How to spend time with your family, and Hunt across the country

Hunting has always been a family oriented sport. Some families have started making a living doing what they love, and filming it. The main staple of putting that video footage out there has been the Outdoor Channel or Versus Channel are the two most common channels for outdoors and hunting. Now, if you have ever watched the Outdoor Channel on T.V. then you are pretty familiar with some of the people who will be presented in this blog. The names that are brought up when you think of families in and around the hunting industry are: Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo, Ted and Shemane Nugent, Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, Don and Kandi Kisky, Weston and Jodi Clark, Mark and Terry Drury, along with many others. Ralph and Vicki are affectionately referred to as “the first couple of hunting.” The reason for the nickname of the “First couple of Hunting” is because they are arguably the best husband and wife hunting team. They are also the first husband/wife team to be on the Outdoor Channel. Now it seems as that was ground breaking for all of the other “couples” in the hunting industry because it led the way for women and couples in the industry. There are some families in which both family members hunt. The case in point would be “The Crush, with Lee and Tiffany.” They have two different sets of camera people and both Lee and Tiffany go out and sit in the deer woods in hopes that a monster buck will walk into range of the bow sights or within the cross hairs of a rifle scope.
There are other shows where the family members hunting are a camera-man/hunter team. Some of the biggest names in the industry use this. Such as Mark and Terry Drury, who are brothers that live in Iowa, but hunt all over the U.S. and Canada. If you watch some of their shows, one hunt will feature Terry doing the hunting, no make that “the missing,” and Mark is behind the camera. The reason I say missing is because Mark is always teasing Terry that whenever he is in front of the camera, he feels the pressure of getting a good shot and then ends up missing that shot. Now the next hunt, whether it is on the next episode, or the next feature of the same episode, will feature Mark doing the hunting with his brother Terry doing the filming. As far as the razzing that Terry gets from Mark about his missing his shot opportunities, I feel that it is a realistic depiction of how families are all over this great country. The hunting families that are part of the “common man” persona are the same way. I missed a deer once and my dad was part of the razzing that had been my misfortune for a shot that was clearly not guaranteed venison in the freezer.
I hunt with friends who watch the Outdoor Channel and see that the “common” hunter is within each and every hunting “celebrity” who is featured on any hunting show televised. Ted Nugent and Shemane Nugent get a lot of ridicule from the media for their stands on the 2nd amendment that proclaims our right “to keep and bare arms.” They are very adamant about what the U.S. Constitution states for the U.S. population as hunters and gun owners. They own land in both Michigan and Texas where most of their show, “The Spirit of the Wild” is filmed. When Ted and Shemane met, Shemane had never picked up a hunting weapon. She decided to go hunting once just to spend time with Ted and she was hooked from day one. These days, a lot more women are getting into the hunting “spirit” just to provide for their families and spend more time with their significant others. My wife is one of those women. I have her hooked on hunting. She wants to get a rifle and archery equipment so she can get that rush of hunting and killing of her first deer.
Now my favorite hunting husband and wife team hands down is Lee and Tiffany Lakosky. They were living in Wisconsin, where Lee was a chemical engineer, and Tiffany was a flight attendant. Lee decided he wanted more out of life, and so they moved to Iowa, where they now pursue monster bucks for their T.V shows, “The Crush with Lee and Tiffany,” and also another show where they co-host with Don and Kandi Kisky called “Whitetail Freaks,” where they show off some impressive mature whitetail bucks.
With more and more people coming into the hunting industry, whether it is through the Outdoor Channel or by some other means, like camouflage manufacturing, or tons of other means, there is one thing for sure. There is also going to be families involved. There is going to be a growing number of younger people featured on many outdoor hunting shows. Whether it is the host’s children, nephews, or nieces, there will be a growing trend to have families portrayed as the means to save hunting. Hunting started with families and that’s the only way to preserve it on the Outdoor Channel, and through the younger generation like my children. I take my kids hunting whenever I can and I teach them what a true hunter really is and what it means to be a hunter.
A true hunter doesn’t always take from the wood. A true hunter is first and foremost a conservationist. He puts back into nature more than he will ever take out of nature. For an example: if a hunter cuts down a small tree to clear “shooting lanes,” the conservationist in that hunter will say you need to plant at least 2 more trees. Why two trees? It is easy really, one tree is to replace the tree you cut down, and the second tree is for the good of Mother Nature and all the people and animals that use the woods. A true hunter takes care of nature first and foremost, then will take from the bounty that nature provides, never taking more than he puts back.
Families will teach traditions that have lasted generations, but some of those traditions get lost between the old and new generations. Hunting is starting to be one of those traditions. Hopefully there will be hunting around when my children are showing family traditions to their grandchildren