‘The Hunt’ Coming Soon

A new show called 'The Hunt' is coming to History Channel, depicting the annual brown bear hunt on the island of Kodiak, Alaska.  The show will debut next month with Metallica's James Hetfield as the narrator.  Apparently, Hetfield used to bear hunt and spends a fair amount of time 'in the wild'.

Only 496 tags are issued each year for the chance to hunt the Kodiak brown bear, which can grow to 12 feet tall and weigh in at 1,500 pounds! Thousands of hunters apply for the coveted tags each year.   And with the elusive and intelligent nature of this beast, typically less than half of the issued tags are filled, in what many hunters feel is 'the hunt of a lifetime'.  And most of those who pursue the Kodiak brown bear do so with a bow and arrow or muzzleloader, and not much technology, keeping with the tradition as much as possible. The hunters will only be using what gear they can on what is typically a ten-day guided trek for non-Alaskans.

If you didn't know, hunting legend Tom Nelson, host of American Archer on Outdoor Channel, lives here in Greater Lansing.  Tom once shot a polar bear with a bow and arrow!

I just said to our midday host, Duran Martinez (who also hosts 'Wild Michigan' on one of our sister-stations), as I was writing this in the WMMQ studio, "Hey, you got a bear, didn't you?!"

Pause.  "No, I didn't.  I got an elk. That's a rather sore subject, thank you.  I found out after I missed him that I had a loose sight on my bow!"

And then he went on to tell me in detail the story, getting angrier as he told it.  Ooops.  Guess I shouldn't have asked.

You can hear some of Duran's previous 'Outdoors' shows here.