r

el
TV
TV
d TV
l
Seda
r
aege
a n n el
h
Av TV
rs Vid
eo Gun and Hunting
as o n s TV TV channels and the
TV
arbon shooting sports industry
MOTV
werk
W a id
h a n nel 2018
uit C

0 50m 100m

Wranglerstar

Joe Robinet

TA Outdoors

Survival Lilly

vid Canterbury

nsible Prepper

shcraft Knives

hanie Margeth

raft & Survival

ScoutSurvival
 0 30m 60m

Summary LunkersTV

Keith Warren
North American
The hunt makes a great TV narrative. It has drama, excitement Flair
hunting channel
– even comedy – and a great ending. Although abandoned by Born & Raised Outdoors YouTube views
mainstream TV channels over the last 60 years, it is a story 2018 projection
Twang n Bang
that has been told and retold for not thousands but tens of (Total: 199 million)
thousands of years. Cave paintings of hunting scenes are an Hushin
early version of Outdoor Channel. Steven Rinella
This report covers multiple aspects of the broadcast industry,
Bear Hunting Magazine
where it can be useful to companies, organisations and brands
in the shooting sports industry, from the largest networks to Antler Addicts
the solo operators who can create a good-looking brand channel. Randy Newberg
It provides a snapshot of broadcast at a moment in time.
Television can take off at any moment. A cable channel can find
the next Duck Commanders – a YouTube channel can upload
the next viral hit. We undertook the research at the end of
December 2017 and the beginning of January 2018.
YouTube views to date
(Total: 342 million)

North American hunting channels RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
European hunting channels’ domination of YouTube is over. The
Americans are late to the party but are capturing swathes of
audience on YouTube. Two of the top three hunting channels are
also bass-fishing channels – but this is a numbers game. Get any of
the top three to feature your product and it will achieve more than
100,000 views in the first three months. That’s how well their
films are performing on YouTube. Even channels in 11th-20th
position will achieve 10,000-20,000 views with a single film. The
channels in the top ten are likely to hit 8 million+ views in 2018.
NORTH AMERICAN HUNTING CHANNELS:
Arizona Game & Fish • Bowhunting.com • Bubba Rountree Outdoors
• Bunny Hunter • Chad Mendes • Coyote Works • Deadly Passion
• DNAHoghunter • Don Mealey’s Hunting Channel • DownwindOutdoors
• Got Hunts • Gritty Bowmen • Growingdeer.tv • Guns n Chicken Strips
• Howtohunt.com • Huntin Grounds • Kendall Jones • Larysa Unleashed
• Leatherwood Outdoors • Leatherwood Outdoors 2 • Lone Star Boars
• O’Neill Ops • Outdoor Limits • Outdoorhub • Outdoorhub Hunting •
Outdoors Allie • Pigman • Plinkster Outdoors • Pork Choppers Aviation
• Ron Spomer Outdoors • Stuck N The Rut • Tex Grebner Outdoors
• The Consummate Sportsman • The Fowl Life • The Wild North •
TheIdahoanShow • Urban Hunterz • Varminter Magazine • Whitebone
Creations Hunting
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for
consideration in the 2019 survey

RANK CHANNEL NAME COUNTRY DESCRIPTION

1
LunkersTV USA Robert Terkla is into bass fishing and deer/predator hunting. Sponsored by own-brand
goods and affiliate links. He has 720,000 subscribers and each of his films averaged
162,000 views in the last three months of 2017.

2
Keith Warren USA All kinds of hunting, including bow, rifle, bear, deer, wingshooting. Sponsors include:
Freedom Munitions, SightMark, Reconyx, Air Venturi, Pulsar, Wildlife Research Centre,
Walls Outdoor Goods, Shadow Hunter blinds, Timber Creek Outdoors, Tannerite, Record
Rack, Protect The Harvest, Legendary Arms Works, Liberty safes, Lucas Outdoor Line.
Older than the men in the number one and number three slots, he has 136,000
subscribers and averaged 92,000 views per film in the last three months of 2017.

3
Flair USA Andrew Flair is a lad into bass fishing and duck hunting, based in Kansas. Sponsored
by Dux Waterfowl Co, and affiliate links. He has the second highest subscriber base of
429,000 and his films averaged 112,000 views each in the last three months of 2017.

4
Born & Raised Outdoors USA Mainly elk bowhunting. Paid for by its own shop + sponsors: FirstLite, Backcountry
Hunters & Anglers.

5 Twang n Bang USA Bowhunting and rifle hunting. Funded by affiliate links + Nikon, Bergara and Savage.
He has the third highest subscriber level at 367,000.

6
Hushin USA Casey, Eric and Bmack are devoted to hunting in the mountains and rivers of the West,
and are friends of LunkersTV. The channel title covers hunting and fishing. Sponsors
include Archery, Weatherby and Vortex optics. Visit GetHushin.com

7 Steven Rinella USA All kinds of fishing and hunting, sponsors include by FirstLite, Federal, Vortex, Yeti.

8 Bear Hunting Mag USA Bear hunting, mainly bowhunting, some whitetail, based on the online magazine of the
same name. Sponsors include Mathews Archery, clothing manufacturer FirstLite,
Huskemaw optics, skull mounting bracket Skull Hooker, and Bigwoods ‘Big Bear’ Scents.
Its films averaged 140,000 views each in the last three months of 2017.

9
Antler Addicts USA Mainly deer and coyote hunting across Texas, Freddie and Mike of Team Antler Addicts
describe their work as ‘Rise, Kill, Eat’. They have a strong ethical message.

10
Randy Newberg USA Elk, wapiti and moose with rifle and bow. Sponsors include Leupold, Howa, Nosler,
Sitka, RMEF, Kenetrek boots, Gerber, Bowtech, Rocky Mountain Calls.
European hunting channels 0 10m 20m

Fieldsports Channel

FILLING SCREENS WITH Мир Охотника European hunting

channel YouTube
BOAR, BUCKS AND BIRDS Дневник Охотника

All4hunters/All4shooters
views 2018
projection
Europe’s hunting channels were quicker than the Americans to (Total: 81 million)
TheShootingShow
see the potential in YouTube. Perhaps that is because Europe has
Potterek81 Hunting
always found it hard to sustain specialist interest hunting channels
on satellite TV. Now there is a distribution platform that provides Team Wild TV

the audience of TV for a specialist magazine advertising market. Ahmet Kolağasıoğlu

The problem remains language, with some channels putting out
Serval Channel
films in different languages and others opting to have separate
channels for different languages. Although a few publishers and Darz Bór

existing TV shows have made the jump to YouTube, notably The

Shooting Show in the UK and Darz Bór in Poland, the more usual
hunting YouTuber in Europe is entrepreneurial and sees the YouTube views to date
(Total: 304 million)
potential of YouTube for delivering audience for brands.

RANK CHANNEL NAME COUNTRY DESCRIPTION

1
Fieldsports Channel UK Set up by ITV producer David Wright and hunting magazine editor Charlie Jacoby in
2009, Fieldsports Channel produces a weekly long-form TV show about hunting and
shooting, Fieldsports Britain, as well as spin-off shows including Fieldsports Africa
and Claysports TV. It is backed by most major companies in the world of hunting/
shooting. It has 150,000 subscribers. It co-authored this report. FieldsportsChannel.tv

2
Мир Охотника Estonia Hunting and fishing in the Baltics, mainly showing boar, elk and dogwork. Clear
advertising rates laid out at vk.com/topic-78231106_35503876. If you want views for
your product, this channel leads the pack with an average 43,000 views per film in the
last three months of 2017, off just short of 100,000 subscribers.

3
Дневник Охотника Ukraine Wingshooting, foxes, boar and fishing dominate this channel, which leads on hunting
It is in the market for brand advertising, currently featuring Ukrainian advertisers.

4 All4hunters/ Germany Backed by German ammunition giant RWS, this is a collection of six channels putting
All4shooters out films in German, English and Italian. Collectively it achieves enough views to put it
in fourth place in this survey. Individually, its views-per-film rate is lower than other
channels in the top ten.

5 TheShootingShow UK Operated by the publishers of Sporting Rifle magazine, The Shooting Show was
originally made under contract by Fieldsports Channel. It now covers mainly UK
hunting stories, presented by Sporting Rifle editor Peter Carr. Sponsors include
Browning and the British Association for Shooting & Conservation.

5 Potterek81 Hunting Poland Large game hunting in the Polish forests and some films simply drinking in views of
the forest animals - no hunting. No obvious sponsorship deals. Run by Grzegorz Potasz
at Grandel-Tropowiec.pl

7
Team Wild TV UK Run by the team behind outdoor events organiser Countryman Fairs, Team Wild TV
was originally made under contract by Fieldsports Channel. Fronted by Ian Harford, it
covers UK and international hunting and kit reviews. Sponsors include Realtree and
Longthorne Gunmakers. It has the highest number of subscribers of the European
YouTube channels at 200,000.

8
Ahmet Kolağasıoğlu Turkey Ahmet is a TV producer on Turkish hunting TV channel Av TV. On his own channel, he
does not put up regular films but they are popular when he does. He is a true enthusiast
for all things hunting, shooting and outdoors in Turkey. No sponsorship.

9
Serval Channel Hungary A hunting DVD maker that has successfully made the jump to YouTube, Serval puts up
films from all over the region, including Croatia and Russia, as well as big game hunting
in Africa. It is part funded by an online shop at Serval.hr. Despite a relatively low
subscriber base of just 12,000, its films achieved an average 42,000 views each in the
last three months of 2017, the second best in this section.

10
Darz Bór Poland A TV show on Adventure cable/satellite channel in Poland. Two weeks after
broadcast, the same show goes out on Darz Bór’s YouTube channel. Presented by the
larger-than-life Przemyslaw Malec, sponsors include Blaser, Swarovski and a Polish
hunting association. Visit DarzBorTV.pl

RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER EUROPEAN HUNTING CHANNELS:

260Rips • Caza con Nosotros • CervusUK • Chasse Passion • Dave Carrie Shooting • Dreispross • Eagle-Review.com • Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs •
Feliew Hunting • FRL Media • Gamekeeper John • Hunting Game Working Dogs • Into the wilderness • Jagd Total • Jaktfeber
Juan de Dios Bonilla • Max Hunt • Mikael Tham • Pace Productions UK • RoeStalker • Shooting Photography by Jonathan M McGee
SRSPower • TSC Clay Shooting • Tweed TV • Ulrik Orskov • WaffenlandTV • Wildboar Fanatic • Yarik Andersson
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for consideration in the 2019 survey
Gun channels 0 100m 200m

Hickok45

AMERICAN GUN LOVERS IraqVeteran8888

Taofledermaus Gun channel
Funker530
YouTube views
The top 20 gun channels are going to amass more than Vickers Tactical
Military Arms Channel 2018 projection
three-quarters of a billion views between them in 2018. TheYankeeMarshal (Total: 815 million)
However, all is not rosy in the world of gun channels on YouTube. Nutnfancy
Tactical Rifleman
A number of top gun channels have stopped posting on YouTube, Sootch00
or slowed down significantly. They include FateofDestinee, Funker Tactical
Colion Noir
SteveLeeILikeGuns from Australia, Gun-Time with Brandon, GY6vids
Jerry Miculek (he has gone to Facebook), Chaos311Clarity, 22plinkster
MrGunsnGear Channel
TheBudgetArmory, Gunsmoke Guns TV, BrothersKeepers111 and BigDaddyHoffman1911
Clay Coach Online. The problem for all of them is that YouTube InRangeTV
Paul Harrell
is where the big audience is. To make this top 20, you need 10 TiborasaurusRex
million+ predicted views in 2018. Some big channels such as Gunscom

Demolition Ranch and Royal Nonesuch are more blow ’em up

than shoot ’em up. Others are good on views but irrelevant to YouTube views to date
advertisers, such as Forgotten Weapons. (Total: 3.3 billion)

RANK CHANNEL NAME COUNTRY DESCRIPTION

1 Hickok45
USA Hickok45 continues his folksy romp through guns and shooting that sees him far and
away the biggest gun channel on YouTube. Great supporter of the Sonoran Desert
Institute of gunsmithing in Arizona, his sponsors include NRA and Federal ammunition.
He has nearly 3 million subscribers and each of his films in the last three months of
2017 averaged 183,000 views.

2
IraqVeteran8888 USA The man who has done more than any other to turn the rifle range into a TV studio,
army veteran Eric Blandford is sponsored by ATI Gun Stocks, FosTech, ShootSteel.com
and Keystone Sporting Arms. He has 1.6 million subs and averaged 115,000 views per
film in the last three months of 2017. For more go to Iraqveteran8888.com

3
Taofledermaus USA More sciencey than other big gun channels, Taofledermaus is big on including viewer
suggestions in his videos, on the blogging channel WideOpenSpaces.com, and
supports the off-YouTube digital TV channel Carbon TV. He’s the one you choose for
views: he achieved an average 282,000 views per YouTube film in the last three
months of 2017 off nearly a million subscribers.

4 Funker530 USA Looks like Funker530 is giving up on YouTube. Only two posts in the last two years -
but his combination of military kit and combat footage still brings in the viewers.
He put out one film at the end of 2017 and it had more than 100,000 views in two
months from his 1.5 million subscribers. Funker530.com

5 Vickers Tactical USA Larry Vickers, author, instructor, and owner of Vickers Tactical Inc has worked out
what YouTube can do for him. He is a retired US Army combat veteran of Tier 1
special ops, a firearms accessory developer and writes the VickersGuide series of
firearms books. Go to VickersTactical.com

6
Military Arms Channel USA Tim Harmsen covers military small arms and combat footage in this channel, also
connected to the weapons education site Full30.com

7 TheYankeeMarshal USA David Atkinson covers firearms, especially handguns, self defence and occasionally
looks at prepping. He has a tee-shirt shop but no other visible sponsorship.

8 Nutnfancy USA A retired Lt Col USAF pilot with 21 years of service, his channel reviews outdoor kit
from guns, through knives to watches. Shop page is Nutnfancy.bigcartel.com

9
Sootch00 USA Mainly gun reviews, some opinion pieces, Sootch00 describes himself as a ‘Christian
Conservative’. Sponsors include Freedom Munitions, GoingGear.com, Gunmagwarehouse,
Wheaton Arms and Maxpedition. He has other spin-off channels on YouTube.

10 Tactical Rifleman USA Defense films from former Green Beret Karl Erickson. TacticalRifleman.com

11 Funker Tactical USA A self-defence channel, includinging gun and knife reviews. TheUltimateKnife.com
is a sponsor. No relations with Funker530, above. Website is FunkerTactical.com

12 Colion Noir USA An attorney in Houston, Texas, and NRA spokesman, Colion Noir is a the only African
American in the top 20. He is a keen supporter of black gun rights. Visit mrcolionnoir.com

13
GY6Vids USA Andrew (just Andrew) from GY6Vids offers self-defence, gun reviews, good -quality
photography, especially on his secondary channel on YouTube, GY6slowmo. No obvious
sponsors but is pushing his fan-funding page on Patreon. Website is GY6Vids.com

14
22plinkster USA Never underestimate the power of small calibres on YouTube. 22plinkster specialises
in rimfires, some 20-cal centrefires, including trickshots and gun reviews. He has
434,000 subscribers and his films averaged 110,000 views each in the last three
months of 2017.

15
MrGunsnGear Channel USA Reviews and how-tos of kit from across the industry, MrG&G is ex USAF and ex
US Army. He also has a B channel.
16 BigDaddyHoffman1911 USA Handgun, rifle and shotgun reviews by Mark Hoffman from North Carolina.

17
InRangeTV USA Arizona-based practical shooting channel, features military small arms among
other films. Visit InRange.tv

18 Paul Harrell USA From Oregon, Paul is tactical and ex military but doesn’t keep reminding you.

19
TiborasaurusRex USA Rex Tibor is a long-range precision-rifle shooting specialist, who originally made his
name on the internet with his Sniper-101 series. visit RexReviews.org

20
Gunscom USA The YouTube channel of the excellent Guns.com, which blogs news stories about guns,
including kit reviews.

RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER GUN CHANNELS:

Ak Operators Union, Local 47-74 • BigShooterist • CapAndBall • Equip 2 Endure LLC • Fire Mountain Outdoors • FortuneCookie45LC • GarysGuns •
Gunblastdotcom • Gun Talk Media • HossUSMC • James Yeager (he’s back!) • John Lovell • Jordan Winkler • Kirsten Joy Weiss • MannyCA • Mr45Bullitt •
RacknLoad • Reid Heinrichs • SilencerCo • The Canadian Gun Vault Inc • The Gun Collective • The VSO Gun Channel • Thunder Ranch • Weapons Education.
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for consideration in the 2019 survey

Pay/cable TV promo channels/ shows
TRADITIONAL TV
Outdoor Channel in the USA remains the granddaddy of the
hunting TV market. It’s 18.4 million viewers are not comparable to
digital TV or YouTube channel viewership, but the fact they are in
the millions means it maintains its position as market influencer.
It is likely that the biggest digital channel in the world is the
German hunting magazine Jaeger, which gives subscriptions to its
VOD channel free with subscriptions to its monthly magazine. Not
all of its readers take up the offer, but it can claim 13,000 users.
MOTV has bought Danish VOD channel Hunters Video
(reportedly has 2,500 subscribers) which may push the pair of
them towards or over the Jaeger level, but MOTV is keeping its
subscriber level confidential.
As satellite/cable TV churn increases, all the older channels
want a digital TV presence, whether via YouTube, Amazon or
their own servers. They need to find ways to make their audience
figures more trustworthy, or they will be left behind by the
certainty of audience that YouTube offers. In the meantime, do
not underestimate the power of traditional TV.

CHANNEL NAME DESCRIPTION VIEWERSHIP

Caccia TV Italian satellite channel, on Sky n/a**
Carbon TV US-based digital channel n/a
Clausen TV Norway-based digital channel n/a
Hunters Video Denmark-based digital channel, recently bought by MOTV 2,500 subscribers
Jaeger Germany-based digital channel, delivered via Vimeo 13,000 subscribers
Jara y Sedal Spain-based satellite channel n/a**
MOTV US-based digital channel from Outdoor, Sportsman and Hunters Video n/a (subs figure is ‘confidential’)
Outdoor Channel US cable channel 18.4m viewers*
Pursuit Channel US cable channel 5.2m viewers*
Seasons TV France-based digital channel n/a
Sportsman Channel US cable channel 10.2m viewers*
Waidwerk Germany-based digital channel, delivered via Amazon ‘Thousands’ but less than 10,000
Wild TV Canadian cable channel n/a**
0 2m 4m

TV SHOWS JUMP Darz Bór

YOUTUBE RANKING
1
Sportsman Channel
Darz Bór
TO YOUTUBE
Clausen TV
Caccia TV
Wild TV TV show YouTube 2 Sportsman Channel
Jara y Sedal views 2018 projection
Based on subscribers, Jara y Sedal (90,000 Jaeger
(Total: 16 million) 3 Clausen
0 TV 2m
Outdoor Channel
subs) and Sportsman Channel (75,000 subs) Darz Bór
Av TV 4 Caccia TV
Sportsman Channel
have the serious presence on YouTube. Hunters Video Clausen TV

However, it is a TV show from Poland that Seasons TV

Carbon TV
5 Wild TV
Caccia TV
Wild TV

wins the laurels for best use of YouTube. MOTV

Jara y Sedal
6 Jara y Sedal
Jaeger
Waidwerk
Two weeks after Darz Bór goes out on a Pursuit Channel
Outdoor Channel

Polish cable/satellite, it goes up on YouTube, 7 Av TV

Jaeger
Hunters Video
Seasons TV
driving a strong presence, an income and a 8
CarbonOutdoor
TV Channel
proposition it can take to sponsors. MOTV

9
Waidwerk
Av TV (Turkey)
YouTube views to date Pursuit Channel
* Xmedia US data, P2+, live viewing, average
monthly viewership, January-November 2017, (Total: 115 million) 10 Hunters Video
supplied by comScore These other channels are set to get 250,000 views or fewer on YouTube
** data not available in 2018: Seasons TV • Carbon TV • MOTV • Waidwerk • Pursuit Channel
Gun trade and outdoor sports

COMPETITION TIME – WHICH BRAND HAS

THE BIGGEST PRESENCE ON YOUTUBE?
The shooting sports industry’s love affair with TV continues as YouTube takes over from cable, satellite and DVD. The new YouTube
channels are taking ad spend mainly from the hunting magazines, but they are also having an effect on spend in the cable/satellite
sector. And much of that money is going on the shooting sports industry’s own YouTube channels. Brands are learning that good-quality
television is expensive to make, but the rewards can be great, especially when they show the commitment to YouTube that Realtree,
Cold Steel and some of the airgun companies do. These are the winners on YouTube, ranked by subscriber numbers.

Accessories

1 Primos Hunting 5 Hogue Inc

2 FoxPro Inc 6 UTG Leapers

3 Cerakote 7 Battenfeld Technologies Inc

4 ATN Corp 8 GRS Riflestocks

Primos Hunting is almost four times ahead of the competition

in this segment, with nearly 40,000 subscribers to its YouTube
channel. Calling animals is an easy way to get views, but the rest
only requires imagination. Battenfeld has built a strong viewer-
ship (only 1,400 subs but 2 million views) on giveaways and its
series ‘Thankful for Hunting’.

Team Primos and North Carolina gobbler success

Airguns
1 Replica Airguns
2 Pyramydair
3 AirgunsofArizona
4 Gamo Outdoor
Gamo Channel
5 Crosman
6 Airgun Depot
7 Blackpool Air Rifles
8 Air Arms TV
9 Umarex TV
10 Airgun World
11 BSA Guns Official
12 FX Airguns
13 Daisy Outdoor Products
14 HN Sport
Apparel
1 RealtreeOutdoors
2 Mossy Oak
3 Under Armour Hunt
4 Fjällräven
5 KUIU Ultralight Hunting
6 Sitka Gear
10 Jack Pyke of England
11 Härkila
12 Hillman hunting
13 Nomad Outdoor
14 Swazi New Zealand
15 Deerhunter

Replica Airguns (208,000 subs, nearly four times other airgun
companies) is big enough to dominate the general airgun chan-
nels. Michael Kaye started a business selling airguns from Canada
after the success of his first YouTube video. The other two giants
of this section, Pyramdair (58,000 subs) and Airguns of Arizona
(45,000 subs) are both airgun businesses that started channels.
Their strength on YouTube lies in their sponsorship of other air-
gun YouTube channels. Another channel listed here, FX Airguns,
also recognised the importance of YouTube early and backed
some of the bigger channels
7 Barbour 16 Ridgeline TV
8 Hunter Boots 17 Swedteam
9 Musto Clothing 18 Schoffel Country
It is hard to beat Realtree. It practically invented hunting TV. It
toyed with a hunting streaming service on its own server but has
now sensibly moved to YouTube, where it has earned an incred-
ible 130,000 subscribers, ahead of Mossy Oak on 43,000. The
clothing companies back the wider hunting YouTuber community
and KUIU even runs awards for the best hunting YouTube films.

Ammunition

1 Hornady 6 Hull Cartridge

2 Federal Premium Ammo 7 RWS Hunting

3 Nosler Inc TV 8 Eley Limited

4 Black Hill Ammunition 9 Swift Bullet Company

5 Norma Precision
Apart from Hornady, the ammunition companies have been slow
to promote their own YouTube channels. Like optics companies,
they prefer to be active sponsors of other YouTube channels. For
example, Federal sponsored the YouTuber gatherings at the Hick-
Realtree’s 130,000 YouTube subscriber figure is nearly three
ock45 compound and RWS backs the All4hunters group.
times the number of other hunting apparel YouTube channels
Bowhunting Firearms manufacture/distribution
1 Hoyt 8 Ramcat Broadheads
1 RugerFirearms 21 Colt Firearms
2 Mathews Archery 9 Martin Archery
2 Beretta 22 Kahr Firearms Group
3 Official Bear Archery 10 Muzzy Broadheads
Fabbrica d’Armi Pietro Beretta 23 Thomson Center
4 Rage Broadheads 11 Rexpid Broadheads
3 Sig Sauer Inc 24 KimberAmerica
5 Easton Bowhunting 12 Swat Broadheads
4 Glock Inc 25 Steyr Mannlicher
6 Diamond Archery Hoyt has little competition
as master of bowhunting on
5 Smith Wesson Corp 26 Sauer & Sohn
7 Swhacker Broadheads
6 Savage Gear 27 Weatherby Inc
YouTube. Its own channel has 42,000 subscribers, more than
twice the next on the list, and Hoyt sponsors a rollcall of the top 7 Browning 28 James Purdey & Sons
bowhunting channels on YouTube. Further down the list, watch 29 NIOATV
Browning - English Channel
the growth of Easton Bowhunting – only 5,000 subscribers but
more than 2 million overall views puts it in third place on views. Browning - Chaîne Française 30 SakoSverige

Browning - Canal Español 31 Hatsan Arms

Browning - Canalia Italiano 32 AnschuetzGmbh

Clay traps
8 Benelli Firearms 33 Perazzi
1 ChampionTarget 3 Promatic Traps UK Benelli Armi SpA 34 Krieghoff
2 Atlas Trap Company 4 Laporte Shooting Sports 9 Remington Arms Company 35 MerkelDieJagd

10 Daniel Defense 36 FeinwerkbauGmbH

Clayshooting is a tricky one. The ISSF channel delivers interna-
tional trapshooting TV, is well-funded and films are well-made, 11 TrackingPoint 37 TikkaFinland
but views are low. The same can be said for the sport of clay-
shooting. Compared to hunting, it is relatively rich but not popular.
12 OF Mossberg & Sons Inc 38 Caesar Guerini USA
Champion’s subscribers are in the low hundreds and Laporte 13 Henry Repeating Arms 39 Fabarm USA
keeps its YouTube stats secret – though it also funds a video
streaming service via its WeShoot app. 14 Walther Firearms 40 Fausti Arms

15 Taurus Firearms 41 Scott Volquartsen

16 Holland & Holland 42 William Powell

17 FN America 43 CG Haenel

18 Mauser Hunting 44 Longthorne Guns

19 Winchester Repeating Arms 45 Caesar Guerini

20 Blaser Rifles 46 John Rigby

The top ten positions for subs in the ‘firearms manufacture/dis-

Laporte has invested in its own social media platform, WeShoot,
including a TV streaming service
tribution’ segment of this report range from 20,000 to 60,000.
Their total views are 5 million+ each, with only TrackingPoint’s
channels deserving a mention with 8.8 million total views. On
YouTube, it looks like the best known gun companies equate to
the most watched channels..

Ruger’s Mark Gurney shoots the American Rifle Ranch for RugerFirearms channel
Knives

1 Cold Steel 9 Emerson Knives

2 Schrade Knives 10 Spyderco Knives

3 Gerber Gear 11 Buck Knives

4 CRKT Official 12 Ka-Bar Knives

5 SOG Knives 13 Kershaw Knives

6 Benchmade Knife Company 14 Böker Knives

7 Leatherman 15 Zero Tolerance Knives

8 Victorinox AG 16 Microtech Knives

At nearly half a million subscribers, Cold Steel rules YouTube

among the brands in the shooting sports market. It set out to
conquer the space with a well-designed series of videos designed Brownells Inc makes simple, in-shop films about products and
to appeal to the five-minute viewing public. Among the others, gunsmithing
Victorinox is one to watch with 20 million total views, four times
any of the rest but way short of Cold Steel’s 150 million. Retail

1 Brownells Inc 5 Frankonia

2 Basspro 6 Solognac

3 Kentucky Gun Co 7 Philip Morris

4 Cabelas hunting 8 NapierofLondon

Retailers who are successful on Youtube make films that extend

the idea of ‘service’ to video. A retailer YouTube channel looks
like the FAQ section of the shop’s website, answering questions
about products and offering tips on how to use those products in
a warm and engaging manner. That’s how Brownells has built up
58,000 subscribers.

Cold Steel’s well-set, well-lit demonstration videos have built it

the largest YouTube audience of any brand in the industry

Optics

1 Aimpoint 7 LeicaHunting
2 Trijicon Leica Sport Optics
Hunting
3 Burris Optics Company

4 Zeiss Hunting
8 Nikon Sport Optics

5 Leupold Optics
9 Schmidt & Bender

6 Swarovski Optik Hunting

10 Minox Webcasts

Like the ammunition companies, the optics brands have spent

their money supporting the wider hunting YouTube community
rather than growing their own channels. Aimpoint is top of the
list wth 14,000 subscribers and 5.6 million total views. Swarovski
has the second highest total views at 3.2 million. As optics adopt
video recording tech, this may be a sector that surprises. Aimpoint uses YouTube to show the durability of its sights
Bushcraft/prepper/survivalist channels

WHITTLING AWAY AT THE LIFESTYLE DREAM

Bushcrafters, survivalists and preppers are marginally attached to the hunting/shooting industry. They are included here because they
tend to have much larger audiences than pure hunting channels. Based on recent performance (last three months of 2017), a product
included in a film by TA Outdoors, Joe Robinet or Wranglestar will achieve 100,000-250,000 views. Chanels need a minimum of 6.5
million predicted views in 2018 to make the top ten.

RANK CHANNEL NAME COUNTRY DESCRIPTION

1
Wranglerstar USA A brilliant folksy proposition: in 2010, the Wranglerstar family left comfortable city life for
the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Their films deliver the American ‘homesteading’
dream. The family’ films achieved 180,000+ views each in the last three months of 2017.
It has nearly achieved its YouTube gold play button with 916,000 subscribers.

2
Joe Robinet Canada This Canadian delivers bushcraft style camping trips in tents and natural shelters. He
is strong on combining kit reviews with stories of being out there. His films were
achieving 270,000+ views each in the last three months of 2017 - the highest in this
group. He has just over half a million subscribers.

3
TA Outdoors UK Mike Pullen makes mainly how-to films about building shelters in the woods and other
bushcraft skills. He does kit features as well, including airguns. He only has 200,000
subscribers but his films achieved a good average of 135,000 views each in the last
three months of 2017.

4
Survival Lilly Austria In the top 100 YouTube channels in Austria, Lilly produces bushcraft films including
hunting with rifles. She quit an office job in Vienna in 2015 and is now funded by
YouTube sponsorship, donations and plans a shop at SurvivalLilly.at. She has more
than 600,000 subscribers.

5
David Canterbury USA One of the most prominent bushcrafters in North America, David Canterbury featured
on other channels before launching his own. His sponsors include Danner Boots,
Muck Boots and Leatherman. With nearly half a million subscribers, he has a great
base to move up the list next year.

6
Sensible Prepper USA A spin-off from the Sootch00 gun channel, Sensible Prepper offers tips, opinions and
kit reviews. Sponsors include Maxpedition and Going Gear.

7
Dutch Bush Knives Netherlands Two Dutchmen explore everything you can do with a knife in the woods that allows them
both to leave those woods alive. They have a clothing outlet via ArmadilloMerino.com

8
Stephanie Margeth Germany The definition of tomboy, Stephanie has one foot in Germany and one in the USA.
She is funded by YouTube earnings, donations and a deal with GearBest.com

9 Far North Bushcraft USA The only properly bearded bushcrafter in the top ten, Lonnie (and his wife Connie)
& Survival bring bushcraft tips from Alaska, including firelighting in the snow. Their films got a
creditable average 55,000 views each in the last three months of 2017.

10
BlackScoutSurvival USA Jack Richland covers both urban and wilderness survival, including lock picking,
self-defence, prepping, knife/tactical/outdoor gear reviews, and he has a shop at
BlackScoutSurvival.com

0 50m 100m
0 50m 100m
Wranglerstar
Wranglerstar
Joe Robinet
Joe Robinet

TA Outdoors
TA Outdoors Bushcraft/prepper/
Survival Lilly Lilly
Survival survivalist channel
David Canterbury YouTube views
David Canterbury
Sensible Prepper 2018 projection
Sensible Prepper
Dutch Bushcraft Knives
(Total: 272 million)
Dutch Bushcraft Knives
Stephanie Margeth
Stephanie
Far North Bushcraft Margeth
& Survival

Far NorthBlackScoutSurvival
Bushcraft & Survival
YouTube views to date
(Total: 646 million) BlackScoutSurvival
The Wranglerstars

RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER BUSHCRAFT/PREPPER/SURVIVALIST CHANNELS:

7 Trumpets Prepper • Andrew Ucles • ArmouredCockroach • BabeeBlueOnTheTown • BC Bushcraft • BexarPrepper • Big Family • Homestead • Bushcraft
Bartons • Bushcraft Bear • Bushcraft Heroes • Bushcraft Latinoamerica • Bushcraft Natur und Kochen • BushcraftOnFire • Canadian Prepper • Clan Gunn
Bushcraft • Coalcracker Bushcraft • CountryBoyPrepper • CR Bushcraft • DayUntoDay • Demcad • Der Waldläufer Jagd Bushcraft Survival • Emelie’s
Outdoor Adventures • Engineer775 • FunkyPrepper • Ju Alpin • Kullcraven Bushcraft & Survival • MCQBushcraft • MDPrepper • Mike Reed Outdoors • North
Survival •NorwegianBushcraft •Papica Bushcraft • Royal Nonesuch • SouthernPrepper1 • Survie, bois et bushcraft! •Survival Russia • Taromovies Swiss
Bushcraft & Survival • TexasPrepper2 • The Survival Channel - Survival Gear Reviews • TheUrbanPrepper • TinMan Bushcraft • Ultimate Survival Tips
• VikingPreparedness • Yankee Prepper - Preparing for the Wrath of God and Fine Coffee.
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for consideration in the 2019 survey
Airgun channels 0 10m 20m

THE WORLD’S AirArmsHuntingSA

Ted's HoldOver

MOST ACCESSIBLE
Airgun channel
AirgunGearShow YouTube views

SHOOTING SPORT Squirrel Hunter 2018 projection

(Total: 54 million)
Expert Airgun Reviews / AirgunWeb / AirgunWebTV

There was a time when airgun channels had Airgun Hunter Extreme Channel

the highest views of all the shooting sports Airgun Exploration & Advancement Channel
channels on YouTube. Some of the gloss American Airgunner
Expert A
has come off that in recent years but the VerminHuntersTV
accessibility of airguns makes this a sport
AirGun
for a wide public. And the airgun eco-system
looks after its own. Dominated by Pyramydair
and Airguns of Arizona, sponsorship finds its
way to a wide range of YouTube channels. The
channels that make the top ten will have a YouTube views to date
predicted 1.1 million+ views in 2018. (Total: 235 million)

RANK CHANNEL NAME COUNTRY DESCRIPTION

1
AirArmsHuntingSA South Africa Matt Dubber made his name with outstanding films hunting with airguns in South
Africa. Despite the channel name, he now uses more than Air Arms, and has branched
out into full-bore rifle hunting, too. Matt achieved the highest average number of views
per film in the last three months of 2017 at 41,000. He has 153,000 subscribers

2
Ted’s HoldOver USA Ted Biers was the first to achieve superstar status with an airgun channel. He films
what he wants, and sometimes he doesn’t film at all. He wins benchrest competitions,
but his staple is hunting videos. Ted has the highest number of subscribers in the
section at 422,000.

3
AirgunGearShow UK Noisy, upbeat reviews and hunts by larger-than-life Giles Barry. Backed by all in
the airgun world.

4
Squirrel Hunter UK Nick King’s channel is devoted, as the tin says, to shooting squirrels + he does airgun
and kit reviews. This simple premise has brought Nick nearly 100,000 subscribers, the
third highest in this section.

5 Expert Airgun Based in Arizona, Rick Eutsler’s reviews go alongside his airgun blog site airgunweb.com,
Reviews / AirgunWeb USA supported by Pyramidair and Umarex USA among others.
/ AirgunWebTV

6 Airgun Hunter USA Hunts and homemade night vision, this channel is long on reviews and how-tos.
Extreme Channel Sponsors include Predator International, Hatsan Air Rifles and MTC Optics.

7 Airgun Exploration & USA Run by Steve Scialli, AEAC offers reviews with the backing of all the big names in
Advancement Channel the airgun industry.

8
American Airgunner USA Hosted by Rossi Morreale and sponsored by Umarex USA and Pyramyd Air, American
Airgunner is the successful jump by Airgunner TV from Pursuit Channel to YouTube.

9
VerminHuntersTV UK A UK channel devoted to reviews of airguns and airgunning kit in the field. Not to be
confused with UK airgun channel HuntersVermin.

10
AirGun Kuwait Airguns have fans all over the world and this review channel from the Gulf is top of this
list Big on reviews, sponsors include Czech-made Vulcan airguns.

Ted Biers at the AOA Extreme Benchrest Matt Dubber tests the
Hawke Sidewinder
Turret

RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER AIRGUN CHANNELS:

Airgun World • AirgunBrasil • AirgunTV • Awesome Airguns • Horne250 • HuntersVermin • TheEDgun
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for consideration in the 2019 survey
Hunting magazines

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE?

Back in the old days, nobody got fired for booking an ad with a hunting magazine. However, some magazines have been slow to discover
the audience available to them and their advertisers on YouTube.
Channels in the top ten will get a predicted 1.4 million+ views in 2018. Jara y Sedal (a magazine and TV show from Innova Ediciones)
has the biggest presence on YouTube with 9.1 million views predicted in 2018. It has a creditable 90,000 subscribers. Next biggest is
American Rifleman (NRA Publications) with 40,000 subscribers and nearly 6 million views in 2018. But they only average 2,000-2,500
views for a video in its first 90 days.
Book a film with either Jaeger magazine (owned by Jahr Top Special Verlag) or The Shooting Show (the YouTube version of Sporting
Rifle and Airgun Shooter from Future Publishing) and it will be watched at least 10,000 times in the first three months. Deutsche
Jagdzeitung (Paul Parey) is in third place with an average 8,000 views per film.
0 5m 10m

MAGAZINE NAME COUNTRY Jara y Sedal

1 Jara y Sedal Spain American Rifleman Hunting magazine

Sporting Rifle, Airgun Shooter YouTube views
2 American Rifleman USA
Deutsche Jagdzeitung 2018 projection
3 Sporting Rifle, Airgun Shooter UK Eastmans' Hunting Journal (Total: 36 million)

4 Deutsche Jagdzeitung Germany Shooting Times

Field & Stream

5 Eastmans’ Hunting Journal USA
Guns & Ammo

6 Shooting Times UK GunMart Spo

Outdoor Life
7 Field & Stream USA

8 Guns & Ammo USA

9 GunMart UK

10 Outdoor Life USA YouTube views to date

(Total: 138 million)

RESEARCHERS ALSO LOOKED AT THESE SMALLER HUNTING MAGAZINE YOUTUBE CHANNELS:

Airgun World, UK • Armi e Tiro, Italy • Clay Shooting, UK • Halali, Germany • Jaeger, Germany • Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, USA • North American
Hunting, USA • Ontario Out of Doors, Canada • Petersen’s Bowhunting, USA • ShootingUK (The Field, Shooting Times, Shooting Gazette), UK • Sporting
Shooter, Australia • Wild & Hund, Germany
If you feel a channel has been left off the list, please contact us for consideration in the 2019 survey

Jara y Sedal has done the most among the world’s hunting
magazines to make the jump to YouTube
CREDITS
This report would not have been possible without the help of
comScore, Tubular Labs and SocialBlade. US Satellite/Cable
viewing figures came from comScore. Figures for Views
per YouTube vid (last 90 days of 2017) were sourced from
Tubular Labs. Figures for Total views on YouTube were
provided by SocialBlade.

The report was compiled by

FieldsportsChannel.tv

If you would like to see the

numbers behind the report,
contact James Westbrook
james@fieldsportschannel.tv
+447718126762
Design by ChrisHaddon.co.uk