Mountain Men
General Topic
Anyone watch this show? Some of it is pretty cool I must admit but I wonder how much of it is "just for the camera". Like do guys really just chase lions away from farms for a living? Seems like that would make a lot of lion hunters/guides mad.
I believe when this was discussed before we had a personal friend of Tom Orrs on bowsite cant remember who it was tho.
Love the show-hard to believe they chase those cats and don't kill them.....
The time I did watch it years ago, it seems like everything will kill ya if you're not careful. You chop the tree while windy...it can kill ya. You eat this mushroom....it can kill ya. You get cold....it can kill ya. You get lost...it can kill ya. I suppose that is to add drama to the show.
City is way more dangerous. And yet people (like my wife sometimes) think it is more dangerous to go out in the solitude.
Get in a car...it'll kill ya, go downtown after dark...it'll kill ya, stand in a congregated place...COVID will kill ya. No thanks, I'll take a chance that I fall and break my leg and my femur snaps and the jagged bone cuts through my femoral before I can crawl to my truck. But hey, I like to live on the edge.
I question the miles they go with the cats, they'll say "run him 10 miles in", so they went 20+ miles that day? Seems like lots.
As for killing them, how many could they kill? But yeah they have to get them away from people
Like any “reality” show some is real nut lots of dramatization for shock value. Tom up near the Yaak is the real deal. That idiot chasing lions, “ol 3 toes”, down near Ruby Is as fake as it gets.
fubar that was John Sloan, they were apparently rodeo buddies, back in the day.
In today's cancel-culture, killing lions on a TV show that's trying to court a general audience would never fly. So they definitely create a fake narrative about merely bumping the problem lion a couple miles to keep him away. Any knowledgeable hunter will find that notion kinda hilarious ;-)
I just started watching that a month ago or so after running out of other shows to watch and some of it is pretty good.
Check out "The Last Alaskans" I think it seems a bit more genuine and there seems to be more actual hunting and less chasing cats 20 miles a day
I like Tom Orr and liked Marty when he was on the show. I feel like aside from a few things for drama prior to commercial, it portrays how they live. I don't mind the other characters for entertainment value, some funny personalities. Eustace from NC will ride a horse in town, forge his own nails, run a truck off of wood, have a lumber mill run off of water power, but then put a metal roof on a shed with a cordless driver...lol. I don't look into these show too much but for entertainment value. I do like the Last Alaskans and even the new Port Protection show they have.
I watched it last week and laughed when tom said he gets 500 dollars for one beaver pelt. If that's true maybe it's time to quick work and go trap beavers. Maybe he was confused about what kind of beaver runs him 500 dollars? lol the show is entertaining but a lot of it is tv world outdoors.
I do not watch Mountain Men. I do watch Alone and it is fantastic. It is the best show on TV in my opinion. I've watched every season. You can catch past seasons on Netflicks.
I watch it from time to time and I like watching it to catch things that the average viewer/non-hunter will probably miss. Like when they cross a creek with water up over their boots and then the next scene they are standing there with totally dry pants.
Like others have said, it's a reality show so they have to try to make everything dramatic to keep the attention of the average viewer. I got a good laugh watching one of the episodes where a kid got stranded on a broken down snow machine and had to walk back to the cabin. THey were making a big deal of how he had to walk like 10 miles in -40* temps to get back to the cabin before he froze to death. At one point his gloves got wet and he stopped to make a fire to dry them out and warm up and he was down to his last match trying to light it. It might even have been a little scary if it wasn't for the guy filming him from 10 feet away! ;-)
John Sloan was pals with Tom Oar. Tom and Nancy are good friends of my in laws. They lived in the Chicago area and rodeoed with my father in law. Tom and Nancy picked up and headed to the Yaak Valley back in the 70`s before it became "trendy". He built his first cabin from scratch and made a living off of trapping and brain tanning.
They are both much older and Tom can barely get around these days. I think his new location is a handful of miles from a McDonalds...lol. He certainly lived the bulk of his life as a "mountain man" but the show is nonsense.
I used to go out by Tom back in the 80`s when the Yaak was a real sleeper area for deer and elk....especially whitetail. Sadly the wolves have destroyed that, still a good area for bears hitting the berries.
Mountain Men, Yukon Men, The Last Alaskans & Alone are all good but i'm not sure how much is true. I had a customer call one time that said he was neighbors with one of the kilcher families from Alaska the last frontier. He claimed alot of it was real but some wasn't. who knows...
Everything is "Life or Death" they lost the show when Marty went off,Morgan was good ,Eustis is interesting ,Tom is good the rest could do without!!
I liked Marty too. It's too bad he ended it like he did. I was wondering if he was going to come back after having that time with his daughter. I can't imagine her staying out on the trail every year.
Yes, I believe Tom Orr mentioned he makes various things with the pelt including hats and knife sheath from tail. Maybe a bit high.
I watch Wicked Tuna as well and once saw 2 bluefin come into the dock from a harpoon boat in Cape Cod. The captain and buyer haggled in the truck for a while on price. I talked to the mate about the show and he said that those prices are inflated and rarely does the buyer just spit out a price and is accepted. I don't know, but then again, I just like watching some of the shows and personalities that are on them.
I make custom hats, mittens and headbands from muskrat, raccoon, coyote and beaver I trap. After the labor involved, saying that I can get $60 a pelt for raccoon would be silly. A lot of work goes into it.
Total reality, I mean fake, but tv. I do believe Marty was the real deal, but what I’ve noticed is that these reality shows have to fabricate drama or otherwise it would just be like watching paint dry.
I do agree about Alone. The best show going on TV right now as far as reality goes. I binged watched the first six seasons and absolutely love it. That is the real deal, and I would love to do something like that someday.
Tom said $500 from the whole beaver not just pelt.
Kilchers are OK the blond is cute but watching her hunt and shoot that has to be fake.
The Last Alaskans is the best one. Seems more genuine and not following a script with the drama right before a commercial to hold you. The scenery, along with the music they use really makes for a good show. Only a few seasons tho and I don’t think there’s any new episodes anymore. All repeats now. One of the guys, Ray was shooting a 1895 Winchester .35 WCF. Love to see those old rifles in the field.
Reality and TV.
Two words that don’t belong together.
Tom Orr is the one that really knows how to trap and take care of the pelts. I worked for years trapping and have skinned hundreds of beaver, fox, otters, muskrats and coons. I helped out a fur dealer with the skinning, cleaning and stretching the hides so I know Tom really did know what he is doing. He also knew how to set traps and used some of the same methods that I used. The last year I trapped I caught 65 beavers and 9 otters. I averaged about $20 for the beavers and $60 for the otters. Caught a bunch of raccoons too.
