We're very proud of our team of experts. Please take a few minutes to read about their accomplishments and high level of expertise in the field. This is a look at just a handful of the experts we have on board.
Mike Chamberlain
Mike is a professor at the University of Georgia, having held the same position previously at Louisiana State University. He has conducted research on white-tailed deer and other critters for 25 years. Mike also owns a consulting business, where he works with private landowners to manage high quality deer herds. Mike's clients own properties across the southeastern United States, so he works with deer in a diversity of habitat and landscape types. Mike also a fanatical deer hunter, and spends as much time studying deer from a tree as possible!
Trent Cole
Born and raised in Southern Ohio, Trent is the cornerstone of Blitz TV on the Sportsman Channel. As a two-time NFL Pro-Bowler known as a run stopper and relentless pass rusher, his leadership, energy, attitude, and passion are nothing short of contagious. With deeply seeded roots in farming and the outdoor lifestyle, enjoying the great outdoors and sharing it with others, Trent is not your run-of-the-mill professional athlete. Throughout his 12 NFL seasons, he became known as 'The Hunter' and his infatuation with hunting continued to shine through as he would draw his 'air-bow' after every sack or big play. Throughout his hunting career, he has practiced wildlife management on his farms from the Midwest to the East Coast. As he steps off the football field and into full-time roles as a father, husband, farmer and hunter, he continues to solidify those roots in the outdoors with the same fervor he showed chasing quarterbacks on Sunday. From the mountains and plains of the West to the shores of the East Coast, his mission of sharing his adventures in the woods and on the water with others is more intense than ever.
Donnie Draeger
Donnie Draeger has a Bachelors in Wildlife and Fisheries from Texas A&M and Masters in Range and Wildlife Management from Texas A&M Kingsville. Donnie was a professional whitetail guide for several commercial hunting operations including the Faith Ranch in south Texas, the Sanctuary and Legends Ranch in northern Michigan. He is a helicopter pilot, outdoor photographer, videographer and Final Cut Pro video editor as well an avid bowhunter. Donnie is active in areas of whitetail research and has been published in numerous scientific journals and outdoor magazines. In 2015 he co-founded Wildlife Information Systems (WIS), a wildlife-based technology company. He currently works for a family and oversees 130,000 acres on four Texas ranches.
Dave Edwards
Dave is a Certified Wildlife Biologist® with more than 25 years of professional experience managing wildlife, wildlife habitat, and hunting programs across the Southeast. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Resources & Conservation from the University of Florida and his Masters of Science degree in Wildlife Management from Mississippi State University. He was honored as Quality Deer Management Association's 2007 Professional Deer Manager of the Year and nominated in the 2011 Alabama Governor's Conservation Achievements Awards as Alabama's Wildlife Conservationist of the Year. Dave has participated as an expert panelist for QDMA's Age This section in each issue of Quality Whitetails magazine since 2006. Dave is currently the General Manager of Cabin Bluff, a Beretta and Orvis endorsed sporting lodge located near Cumberland Island, GA. Dave and his wife Heather, also a wildlife biologist, own and operate Tall Tines Wildlife & Hunting Consultants, Inc. where they provide wildlife and habitat management guidance to hunters and landowners across the Southeast.
Mick Hellickson
Mickey is originally from Iowa where he grew up hunting, fishing, and trapping at every opportunity. He has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Wildlife Management. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the movements and activity rates of 125 radio-colored bucks in South Texas & included a chapter on antler ratting. He has worked as a Research Scientist and adjunct professor at CKWRI & was the Chief Wildlife Biologist for the 825,000-acre King Ranch for 12 years. Mick initiated and was the lead investigator on the 10-year South Texas Buck Capture Project, which involved the live capture of more than 5,000 wild bucks. In 2010, he began consulting full time for his Orion Wildlife Management Services company and has served more than 140 clients across 11 states on over 170 ranches totaling over two million acres. Mick is an internationally recognized deer expert and has given well over 100 public presentations throughout the eastern & central U.S. and northern Mexico. He served as a staff member on the television shows Bucks of Tecomate & Tecomate Whitetail Nation. He has harvested three B&C and eighteen P&Y whitetails while hunting big game on three continents.
Chris McDonald
Chris is owner and manager of McDonald Wildlife Consulting, LLC. He is a Certified Wildlife Biologist®, avid hunter, and deer management enthusiast. He grew up on a cattle farm in Winona, MS which provided him an opportunity to grow up in the outdoors. Chris served as a wildlife biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) for nearly 13 years. During his career at the MDWFP, Chris served as the Wildlife Bureau Assistant Director, White-tailed Deer Enclosure Program Leader, and regional Deer Program Biologist. He has a B.S. Degree in Animal Science, M.S. Degree in Animal Physiology, and a M.S. Degree in Wildlife Ecology, with all degrees obtained from Mississippi State University. Chris specializes in game species management with emphasis on population, harvest, and habitat management.
Steve Shea
Steve is a native of New England, but has worked as a Certified Wildlife Biologist in the Southeast for over 30 years. He has B.S and M.S. degrees in wildlife management, extensive experience in white-tailed deer research and management and written and published extensively on deer habitat and population management in the Southeast. He is the Chairman of the Deer Committee for the Southeast Section of the Wildlife Society and President of Shea Wildlife & and Environmental Services, Inc. which provides deer management services to ranches and farms across the Southeast and Midwest. Steve is an avid deer hunter and has harvested numerous P & Y whitetails.
Bronson Strickland
Bronson received a bachelor's degree in Forest Resources from the University of Georgia, a master's degree in range and wildlife management from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and a PhD in wildlife ecology from Mississippi State University. For the past 15 years he has been a Professor of Wildlife Management at Mississippi State University where he conducts research on the ecology and management of white-tailed deer in Mississippi, and throughout the southeastern US. His research findings have culminated in over 100 journal and magazine articles. Bronson has been interviewed on the Wired To Hunt, White Knuckle, and Drop Tine podcasts, and is the co-host of the Deer University podcast, where all things about deer biology and management are discussed. Bronson was recently honored to receive the 2019 Al Brothers Deer Manager of the Year Award from the Quality Deer Management Association, and Pope & Young's 2019 Lee Gladfelter Memorial Award for research related to deer management and conservation.
Sydnie Wells
Born in Illinois, she has grown up on her family farm where she has bowhunted Whitetails most of her life. She is now entering her final year at Illinois Wesleyan University, where she is majoring in nursing. An avid bow hunter and white tail enthusiast, she is also Cohost of Relentless Pursuit TV. Daughter of infamous Tim Wells "The Slock Master", she has been taught by the best! Hunting mature bucks is a family tradition and has become a professional income for Sydnie through TV and YouTube sponsorships.
Stephen West
Stephen West is the creator and host of the TV show West of Texas. Stephen has immersed himself into the lifestyle of the outdoors and has extensive knowledge of whitetail deer. Ever since hunting with his dad when he was a kid, Stephen has been addicted to going on adventures and exploring the wild. Now, Stephen has made a career out of his passion, and when he is not working on the family ranch he is either out hunting on his own, or guiding other hunters on some of the most challenging hunts in the North American territories. For Stephen, hunting is about respect for the wilderness around him, pushing himself past his own physical and mental limits, and being able to share his experiences with people that hold the same passions as he does.
Larry Zach
Larry Zach was born in Cedar Rapids and raised on the family farm along the Iowa River in SE Iowa. A childhood exploring nearby fields, streams and forests lead to a life-long passion for nature and the outdoors. Formative years of hunting, fishing and trapping were followed first with a BS in Fish and Wildlife Biology from Iowa State University and after returning from Vietnam, an MAT in Science Education at the University of Iowa. Later, while teaching science he expanded his love for the outdoors by painting wildlife, especially wild turkey and whitetail deer. By 1990 his paintings were in such demand that he resigned from his teaching position to study and paint wildlife full time. It also enabled Larry to pursue his interests in bowhunting, habitat management and whitetail deer management. In addition to being an award winning wildlife artist, Larry has been managing whitetail properties for almost thirty years and been bowhunting whitetail for over fifty years. His artwork can be viewed at www.ZachWildlifeArt.com.