Eight Days, Three States, Three Big Bucks: Jake Miller Redefines “The TRIFECTA”
OutdoorHub 01.24.14
This past November Jake Miller accomplished what many hunters can only hope to accomplish in a lifetime. And he did it in just eight days! In the heart of the whitetail season, Jake pulled out all of the stops, while also filming and producing for “THE HUNT with Greg & Jake” (which airs only on Outdoor Channel).
“It all started in early November,” Jake recalled. That’s when he and cameraman Chad Calhoun pulled onto a 300 acre parcel of land in Indiana sight unseen and, of course, without a guide. Having never hunted this property was the first challenge. The second was that the land owner loved to cruise around the property on his ATV before dawn everyday! Although big bucks were showing up on cameras pretty much every night, daylight hours revealed a property seemingly void of life. After working the tract of land hard, strategizing, and then re-strategizing (plus squeezing a little cooperation from the landlord abstaining from his raucous morning ritual), Jake found himself in a tree stand with a Maxima Red arrow knocked and pointing right at his quarry. The arrow flew true and, after a 10 days of hard hunting, Jake and his cameraman had got it done with a beautiful Indiana buck on the ground. After taking a short half-day to celebrate, cut up and cape Jake’s trophy and then repack their clothes, the two Wisconsin boys were on the road and headed straight to a 15,000 acre chunk of hunting property in southeast Kansas.
Upon his arrival in Kansas, Jake met up with the property manager, David. After a quick tour, David looked at Jake and Chad with a smile and said, “There you go boys…have at it!”. Attacking 15,000 acres without a guide or extensive local knowledge of the property guaranteed an uphill battle. Jake was left with only his instinct and previous experiences to rely on. “After diligently studying satellite images of the property and reviewing photos from several Reconyx cameras, we were forced to make a decision,” Jake said. “We had to trust the patterns that our Reconyx cameras were picking up, and then try to position our Ameristep treestands in spots that would provide us with the greatest chance for success.”
As luck would have it, Jake’s gut instinct paid off fairly quickly. Just 1 1/2 days into his Kansas bowhunt he arrowed a buck appropriately nicknamed “Hollywood”, an elusive whitetail that truly was a big star. Like a Hollywood celebrity, this deer typically came out only at night and laid low during most of the day. Once again, Miller had put himself in the right place at the right time. “You just have to love those times when you trust your instincts and past experiences and get a payout like this. I am certainly blessed,” an ecstatic Jake said. But in typical Miller fashion, it was back on the road and onto the next location.
This time we jump one state to the west, landing in the eastern plains of “Colorful Colorado”, as the welcome sign exclaims. Again, hunting a chunk of property for the first time, and also without a guide, Jake is presented with a similar challenge all over again. “We did what we always do. We show up and start right in with the homework. We put out our Reconyx cameras and consider just about every possible scenario. And then we try to put ourselves in a situation that most likely is going to pay off for us,” Jake continued, “That’s why we love this game so much. You just never know what’s going to happen.”
Right from the start Jake noticed that both big whitetail and big mule deer bucks were spread out across the prairie, chasing does well out of reach of a bullet, let alone an arrow. Watching those deer while sitting on his Ameristep tree stand situated in a river bottom, Jake tried to hang onto the hope that not all the big bucks were strewn across the plains, and that a shooter would eventually emerge from the thick cover in the bottom. Then, on day two while being distracted by the action in the distance, the buck that Jake was waiting for suddenly appeared from the thick cover and started working its way straight toward his position. Jake waited for the right moment and locked his Mathews Creed XS on the target. Seconds later an NAP-tipped Carbon Express arrow zipped through 30 yards of Colorado air space and another big whitetail buck was down!
Over these 8 days of truly Do-It-Yourself bowhunting, on properties that had to be studied and scouted on the fly, Jake took down 3 very mature bucks in 3 different states. “Luck played a role here for sure. But in my line of work, luck is a product of putting your time in, scouting, and hunting hard” said Jake. He continued, “When it all comes together like this, it truly is an incredible feeling”.
Watch the events unfold before your eyes in the summer of 2014 as “THE HUNT” premieres another breathtaking season on Outdoor Channel.
Show Concept
Greg and Jake Miller would like to welcome you to Season Two of “THE HUNT with Greg & Jake”, premiering in the 3rd quarter of 2014, a production designed to showcase what these two hunters believe is the most important element of any hunting show–which is the hunt itself!
Though they’re now operating under a new name, Greg and Jake will retain the same ‘Road Warrior’ approach that consistently garnered top viewer ratings for them in the past. The father and son team will continue to hunt no fewer than 10 different states each season. What’s more, the majority of these hunts will be conducted in areas that are accessible and affordable to the average deer hunter.
And as they’ve always prided themselves on doing, Greg and Jake will continue to find their own hunting areas, do their own scouting and select and prepare their own stand sites. Most importantly, Greg and Jake will strive to ensure that the animals they harvest remain the focal points and true “Stars” of their shows. It’s an aspect of their approach that viewers have always found very refreshing.
Though viewers of “THE HUNT” will notice a definite change in format and production style, popular educational core elements will remain unchanged. The award winning segment, “Zooming In”, will use sophisticated satellite imagery and advanced graphic techniques to dissect and explain the feature hunt of each episode. While another special segment, “The Breakdown”, will provide viewers with a thorough cross-section of the critical factors that led to a successful secondary hunt.
Learn more at www.wildcomm.com/brands-The-Hunt.aspx, www.millertv.net, www.facebook.com/thehuntmillertv
Outdoor Channel Airtimes
Q1 & Q2 – Mondays @ 1pm ET
Q3 & Q4 – Thursdays @ 8:30pm ET + 2 additional weekly airing, see your TV guide for more details!
