Wearing Out a Pair of Boots

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring

Zack Williams

Sports, Wilderness

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After nearly a decade behind the mic and more than 225 episodes digging into the people, places and fights that define our public lands and waters, Hal Herring is stepping away from BHA's Podcast & Blast and onto his next adventure.

For this final episode, we turn the microphone around. Hal joins former BHA Vice President of Communications and longtime Podcast & Blast producer Katie McKalip, along with BHA Brand and Editorial Manager Zack Williams, for a conversation about how the show came together, what made it matter and a few of the moments they'll carry forward. What emerges is more than a look back at a podcast. It's a reflection on the kind of storytelling that has always powered BHA: grounded, firsthand and rooted in real places and real people.

Over the years, Hal sought out voices with deep experience on the land — people who knew a watershed, a forest, a migration route or a community intimately, and who could explain what was at stake in plain, honest terms. Episode after episode, the show reminded us that conservation is not an abstraction. It lives in boots, horses, boats, gravel roads, campfires and long miles — and in the people willing to show up for the future of public lands and waters.

We're sad to see Hal go, but grateful for everything he helped build and excited to see what happens as he wears out his next pair of boots. Listen to his final episode wherever you get your podcasts, and stay tuned as we chart what's next for BHA's podcast.

The views and opinions expressed in the Podcast & Blast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

The Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring is brought you by Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and presented by Silencer Central, with additional support from Decked, Dometic, and Filson.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters

Transcript

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0:00.0	But a lot of this podcast is about, like, if you really look at a, if there is a theme, it's not, it's not, that abstraction is not happening here.
0:13.8	Reality is what's happening here.
0:16.0	Mules and horses and boots.
0:18.6	That's something, I think, when you, you can't not listen to this podcast, these 230-some
0:26.3	episodes and realize that one person can make a difference for the future in public lands
0:32.4	and waters.
0:34.1	Hunters and anglers and we're all a bunch of storytellers.
0:39.0	We sought out people who know things.
0:42.0	Who intimately know a particular place or landscape and can speak with authority and
0:50.4	deep, deep, firsthand experience about what this place represents, why it's valuable, what's at stake.
0:59.0	Hey, everybody, it's Hal Herring, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Podcast and Blast. Thanks for being here.
1:05.7	Hey, I am proud to announce we have a new sponsor for our podcast, and that is silencer central.
1:12.5	If you are involved in hunting and shooting or both, you are probably looking at owning or dreaming of owning a silencer suppressor, the same thing for your firearm.
1:26.2	I've got my first one a couple years ago.
1:29.1	It's been a complete game changer for me.
1:31.6	I'm just looking at another one right now for another rifle.
1:35.9	I will never go back to where I was.
1:40.4	So one of the things,
1:43.6	Silencer Central has been around since 2005, founded as South Dakota Silencer.
1:51.0	And it is simply the easiest way to get a suppressor right now.
1:58.7	It is America's number one silencer dealer. They can walk you through the whole process
2:03.9	and have a suppressor delivered directly to your door. If you've ever looked at this process, if you
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