Reality hunting show I would like to watch.

[lakevet]

In this age of "reality" shows, I propose a new show that is similar to Bass magazines "A day on the lake" where a pro fisherman is dumped cold turkey on a public lake he has never seen, and has to make the best of the situation heavily depending on his/her abilities and less on technology/networking/inside info. Whether a home run or a skunk, it is what it is and we get to see it all. So this new show would take the hunting show stars and put them onto PUBLIC land cold turkey and give them 5 days to figure it out on the ground without their "support system" machine/guides/private land/spy cam network/food plots/minerals/etc.

It could be crowded public near a metro, or low density low deer population wilderness. Near prime agriculture or housing development. Have to depend heavily on hunting skills to make the best of the situation.

I think it would quickly separate the hunters from the shooters.

Anyone else have interest or ideas along this line?

What rules would you have?

What would you allow/not allow?

It would be a great change from the endless big bucks that is on the screen.

And great way to follow the pro's thinking process on how to figure out and make the best of the hunting situation many everyday hunters experience.

lakevet

[NoWiser]

I like the idea, and have thought about this exact same thing often! I think you would find that without their high fenced properties and baiting/game feeders, many of these "pros" are average hunters, at best, who are just very good at marketing themselves.

My rules would be:

a. No guides

b. No baiting

c. Public land only

You get two days to scout the area before hunting season. They can choose when they want to scout, whether it's a month before season, a day before season, or anytime in between.

I would be 10X more likely to watch a show like this than the garbage that is on now. I'd rather see someone shoot a yearling doe on their own that shoot a 180" buck that has a name and they watch video of the night before the hunt. If you found someone that could be consistently successful doing this, there could be a lot to be learned from the show. Heck, I'll even nominate myself for the job. There may not be many "kill shots", but I can guarantee many mistakes for everyone to learn from.

[Jameson]

I almost had a response typed, but just can't come up with any kind of hunting show I would watch.

[nubbin]

Sounds a little like "tred Barta" Loved that show. To bad tred got sick.

[slimngrizzly]

I think it may be a neat show for people who hunt that way. 2 days of scouting prior to a 3 day season.

I guess for me, I enjoy the shows which show a whole year of private land management, trail cameras, shed hunting, summer scouting, food plot planting. I understand these "pros" have things a little better than what we do but the concept is the same. It shows the work that goes into it, to get a big trophy deer out of it(even when the work is being done by some one other than the hunter).

I guess I dont even watch TV or have cable but if I did, i like watching how these "pro" hunters do it on the land they hunt, even if its unrealistic. All shows can be good if you get bit and pieces out of them. They all apply to a different niche!

As far as your show....

Id make it in a different state each week. No guide, one stand. See what you can see. Be interesting what someone with different experience would look for and turn into success.

[Bear55]

I like the idea but I'm not sure it would work, no one would shoot any deer.

To be fair you would have to give someone an entire season on public to get enough film to fill an episode or two. They would also need time to scout and prepare for the season to have a realistic chance to tag a nice deer.

I dont' care how good of a hunter you are, going in blind on public land for a 5 day hunt is a very difficult situation.

[CodyDawg]

Guys, that show already exists. It is called On Your Own Adventures and is the best hunting show on TV, bar none in my opinion. The host, Randy Newberg is really involved with conservation issues and shows the good, the bad and the ugly on his show. He recently showed an Alaska public land black bear hunt where he wounded a bear and didnt recover it (ya aint gonna see that on a high fence Texas whitetail hunt!). How he goes about it is a tribute to the average hunter. He hunts all over the west, but only Do It Yourself, public land hunting that the average guy can do and afford. He hunts hard though, so from that standpoint he isnt the average guy. But he is always ethical and I feel is a good representation of our sport.

[Wes Ellis]

Im with Slimngrizzly. And Cody Dawgis on the ball! I agree with him.

[Rippinlip]

I like the idea,

Another idea I think would be neat would be to use people on here and then draw an area in Minnesota and them tell they have 2 weeks to picture (scouting or motion) and set a story line and the learning curve they went through to learn and hunt a piece of public land.

Hope my work understands if this happens.

[lakevet]

Guys, that show already exists. It is called On Your Own Adventures and is the best hunting show on TV, bar none in my opinion. The host, Randy Newberg is really involved with conservation issues and shows the good, the bad and the ugly on his show. He recently showed an Alaska public land black bear hunt where he wounded a bear and didnt recover it (ya aint gonna see that on a high fence Texas whitetail hunt!). How he goes about it is a tribute to the average hunter. He hunts all over the west, but only Do It Yourself, public land hunting that the average guy can do and afford. He hunts hard though, so from that standpoint he isnt the average guy. But he is always ethical and I feel is a good representation of our sport.

Sounds like he would be a possible host to the show. I want to see the big names being the ones do it themselves with a limit on technology so they are very dependent on the hunting skills/abilities contained in their head and info gathered by eyes ears and not satellites, etc. I even wonder if some of them could make it out of the woods here in Northern Minnesota w/o a gps, much less make it to their stand!

Another one would be late season cold snowy tracking deer Benoit style with muzzleloaders. One on one on the level with the deer, cut a track and see if you can get that deer. Good test of woodsmanship and hunting skills! Compass matches, good clothes, one shot open sighted muzzleloader, license, food, water a set of deer tracks and that is it!

That set of skills was commonplace about 4 generations ago, but few can do it today.

lakevet

[OYOA]

Sounds like he would be a possible host to the show. I want to see the big names being the ones do it themselves with a limit on technology so they are very dependent on the hunting skills/abilities contained in their head and info gathered by eyes ears and not satellites, etc. I even wonder if some of them could make it out of the woods here in Northern Minnesota w/o a gps, much less make it to their stand!

Another one would be late season cold snowy tracking deer Benoit style with muzzleloaders. One on one on the level with the deer, cut a track and see if you can get that deer. Good test of woodsmanship and hunting skills! Compass matches, good clothes, one shot open sighted muzzleloader, license, food, water a set of deer tracks and that is it!

That set of skills was commonplace about 4 generations ago, but few can do it today.

lakevet

CodyDawg told me about this thread, so being the host of the show, I decided to register and say hello to those living in my former stomping grounds of northern MN.

As Codydawg stated, our show is all self-guided hunting on public land. We do it mostly in western states. No guides, no outfitters, no high fences, none of the stuff mentioned previously in this thread.

I spent the first twenty years of my life hunting and trapping in Koochiching, Itasca, and Beltrami Counties. Grew up in the mighty town of Big Falls. Well, maybe not too mighty, but still a great place if you love to hunt, fish, and trap.

I have lived in the west the last 25 years, with Bozeman Montana being home the last twenty years. I still go home to the family cabin in Marcell and our property on the banks of the Big Fork River. Just was back for a week last month.

If you get a chance to watch our show, I hope you like what you see. We do exactly the style of hunts lakevet talked about.

It is much harder to do this and get top quality footage when you have to show up in a new place, figure out the animal patterns, deal with lots of hunting pressure, and try to get it all done in five days of hunting.

It is a huge challenge. We don't always get one, but hopefully we have a compelling story to tell. There are always obstacles when dealing with public land and tons of hunting pressure. Most of the other TV hosts tell me that when it comes to trying to film episodes under those conditions, that "You can have that."

A big part of the show is based on what I learned spending every extra hour hunting deer out on Pine Island State Forest, floating the Big Fork River each day while spring beaver trapping, fishing the many lakes from Rainy, LOW, Red, Spider, Winnie, and you name it.

Best of luck to all of you this season. If ever you are heading out west, feel free to send me a PM if I can help. Being lucky enough to hunt all the western states each year, I know plenty of public land spots that the self-guided hunter can access.

My brother still lives in Deer River and he is trying to convince me to apply for the wolf tags, then come back and film that. Would love to come back and shoot one, but the filming season seems to have me overly committed on other hunts for this year. Maybe next year.

[GSP4EVER]

OYOA, great show. I love it and DVR ir so I can whatch it whenever. I am researching and planning a DIY hunt out west in the next couple of years.

If you guys want another option, check out "Whitetail Adrenaline." Its on DVD. 100% Public land and no sponsors.

[rkhinrichs]

OYOA- thank you, love the show, and most of all your from minnesota so that is pretty cool i think!! keep up the hard work!!!!!!

flock_32-Whitetail Adrenaline!!!! yes i love them to!!!!!!! there new dvd comes out july 20th "Dropping the Hammer"

[OYOA]

OYOA- thank you, love the show, and most of all your from minnesota so that is pretty cool i think!! keep up the hard work!!!!!!

Thanks, flock and rkh.

Yeah, the majority of my guest hunters are family or high school buddies from Koochiching County. More specifically, Big Falls. That probably explains why we suffer from a serious lack of talent.

The season that is airing this year, has mostly solo hunts. The season we start filming next month will have four episodes featuring square-headed Norsemen who bleed Viking purple.

[CodyDawg]

Thanks for coming on here Randy! Having watched most if not all of his shows, I can attest to the "serious lack of talent" comment.....no just kidding he has plenny of talent....one day we hope to actually see it!

I am pretty much done with those hunting shows that are not DIY public land hunts. They are just so fake! But OYOA isnt fake (you gotta watch the Alaska Black Bear episode 1 or 2 where one of Randy's Minnesota friends jumps out of the boat too early and ends up getting a dunking in frigid Alaska waters).

Another one that really shows the ethics by which Randy hunts is that in a Montana elk hunt a big bull is walking toward Randy and he looks at his GPS.... The other guy asks him if it is on public land or private and Randy says it is too close to tell so he lets him walk. That really had to be a gut-punch not being able to shoot that bull. That is a great all around episode by the way.

[CodyDawg]

By the way, On Your Own Adventures has a great HSOforum as well where there is a forum that discusses some of the western hunting issues that I enjoy as well. If you are a big game western hunter, you may want to sneak a peak at it as there is a lot of good info over there.

[sticknstring]

Sounds like a great show - what network and airtimes? I've spent a fair amount of time in the Marcell area in my day - love driving up hwy 38.

[CodyDawg]

It is on Thursdays at 8 pm on the Sportsmans Channel for me. I DVR all of them as that is bedtime for the kids.