#363 - Why Eastern Hunters Are Built DIFFERENT: Lessons from New York & PA to Iowa!

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

Jake Hofer

Publicland, Nature, Deerhunting, Trailcameras, Sports, Wilderness, Outdoors, Exodustrailcameras, Naturestudies

2.4 • 600 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, presented by Moultrie. Your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. On this week's episode, we’re joined by public land hunter and whitetail strategist Jon Lewis, who shares how chasing mature bucks across the East Coast and Midwest shaped his unique approach to deer hunting. We discuss:

Why Eastern terrain, pressure, and deer density forge more adaptable hunters
How Jon arrowed a mature public land buck on opening day by sticking to a simple but effective plan
The key difference between scrapes that get hit once and scrapes you can kill over - Misconceptions Midwest hunters have about hunting in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire
How Jon scouts smarter when summer glassing isn’t an option
The importance of reading subtle sign and why most hunters overthink trail camera data
His framework for breaking down new properties—public or private
Why terrain, access, and consistency matter more than the size of your farm
How to keep things simple and build a system that works season after season
What Midwest hunters can actually learn from the East

And so much more!

Follow along on social!

IG - @WHTLDEER

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YouTube - @WHTLDEER

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

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

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

-Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow

Transcript

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0:00.0	When I lived out in Iowa and we would hunt public and we would be, you know, a mile plus back,
0:05.0	the only people we would run into were people from the East Coast that drew Iowa times.
0:10.0	John Lewis from Pennsylvania lives in New York.
0:13.0	That's hunted across the entire country.
0:15.0	We talk about how he made a perfect plan of shooting his target buck opening morning on public ground.
0:20.0	I finally had a spot where now he's not just like living there and moving through it.
0:25.6	He's like going somewhere.
0:27.6	So now I can really make a plan that I feel is I'm going to be safe.
0:31.6	We talk about terrain features, woodsmanship, we talk about scrapes, camera locations,
0:36.6	some are scouting, all the different
0:38.0	things that are top of mind, more than likely, as we get closer to season. So I hope you guys
0:42.8	enjoy this with John Lewis. Here we go. Most of the big scrapes that I hunt, I may find a terrain
0:50.6	feature that makes sense where deer are going to be moving through and I make one.
0:54.5	And then when I make it, I make it so I can on it.
0:57.3	John, welcome to the White Tail podcast.
0:59.2	How you doing today?
1:00.2	Good man.
1:01.2	Thanks for having me.
1:02.2	I'm always amazed of the Midwest Whitetail family tree and you were talking about,
1:08.7	you know, you're part of that family tree.
1:10.1	So I would just love to hear how that happened.
1:13.2	And I think it's such a cool story.
	...

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