American Roots Outdoors w/ Alex Rutledge

Send us Fan Mail Join Alex Rutledge and Redbone on American Roots Outdoors as they dive deep into understanding the early pre-rut phase of deer hunting. This episode covers bachelor groups separating, buck behavior changes, trail camera strategies with Wise Eye cameras, calling techniques, scent control, and hunting big timber during early pre-rut. Plus: big buck shout-outs, the Current River Smal...

Send us Fan Mail Host Alex Rutledge and Redbone welcome conservation agent Brad Hadley to discuss hunting rules, regulations, CWD, and white-nose syndrome in Missouri's Ozarks. Then, special guest Rickey Maples shares the inspiring story behind Revival on the Current River — a Christian music festival and community celebration in Van Buren, Missouri featuring American Idol finalists, a car sh...

Send us Fan Mail Join Alex Rutledge and Redbone on American Roots Outdoors as they welcome Missouri Conservation Agent Brad Hadley and Wise Eye Technologies CEO Harold Monk. Brad breaks down Missouri's hunting history from the first 1944 deer season to today's declining hunter recruitment, and debunks a viral fake MDC news release about fining drivers for hitting deer. Harold shares Wise...

Send us Fan Mail This week on American Roots Outdoors, Alex Rutledge sits down with legendary whitetail hunter Spook Spann — a man with 22 Boone & Crockett bucks over 200 inches taken with a bow, and a hunting career spanning from Canada to Mexico. Spook shares the mental preparation and visualization techniques he learned as an athlete that translate directly to archery success, the incredibl...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone kick off a special multi-part Archery Talk series as bow season opens across the Ozarks. This week: tuning fixed-blade broadheads, matching arrows and vanes, picking the right bow and getting properly fit, releases vs. finger shooting, trail camera scouting tips, and a practice routine to make you a more accurate shot. Plus current events — MDC's CWD...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone kick off the season with Alex's tried-and-true food plot prep — soil testing, pH, timing your planting around rain, and the fertilizer tricks that make Eagle Seed blends explode. Along the way: Cardinals/Royals/Chiefs talk, local fishing tournament results, the Mammoth Springs Car Show, big changes to Missouri deer hunting regulations, Friday Night L...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone kick things off with car-show stories from the Tri-Five Nationals and a look at the NFL preseason before welcoming turkey-hunting legend Eddie Salter, calling in from the hospital while supporting his wife Julie. Eddie shares decades of food-plot wisdom — soil testing, seed blends, and keeping deer from getting spooked off your property — plus the story b...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and co-host Mike Race sit down with Brad Doyle of Eagle Seed to break down everything you need to know about getting your food plots ready for fall — soil testing, crop rotation, battling johnsongrass, and Eagle Seed's brand-new Fieldcraft blend built for 2,4-D spraying. Plus fishing tournament results, an NFL/MLB check-in, a Ted Nugent conservation story from t...

Send us Fan Mail Host Alex Rutledge sits down with Harold Monk Sr., Daryl Monk, and Cole Eggemeyer of Wise Eye Technologies for a wide-ranging conversation covering the origin story of the family-run trail camera company — from a rundown warehouse to an old church to a growing 30-employee operation. They dig into the No Glow and DC2 camera lines, ranch/property monitoring uses, setup tips and came...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone are live from K-Country 95 in Thayer, Missouri for a packed episode of American Roots Outdoors. In Segment 1, they cover local current events: King of the River tournament results, Cardinals and Royals baseball frustrations, high school football Jamboree prep, and a big conversation about Missouri potentially losing both its NFL teams. Segment 2 dives dee...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone sit down with Kenny Zuspan of First Class Whitetails to break down soil testing, food plot placement, and pH strategy ahead of deer season. Kenny details his $100,000 Whitetail Challenge, shares stories from professional poker tournaments, and closes with a bonus segment of his favorite deer meat recipes. Chapters (24 added): 0:00 Soil Sample Collection 1...

Send us Fan Mail Hillbilly hard work meets Major League dreams. 18-year-old Brady Smith joins American Roots Outdoors fresh off being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2025 MLB Draft. Alongside his parents Brad and Erica and younger brother Bryn, Brady shares the emotional story of draft day, the years of grinding that got him there, and why he chose the pros over college ball at Wichita Sta...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone sit down with Shane Wagner of Wagner Heating and Air for a wide-ranging conversation covering his roots in West Plains, Missouri, how he learned the HVAC trade hands-on, and tips for maintaining your split air units. Shane also opens up about his passion for whitetail and turkey hunting using Wise Eye trail cameras, his approach to deer management on the...

Send us Fan Mail This week on American Roots Outdoors, Alex Rutledge and Redbone sit down with special guest Travis Smith — turkey hunting enthusiast, former Missouri legislator, and lifelong outdoorsman. From growing up in West Plains and working for the Atlanta Hawks/Braves, to coaching football, raising grandkids, and chasing gobblers with his grandfather's old shotgun, Travis shares stori...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone dive into the best fishing streams of the Ozarks — Current River, Jack's Fork, Gasconade, Eleven Point, and more — sharing trout fishing stories, smallmouth tales, and grilling tips, alongside Cardinals/Royals talk, World Cup soccer, and shoutouts to sponsors Eagle Seed, 12 Point Hunting Blinds, Wiseye Technologies, Spandow/Spandau Arms, and Hornady...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge, Redbone, and special guest Cole Legman from WiseEye Technologies discuss why running trail cameras year-round is essential for hunters, farmers, and property owners. Topics include new WiseEye features (DC2 live streaming, population studies via Hunt Control), law enforcement and government camera uses, security applications, the Ranch Plus subscription plan, CWD an...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone dive into everything you need to know about Ozarks river fishing — from post-spawn smallmouth behavior to bait selection, color theory, and reading river conditions. They also catch up on local tournament results, upcoming events, a Hannah Harper concert recap, and the hottest sports stories of the week. Stick around for the bonus segment where Alex and R...

Send us Fan Mail This week on American Roots Outdoors, host Alex Rutledge and Redbone Rick sit down with 2024 RiverMasters Elite Series Classic Champion Rick York to break down everything you need to know about chasing river smallmouth bass in the Ozarks. Rick shares how these fish think like predators, where they hold in current, what they eat, and exactly how to present your baits to trigger str...

Send us Fan Mail  Alex Rutledge and Redbone sit down with Chef Corey Freeman — a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, apple orchard owner, and passionate hunter on a mission to harvest a wild turkey in all 49 states. Corey shares what it was like cooking at turkey camp alongside Tyler Farr, breaks down his Japanese-inspired wild turkey karaage don, apple cider glazed pork chops, and fire-grilled tomahawk...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Redbone welcome Kentucky Headhunters co-founder Richard Young straight from a tomato plant run in Glasgow, Kentucky. Richard delivers a masterclass in Southern storytelling — from brother Fred's midnight tractor rides and his collection of 50 antique machines with only 4 batteries, to the band's history-making leap from a Kentucky holler to Sweden Rock...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge wraps up his Turkey Tour of the Northeast, sharing stories from turkey hunts at First Class Whitetails in PA, a tough morning in Maryland with David Zook, and a close encounter on retired Eagles linebacker Trent Cole's New Jersey farm. Alex sits down live with Jason Lapp, National Sales Manager for 12 Point Hunting Blinds, at their headquarters in Gap, PA to unv...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and co-host Mike "Redbone" Crase call in live from 1st Class Whitetails in Rutland, Ohio, for Turkey Camp 2026. Joining the show are hunter Jason Weekley — a former professional rodeo roper turned farrier from Florida — and digital marketing pro Sam Santorita of Sharp Line Growth Media. The crew recaps three days of grinding Ohio Easterns, including a heart...

Send us Fan Mail Host Alex Rutledge and Mike "Redbone" Crase is joined by country music recording artist Tyler Farr and Kentucky turkey hunter & butcher chef Tim Harris for a jam-packed episode straight from the Ozarks. They cover a tough spring turkey season in Missouri, a wild story about getting permission to hunt an elderly woman's farm — and killing a 24.5-pound gobbler wit...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge is calling in from his little red tracker deep in Missouri turkey country, joined by the one and only Bad Bob, Jimmy, and a very special mystery guest known only as "Jack." Country music artist Kevin Weldon drops in to talk about his iconic redneck hunting songs that racked up nearly a billion downloads, what he's been up to since stepping back from re...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Rutledge and Red Bone are joined by special guest Richard Kraft — owner of Gelco Outdoors in Fort Smith, Arkansas — to share the story of his 11-year-old grandson Scout's successful Missouri youth Turkey hunt. After two years of near-misses, Scout finally closes the deal on a longbeard in the Missouri Ozarks. The guys break down the full hunt strategy — roosting the bird...