Originally Posted By: WyoYoteDan, I'm doing this for guys like you!
After I went 0 for 5 yesterday, lack of success kind of makes a guy get 'creative'...or goofy! Besides, from what I can tell here on PM, being a "Pro Staffer" ensures instant gratification :>)
Can't omit the "bromance" opportunities (ala hyperwyx - Kodiak) :>)
Thanks for the mention. And while your dig on me seems witty enough, please allow me to retort. If I knew you in any fashion I would take this as a joke, laugh about it and have a good time with you. However since I don't know you in any fashion I do take offense to this and perceive this as an insult.
My "bromance" partner and I live in the same neighborhood. We have been friends for close to 8 years (I have lived in Arizona 10 years) and we enjoy sharing hobbies. Our families get together and do things and enjoy spending time together as well. Kids trick or treating etc and bbq's or what have you. I'm lucky that we enjoy the same hobby so much as it makes it easier to partake in the sport of predator calling.
Since I don't know you but in some way have offended you could I ask that you please take some time to explain why I'm in your line of sight at all?
I rarely post, I never say anything offensive or ego maniac'ish and I pretty much just do my best to be a nice guy. I have a rule for online posting, never type something I wouldn't say to their face. This helps me to stay out of the drama.
With that said, allow me to explain how I think I became a wannabe expert in your eyes (a claim which I have never made, I'm a novice hunter and fully admit it).
My last hobby of choice was paintball, this industry is much like Nascar or Motocross when it comes to sponsorships. They are just common place and people hustle whatever angles or connections they can to help them lesson the financial burden of the hobby. You market yourself and spend a great amount of time trying to gain new sponsorships. I was in paintball for 7 years and worked my way from recreational new guy in camo to full ride professional in the USPL/NPPL. What this gave me was an understanding of what companies look for when giving your products AKA choosing you to represent their company.
I took this experience and applied it to this hobby. However I have not paid my dues in predator hunting yet, I have not reached the status of "professional" and I didn't know anyone in the industry. So being honest I sent out letters to companies explaining just that. They basically went like this "Hello, I have OCD and will obsessively do whatever it takes to get good at this, please send me free stuff". They of course were much longer and more eloquent but you get the idea. And as you can imagine I was ignored by most.
Ron at Gametraks actually took the time to reply to me and ask what my thoughts were. My "pitch" to him was that he could sponsor some big name guy like Les Johnson, Byron South or Randy Anderson but that would be just like everyone else. I explained that I believed those types of people with their years of experience could probably call coyotes with a barbie doll, some bailing wire and a 2 liter of coke. However the target market for him was the new caller looking to purchase an electric caller. So if someone new guy like myself who has not yet cut his teeth in the industry, who doesn't know what he is doing could call coyotes successfully then it would show that his product was easy to use and works. It would put the spotlight on the product and not on the person. He agreed and took a chance on me by sending me a free caller. My obligatory title is "Field Staff".
Scott (Hyperwrx) took another approach and I will let him explain that should he choose too. However I can state that when he was with Minaska it was a pain in the arse because I enjoy hunting with my friend and he was loyal to Minaska and wouldn't use my Gametraks on days we hunted together. So when he and Minaska parted ways I did what I could to get him on with Gametraks. He was offered a prostaff position and accepted it. We hunt together 90% of the time so this works out nicely.
Last season Scott and I would write reviews of every hunt we went on and had success. Since we hunt allot, we were posting allot. This was also ridiculed on various forums and I believe I even read somewhere that "Hyperwrx and Kodiak would kill a fly and make a thread about it". So we talked about it and agreed that it would be best to try and slow that down. We came up with the idea of posting our kills monthly as a team. Again since we hunt 90% of the time together this made sense anyways.
We are going to continue to do this. We could go back to our old ways and make 20+ threads a month with every single and double or whatever, but I think just one picture, once a month with all the harvested animals in it is less obscene. Less "look at me" or what have you. We talked with Ron at Gametraks about this and he even agreed that it was probably better. Even though he would love to see Gametraks threads everyday, he liked our new game plan.
I'm beginning to think that no matter what I do, type or explain someone is going to mock and ridicule it. I would really just like to understand why. Maybe I'm too sensitive but really just don't like it.
So that is my side of the story, my novel and my boredom. Being unemployed currently gives me lots of free time to hunt and take offense to things read on the internet. I'm sure your a nice guy and were just making a joke at my expense, which I can appreciate to some degree. I guess I just take it better when the jokes come from people I know and not random strangers. Maybe one day we will meet at fix that.
Until then, thanks for reading and happy hunting.
"Arizona Bromance Brothers"
AKA Andrew Kerns
