Founded in 2017 by Land Professional Brian Austin and Jeff DeCarlis, Quest Hunt is a unique service designed to facilitate statewide whitetail deer hunting competitions for the average hunter. Currently available in 12 states including much of the Midwest, Quest Hunt aims to provide an engaging platform for hunters to compete and share in the excitement of a successful hunt.

During a recent episode of the National Land Podcast, founder Brian Austin appeared to discuss the ins and outs of Quest Hunt and their objectives as a company. Speaking about the motivation behind Quest Hunt, Austin stated, “We just wanted to bring a two-man whitetail hunting tournament to the everyday hunters. When we launched this we were looking at CrossFit Games, where you had a whole bunch of people doing these workouts essentially in their home gym, being part of a bigger community. At the same time, we saw huge growth in fantasy sports. People are already watching the NFL on Sundays, but fantasy football just gives them another reason to watch. That was the goal with Quest, to give people who already hunt another reason to be active and involved. And that’s what we did.”

How Does Quest Hunt Work?

Hunters interested in registering for a Quest Hunt competition in their state can sign up for the yearly tournament through the Quest Hunt website in teams of two for a fee of $125 per hunter. With their Quest Hunt membership, participants also get discounts on about 50 different hunting and outdoor brands on everything from hunting apparel to trail cameras.

During the course of the season, each team member is required to submit their harvested deer to Quest within 24 hours. These submissions are then displayed on their interactive live leaderboard for other hunters to view and comment on, fostering a community of support and competition for all participating hunters.

At the end of the season, all participants are invited to an end-of-year banquet hosted by Quest Hunt to score each team’s submissions and announce the winners of each state. At the request of the participants, Quest Hunt performs a lie detector test on all participants during this evaluation to ensure that the submitted deer were correctly and ethically harvested. After all the numbers have been tallied, $50,000 worth of prizes are distributed between the top 10 performing teams of each state, including hunting blinds, bows, optics, smokers, and more!

This end-of-year banquet is an exciting finale to the competition, connecting hunters from all over the country as they come together to recognize each other’s achievements. Austin echoed the importance that this event has for both himself and the competitors. When asked about the best part of running Quest Hunt, Austin replied with the following: 

“It’s the people. I’ve met some of the coolest people and shared hunting camp with guys I didn’t know before Quest. So the friends and relationships that come with sharing camp with someone, and I think from the outside looking in I think that’s what I enjoy too. I get to see those relationships form annually at our banquet. I mean, we get a guy from Ohio who meets a guy from Kansas and then next year they’re on a hunt together. That’s definitely been the coolest part for me.”

If you’re interested in joining in on this year’s competition, check out their website here! For more information or to find land for sale in Missouri, get in contact with Brian Austin at Baustin@NationalLand.com!