2015 Fresh Tracks whiteboard

[bobbydean]

I, also, would love to see a Barbary hunt in New Mexico. It would be hard on the camera man walking those hills!

Would be a unique hunt.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Randy you the man, good luck this season, if I draw a deer tag again I will be calling you...
Matt

 

[BlakeA]

This is good stuff Randy. There looks to be some great adventures in 15'! Good luck!

 

[double_a85]

.... Anyone who is subscribing to a cable package and watching our show is probably shelling out $600-$1200 per year on a cable/satellite TV subscription. If they can afford that TV package, they can afford any of the hunts listed above.

Great point! I refuse to pay for cable or satellite t.v... I figure that money saved gives me one weekend a month of gas to go hunting/fishing/camping/whatever... which is way more enjoyable and entertaining that sitting on the couch at home staring at the T.V!

Thanks for breaking those hunts down, Randy. I had no idea they were in that price bracket. I expected your Alaska Bear hunt to cost more with airfare... gives me some new hunts to consider.

 

[hunt1up]

AZ javelina and deer combo is afforable and attainable. Lots of fun there.

The NW aoudad would be great too. I'm intending on doing the "poor man's sheep hunt" at some point in the near future.

 

[Big Fin]

AZ javelina and deer combo is afforable and attainable. Lots of fun there.

They are fun to hunt, but javelina episodes get even lower ratings than catfish noodling. Just not much audience interest in javelina. I think they are cool.

Have you ever thought about a NM Aoudad hunt?

I've thought about it, given it is something I want to do someday. Same for Oryx and Ibex.

Yet, to draw one of the three species above is hard and in some cases expensive. Plus, some of the good Oryx hunts that are public land-based are on military grounds that will nto allow video cameras.

The challenges above are enough to deflect our attention elsewhere. When you add those challenges to the mission of our show having a message of conservation, particularly conservation of endemic species, it just is not part of our core message to film a hunt for Aoudad, Ibex, or Oryx, as much as I someday want to hunt those species.

I used to apply for all of them, but have not done so for the last few years upon realizing how filming a hunt for them would be outside our core story line. Even if it would be a ton of fun for Fin and his trigger finger.

As the board reflects, expect to see heavy doses of our core hunts; elk, deer, pronghorn. Mix in a bear, moose, or a lucky draw of sheep/goat, and that is what we will be showing. Elk is our sweet spot. Our elk episodes are always huge spikes in viewership, even if we don't punch a tag. Some have asked why that is, if we are not killing B&C bulls and turning down 350" monsters in each segment.

I think the reason our elk hunts gain so much viewership is because the private estate elk hunts have worn out their intrigue with viewers to the extent of not having much relevance to the viewer. Viewer expectation of elk episodes has become that the hunt will be financially out of reach of them and does not happen in a way that is even close to how elk hunting unfolds for them. Elk come into calls like they've never been hunted. Elk pose for ten minutes waiting to be shot. Never is there any challenges of property boundaries and/or hunting pressure. The guide and outfitter take care or so many details, the hunt seems very pedestrian.

Our hunts are not that way. We struggle, screw up, have to compete with other hunters, and we shoot bulls that are nice, but not unrealistic for the average person who wants to come and do it. At times we go home with tag in hand and tail between our legs. We try to keep it as relevant as possible to the viewer. Yeah, we like to toss in a premium tag when opportunity allows, which I think is fine with viewers, given they are applying for a few of those glory tags themselves. If our show was nothing but auction tags, once-in-a-lifetime draws, tribal tags, etc, we would quickly lose a connection with the audience who wants to see elk hunting as it occurs for them.

With that background and explanation of our content focus, expect elk hunts as often as we can fit them in.

Here is the roll order of what you will see for the season that starts in July.

• Montana Mountain Goat
• Montana Mule Deer (general tag)
• New Mexico Pronghorn (Mobility Impaired Vietnam Veteran)
• Utah Archery Elk
• Montana Mule Deer (limited entry tag)
• Wyoming Pronghorn (luckiest find of my hunting life)
• Nevada Archery Mule Deer (Part 1 of 2)
• Nevada Rifle Mule Deer (Part 2 of 2)
• Alaska Black Bear
• Alaska Blacktail Deer

​

You will note there is only one elk hunt above. I gave all my other 2014 elk hunts to RMEF for filming on their show, Team Elk. That was part of a plan to help them have more self-guided public land content. This year, all the elk hunts shown on the whiteboard will be filmed for our show.

 

[double_a85]

Randy, does RMEF release their show in any format besides just watching it on satellite?
Would like to see your elk hunts, especially your Montana hunt, but have no satellite.

 

[double_a85]

As I sit here watching old Fresh Tracks episodes, and knowing Big Fin is in NM chasing antelope... I am curious how the final white board ended up?

 

[maxx]

Good question. The production guys think I need to go to Big Falls and do a "Where it all started" episode. Not sure the audience would find it as entertaining as some. Hard to tell all the funny stories in a half-hour episode.

Also would need to think through what I would hunt. If deer, I can almost assure you it would be a no kill, almost a "no see" episode. Deer are in tough shape up in Koochiching County. Have thought about doing a grouse episode and showing people that I really got my start in hunting poleaxing grouse with my .410.

I am sure it would offend some with the designer dogs and Italian double barrels, but I would love to do an episode where I go back to the old skid trails, logging roads, and old ridges dotting in the bogs, then ground sloosh limits of grouse (partridge in northern MN). Yeah, we would ground swat 'em, Arkansas 'em, or whatever other term was fashionable at the time.

They were food, not game. For the episode, I would go to the women who are still around and known for their great grouse recipes, showing people how great they are to eat; showing that for some people, hunting is still primarily an effort to procure food; that going out and gathering food is how many of us got our start in hunting.

Just don't know how that would translate on TV. Sure would be fun for me and brother and a bunch of out buddies to go and sack up a big mess of them and have a grouse feast of great proportions.

That isn't really an answer to your question, but part of what goes into the decision process.

I went to school in the UP. I would trade 5 Iowa Pheasants for one grouse. They are that good to eat.

I shot my share on the wing but I never passed up an opportunity to Arkansas them when I could.

You could do a cast and blast show and catch some walleyes. I think you would be surprised on how many people would enjoy it.

 

[maxx]

It looks like you’ll be busy this year but…

If you’re set on hunting whitetails in Iowa in the future, you could actually hunt them without worrying about preference points. There are 4,500 Antlerless Only Tags issued on a first come first serve basis and as far as I know they didn’t sell out last year. These tags are county specific and quota will vary by county (The county quotas will be available in July). Likely most of the 4,500 will be allocated in Southern Iowa where our deer herd is the healthiest. Since party hunting is legal for the Shotgun 1 and 2 seasons, by hunting with an Iowan hunter with an Any Sex Tag for the same season (Shotgun 1 or 2) it’s actually legal for you to shoot a buck provided the resident is okay with you filling his/her tag. After a tag is filled both hunters could continue to hunt until their last tag is filled.

You have to be careful with this law as some people try to exploit it and get burned. The resident hunter MUST be a part of your party. Therefore, they must be in the field, gun in hand and actively participating in the hunt.

By hunting on an antlerless tag you’d actually save yourself some money as well. The required tag, hunting license and habitat stamp would cost you $353 as compared to $551 for an Any Sex Tag. As an added benefit the antlerless tag would not burn the preference points you’ve already built up. In this way you could save your preference points for bow season while still hunting Iowa with a shotgun and a chance at a buck.

Of course the catch is you need to know an Iowan deer hunter.


Btw I second Mixed bag’s statement. My favorite episodes are those hunts which are easy to draw and reasonably affordable (relative terms I know).

I live in Iowa but I wasn't born and raised here. I hate this loop hole in the Iowa law. To many people take advantage of it.

Deer hunting in Iowa is great. For a guy like Randy that does stuff his way on public ground it doesn't sound very interesting to me. If he wants the opportunity to kill a big whitetail great, awesome I don't blame him but I am not sure it would be one that he would want to film.

I could be wrong maybe he can find an interesting way to do it. If so I know of some great public ground that I have killed a handful of nice deer on.

 

[jlh321]

Not sure. To me, lion hunting is about the dogs and the handler-dog relationship. I am still trying to figure out how a guy who doesn't have dogs, me, can be part of a compelling story about the dogs.

I did apply for a limited entry lion tag this year in MT, but did not draw. The person who encouraged me to do so understands the storytelling aspects of TV. I think with him, we could pull off a good story. Other than that, I am still trying to get my head around what the story would be with Randy just showing up and shooting a lion treed by another person's dogs. I wouldn't hesitate at all to accept such an invite if provided, just probably wouldn't bring cameras along unless I knew a good story could be told.

You could try a mountain lion hunt without dogs. This year is the first year that South Dakota is letting NR hunt mountain lions. The Black hills of SD has some of the highest densities of mountain lions, chances are slim that you would get one in 4-5 days of hunting but it is the off season for most other big game seasons( wolf hunting your chances were slim).The season runs from late December through March.