Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Social Tour 2011

Sorry for the delay in posts I have had some miserable personal problems getting in the way of doing anything fun which leads to not much to write about. Then along came something to take my mind off of problems for a little while plus something to look forward to.

A couple of months ago I was talking with my friend Rudy on Twitter, about his real life hunting video he shot last year. He traveled around filming average hunters on public or small tracks of private land. Hunters that can’t afford $20,000 high fenced hunts and wouldn’t go on one if they could, girls and guys hunting like the “Pros” want you to think they are. In passing he mentioned hunting with me sometime but since he lives in Colorado and I live in Tennessee I took it as just a friendly comment, little did I know how wrong I was, turns out, he had a plan.

Jump to a couple of weeks ago and he asks when I am going to have time for him to come out and film while I hunt. Since I am the last person wanting to be on camera, had never mentioned wanting to be, plus Rudy is still many miles away I was surprised. My feeling being that the last thing a hunting video needs is another old, fat white guy sitting in a tree. We talked for a bit then he said we would firm up a date later that week. Our next call confirmed a date of November 3-4 which is a short 5 day archery only season between muzzleloader and gun. Now for the big news.

Rudy had a great idea. This year he was going to put on the first “Getting Social With America’s Whitetail Deer Hunters“. A tour of 5000 miles through 12 states with 19 hunters. Hunters who use social media and love the outdoors as it should be, not because we have big name product sponsors, most of us don’t, but because we love what we do. We pay out of our own pocket to hunt these small tracks of land, dealing with all the problems that brings just to enjoy our sport. Putting up with thieves, idiots walking in on us, no place for food plots, limited access. In short, real hunters doing what you do, working hard all year long to hunt those few weeks in fall and winter for that thrill of hearing leaves crunch as a deer heads your way no matter the problems. We aren’t the chosen few of TV channels, we are you.


Two stands in Marshall county less than 150 yards from a subdivision on 30 acres.


Let me give you a list of Twitter names along with their states of the hunters on this year’s tour.

@TeamSST and @Team_mlt, Michigan
@firstlightgear, Michigan
@lukekujacznski, Michigan
@jesseshaver, Michigan
@Bigbrother010, Ohio
@BigBuckPW, Maryland
@TheWillToHunt, Virginia
@Writinghuntress, North Carolina
@hunttrophywife, Georgia
Drop Tine, Georgia
@ghost1066, Tennessee
@MAC71LH, Arkansas
@MKOTZUM, Oklahoma
@Deer_Commander, Oklahoma

From October 16 to November 9 Rudy will be driving from state to state filming as we do what we do. Nothing staged, no guarantees, good or bad, just like you do it. Until then you can keep up with what the hunters are doing to get ready for the tour. Whether it is working out, scouting, practice, whatever, we will be sharing it through social media which is how all this started. Most of us are tagging tweets with #deertour or #deertour2011 so you can search it to see what we are talking about.




Views from my stand in Jump Off Tn 18 acres surrounded by woods for miles.


I hope those of you that can follow along as we go through the pre season and the hunts. Posts will be put up from stands and blinds during hunts along with many posts being put now showing food plots, deer and gear since for us the Tour has started. Passing along information for people to see, comment on and share is what the social part is all about.

If you use Twitter, Facebook or follow the blogs feel free to jump in and talk or leave comments as we go, remember we got invited for being social and sharing online, who knows Rudy may send you a DM next year and surprise you like he did me.

8 comments:

Rudy from Huntography said...

Great post Tommy. I think you summarized what we are all about to experience pretty well.

Seeing some of the spots we may be hunting sure gets me excited. I can already envision us up in the tree filming.

As we get closer, we are going to be sharing tons of pics, video, tweets, Facebook status updates and more....all in real time. I too hope we'll have many of our online friends join us in the online conversations this fall.

Saying it will be epic is an understatement. It will be challenging while at the same time exhilarating.

We have a whole summer to get all our ducks in row.....but that's part of the fun.

Can't wait to meet you face to face and give ya a big ol' hug Tommy.

Rudy

Albert Quackenbush said...

Awesome! Best of luck to you, Tommy. I hope you are able to kill a deer on video.

Rudy - mighty kind of you to do what you do. Looking forward to seeing some footage!

Rudy from Huntography said...

Thanks Al! I'm passionate about documenting the stories, experiences and culture of America's hunters. Man, if I had time, I'd love to come down to SOCAL and hunt and film w/ you.

The Hunter's Wife said...

Interesting and will look forward to following all the updates and hunter. Best of luck to all of you.

LB @ Bullets and Biscuits said...

Good luck guys! Sounds like it's gonna be an awesome season for you. I can't wait to follow along!

jaytrackem said...

This is a great idea! As was mentioned on twitter a few days ago, the lacking of a good outdoor series for television. Real people, real hunting! Can't wait to see it Tommy. If Rudy wants to travel to upstate NY in late November I'll take him tracking in the Adirondacks for some big bodied bruins!

jaytrackem

Rudy from Huntography said...

Thanks @LB - Happy you'll be following along this fall.

@Jay - Thanks for liking the idea. I grew up hunting in upstate NY and have hunted in many counties and tracts of state land but have never made it up to the Adirondacks. That type of hunting, tracking in big woods, is something I love and had a chance to film last year in 4w last year.

I'd love to take you up on that but my schedule locked up. I had planned on filming in NY this season but sadly, don't have that many vacation days ;(

Maybe we can talk and get something set up for next season.

Who knows, maybe we'll get a freak snow storm down in Tommy's neck of the woods. Then we could do some southern style deer tracking.....

The Hunter George said...

Good luck everyone, I will be sure to follow the tour. If you are interested in my hunt feel free to follow me at @HunterGeorge_ I will be tweeting from my blind.

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Born and raised in middle Tennessee.I'm a working wildlife and landscape artist specializing in watercolors. Now making cedar lures and custom turkey calls.
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