They portray it as a life and death survival situation......
I say.... What a freaking joke !! They fly in 2 plane loads of the most modern equipment..... It looks like Cabella's had a going out of business sale..... The best tents/ wood stoves/ fly fishing gear.... etc. etc. etc.,,,,,,,
They catch a half dozen fish (With the best fly tackle) within an hour of being dropped off...... It lead me to think.......They could simply survive on fish for 28 days....
This is nothing more than a 28 day hunting trip in Alaska in September......... Sure I'd like to do it......... But please stop portraying it as life and death....
I probably got hungrier in my 2 days of land survival in the swamps of Florida in the service than these guys got...........
Dick Proenneke they are not. He survived over 30 winters alone in Alaska..........
Then imply that if they don't kill something to eat,,,, they may not survive....
Then they start caribou hunting..... and taget the "herd bull" ,,, and bowhunt......
Instead of simply dumping the first caribou they see with the rifle,,,,,, and feeding themselves.... I would think one caribou would ensure that they don't starve to death in 28 days..... let alone all the fish they have right outside their tent------
It's entertaining. It's interesting......... But it is not life or death...... and I think they insult everyone's intelligence by portryaing it the way they do........JMHO.
And try to hype it as a "Hunt or die" scenario....... I think that's way overboard. They could spend the entire 28 days in camp eating fish and survive......
I enjoy outdoors programming........ But I also call a spade a spade when I see it......
Like when guys air a show where they see one giant buck after another;;; Then you look up the outfitter they used,,,, and find they were "Hunting" in a pen......... But never mentioned it and made sure never to show a fence....
I think these guys took a good idea,,,, the sportsmans channel hyped it in a way to get ratings,,,, way overboard with the "Life threatening" aspect of it......
I'll watch the series........with a skeptical eye.
Chris and Casey Keefer. Anyone know where in Michigan they are from ??
Yet the video trailer clearly shows one of them aiming a rifle,,,, and I'm almost certain one of them was hunting with a rifle on the first episode.... but maybe I'm mistaken....
They must have been in possesion of the appropriate tags......... And I would assume that they had the legalities of it covered..... I believe you either have to hunt wih a guide or a resident of Alaska to hunt moose there....
If their tags allow for the use of firearms,,,,, They pretty much could have dumped a caribou on the first day and put an end to the "Hunt or die trying" suspense....... They were into caribou on the first episode....
Yes it is entertaining. I'll continue to watch.
I thought the filming, as well as the scenery is spectacular. Besides, anyway you can pull off a month of wilderness Alaskan( or any where else) hunting is awesome, no matter how you do it. Beats the hell out of watching other programs where theyre hunt penned up "game', or sitting over a baitpile with a crossbow and acting like they actually accomplished something special. Looking foreard to watching this series unfold.
One other program I do like is Backland Experiences. He hunts with just about anything, but a lot of trad hunting. He puts together a good program, and has done a few where you have no meat in camp unless you shoot or catch something. Throws in some flintknapping and other outdoors skills as well.
Tred Barta, I cant stomach. Maybe because it rhymes with T....
But the Sportsman's channel website trailer says they attempt to kill caribou moose and black bear armed only with bows.....
"Hunt or die trying"........
Come on..... The first thing they did was catch a half dozen fish on about a dozen casts..... Then dump a caribou with a rifle.....
The end. No more threat of starving to death..... If there was REALLY a survival situation.... They would have taken the heart/liver, lungs,,,, and anything else they could eat off that caribou.... instead of packing out the cape and horns; and leaving all the guts....
No one dies in this series. I guarantee it. If they got into ANY trouble whatsoever....... I would bet the farm that they would be on the satelite phone,,, and have a plane in there within hours....
I like the adventure. I dream of a hunt like that...... (And I wouldn't mind losing 20 pounds while I was doing it).....
But survival situation it is not.
Ive packed a few elk quarters, and a 'bou is comparable in size. Its a 5 man job for one trip with cape/horns.
Im wondering, they obviously wont keep all that meat edible for 28 days, so aside from wasting it(big time crime in AK) they'll probably have to have some of it flown out.
But none the less, I love wilderness adventure such as what theyre doing. I could do that trip. A month floating wilderness AK would be the Holy Grail of a hunting trip. Id take a bow and a rifle. And Id take food. Im curious how it will unfold as it goes along.
dave, as far as moose goes, thats a likely scenario. A moose has to have a 50" wide antler spread to be legal in AK. TV show script or not, it doesnt getthem the go ahead to shoot a sub-legal animal. Caribou to my knowlege dont have any minimums. The only way around some of the complex regs in AK is if you are a resident and a subsistence hunter.
In the last episode, they closed showing them "cooking' meat over the fire. The flames were a foot higher than the cooking grate. Obviouslythey dont have a clue about how to cook meat over a campfire. I et that blackened caribou was tough eating. I volunteer to go along and make sure any meat obtained is properly cooked.
Toe
Anyone who hunts the high country out west regularly could do the hunt they did....
My land survival training in the military was only two days... and it was more of a survival situation than "Dropped; Proj. Alaska".....
No weapons for us. No high tech gear. Trying to catch rattle snakes with a forked stick in the palmetto swamps of Florida to eat for dinner....
This series is a great high adventure hunt for sure... The producers simply put a bad taste in my mouth by implying that it was a hunt (With a bow) or die scenario......
The footage of Dick Proenneke surviving alone off the land in Alaska for over 30 years is simply amazing........ I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn't seen it. I couldn't survive one winter there like he did..... and I'd wager that the Casey brothers couldn't either.....
Second to that would be bears, which are also a common hazard with this type of hunt.
Id like to see their gear list, and how much stuff thyre hauling around. Obviously filming gear is going to make up a large part of the weight.
Watching this show, and seeing my ackpack sitting int he corner of my shop gets me itchin for another adventure. Looking at my wallet, tempers that thought a wee bit!
The hardest part of putting together any extended remote hunt is finding a good partnerto go with you. You need to have someone with the same desire, ability and means to do it. That is tougher than finding game once you get there.
Doing it solo is a option, but a very risky one.
I'm sure those guys are great guys and capable hunters and outdoorsmen,,,, No doubt...... It's just the whole way that the Sportsman's Channel is depicting it that kind of rubs me the wrong way.....
Hunt and feed yourselves or die trying.....(Armed only with bows according to the Sportman's Channel website).....
In the first 3 days,,,, They catch enough fish and kill a caribou with a rifle.......
Survival situation solved,,, Right.... Hunker down and live off caribou meat and fish for awhile,, and look for another caribou,,, Right ??
Nope..... Pack up camp and take the risk of floating down stream..... where moose hunting is better......
Why would they float downstream when they already have meat;; and more caribou within sight of camp ??
How do they know there is better moose hunting downstream ??
It's obvious that the outfitter has instructed them to float downstream to where the moose hunting is..... And unless they have motors to get back to the caribou camp..... They have been instructed to float to a designated landing spot for the airplane...
Floating that river in fully packed rafts looked to me like a lot more work than hazzard; as the river was too shallow and they had to drag the rafts in spots.........
I am enjoying the show too....... I just think they should have portrayed it more along the lines of The Adventure of a Lifetime.........where they only eat what they kill.......
Instead of,,,,, Hunt and kill something,,,,or die trying.........
The rafts seem kinda big too. It appeared having 1 man in it was causing problems controlling and steering it even in not so fast waters. My thought was if he(they) cant keep them from spinning in slack water, theyre in trouble when they hit some fast water. We'll see I guess.
But what really makes me cringe is the shots of them cremating caribou meat,cooking it on a roaring fire instead of a bed of coals. Burning it to death in roaring flames not only makes it harder to eat, it destroys a lot of the nutrional value of the meat.
Needing calories that they need, I cant understand why they would trim all the fat off the meat, as it provides essential calorie dense nutrients. Might not taste the greatest, but if you're living off what you provide yourself and nothing else, nothing should be wasted. Liver, heart etc is all very nutrient dense foods. Of course we have been so programmed to believe fat is the devil when it comes to food, which is not true at all. In their circumstance, I'd waste nothing off any animal I could get. they could also easily render the fat off game and use it to fry fish in.
All in all its an interesting program, despite the networks hype. Like it or not, the why it was hyped sucked us in to watch it, which is the goal. I hope they get into some moose. Its a hunt show first and foremost, the "survival" spin- not so much. I wonder what the camera crew is eating.
Then in an effort to avoid letting any of the meat spoil........ They consume an entire moose and a caribou in 3 weeks.....
They both put on 50 pounds; and their cholesterol goes through the roof from eating so much meat.....
Deadeye's Link
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Alaskan adventurer from Jackson County faces grizzlies, blizzards and temperatures as cold as 80 below zero to experience the Arctic in winter
Published: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 6:28 AM
Updated: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 8:56 AM
By Brad Flory | Jackson Citizen Patriot
All a matter of perspective. his wife might be a nagging psycho pain in the arse, and this is his only opportunity for a break. either that, or be kept cooped up with her in a cabin through the long AK winter. Being gone for a few months doesnt make you a badguy, or mean you have character flaws. Military families for one deal with it all the time.
Granted, this is an entirely different scenario, but his sense of adventure is remarkable. Personally, sleeping in a tent in -80 temps isnt on my list of things to do, unless the alternative was to be cooped up with someone similar to my ex wife. Thats as close to -80 as I ever want to get.
I'd rather strap on a bullet proof vest every day and respond 90 miles an hour to places where people are shooting at each other........then go into a burning building........... :^)
It is a dream hunt...... I'll watch pretty much any and every hunting show on Alaska that I can get my eyes on.......
I'm sure there is more excitement to come...... But frankly.... the show was pretty boring for the last 2 weeks. They didn't need to use 2 weeks worth of shows,,,, to show them rafting down the river....IMHO.......
When they arrived at their new camp.... One of them said something to the effect of "Alaska threw every thing she had at us on that float".......
From what I've seen of the show so far..... Alaska hasn't even begun to throw everything she has at them......
-80 degree temps in February with 60 knot winds and 4 feet of snow....... That's the kind of stuff Alaska has to throw at you.
I totally agree with your statement above, not much program content in the last two shows. It almost needs to be and hour long program. I am a little soft when it comes to Alaska as I just got back from Kodiak Island hunting Sitka Blacktails with my Trad archery gear in November. Incredible place- one I will be going back to in the next few years.
The weather seems to have been pretty friendly up to this point, I would imagine though it is much milder in September all the way around.
I would think the mental fortitude to be there for 28 days and away from family will be the biggest challenge.
I would bet that with all the money that went into their equipment..... They probably are checking in regularly (If not every day) with family via the satelite phone....
The guys on Gold Rush Alaska did 2 summers in a row away from their families;; knowing that if they don't make a profit,,,, They might all lose their houses back home..... That had to be tough mentally too.
The website for the Sportsmans channel continues to state that the brothers attempt to kill moose, caribou, black bear and wolf armed only with a bow.....
They killed a caribou right off the bat with a rifle.........
Now,,,, at the end of todays show.... It appears they are about to kill a nice moose with a rifle......
Believe me.... I have NO PROBLEM with rifle kills..... I have killed moose, caribou, elk and black bear with a rifle......
What I have a problem with is mis-representing the show......
I'm sure the sponsors dictated to them which products they had to display them using....
The footage of their moose kill was flat out awesome........
After they put that toad of a bull on the ground from camp...... The footage of the smaller bull walking up to the big dead bull reminds me of turkeys attacking a freshly killed gobbler.... In fact... There are a lot of similarities between moose hunting and turkey hunting.....
The only thing I would say is that I think they were freaking insane not to kill the smaller bull when he presented a broadside shot at about 25 yards.... They had a chance to double up on bull moose..........and I can't say that I've ever seen that on film.........
The excitement of their kill brought back vivid memories of my own moose kill in 2000. I swear to God,,, It's one of those days that only comes in a close second to the birth of your own children.....
I dismissed the survialist aspect of the show and watch it as a hunting adventure
I wish they would show you, what they used for knives or axes, and why, and stuff like that............
I think alot of these guys who are the editors and producers, have not idea of what hunters really want to see......................
My daughter does TV production, and so I asked her. This is what she told me.... Dad, first they do have to have some type of script, and believe me, there is alot of work, in doing all the filming. But they also have to add a dose of reality TV, for drama, etc.... They are not going to show you what you want to see...... For that, you need to rent a video on field care for a moose........ Dad, you live in a different world,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ha ha
