When it comes to managing land for whitetails, there’s no shortage of advice on what you should be doing. But sometimes the fastest way to improve your property is knowing what mistakes to avoid in the first place. In this episode of Back 40, we asked a fresh panel of experienced deer hunters and land managers one simple question: What are the biggest whitetail land mistakes people make? The answers cover everything from access and pressure to habitat work, expectations, and long-term planning. Whether you own 10 acres or 1,000, avoiding the wrong moves can save you years of frustration and put you on a much faster path toward building better deer habitat and more consistent hunting success. This episode features: Wes Delks, Steve Hanson, Jake Ehllinger, and Sam Billhorn.

Presented by Moultrie

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The goal of pretty much all whitetail hunters is to get close to big bucks, but they often don't - and for good reason. Proximity matters, but most hunters think about it wrong, which Tony explains in detail this week.

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Mark's chatting with Erika Howsare, author of The Age of Deer, to get a better understanding of what exactly she means with that book title and what her experience was like diving into the world of deer and deer hunting for the first time.

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What's right and what's wrong when it comes to deer hunting invovles more than just regulations and laws. Our personal choices matter, and hunters who explore their ethics and try to do right by the deer are far more likely to feel good about their hunting every season.

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Jake Ehlinger has spent over 50 years hunting whitetails in Michigan and nearly 45 years managing the same farm. In this episode, he and Jake Hofer dive deep into the lessons he’s learned through decades of trial and error, habitat work, hunting pressure, food plot design, and deer behavior.

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Deer hunting is often talked about as mostly a mystery-free endeavor, but that's just not true and the hunters who acknowledge the value of staying curious are the ones who end up tagging more mature bucks.

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This week on the show Mark is discussing the case for a one buck limit (currently proposed in Michigan), and joining him is Brent Rudolph, the deer, elk, and moose specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

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Everyone loves the early season for turkeys, but the last couple of weeks can still provide plenty of gobbler action provided you know how to call, what decoys to use, and how to be patient enough to let a jaded bird get to your set up.

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This week on Back 40, Jake Hofer dives into a frustrating reality a lot of serious hunters eventually run into: the harder you try, the worse your deer hunting seems to get. He brought in four guys who’ve lived it and worked through it—Thomas Mlsna, Jared Van Hees, Kyle Heuerman, and Terry Peer—to break down why more effort doesn’t always mean more success. From over-managing your property and putting too much stock in food plots, to increasing pressure without realizing it, each guest shares where well-intentioned hunters go wrong. There’s also a deep dive into the hidden cost of overhunting, how small adjustments in strategy can create big results, and why some of the best hunters do less—not more. One idea. Four perspectives. A conversation that might completely change how you approach your season.

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The daily lives of deer are mostly a mystery to hunters, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to learn as much as we can about them, especially if we're hunting pressured ground.

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This week on the show, we’re diving into an exciting project to save 4,000 acres of prime hunting ground in the Southeastern United States and help make it public land in perpetuity.

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