Prostaff Member or just Field Tester

[campgutter]

What do I need to do to become a "Prostaff Member"? I see all these guys on the Outdoor Channel and other shows on TV that are just shmucks! I say to my wife, "why couldn't I do that!". I hunt out in the wild, and not in some fenced in pen. I don't care if it's a 5,000 acre pen, it's still a pen.

These guys go out and say "we hunted for 5 days - really hard - and on the last evening of our hunt you will not believe what came out just at dark!" Come on! On a food plot, on a ranch where the guy that owns the place wants to get some publicity so he has a show filmed with his new "Good friend" (the shows star).

I want to see real life like I live it. Killing a doe every now and then, just hoping for a good buck to make it through the season to next year. Before the neighbor kid gut-shoots it and it runs off to die in my corn field for me to find from the smell!

What do I need to do to be a field tester for bows, broadheads, clothing, etc.? I hunt in the rain, sleet, snow, cold, wind, in the heart of Michigan with both corn fields and river flats for the deer to hide in. I walk these river flats and fields to kill several deer a year on our farm with both my bow and my guns (ML or rifle).

I won't suck up to anyone, but if they want true field testing of the gear that they advertise as "field tested by some of the world's top hunters", give it to the farm kids and the guys who really do test their own stuff to the limits!

Can anyone relate? We got guys on TV who couldn't find a deer in a barn, and they are "Redhead Pro-staff Members"! How much money did they pay to have their name put in lights?

 

[cur_dog]

Amen brother, Amen

 

[JimA]

Campgutter, I hear you. It must be tough watching all them "management bucks" until the right one shows up. :wink:

Jim

 

[campgutter]

Prostaff

I sometimes wonder if those deer are actually pushed into the view of the cameras a little earlier in the day, then hung in the area until they finally strolled in front of the camera. There are times that just after the guy shoots a really nice buck, there will be other deer walking in and out of the field of view while the guy sits there and explains how "hard" they had to hunt to kill these "very wary" deer.

I'm sure that the shows would be pretty boring to most if they had to spend the many mornings and evenings like a real hunter - seeing sometimes only squirrels, racoons, etc. It does sell TV time though, but I wish that the average guy got a chance to try out the newest in camo, bows, broadheads, etc.

:? [/img]

 

[DeerNut]

I'd like to know how long someone would sit and watch a Television show that was filmed in real time....I wouldn't. I'm glad they edit out the boring parts and get right to the good stuff. I sure hope they don't start showing the leaves falling and the squirrels chirping...I get enough of that on my own hunts. I want to keep seeing the moment of truth not the moment of boring.

I think some of you may be confusing a canned hunt for a quality area. Though the occassional video seems suspect, the majority seem legitimate in my opinion.

 

[Loggy]

I will watch a totally non-commercialized video clip coming from amongst our ranks buts thats about it. Anything outside this realm has little resemblance to my hunting reality and my guess nor as to others also.

 

[Hunt 4 Bucks]

They are similar to cartoons, fun to watch, but no basis in reality.

 

[campgutter]

Prostaff

Deernut,

Don't get me wrong. I love to see an arrow go through a boiler room just like you and probably the rest of the people reading this. But, I just wish that these people wouldn't be referred to as "prostaffers" or "Professional hunters". They are probably no different than the rest of us, but they got that lucky break of knowing someone, or hunting with a guy.... who knows a guy.... who knows a guy with a show......

I could watch the hair on a rib-cage open up and the fletching dissappear into a pink abyss all day too. I could watch just that for hours! But let's not call these guys professionals, and give them all the primo gear and say that they are hunting hard.

My original point was to get the gear that is afforded to these guys in the hands of people who can really give it a true test. I bowhunt probably 75 days out of the months of October, November, and December combined. I would wear out some of the clothes that these guys are given to them (for a weekend taping of a show) in a season.

I played baseball for the Detroit Tigers in the farm system for 3 years, and it was the same way there. The guys you see on TV got all the free gloves, shoes, etc. along with getting paid for Spring Training. The guys across the street in the minor leagues don't get paid for spring training, and have to buy all their stuff out-of-pocket.

If I could get a pair of boots, you're dang right I would walk them 'til my feet hurt or I got too tired to walk and was satisfied that they were the best boots that I could get for the money. A true test of the equipment!

 

[DeerNut]

Personally, I think to become a "prostaffer" you have to start writing and or guiding. Once you start publishing a lot, you might get recognized. My guess, field testing might be the first "pro" type writing you might be able to do. I would also assume this would be your "in" to industry. Take Jim Shockey as an example. He wrote many many articles for local western Canadian Magazines and Guided for bears. He chose to hunt exclusively with a muzzleloader during a time when muzzleloaders were just about to explode in popularity (very smart in my opinion). It was after years of doing this that he then began writing for the big magazines like North American whitetail and Peterson's Hunting. He then started outfitting for whitetails. Meanwhile, you can't just write, but you have to be consistently successful enough as a hunter to have something worthwhile to write about. No easy task.

After all this, then he started a TV show. I think he has worked hard to get where he is and it doesn't sound like it was easy to me, or that he knew a guy who new a guy. If it was, I think we'd all be doing it. I don't think we should be jealous or envious.

If free stuff to "test" is what you want, then you should figure out how it can be done for yourself and look at the successful "prostaffers" as a model. What have you done to become a prostaffer? Why not e-mail every manufacturer you can think of and offer to test their product....maybe one would say yes? Why not e-mail all the "prostaffers" you envy and ask them how they did it? Maybe you could be one right now and you don't even know it? Maybe you need to ask all the new obscure up-and-coming manufacturers not the tried and true ones? Maybe sightron needs a tester? Maybe APA bows needs a tester? Maybe you'd be testing stuff you don't like? Would that be okay? I say to you, Yes, why can't you do that?

 

[campgutter]

Prostaffer

Deernut,

Thanks for the ideas. I like to have an actual discussion on these topics rather than just opinions.

I have written a few manufacturers (Muzzy, Mathews, etc.) but never thought too much of writing to people whose products I don't use. I will give that a try.

 

[DeerNut]

Excellent idea. Once you've done any product testing, I would think your chances of testing more popular products would rise.

Let me know how you make out! Of course these are all just ideas and I have no clue if this will actually work .

But try try try and try again....right.

 

[Spitpatch]

Can you say Jimmy Houston??

 

[Mountain Man]

I'd like to know how long someone would sit and watch a Television show that was filmed in real time....I wouldn't. I'm glad they edit out the boring parts and get right to the good stuff. I sure hope they don't start showing the leaves falling and the squirrels chirping...I get enough of that on my own hunts. I want to keep seeing the moment of truth not the moment of boring.

I think some of you may be confusing a canned hunt for a quality area. Though the occassional video seems suspect, the majority seem legitimate in my opinion.

I guess I'm a little surprised that you think of the 99% of time we all spend hunting as "boring time." Granted, I probably wouldn't watch a hunting series that was 25 half-hour episodes of squirrels and leaves, followed by 1 episode with a kill.

On the other what I REALLY deplore is that virtually NONE, ZIP, NADA, ZILCH, AIN'T OUT THERE, NOT A ONE of any hunting shows or videos that I've seen ever walk their viewers through the a-b-c's and steps 1 to whatever, that it takes to read a topo and aerial photograph for promising areas of the property, then scouting the property, showing the guide or hunter identifying trails, locating scrapes, mapping out rub lines, finding bedding areas and food sources, maybe doing a trail cam census or trail activity verification, then picking stand sites and explaining why they're going with this tree over that tree, picking the best route through the woods for quiet and scent-free travel to the stand, trimming shooting lanes, layering of clothes to prevent sweating during the hike in or freezing on stand, and tracking a wounded deer with a sparse blood trail. and how about field dressing a deer--I mean, isn't that something that about every hunter wonders how to do the first time? I sat there with a paper diagram and directions laying in the grass next to my first deer to figure it out. In my opinion, none of that stuff is boring, as long as they're showing activity and teaching the viewer the skills of hunting.

Hot dang, I need to pitch this to some producers and get me a hunting show...

 

[DeerNut]

I guess I'm a little surprised that you think of the 99% of time we all spend hunting as "boring time."

I never said the "doing" was boring I said the "watching on TV" would be boring. This is why hunting video games are not fun for me. For them to be realistic you have to sit in front of a monitor and watch a virtual forest....I did this once........once. I hate video games because they suck the life out of you, and this was the worst kind. I see a TV show about watching a deer trail with no deer for the whole hour as being the same.

I love the doing, and the down-time isn't always easy but I do enjoy the fresh air, real sounds, real smells and being alone with my thoughts in a place I love, waiting for a wild animal. Anyone who tells me they enjoy every minute of a hunt that they're not seeing game has got to be a little "off". Personally, I find the harder the downtime is, the sweeter the moment of truth is. No pain no gain? If it were easy, why would we do it? I've sat and watched the same trees for 5 days straight in freezing temperatures without seeing a single deer while waiting for one particular buck. That's not easy for me, but the rewards can be amazing. That's Saskatchewan hunting.
Sitting on my couch watching the down-time of someone else's hunt would be even less fun for me (like I said, I get enough of that on my own hunts). This wouldn't remind me of my own successes or remind me of the thrill of the hunt. Isn't this why we watch these shows, to get excited about upcoming hunts or remeber past exciting hunts. If you want to watch videos of the forest with no game, go ahead. If I'm going to watch TV, it will be something else.

By the way, I absolutely love your idea for a TV show, I can hardly wait to see it!

 

[Mountain Man]

Based on your post and on what I said originally:

Granted, I probably wouldn't watch a hunting series that was 25 half-hour episodes of squirrels and leaves, followed by 1 episode with a kill.

I think we're pretty much on the same page. I misunderstood earlier what you meant about it being "boring stuff."

 

[bacher]

campgutter,

i have looked into this as well. i accually have talked to some of these guys at the deer and turkey expo in columbus, oh in the passed.

how one guy got to become one by killing 13 pope and youngs with his bow in consecutive years. this guys was a real moron but could kill deer.

primos has a program that you become a prostaffer by knowing all the calls they make and how to use them and train others as well.

they do not pay and you are expected to visit shops and expos for them.

i looked into this but am way to busy to do that with small kids.

i also want to be a bow tester for traditional archery. if you ever come up with anything let me know and will do the same.

take care,

bacher