I had been taken on some pretty pricey hunts before..(Osceolas too i must admit) and that sickened me. I worked hard for my money and spent a couple thousand dollars to hunt and travel to Florida and to be honest..the hunting flat out sucked. It really pissed me off to be frank..and I KNEW I could do it better..so I did!

I understand how if you travel, pay for flights, out of state licenses and the an outfitted hunt too...it may be the hunt of a lifetime..and it SHOULD be. You should realistically be able to HARVEST game if someone is selling you a hunt. Its THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to do so.
I took that responsibility VERY seriously...as I had been on the other side of that..more then once...or twice.
Some outfitters (alot actually) are only in it for the money..to book as MANY hunts as possible in a season. I didnt see it that way. I saw it as you paid for a service and the realistic opportunity to harvest that game animal..so we practiced highly managed hunting in every state we outfitted in.

timbercruiser..to be honest..I never felt that way about it. I felt you should do it all on your own merit.
However ..that said ...on the show Trophy Quest Outdoors I didnt produce it..but was hired by the producers to Film, teach their prostaff to film, to edit it,..and to host it.

Most importantly..they did not have many sponsors and didnt know how to get them...so I was REALLY hired to bring along my sponsors and make the show a success..which I did. ( I was fully sponsored..and ALL the shows I did were as well. My sponsors were loyal as I understood product promotion and intergration and placement.

The producers however really were into the so called "celebrity" thing, so they started a segment with Bob Munden..the trick shooter who just recently passed away. He had a segment at the end of our show for a season or two doing his shooting tricks like "the vanishing card" etc.

We also filmed hunts with PBR celebrities like Tony Mendez ( our sponsor Bowtech then produced the PBR bow as well) and a few others. Both Ted Nugent and Toby Keith both were on our show as well.
I didnt particularly agree with it..and made my opinion known. I felt you had to do it ON YOUR OWN MERIT AND ABILITIES, not ride the coattails of others.

I can't stand TV hunting shows. I quit watching them some time ago.

where can I watch your shows, I'm on Comcast

Eastman's was one of my favorites when I watched, felt I was seeing the real deal. You have the same qualities it appears.

The American Sportsman was what got me into to hunting

they dont run anymore. My days in TV ended in 2010! Im retired and I want no part of outdoor tv! I dont want the long hours..the hard work, the travel and time away from family. Ive been there, done it,..and got the t shirt!

Im into spending the rest of my time on earth with my wife and son, going hunting and thanking my maker everyday I get to do either!

Thank you for this thread. Making a living in the hunting (or fishing) entertainment business is an incredibly challenging venture that requires an incredible time away from home.

Great read. Thanks odo.

My buddy from high school Rusty Faulk owns the pursuit channel and was explaining this same thing to me about the outdoor business. Not as easy as it looks on TV.

I know Rusty too. I was there when he started the channel too. One of his first producers when Mens Outdoor and recreation went bankrupt.

He is telling you the truth..you hunt from march 6 to may 31 for turkeys..following the seasons. starting in florida...we ended in Maine. You travel thousands of miles and are away from home most of the time. Your days start at a hour before daylight and end an hour after dark.

The elk/bear/deer seasons are brutal. You start in august and end january 31st. 5 months of traveling thousands of miles and your days start an hour before light and end real late!

Sometimes you are tracking/recovering game until midnight. If you arent in a tree filming..youre driving to another state or country like Canada.

I drove everywhere as I had to bring all the cameras, tripods, swing arms, blinds and treestand sets.It gets to be totally exhausting. and you have to unload them every night on those 3 day drives into your hotel..and then back down in the am, so they dont get ripped off from your truck. And the hotels NEVER seem to have vacancies on the first floor...ALWAYS the second and third floor.

It is seriously HARD work...but it was a job...and you kinda get hooked!

Then in Febuary..I spent all my time reviewing video,and editing shows. Sometimes 12-17 hours a day..trying to get enough shows in the can and sent in by the start of turkey season.

The summer was the same way..June and July I spent LLLOOOONNNGGG days at the editing suite..putting together shows. Absolutely exhausting at times. Hardest job..with the longest hours I ever had.
I try to tell people about the realities of it. It is not as fun as you think .Well..maybe the first couple years it was..but then you realize your dream job isnt the dream job you thought it was.

Oh did i mention you have to haul cameras and gear up and down the rockies chasing elk..the air so thin your sucking air trying to breath. Spend way too many all day hunts in treestands 25 feet above the ground for the whole month of november during the rut?

And I forgot to mention that sometimes you have to spend WAY too much time in the tree with some so called celebrity..that you really dont like?? at all? Thats the truth of the whole thing right there.

The worst part is that the excitement goes away from hunting too. thats the thing that really got me at the end. It made it so hunting..wasnt fun anymore. I always said when that happened Id quit..but I didnt at first..until I really realized whats really important in life. Your family , your friends, your home and the lord!

I understand every word you said. When we had our tv show it was so much work. Money was extremely hard to get, even a little bit (unless your lee and Tiffany or Michael Waddell). Product was real easy to get but that didn't pay the bills. I absolutely loved hunting and filming but it does wear you down especially being the cameraman. You're worried about all the gear, making sure batteries are charged and getting quality footage. Then if your the hunter you're worried about your cameraman getting good footage.
I enjoyed hunting new places and met a lot of good people that I am still in contact with and still hunt with some of them. I don't think I would do another nationally show but I would love to do another low budget local show on local tv ( we also were on a Montgomery and Dothan tv station) l will admit it was nice for local people to recognize me and come and talk to me about the show.
But more than tv I really enjoyed hosting a outdoor talk radio show for 2 years on a 100,000 watt local station. I was able to talk to and interview most all big name hunting people and eveyday local hunters.
Both are not for everybody due to a lot of sacrifices. Eveb though i really didnt make any money,I loved it and still miss it. I still have all my gear and may get back into it one day.

I was fortunate Jeff in that we did make good money at it...back at the beginning BEFORE digital video cameras. I was ONLY in it for the money..I could care less about being "famous"..as a matter of fact..i kinda hid what I did.

with the invention of digital cameras... Thats when the waters got muddied! every joe with a $5000 canon was shooting video and starting shows.And editing it on their home computers!

I started in the day when we shot BETA and BETA SP cameras..full size cameras and the cheap ones were $90,000 and the tripods were $5000. We had a $90,000 SONY and a $110,000 Ikegami. Not everyone would lay out that kind of money...and there were only around 35 shows.

We didnt have to look for sponsors..they came to our booth at the SHOT SHOW. There are around 1200 companies in the industry. When there were 35 shows with 10 spots each..it meant 350 TOTAL commercial spots on outdoor TV for those 1200 companies. You could get top dollar and there were not enough spots for the companies.

Now there are over 700 shows..so 7000 commercial spots.

I compared it to cutting a pizza into slices. When we had less shows..we all got big slices..at the end they got smaller and smaller..due to that pizza being cut into 700 slices!

Now days its really hard for new shows to get money. We were lucky in that we kept the same sponsors backing us for our whole time on TV,..but still the amount we would get started getting smaller.

When it was no longer worth the travel and time..I got out. Luckily..we made money the whole time. I know tons of people who tried starting shows after 2006...and lost EVERYTHING! They couldnt get enough money to even break even much less make money!
I couldnt understand that!
Now days..unless you are a hunting company in the industry I couldnt understand even wanting to try to make a go off it. Its really rough now from what my friends (other producers) say.

And they still are, diluting the whole shebang. Same thing on the fishing side, too.

Thats how come in 2006 and 2007 I did the network production for Mens Outdoor and Recreation called Paintball World TV News..all about the sport of Paintball.

We were THE ONLY PAINTBALL SHOW..so if a paintball company wanted to be on TV and have a commercial..we were the only game in town! That was GREAT! and we could sell our spots for top dollars..and did.

The network Programming VP knew my wife and I had been highly sponsored professional Paintball players ( I played as a Pro player for 10 years and was the number 1 rated player in the world..my wife was the first woman world champion and played as a pro for 8 years)

The industry sponsored us and paid us to play..and flew us around the country.

She actually played for another pro team then mine from a totally different state 600 miles away(with totally different sponsors then mine)..and we met playing in 1987 playing in the finals at a world championship for 1st and 2nd place.

We actually competed against each other until 1991 until we got engaged at a world championship..then she joined my team. (we only saw each other at events..but played 24 events a year in different states... so we saw each other 3-4 days every other week.)

Due to that, we knew all the Presidents and VPs of every BIG PB company..so the network knew we could get the industry behind us...and the network wanted to tap into the sponsors dollars from the Paintball industry.

It worked out great for us..but when we stopped doing Paintball and went back to hunting tv we were shocked at how many shows had started! And shocked at how little the hunting companies wanted to pay for commercial spots.
Thats when we decided we were done..and did you last hunting show for 3 seasons..then quit while we were still making money..but alot less. It just wasnt worth it for us..and I was TIRED! (read: OLD..LOL)

heres a little about the show...the best part was we did a FAMILY show..with family values..and it included our son! And..they bought us a 38 foot RV to travel in..MUCH NICER then hotel rooms!
It was alot of fun to be honest too..as we got to go out and play again at a top level.

As you can guess..Ive been very fortunate to live a very blessed and eventful life!
And to meet and marry a beautiful woman who enjoyed the same things as me..and raise a super nice kid..who also starred in both a hunting TV show and a paintball TV show!
We had alot of fun..but hes in college now studying law..and we are..OLDER and like staying HOME alot more now!

youll see we even promoted local paintball and family businesses too. Promoting the great state of alabama!

http://archive.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/sports/060714/paint.shtml

That's pretty cool.
When I look at all the hunting tv shows I know there is no way most of them are making any money. There is not that much advertising dollars out there to get in the hunting industry. Like you said before the only ones that can really make it are business' that have their own show (Primos etc). And if most people will notice most all shows sponsor each other so they all take up most of the ad money there selves.

Well Jeff..at least you had fun and had the experience!

you hit the nail on the head with companies shows sponsoring each other. They have formed "stategic marketing sponsorships" where they all promote each others product now! smart of you to notice!

Now you see why I liked doing that paintball show! We were the only show in the industry,..and paintball had been trying for years to get on tv! so we could name our price and they paid it. To be honest..one umbrella company owned 6 Paintball companies and bought 6 of our spots..for TOP dollar IMMEDIATELY when we contacted them. And we got to sell the last two for great money too.

also..it was a network production..I didnt have to pay for that VERY expensive airtime!
I liked that there was no competition. I could do another PB show right now with full financial backing..but we hate travelling, so we retired.

Another reason we did good in both hunting and Paintball TV is because my wife was a very pretty tall blond outdoorsy gal..(still is actually!). They love women in both hunting tv and PBall tv...so that was a HUGE help. They wouldnt have paid the big bucks for my ugly ole butt!

Jeff..which show did you work with?

Yeah..your right there. I saw that some use some cheesy POS camera that you can buy at Best Buy or Walmarts..but were HD! thanks for correcting that.

and I saw that alot of the fishing shows are just as bad now too.