I drove over from AZ last night and now am waiting for Troy to land at the Albuquerque airport so we can load up head out elk hunting. Haven't really gotten much sleep, as I had to do a week of laundry, try to reply to the most important of the couple hundred CPA firm emails, and get an oil change on the truck.
I know I am not gonna get too many tears shed on my behalf, but I am getting wore out already, and we have eight more episodes to do this fall. Been gone since the 8th and will be home on the 26th for a day, then off for another twenty days of filming. Damn, I have a great wife.
Here is the gig on this hunt.
Over the last year I have been approached by a lot of different groups to do TV things that are a spin off of the OYOA concept. Yup, OYOA has been a pretty big deal in the outdoor TV circles, coming out of nowhere and by last December, finishing 7th in the ratings/rankings of all Outdoor Channel shows. That raises some eyebrows.
I was offered a chance to do some other TV things that would have put the self-guided hunting gig in a pretty big spotlight. We worked on that over the course of the summer. As TV folks get involved, the hunting message gets more watered down and it puts me out of my element as hunter and more as an actor and TV personality - something I definitely am not.
To do this project, two landowner vouchers were purchased for me to use. I told them I wanted the vouchers to be available for public land and I did not want them to be the premier trophy units. So, they bought me a New Mexico archery elk voucher that allows me to hunt public land in this unit. They also bought me a landowner voucher for a Colorado mule deer hunt that could have been drawn with 1 preference point.
Roll forward the calendar to August. What had started as a pretty cool TV concept evolved into something I was not comfortable with. The financial rewards of that offer were significant and would have made this project much more profitable for me.
But, how this was evolving was not what I wanted to do with outdoor TV and strayed too far from the original OYOA concept. So, I pulled the plug at the last minute. That left a lot of people in a lurch, but it was not going the direction I had expected when the concept was first formed.
As part of my withdrawing from that concept, I was told I would be paying for these landowner vouchers. Fair enough. If that was the cost or consequence of keeping the OYOA concept going the same direction, that is what I would do.
Once I have time to re-coup and the smoke has cleared, I will tell the entire story about that concept, what it would have been, and everything else. Not that is matters, as we are going forward full-steam ahead with On Your Own Adventures, working with our production company, Warm Springs Productions, to produce the best quality TV we can.
I probably don't need to tell the world about the fact this is a hunt on a landowner voucher, even if it is a Unit-wide hunt. Really not anyone's business, but I have always tried to be as transparent as possible in how we are producing the show. In an industry that is full of smoke and mirrors, I not only want to have a different hunting content message, but a different approach to how we tell the viewers what we are REALLY doing.
I am sure some will rag on me for using the two landowner vouchers this year. Other option was to let them go in the trash. Just not in a financial position to do that.
As far as landowner vouchers go, I would pitch a really big fit if they tried to get those in my home state of Montana. Knowing that each state has their own system, which I HOPE reflects the wishes of the majority of their citizens, I accept that other states my look at landowner vouchers as a benefit to their wildlife programs. I guess that is why we have states rights and state control over wildlife.
This unit has no cell coverage, so updates will be very unlikely. I will be keeping a journal and will give the day-to-day when we return.
This will be the most difficult hunt of the year. It is a Wilderness Study Area with difficult access. In addition to the challenges of archery hunting, it will be Troy and I trying to haul all the camera gear, camp gear, food, and water, into a remote location. I am not sure we will be able to pull it off.
Thanks to the good folks at Kona Mountain Bikes, Bob Trailers, and the hunting bike experts at Summit Bike and Ski here in Bozeman, we will be doing this as a mountain bike hunt. MBs are allowed in this WSA, but not in most wilderness areas.
Since you cannot camp on state land in NM, we will have to go in and out every day, back to the BLM land where we can camp. Or, just hunt the BLM land, but the Google Earth and other research shows the best locations to be state land. About a three mile jaunt each way, through some pretty rough terrain. Water will be the biggest challenge, as it is scarce and what is there is not drinkable, even with a filter.
Carl at High Caliber Gear has given me a pretty good set up to test out on this hunt. I trust his knowledge and am confident we can stay alive and somewhat comfortable. Whether or not we can get the same high quality footage under these conditions, remains to be seen. If the footage suffers from the difficulty of what we are trying to do, I hope you will bear with us.
Gotta run and get Troy. We might have coverage until we drop off the map tomorrow morning, so I might provide and update tonight.
I know I am not gonna get too many tears shed on my behalf, but I am getting wore out already, and we have eight more episodes to do this fall. Been gone since the 8th and will be home on the 26th for a day, then off for another twenty days of filming. Damn, I have a great wife.
Here is the gig on this hunt.
Over the last year I have been approached by a lot of different groups to do TV things that are a spin off of the OYOA concept. Yup, OYOA has been a pretty big deal in the outdoor TV circles, coming out of nowhere and by last December, finishing 7th in the ratings/rankings of all Outdoor Channel shows. That raises some eyebrows.
I was offered a chance to do some other TV things that would have put the self-guided hunting gig in a pretty big spotlight. We worked on that over the course of the summer. As TV folks get involved, the hunting message gets more watered down and it puts me out of my element as hunter and more as an actor and TV personality - something I definitely am not.
To do this project, two landowner vouchers were purchased for me to use. I told them I wanted the vouchers to be available for public land and I did not want them to be the premier trophy units. So, they bought me a New Mexico archery elk voucher that allows me to hunt public land in this unit. They also bought me a landowner voucher for a Colorado mule deer hunt that could have been drawn with 1 preference point.
Roll forward the calendar to August. What had started as a pretty cool TV concept evolved into something I was not comfortable with. The financial rewards of that offer were significant and would have made this project much more profitable for me.
But, how this was evolving was not what I wanted to do with outdoor TV and strayed too far from the original OYOA concept. So, I pulled the plug at the last minute. That left a lot of people in a lurch, but it was not going the direction I had expected when the concept was first formed.
As part of my withdrawing from that concept, I was told I would be paying for these landowner vouchers. Fair enough. If that was the cost or consequence of keeping the OYOA concept going the same direction, that is what I would do.
Once I have time to re-coup and the smoke has cleared, I will tell the entire story about that concept, what it would have been, and everything else. Not that is matters, as we are going forward full-steam ahead with On Your Own Adventures, working with our production company, Warm Springs Productions, to produce the best quality TV we can.
I probably don't need to tell the world about the fact this is a hunt on a landowner voucher, even if it is a Unit-wide hunt. Really not anyone's business, but I have always tried to be as transparent as possible in how we are producing the show. In an industry that is full of smoke and mirrors, I not only want to have a different hunting content message, but a different approach to how we tell the viewers what we are REALLY doing.
I am sure some will rag on me for using the two landowner vouchers this year. Other option was to let them go in the trash. Just not in a financial position to do that.
As far as landowner vouchers go, I would pitch a really big fit if they tried to get those in my home state of Montana. Knowing that each state has their own system, which I HOPE reflects the wishes of the majority of their citizens, I accept that other states my look at landowner vouchers as a benefit to their wildlife programs. I guess that is why we have states rights and state control over wildlife.
This unit has no cell coverage, so updates will be very unlikely. I will be keeping a journal and will give the day-to-day when we return.
This will be the most difficult hunt of the year. It is a Wilderness Study Area with difficult access. In addition to the challenges of archery hunting, it will be Troy and I trying to haul all the camera gear, camp gear, food, and water, into a remote location. I am not sure we will be able to pull it off.
Thanks to the good folks at Kona Mountain Bikes, Bob Trailers, and the hunting bike experts at Summit Bike and Ski here in Bozeman, we will be doing this as a mountain bike hunt. MBs are allowed in this WSA, but not in most wilderness areas.
Since you cannot camp on state land in NM, we will have to go in and out every day, back to the BLM land where we can camp. Or, just hunt the BLM land, but the Google Earth and other research shows the best locations to be state land. About a three mile jaunt each way, through some pretty rough terrain. Water will be the biggest challenge, as it is scarce and what is there is not drinkable, even with a filter.
Carl at High Caliber Gear has given me a pretty good set up to test out on this hunt. I trust his knowledge and am confident we can stay alive and somewhat comfortable. Whether or not we can get the same high quality footage under these conditions, remains to be seen. If the footage suffers from the difficulty of what we are trying to do, I hope you will bear with us.
Gotta run and get Troy. We might have coverage until we drop off the map tomorrow morning, so I might provide and update tonight.
