Keefer Brother's Wilder Minds

Episode 43 picks up right as the expedition finally shifts into motion — leaving the static grind of Camp One and committing to the river journey that defines Dropped at its core. The crew digs into why Season 9 is unfolding differently, how Alaska strips away options until only one path remains, and what it means to treat the trip as a true expedition rather than just a hunt. A short but meaningf...

This one opens in a frozen Camp One and turns into a gravel-bar survival comedy as Dropped Season 9 immediately reminds the crew who’s in charge. A sudden cold snap, rising water, and wood so wet it practically hisses back force an early-season river crossing that should be simple — except it’s not. Rafts come out, boots start failing and every “quick task” becomes a full-scale Arctic production....

After a hiatus, Wilder Minds returns just as Dropped Season 9 premieres — and for the next ten weeks, the crew is taking you inside the adventure in real time. In this kickoff episode, they pull back the curtain on what it really takes to launch a season in remote Alaska: the ritual of gear prep in Fairbanks, the nerves and anticipation before bush planes carry them hundreds of miles into the wild...

2025 was a full send year for Wilder Minds. This recap is the best of the best, stitched together into one run. We’re talking the Alaska crab boat that turned into something else entirely. A Yukon bet that went sideways. A Navy story that still doesn’t sound real. Bowfishing inside the Bass Pro pyramid in front of a crowd that actually knows what they’re doing. A musky that wrecked a brand new boa...

December doesn’t slow things down—it just adds layers. This episode lives in the stretch between hunts, holidays, and getting ready to roll again. Cold nights. Early alarms. Trucks half unloaded. Christmas is happening, but the work doesn’t stop. We walk through the gear that’s earned its place—stuff that’s been packed, dragged, frozen, thawed, and trusted. No theory. No hype. Just what actually w...

This one starts in camp and ends with a buck on the ground. A giveaway hunt turns real when Sara Haney—taxidermist, longtime friend, and lifelong hunter—steps into Missouri deer camp during the heart of the rut. Base camp is loaded. Cameras are rolling. Ammo is getting tested. And nobody’s sleeping much. The hunt itself comes together fast. A blind move, heavy sheds on the rattle, and a mature mai...

Gun season hit Ohio and everything lined up—first snow incoming, pressure dropping, cell cam intel stacked, and the Grizzly Alpha blinds sitting exactly where they needed to. Two mature bucks on the hit list, hours of daylight left, and that first cold front feeling in your chest. Thirty-plus years chasing whitetails together, and we finally dropped deer on the same damn day. One six-by-six with s...

Three weeks on the road, deer hitting the dirt, and camp stories stacked from Missouri to Michigan. The Winchester camp brought all-day sits, tight setups, and the kind of buck action that turns a quiet timber into chaos. Rattling pulls, missed windows, clean kills, and a sweepstakes winner who brought the antlers—and the heat. Then we break down the tool that changed everything this season: therm...

The crew heads back to Deadwood, one of the most anticipated stops of the season, to kick off deer camp in the rugged hills of Ohio. Early mornings, long setups, and classic camp traditions set the tone as the team settles into the rhythm of the hunt. Between gear talk, setup strategy, and plenty of laughs, it’s the kind of start that reminds everyone why this week in November always feels like Ch...

Three bucks in fifteen minutes. One ghost in the autumn olive. A first archery kill on home dirt and a reminder that big bodies don’t come easy. We walk through the window we picked, the angle that sealed it, and the rattle cadence that actually pulls deer—quick crack, then silence. No concerts, no plastic bags—leaf noise, tree knocks, terrain advantage. This isn’t ego, it’s honesty. The father/fi...

Venison sticks, garlic curds in a bush plane, a legit natural gas leak at HQ, and the pre-rut plan from Michigan to Ohio to Missouri. We swap best-ever hunts (Strong Arm, Jumbo, the 182 in Iowa), talk Rage setups, cold fronts, corn coming down, and why burning a set for intel still kills giants. Also: exploding deer scent cans (for real), goose fever, and the new Rut Report Channel in the KB app....

Bush planes in, storms on the nose, and a bear-ransacked outpost to greet us—welcome to Manitoba. The kids take the mic for the Silsby recap: first northerns, first walleyes, and a beaver-dam giant that lit the drags. Broken boats, six-foot rollers, shore-lunch perfection, and a cabin visitor with flour on his paws. Ryder won’t put the rod down, Gunner invents the “Ooga Booga” cast, and Kylie gets...

Ryder kicks off deer season solo on the home place—one bolt in the quiver by dad’s orders. A 4-year-old eight strolls to 15 yards, the bolt flies, and the woods erupts. Then it twists: a bigger ten shows, then an even heavier buck. No second shot. Just a whisper-call with dad, a blood trail like paint, and a rite of passage sealed. “The ice has my heart, but the woods has my soul.” Yeah—felt that....

Back from the wild and straight into the studio — still thawing out and finding our legs after the coldest Dropped yet. Sleep came hard, miles came harder, and Alaska reminded us fast who’s in charge. This one runs on raw return energy: river miles that stripped weight and broke bodies, grizzlies that showed up uninvited, and gear that barely limped out alive. We talk what went right, what broke,...

Mike “Mikey P” Passaglia is one of the happiest, most grounded men you’ll meet — and one of the toughest. Chris sits down for a raw, long-form conversation with a man who’s built companies, lost them, rebuilt from nothing, and never lost his joy along the way. We dig into what it’s like to hit the bottom and start over, what resilience really means when the odds are ugly, and how a lifetime of cha...

We’re rerunning a foundational episode while the crew is dropped in Alaska’s Brooks Range . This “From the Vault” throwback is the origin story of Wilder Minds —why we built it, who we are, and the mindset driving everything from DIY Alaska to Ohio whitetails. Inside: the viral “cannibalism” headline (and the real hunter’s rite-of-passage conversation about hearts, ethics, and respect), a Yukon ni...

Tim “The Maniac” Sylvia is a mountain of a man with a story to match. From UFC heavyweight champ to slap-fighting giant, he’s lived it all in the cage and carried that same fire into the woods. We talk about his journey... the fights, the injuries, the comeback. And the side of him most don’t see: a die-hard bowhunter with a Maine drawl and a sharp edge for the truth. The stories hit every lane. G...

Weapon talk for Dropped sets the stage, but it turns quick—locker-room mornings that went sideways, forgotten quivers at the stand, and hunts wrecked by fried-chicken belly bombs. Then it’s back to the mountains. Sheep hunts that broke knees, fog that stole chances, and Brooks Range climbs that pushed us to the edge. Ryder’s birthday caribou on the first Dropped and the sheep hunt years later hit...

The rush has been real. In 24 hours we ripped down to Ohio, fed out twelve tons of corn, dropped in new capsule feeders, tested 1900’s “Bonnie and Clyde” attractant, and watched the herd hammer it like never before. Antlers are blowing up, crops are thriving, and the whitetails are telling us the program is working. But the real story? We’re launching the Keefer Brothers Basecamp. After decades in...

We lit the Jetboil and went to work. Freeze-dried meals built in a Pennsylvania garage—not factory slop, but legit recipes designed for the backcountry. Ground beef and tallow. Sweet potato and sausage skillet. Even cheesecake. Every bite hit harder than you’d expect from a bag, the kind of food that fuels you when you’re burning 6,000 calories packing moose meat through miles of brush. We talk ab...

We sit down with Greg Walters from Winchester Safes and talk shop—how his family built a business tough enough to carry the Winchester name, and the kind of gear upgrades that actually make your life easier in the field. Then Chris unloads the story of the Kansas “controlled burn” that turned his 2500 HD into a rolling fireball. Picture propane tanks blowing, ammo ripping like a fireworks finale,...

This one’s all over the map—in the best way possible. We kick things off in Nashville, bouncing from dive bars to Kid Rock’s place, running into the Huffer Brothers, and watching a mechanical bull claim a fingernail or two. From there, it’s Prohibition history with Dutch Schultz, bootlegger tunnels, and a gun that somehow made it from a Maine bar to a New York City restaurant table. We break down...

We throw it back to a deep one-on-one with Brandon Calhoon — Michigan hoops legend turned rock star, songwriter, and the voice behind some of our most iconic outdoor tunes. From ripping AC/DC riffs at a high school pep rally to the wild ride of reality TV, Nashville grind, and life on the road, Brandon shares the raw stories behind the music and the moments that shaped him. This isn’t just an inte...

Planning for Dropped is a battle before the boots hit the ground. Flights booked. Gear stashed. Last meals savored. Casey checks in live from Canada while Chris and JB break down the gritty logistics and mental grind it takes to get ready for the wild unknown. We’re talking strategy born from 20 years in the dirt, a deep dive into the new DIY Alaska Hunt Academy that's rolling out with the app, an...

Casey checks in live from the heart of Canada’s waterfowl capital, where wildfires burn and millions of ducks fill the prairie potholes. Casey’s at a family wedding near Manitou Beach’s salty float zone while Chris breaks down what it means to hold deer through fall with smart feed and habitat management. Plus, a deep dive on how supplemental feed affects deer digestion and population—this is surv...