I said, “We’re hunting the whole first week if we don’t have one down on the opening weekend,” that’s for sure.
How do you pull your cards on your cameras?
When we drive up there, we pull our cards on our camera and then we’ll check them at the farm and figure out what we want to do. Usually, we don’t get up there early enough on Friday, so on Friday, you go where the best wind is and hump that stand. On Saturday around 11:00 or noon, I’ll check the cameras and then we’ll figure something out for Saturday night. It’s funny because Moultrie sent me a modem, but if you look at the Verizon network in North Dakota, it works everywhere but where I hunt. It is funny. You look at the heat map with the red stuff that Verizon has and the whole state of North Dakota is red, but the one best spot that we hunt, there’s no service. I’m like, “The modem doesn’t do me any good. It doesn’t work.”
You were talking about the gun season during the rut. You’re not hunting whitetails with your bow during the rut then.
I had a gun tag and refused to take my gun with me. I’m such an avid bow hunter. I would rather shoot a deer with my bow than a gun. I went to the one treestand where I learned my lesson about once the leaves are gone and there’s no cover, deer are going to see. That’s what happened in this case. I had a nice ten-point come out and it was probably a 150. What I thought he was going to do, he did the complete opposite. I couldn’t get a shot off him and he was only about 40 yards away. If you’re planning, make sure you’re prepared because your planning is only going to get you far. You’ve got to fare for every situation. In that instance, being a young bow hunter, I wasn’t prepared for what that deer was going to do and I never got a shot off on him.
Let’s talk about food plots in North Dakota. Do you guys use them? Is there enough ag ground for beans, wheat or whatever, so you don’t have to plant food plots?
We’ve dinked with it a little bit. We haven’t done a whole lot of it because there is agricultural land and it’s tough to get where you want to put a food plot. There are so much pasture land as well. We can’t use up all the pasture land for food plots, but we put one bean plot in. We got a feeder there, too. It’s going well. There are bucks hitting it and there are does in there. There’s a lot of deer activity. We don’t do a whole lot of food plots. As we become more seasoned and figured out our land, we probably will. I love doing it. It’s fun, but it’s a lot of time that we don’t have and it’s quite ways away, so we can’t groom the plots the way you probably should if you want it to work the best.
Can you keep feeders up the whole year that they have to come down on September 1st? How does that work?
In North Dakota, you can feed and you can feed year around. There are no rules there. In 2016, we fed throughout the whole year and it’s still tough to shoot a buck in North Dakota. It’s not easy.
The thing about feeding, it isn’t so much the killing. It’s getting the minerals in them, especially in January, February and March. You get the right minerals so they can grow.
That’s what we do. We try to have our feeder full year-round. It could be a testament to this one deer that we have. I would have put him at 150 to 155 in 2016 and he’s going to be 170 to 175 in 2017. He grew twenty inches in one year. He was a 5×6 in 2016 and 8×6 in 2017. His mass measurements are going to be ridiculous and we’ve got good nutrition.
How about giving me a shout-out, what kind of minerals are you using? Whose minerals do you use?
I liked Big & J. It’s got great protein and they seem to find it quickly. That’s about the only mineral we use. We use their powder and protein, Big & J BB2. Early in the season, I’ll use that Big & J that are mineral blocks.
If they get into the feeding thing, a lot of people down in Texas and stuff have to have feeders or they wouldn’t shoot a deer. Where we are and even Wisconsin and all the things, we’re feeding the deer to grow deer, not to shoot him over a feeder. We have our feeders positioned so they’re not shooter feeders. They are growing feeders. If people would think about that more, they would grow a bigger deer.
If their mindset is to grow deer rather than shoot deer, absolutely. North Dakota probably has got good genetics and could have bigger deer if that was the mindset. I don’t know that it will ever be that. For bow hunters, maybe it is, but rifle hunting is such a tradition in North Dakota. I don’t know that you’ll ever get people to think about the deer age, managing the deer size and their antlers and whether they’re 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 years old. I don’t know that that’ll ever be the 100% mindset of most hunters in North Dakota.
It’s right there in the rut, which is not helpful for growing big deer. If everybody has a tag, they want to shoot a deer and they’re going to shoot a deer. It’s good for them. I’m happy to shoot a deer, but it’s not going to help long-term to grow deer. Even on your dad’s farm, Kels, you can do everything, but if they go across the road or whatever and they’re on public land or somebody else’s land.
That’s the main concern we have. Back to the food plots, it would be fun to do that and it would drastically increase our chances of holding deer. You put in all that work and they also got to go 40 yards and someone else can shoot them.
When you think about hunting, Kels, where does the passion come from for you? You’ve been doing it your whole life and you’re still doing it. You’re married to a guy and you get your kids out there in the blind and everything. Talk to me about the passion and talk to women about the passion because more women are getting into the outdoors, not just hunting, but in the outer doors entirely. What would you say to other ladies about hunting?
The passion started with just being able to spend quality time with my dad. That’s where it started and he grew up with it. After you get out there and watching the wildlife, it’s such a cool experience, the things you get to see that a lot of people don’t get to. Spending time out there, the camaraderie and building relationships is a cool experience.
What would you say to the ladies that are going to read this that like to get into the outdoors? They follow my show and others to get a sense of what other women are saying. What would you say to them?
Don’t be intimidated. I know it’s a male-dominated thing, but just give it a shot. Ask questions and go out there with somebody some time and see what it’s all about.
Nick, when you think about your upbringing, you’re a hockey guy and all of a sudden, you’re getting to whitetail and deep dive into it. What do you want to say to other guys that maybe don’t hunt or haven’t thought about hunting, no matter where they are? There are a lot of guys that their parents are never from hunting, so they haven’t had anybody say, “You should do it.” Your thoughts?
Get out there and try it. Find someone that knows what they’re doing that’s interested in it and learn from them. Your first experience is always probably going to be a lasting memory. If they have on you, like it. That’s something that might become an addiction, a great sport or a hobby of yours, whatever it might be. Some guys are passionate about it and spend their whole lives revolve around that. That doesn’t have to be everybody. You can spend a weekend or two hunting or scouting. You don’t have to do it as much as the diehards if you’re looking to get into something that’s fun, energetic and adrenaline rush. The reason why I like it from the sport aspect of it and can relate it to being an athlete is the dedication part of it. Bowhunting is hunting to me and there’s so much that goes into it, the preparation, scouting and putting up stands and food plots.
Harvesting the deer is such a little part of it that I like almost everything prior to that. It’s what I’ve come to like and falling in love with. Bowhunting will always be a passion of mine. It’s funny because my uncle, my dad’s brother is a big bow hunter and he’s been a bow hunter for many years. He took me out once when I did have time in high school one night and he had a 150 come in and he hit it. We never found it attractive, but I wasn’t even shooting or cared. I was like, “That was an adrenaline rush.” It was cool to see and it was fun to watch. I never had the time because I was in sports and I wish I would’ve listened to them and got into it because it’s awesome, fun and addicting. You can make it whatever you want. You can do it for the camaraderie and show up once in a while. You can make it a passion and do everything that revolves around it. There’s so much you can do at deer hunting. It’s fun. With access to social media, the internet, putting yourself out there and if you want to get into the industry, it’s right at the fingertips for you to do to what you want.
We talked about tradition hunting. Let’s talk about the type of gear you guys use and your bows. I know in your photos, you have team Hoyt bows. Is that what you shoot?
We both use Hoyt bows.
Why did you decide Hoyt over Mathews, Prime or whatever else that’s out there?
For me, it was the smaller access of the bow. The one I chose is a little bit smaller and it felt comfortable. We do most of our hunting out of ground blinds and I don’t want 34-inch access of the bow. Our Hoyts fit us best. I got her one and she liked it. It shot well. I don’t know that some guys would beg to differ and that’s fine. It’s an opinion. I don’t know that the best bow is what you need. We don’t have all the money in the world to buy $1,000 bow, but what I do like is the size and we both have good size. If your accuracy is on, the bow shoots well these days. It is to be able to put a good shot on a deer.
What kind of broadheads do you guys use?
For whitetails, we do the Rage Extreme broadheads. I’m going to use a Slick Trick when I go out and a fixed blade for elk hunting. I figured that would be a better option for elk. I’m probably going to use that for whitetail. They should set off to change it up and I’ll shoot the same broadhead and have some consistency there.
Kelsey, what’s your set up?
I have the exact same sets. I shoot the Rage though. I don’t have an elk tag, so I don’t need to worry about that yet.
You should buy a lottery ticket or something. He drew North Dakota deer tags, then he won that whole bow kit or something from some foundation you guys are at or some banquet and then he got a Wyoming tag. What else have you got?
He won from a fishing trip to Northern Saskatchewan.
We got back from a trip in Northern Saskatchewan 1,000 miles straight north of the farm. It was an ice fishing tournament and I won it in a raffle. They’re an expensive fishing trip. I won that for two. The two of us went up to Northern Saskatchewan and fly for two weeks.
It was a cool experience.
Did you catch Muskie or Walleyes?
It was pike northern. There were 40 to 50 inches. It was spectacular.
Those are big fish. You’re probably going to have a great season then. Let’s talk about kids in the outdoors and your support of the kids. Nick was saying that you helped kids through your Outdoor Foundation. Tell us about that.
The Outdoor Foundation is a foundation that we joined up with and thought we could help out with. There are kids involved there as well, but more importantly, with our own two kids, for the ladder going forward, what the hunting and fishing industry is, and where it’s going. You’re starting to see a big decrease or decline in the number of tags being bought or the number of youths getting involved for the matter of many reasons, whether it’s the lack of interest or there are a lot of other things and options out there nowadays for kids. The social media, all these gadgets and games. Most people, when they were 10, 11 or 12, used to come home and swing on a tire swing set and play outside. Now it’s iPads and games inside. In a broader picture, that’s hurting the industry, both hunting and fishing.
What supports the DNR and all the wildlife management, lands and plots programs that we have in North Dakota and Wildlife Management Areas is licensing and money. If you’re not buying the license, these industries aren’t getting the money that they need to fund it, people aren’t going to get paid or there are not going to be jobs. Getting the youth involved that way is the biggest reason why we get our kids involved. It will save the industry because the older you get, 65, 70, 75-year-old guys physically can’t do it anymore. Some can but most don’t. If you’re not replacing that with your youth, what do you have? You don’t have an industry anymore and you can’t support it. People aren’t buying licenses. People aren’t buying the equipment. I’m sure some states have no tax on anything hunting or anything fishing that goes to funding these organizations and programs. People are spending their dollars elsewhere. What’s going to happen to the hunting and fishing industry?
My brother is a professional angler. He does a good job of getting the youth involved in angling and fishing. He does summer camps and all of the tournaments that he does throughout the Midwest, 40 to 50 kids are coming to each seminar. He gives them rods and reels. It teaches them about aquatic nuisances, casting, rods, reels, floating, water and safety. He’s done a great job there and we want to follow that footprint in the hunting industry. We quite haven’t figured it out yet, what to do and how to do it. We’re working on it. That’s why we get the youth involved, why we do get our kids involved and why we’re making our family in. Hopefully, it will make a positive impact on the industry.
Your first experience is always going to be a lasting memory. Share on XI love having them out there with us. Being in the blind with that ten-year-old and she’s shaking as bad as I am when a big buck comes out. That’s cool.
I saw a picture. She wants some walleye tournament or she did something and she was getting some reward.
It was Ryder, our little boy and then Adi with my brother. It’s a young angler tournament and you get to bring two youth with you. It’s an actual legitimate tournament and you have a way in and the winner gets a boat. Second place gets a bunch of rods and stuff like that. Three years in a row, my brother has gotten second place. He keeps missing out on that boat and Adi got the biggest fish of the tournament, a six-pound walleye. You can see the video on our Instagram page if you want to check it out. It’s a good video.
What’s your Instagram page again?
Hunting Traditions is our Instagram. One of our posts has a video and Adi caught a good walleye, too, Ryder’s on there as well. The one Adi with the biggest fish is cool.
Did she get a trophy for that?
She got a plaque and an award. They both got all rods, reels and lures. They give a good price. First place is one boat with a 25-horse motor on it. It’s meant for the kids, that’s for sure.
Tell me about the three things I need to know about whitetail hunting.
Scouting would be number one. Know where your deer is at. Cams, if you can. That definitely helps. Get your spots ready for any shot that you need to take. Those are the biggest things for me.
By shots, do you mean your firing lanes or shooting lanes?
Yeah, cover your blind or stand to make sure that you can get any angle because you never know where they’re going to come from.
It’s to expect the unexpected. Make sure you’ve planned and prepared for every hunt. The scouting is number one. I’m big on scouting. Where are you going to put your stand or where are you going to put your ground blind and using your trail cameras to figure it out? If you’ve got one, but you can’t see him during daylight or he shows up when it’s too dark to see, where’s he coming from? Your trail cameras can tell you so much information. Don’t use one trail camera. Use 2 or 3 for where they’re coming from, where they’re leaving, when they show up, and when do they leave. The trail cameras got so much information. Use follow pressures in the ladder and temperature. When is that deer movement? When is he not moving? Don’t forget about playing wind direction because those deer can smell.
In North Dakota, do you have to put trail cameras up on a post? You don’t have a lot of trees. Where do you put your trail cameras?
I hammer in a lot of fence posts.
That’s what I thought, but to some people, that’s a foreign thing for them because there are gazillion trees on their farm, so they didn’t have to worry about that. If you’re out the flatlands or the rolling hills, you have to put in fence posts.
You put it in the green little fence post, you hammer it in and tie your camera on there. It seems to work fine for us.
The deer don’t care.
Some of them will put their nose right on it and they know it’s there, but it doesn’t scare them. They keep coming back and they keep looking at it. If it sits there longer, they say, “It’s just there. It is what it is.” That goes to putting up blinds, too. I’m a firm believer in getting that ground blind or a month or so before you’re going to hunt. We put up at least several ground blinds, so they can start getting used to it. When that day opens, they’re not scared of it, skittish or it’s not something new to them.
They’ll definitely notice that.
You can get some shout-out.
I would like to say thanks to our parents. It’s why we’re here and why we’re involved in the industry.
Definitely my dad, I don’t think either one of us would be sitting here talking to you if it wasn’t for him.
He’s a legend when it comes to hunting deer and he’s shot some big ones. It’s fun to learn and talk to him. He’s a guy that knows the land over 40 years of experience, so you can learn something new every day.
On behalf of the show and thousands of followers across North America, thank you for visiting with me.
Thanks, Bruce.
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On the next show, we’re heading out to Ohio and we’re going to connect with Travis Williams and Travis Shirer with Shedding Light Outdoors. They’re shedding light outdoors in a couple of ways. Travis is a pastor and he shed the light of God in the outdoors in everything he does. The other thing is they shed light on the tips and techniques on what makes them successful whitetail hunters.
important links:
- Nick and Kelsey Deutz
- NorthDakotaGameAndFish.com
- TraditionsHunting.com
- Instagram – Traditions with Nick and Kelsey
- Twitter – Traditions with Nick and Kelsey
- Hoyt
- Outdoor Foundation
- Travis Williams and Travis Shirer – next episode
- Shedding Light Outdoors