tred barta

Do It The Hard Way!

I could hardly believe my own ears when I answered the phone in my office a few weeks ago and the person on the other end of the line was none other than Tred Barta.

Tred was looking for a place to do some spot and stalk hunting for javelina and heard that Brazos Archery Outfitters might have just the place he was looking for.

Any of you that know Tred or watch his TV show on Outdoor Life Network (OLN) know that he is a dedicated longbow hunter and has a reputation for doing things the hard way! He was looking for a place where he could hunt javelina without the use of a blind or bait. Tred wanted to stalk these little critters on their own turf and take them with his longbow and homemade wooden arrows. He insisted that the place not be high fenced and the more rugged, the better.

We had just the place – the 26,000 acre Rosillos Mountain Ranch in Big Bend National Park.

After describing the place to Tred and hearing his plans for the hunt, plans were made and the wheels put into motion.

My partner in BAO, Johnny Johnson, traveled to the ranch 3 days early and with the help of his son Jacob, scouted the ranch to find a starting place for Tred. On Thursday he met Tred and his camera crew at the Midland, TX airport, loaded their gear and made the 4 hour drive back to the ranch.

I traveled out on Friday and arrived at the ranch just as the hunters arrived back at the ranch house with news that Tred had scored on his first javelina of the hunt.

With the help from his guide Johnny, Tred made a long stalk and put a great shot on a large javelina. The heart shot stopped the javelina almost in his tracks. Tred told us right off that we probably wouldn’t be impressed with his shooting and that he misses often. Sure couldn’t prove it by me! Every time I watched him shoot – he hit the mark…over and over and over!

We all sat around after supper and enjoyed the story of the hunt as well as a few peeks of the video footage taken by his two super cameramen Klay Shorthouse and Danny Kirsic! These two gentlemen are class acts and absolute experts in the field of video photography.

As javelina hunting traditionally is much better in the afternoons than the mornings, most of the crew chose to sleep in a little later on Saturday morning while Danny, Jacob and I arose before daylight in hopes of catching a few pixels of the beautiful sunrise from the Angela Canyon area of the ranch.

By the time we returned to the ranch, Johnny’s wife Pam had prepared a great breakfast and was busy packing a field lunch for our trip up the mountain for the afternoon hunt.

While she finished up the lunch preparations, Tred took a few minutes to give us all a quick lesson on the art of shooting traditional archery equipment. The man’s shooting was impressive! Johnny and Jacob seemed to pick up on the tips pretty quickly. As for me – thank goodness for compounds and bow sights!

When the shooting lesson was finished and the gear loaded, we headed up the mountain in search of Tred’s 2^nd javelina. We went to the area where he had hunted the day before and climbed to the tops of the peaks and started the business of glassing the mountain sides and drainages. It didn’t take long for Jacob to spot a couple of small groups of javelina and motioned for Tred to take up position in a nearby dry wash and try to ambush the group as they headed toward a natural spring to water.

The wind was a little tricky in the mountains and valleys and the javelina were picking up just enough human scent to make them change their minds about moving down the dry wash. As Tred and Jacob made several attempts to catch up with the group of javelina, Johnny and I moved to the other side of the mountain and spotted a large group in the valley below.

We hustled back to find Tred and the rest of the crew and directed them to the area where we last saw the group of javelina. As Tred, Jacob, and the camera crew made their way down the mountain to intercept the javelina, Johnny and I took up a position with a bird’s eye view on the mountain top.

We had a perfect seat to watch the show unfold in the valley below us. Again Tred made a great stalk and put another perfect shot on another nice sized javelina. We watched as the javelina ran less than 20 yards and piled up. I told you – the man can shoot that longbow!

Tred Barta is a man that does not compromise his values. He could have certainly made a great TV show with a lot less work by using modern archery equipment, a pop-up blind, and a little corn, but he chose to do it the “Barta Way” – “Do it the hard way!”

While Tred and crew finished up filming other portions of the show on Sunday, I headed back up the mountain to try my luck on the smelly little critters. I had a good hunt and managed to take a couple of nice ones myself. I didn’t do it the Barta Way – but I did manage to get it done. Compound bows and pop-up blinds work pretty well too!

Tred was a real hoot to hunt with and to just be around. It takes a little work getting used to that New York accent, but we almost had him saying “ya’ll” before he left.

Watch for the show on OLN. It will probably air sometime in mid-March.

John Shelley

Pro Staff

Bowhunting North America, LLC

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