The "Alone" show has been good for Trad

[tradslinger]

The wife loves the show Alone and watches it a lot. The last several years, more and more contestants are bringing a trad bow to hunt with. They have harvested several animals from birds, squirrels, beaver, deer to a moose with them. and oh yes, some porcupine. Have seen recurves, longbows as well as selfbows. of course there is trapping and such. But the thing is that they show a lot of people harvesting wildlife for food with them. They also show the importance of brightly colored fletching etc when looking for arrows shot in the thick timber. Clay Hayes was the first to get a deer last year and this with one of his selfbows. Anyways, it is a lot of tradbow exposure.

[Dave Lay]

I agree totally, it’s neat to see the folks using trad bows, the skill level varies quite a bit, showing some actually hunt with them in every day life vs the ones that grab one to take for the time spent on the show, the show Neekid and skeered  also has a similar deal,  one guy on there , Matt shoots a glass longbow and is very good with it.

[David Mitchell]

Agreed, I've seen some pretty impressive shooting.

[Tactical Draftsman]

Clay did good. Not only is he an accomplished archer, but he already knew how to film things. Some of the other folks strike me that they bring a bow just because they can, but to your point, it is good exposure. I have noticed that the wide angle lenses they film with really distort the distance; it looks like they are taking grouse out at 50 yds, ha ha.

[tradslinger]

yeah, the wide angle lens make the shots look farther but that is ok. Those squirrels are like midget squirrels. Several have had quality bows and arrows as well as Flu Flu's

[arrow30]

like to see them drop em off in the hardwoods in the midwest somewhere,
 and see how they do on greys and bluejays.
 those grouse seem like an easy meal to me.
  3 left! 

[Terry Green]

Yeah, Clay did us proud.  I wish I could have watched it, I just didn't have the time and still don't.  Maybe one weekend I can binge watch it.

[arrow30]

go here terry, you wont have to see all the commercials.
https://play.history.com/shows/alone

[Terry Green]

Thanks Bryant!

[Gene Wensel]

I've been following this show for several seasons. At least we can't see the shadows of cameramen during tense situations like they show on other "Naked and Afraid" type shows claiming to be "alone." Alone seems to be the real deal although the threat of polar bears that far inland is probably minimal. I was routing for Clay last season. That Montana gal was right on his heels but she got pulled due to a frostbitten big toe. I would've been really impressed if she would have lobbed off her own toe on camera when they came in to extract her. That toe might have cost her half a million.
    I see two mistakes being made so far this season. They should have piled up the brook trout and smoked a hundred or more each when the fishing was good early in the trip before the ice set in. One lady killed a muskrat with her bow. It seems like they could have easily stockpiled jerked/dried or smoked a lot of muskrat meat using their snare wire set over muskrat holes rather than only using their bows. On most shows, someone will weave those funnel shaped fish traps that are all but useless unless you set them where fish are spawning.

[tradslinger]

I agree on just about everything you said Gene. I am always amazed at how long people wait to get serious about their trapping and even fishing. Yep, when the fish are biting, you should be stocking up and smoking the fool out of them. You have to take advantage of the food source while you can before it is too late. A few years ago, a woman had a stockpile of smoked trout, was eating good and had a great shelter and just got tired of it, all of the others were starving and struggling. A mind set for sure.

[arrow30]

i agree about stock piling the fish, get them while they are biting. i would have a fire going , and be cooking some while i was fishing.

[tradslinger]

I would get a roof up, the tarp makes that easy, then get a smoker spot built and ready to use. Fish hard or trap with house building on the side as you can, like while smoking something to eat later.

[Overspined]

It sure has, honestly I’ve been pretty impressed at the shooting by many of the folks shooting little squirrels. Grouse are obviously perfect targets but still good shooting.

[toddster]

Funny thing is I been a fan of the show since it started, and they always had people with trad bows on it.   But I guess it took Clay (awesome guy) to win it to wake others up.

[Sam McMichael]

Alone did give Trad some good exposure. Also, over the last few years, the movies have also been good for Trad as well. I read that after Jennifer Lawrence used the bow in her movies, girls in particular showed an uptake in archery. I hope more things will continue this trend. I can relate to Clay and really am glad he did so well. It was a win for all of us.

[Gun]

The "Hunger Games" series added kids for sure. The owner of the largest property I hunt (900+ acres) didn't know I hunted trad until he was telling me his grand daughter had taken up archery after seeing those movies. He respects me a lot more since.

I quit watching Alone when I realized how set up for failure the show is. Of course I realize it can't go on forever. I question how some of the people get picked. The biggest issue I see is having the mental aspect in control.

I also didn't have a lot of respect for Clay after he had such a foul mouth rant over the failure of his nets.