North American Hunter TV just wrapped up taping another season’s worth of “You Call the Shots” segments which you’ll enjoy with the 2011 season premier on Versus beginning in late May.  We’ve been at “YCTS” for almost 20 years on television and even more in the magazine.

The “regulars” in “YCTS” are Larry Weishuhn, Mark Kayser, Gordy Krahn and yours truly. The new kid on the block this year is North American Hunter magazine Senior Editor Luke Hartle. The producers of the show felt we were getting a little long in the tooth and recommended we inject some youth – that’s Luke. But just because he’s young, don’t think he lacks experience. Luke is a bow hunting maniac. His specialty is black bear, but like the rest of us give him a chance to hunt any game, anywhere, with anything and his bags will be packed in a flash.

Let’s add up a rough count of the hunting experience on the “You Call the Shots” panel. Larry has been at it for nearly 60 years. Gordy has been hunting for something like 45 years. I’ve been hunting for 38 seasons. Mark has hunted for more than 30 years. Luke – even though he’s the pup – has been hunting for at least 15 years.

Now start calculating the number of days each of us is blessed to hunt each year which across the panel averages something close to 120 or so days. Wow!

The purpose of this post isn’t to brag. It’s simply to offer assurance the advice we share in “You Call the Shots” is backed up by each of us truly “having been there” for a long, long time.

I personally judge the quality of any outdoor television show by one measure – did I learn anything from it? If I didn’t I always feel cheated out of a half hour I’ll never get back. Too many shows feature flash-in-the-pan hunting “rock stars.” Frankly without a guide, put down in a brand new place for an animal they haven’t hunted before, too many of them couldn’t hunt their way out of a paper bag.

In one form or another, North American Hunter TV has been around for 23 years and with the philosophy of providing solid hunting information and education good Lord willing we’ll be around for another 23. Will the “rock stars”? I’m not so sure.