How Western Hunter's Nate Simmons Got His Start - Cameron Hanes

I love that show, The Western Hunter with Nate Sillings. And that's one of the things that he documents on the show all the time is the grind of public land hunting. He's always getting, he's always running into guys on horseback that run off the animals and deep, deep, deep into the back country, still find guys with the wall tent. Like fuck. It's a grind. He's a great hunter. He's the very first person to film me in the wilderness. Oh, wow. Nate was. It's like he wanted to hunt the wilderness, had never done it. He knew I had done it. Actually maybe it was Shay, a man who filmed first, but then I can't remember, maybe Nate was first. They were both right around 2002. But Nate, I saw him at the bow rack and he's like, man, I've always wanted to hunt the wilderness. And I'm like, well, do you want to film me? Yeah, I'd love to. So he didn't know how to run a camera, but his sister was getting married on a Friday, opening day was Saturday. I said, if you go to the wedding, you drive to the trailhead after the reception, you get to the trailhead at one in the morning, you walk all night, 12 miles, you can be in there by first light, Saturday, opening day. And I'll tell you where to go. And it's like on these maps and all this, you know, I thought there's no way this kid's ever going to make it. So this was how many years, 17 years ago, he's not old now. So 17 years ago. So he's probably like 20 back then. Early twenties. And I got up opening morning and I went up to the saddle way deep in the wilderness. And I'm like, look where I told Nate to come from first light comes. And I look over there and here's this guy walking and it's him. And he made it all the way in there, drove all night, packed in all in the dark, made it in there and film me. It took day six, day six, I killed a buck. He filmed, did a great job. Day seven, I killed a bull and he, that was his first ever with the camera. First ever time. And now you see what he's doing on Western Hunter, just amazing work. But it's one of the best shows that really depicts hunting. He gets it. He gets it. And he gets the grind, as you said, and the emotion tied to it. I think his first bull with a bow is when he's 13. Wow. And all he's ever done is bow hunt. Wow. His whole life. So that, he's one of the most, I mean, I respect him as much as anybody. He's just, and it was just, I saw 17 years ago, he had it. He had it then and he wanted to learn and he wanted to experience it. And then he's went from there to making one of the best shows on TV. Such a great lesson in that, that there's the opportunity. It's not easy. If you're going to a wedding at one in the morning, you're going to have to hike in. It's a 12 mile hike. It should take you about five or six hours. But if you want to do it, there it is. And a lot of people are like, fuck. No, all sorts of excuses not to. We'll all come in, I'll be there that night, Saturday night. No. I said, I need you there opening morning. That's a giant part of life is those opportunities, capitalizing on those opportunities. A person could easily have blown that off. Maybe another time, maybe I'll hunt with you next year. Maybe I'll hunt with you. Exactly. And then nothing ever happens and then you don't get that momentum. Who knows? And then maybe there's no Western hunter. Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, it's, it's, but as a human being, those opportunities, like that's how you build. You build on the capitalizing on those opportunities and making it happen. And then you keep going. That's the whole thing. Like these uncomfortable moments, pushing through them, having discipline and drive, getting it done when you don't want to. And then you go, oh, I know how to do that. I can do that. I can grind through this. I can get through it. And then that's how you build in life. You just step by step by step, you keep doing it. And that's when, when that happens, I mean, it's happened to me in my life where I've decided to do something and it was really difficult. But when I got through it, I go, oh, I can do it. I can push through things. I can make things happen. It's such an important lesson. I mean, it's probably one of the most important lessons.