The Legacy Vault
Real hunters. Real stories. One legacy at a time.
Every episode features everyday hunters sharing unforgettable experiences, hard-earned lessons, and the traditions that keep our hunting heritage alive. Pull up a chair and join the conversation.
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73: The 650 Yard Shot On The Last Day Of His First Elk Hunt With Buck Scheffel (West Virginia)
Buck grew up in West Virginia with a grandfather who bought him and his brother thirty thirties when they were two years old. Not because they could shoot them yet, but because he already knew where they were headed. By thirteen Buck was sitting on stumps in the hardwoods while his grandfather pushed deer through the ridges, learning to hunt the old way before anyone called it a tactic. His first deer came on a Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving with his grandfather and his brother standing right there, and he says it still might be one of the biggest deer he has ever shot.
Buck hunts whitetails across West Virginia and Maryland, chases elk out west, and spends the off season at a reloading bench that belonged to his grandfather, teaching himself a craft the old man never had time to pass down before he died. He also climbs poles for a living, running fiber optic internet through the mountains of Preston County, and recently became a first time dad six weeks before this episode. He talks about the Wednesday evening drive hunts his grandfather ran through the West Virginia timber, what it felt like to take his first elk hunt out west with his dad and his brother, packing out a bull in the dark on legs that had never carried that kind of weight before, and the shot at six hundred and fifty yards on the last day that he probably should not have taken.
This episode covers West Virginia whitetail hunting, public land elk hunting out west, reloading, and what it looks like to carry on a hunting legacy started by two grandfathers who did things completely differently. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Buck's.
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72: When A Mountain Lion Decides You Look Like Lunch With Aaron Trudeau (Montana)
Aaron grew up on a reservation where white guys could bird hunt but could not touch big game. That did not slow him down. He and his brother were outside every chance they got, BB guns in hand, chasing anything that moved, and by the time they had access to big game country they were already wired for it. His dad was more of a bird hunter. Aaron went a different direction entirely.
He has since built a life in Montana that most hunters only dream about, chasing elk, mule deer, antelope, and black bears with a bow he makes broadheads for out of a camper he and his wife moved into after selling their house to launch Expire Archery, a titanium broadhead company machined in Montana. He quit eighteen years at UPS after a dog attack put him on the operating table and made him realize he did not want to go back. So he and his wife went all in, she runs the social media and the business side, he talks hunting with anyone who will listen, and they are figuring it out in real time.
His hunting stories read like a highlight reel. A mountain lion at five yards while he was texting his brother at lunch. A bull elk at seven yards that he called in on a logging road ten minutes before a doctor's appointment he had to cancel. A black bear at six yards the year before, in the same drainage, same scenario. This episode covers elk hunting, bear hunting, and mule deer hunting in Montana, what it looks like to bet everything on a dream, and why Aaron thinks you can never actually eliminate your scent no matter what you spray on your boots. A Hunter's Legacy is built for guys like Aaron, everyday hunters who are all in on the life.
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The Difference Between Hunters And Killers With Phillip Hubert (Indiana)
Phillip was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that meant no organized sports, broken bones, surgeries, and a dad who pushed him through the woods in a stroller with big rubber tires just so he could hunt. He killed his first deer at seven years old, standing in a ground blind on a broken femur, held up under the armpits by his father while he pulled the trigger on a muzzleloader. The smoke cleared, his dad ran to the deer, came sprinting back, picked him up and carried him down there. That was the moment that started everything.
Phillip is twenty four, married with a two year old and a little girl on the way, and hunting is the axis his entire life spins around. He grew up in southern Indiana in a deeply rooted hunting family with a dad he describes as the best hunter he has ever seen, a man who can call turkeys into areas that have no business holding turkeys and who has spent his career finding giant bucks on public and private ground. Phillip has been chasing both ever since, killing every buck during the same week of November for years running, taking a vacation from November eighth through the sixteenth like clockwork, and choosing turkey hunting over deer hunting every time somebody makes him pick.
This episode covers southern Indiana whitetail and turkey hunting, growing up with a physical condition that never slowed him down, what it means to grow up in a family where hunting is not a hobby but a way of life, and the difference between hunters and killers. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Phillip's.
The Buck That Closed Out The Last Season On His Uncle's Farm With Harrison Seybold (Indiana)
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How Good Ethics Turned Into Two Bucks Over 180 Inches in Seven Days With Russ Seal (Louisiana)
Russ grew up in the toe of the boot in South Louisiana, surrounded by family that breathed and slept hunting. Squirrels with his grandfather first, then deer on timber company ground where a spike buck was a genuine conversation piece and anything over 120 inches was the talk of the club. That world shaped him early, but it was a trip to Missouri public land in his twenties, where he drew back on a 135 inch buck at 35 yards and watched him wind him and walk off, that flipped a switch he has never been able to turn back off.
Since that day Russ has made it a personal mission to chase giant whitetails across the Midwest every November, hunting public land for most of his career until a stranger found his YouTube channel, liked what he saw, and invited him to hunt private farms in Missouri. That relationship turned into a 160 inch rifle buck the first year and a 184 inch giant the second. Seven days before that 184, he had already killed a 190 inch buck in Kansas. Two bucks over 180 inches in seven days, on two different pieces of ground, in two different states.
Russ is also a hang and hunt guy, a saddle hunter, and one of the more quietly obsessive whitetail hunters you will come across. He talks about why relationships open more doors than tactics ever will, what it takes to earn trust on somebody else's private ground, and why he thinks hunting ethics start long before you ever enter the woods. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories like Russ's, from South Louisiana public land deer hunting to back to back giants that most whitetail hunters will never see in a lifetime.
First Generation Hunter Who Built A Hunting Life Worth Passing Down With Chuck Gray (Iowa)
Chuck did not grow up in a hunting family. His dad was not a hunter, nobody in the house was, and the closest he got to the outdoors as a kid was fishing. That changed when a friend invited him along on a deer hunt in his late teens and he killed a doe on his first sit. Something clicked that day that never unclicked. He spent the next several years borrowing gear, hunting permission ground, and learning everything he could from anyone willing to teach him. By the time he had kids of his own he was the one doing the teaching.
Chuck hunts whitetails and turkeys across Iowa and has built his access network the old fashioned way, knocking on doors, maintaining relationships, and treating every piece of ground like it could be gone tomorrow. He talks about mobile hunting setups, why he switched from a climber to a saddle, and how hunting pressure on public land pushed him to get more creative with private access. He also gets into the father and son dynamic, what it looks like to raise kids who actually want to be in the woods, and the morning his son shot his first deer while Chuck sat in the same stand he killed his first one from years earlier.
This episode covers Iowa whitetail hunting, turkey hunting, permission access, saddle hunting, and what it looks like when a first generation hunter builds something worth passing down. A Hunter's Legacy is built for stories exactly like Chuck's.
From Building Sketchy Homemade Stands To Running The Ultimate Mobile Setup With Kyle Smith (Ohio)
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How Tracking Dogs Replaced Hunting As The Best Part Of His Season With John Sturtevant (Iowa)
John grew up with no hunting family and no mentor, just a buddy, a .22 LR, and some creek bottoms to run around in. They trapped muskrats and coons before school, shot anything that moved, and figured it all out the hard way. That foundation turned into decades of bow hunting across multiple states and continents, all with bows he built himself from Osage wood he split by hand. He has made hundreds of bows, harvested hundreds of animals, and still will not pick up a compound.
These days John runs a certified blood tracking operation using wire-haired dachshunds bred in Europe specifically for this work. He does not charge. He just shows up with his dogs and tracks until the deer is found or it is not. He has found deer with zero blood, zero arrow, and zero sign other than what his dogs told him. He talks about how dogs read declining health pheromones, why a good tracking dog will find deer a drone never will, and what it feels like to walk up on somebody else's dead deer and get more excited than the hunter does.
He also bear hunts in Canada every fall, hog hunts in Texas every winter with traditional bows, and once tracked a wounded bear through thick brush wearing flip-flops while his rescue party walked into a yellow jacket nest on the way to help him. This episode covers traditional archery, self bow building, blood tracking dogs, bear baiting in Ontario, and why John gave up deer hunting most days just to run his dogs instead. A Hunter's Legacy is exactly where a story like his belongs.
How A Bad Neighbor Turned A Great Hunting Spot Into A Safety Hazard With Nathan Kopp (Missouri)
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74: The Morning He Realized Deer Season Was Only Half The Story With Colin Bellavance (Ontario)
Colin grew up in Vermont on a sixty acre hobby farm where his grandfather took him fishing before he was old enough to carry a gun. His neighbors ran a gun shop out of their house, there was a spring fed brook behind the property full of brook trout, and by the time he was ten years old he was walking the woods during rifle season trying to keep up with his dad, his uncles, and his grandfather. The family tradition was simple. You walk the first couple years without a firearm, you learn the land, and at thirteen you get your first rifle. He has been chasing whitetails ever since.
Colin eventually chased a woman across the border and has been hunting Ontario and Quebec Crown Land for the better part of a decade. He talks about what it looks like to still hunt hardwood ridges in the Northeast the way his grandfather taught him, the first time he sat in a duck blind and watched thousands of mallards dump in overhead at shooting light, and the morning his grandfather rattled off four rounds fifty yards away, pushed a giant buck directly between him and his brother, and his brother nearly put a thirty thirty round over his head when he hit the deck. He is also building a beginner hunting guide platform called First Tag, aimed at getting new hunters into the woods without feeling like they are starting from zero.
This episode covers Ontario and Vermont whitetail hunting, waterfowl hunting, Crown Land access, and what it looks like when a guy raised in deer camp tries to pass that same thing on to people who never had it. A Hunter's Legacy is exactly where Colin's story belongs.
Want to be a guest?
Ready to share your hunting legacy? Apply here.
Like what you’re hearing?
Hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. New stories drop every week.
Follow A Hunter’s Legacy:
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Share the show with a buddy who lives for cold mornings, heavy packs, and quiet woods. ...