Big Frank had the chance to visit with the legendary outdoorsman, Jim Shockey.
Jim calls himself to be an inveterate peregrinator who has traveled for 30 years by dogsled, boat, horse, mule, donkey, plane, ATV, ARGO and by foot around this world. He has climbed the Sierra Madres of Mexico, spiritually "smudged" with the Beaver Cree of Canada's north and traveled the water roads of the Northwest Territories searching for caribou with the Dene first nations people. Jim has learned his tracking skills from the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, learned to live off the land from the Aboriginal People in the Australian Outback and has "faced his lion" with the proud Masai warriors in Tanzania. Jim has stood, feet on the ground, between the Sudanese Rebel Poachers and the last remaining herds of Central African elephants. He has travelled the Ancient Silk and Salt Roads through Iran, Pakistan, Nepal and China; walked the steppes of Russia, hunted the Gobi Desert and sipped fermented mare's milk with the Mongolian nomads; he has spent nights with our warriors in Afghanistan and shared tears in lament, with his Inuit friends, as they sing of a world rolling over, the old ways passing on, harpoons and seals, polar bears and igloos ... a way of life gone.
Jim's personal hunting experiences include travel to the remotest, wildest and most beautiful reaches of the world. He has hunted in over 45 countries and on six continents, where he has taken more than 350 species. He has attained 88 world records for SCI and over 400 total record book entries, 13 Boone and Crockett (B&C) ALL TIME RECORD BOOK SPECIES taken with muzzleloader and one official world record (muskox) for B&C. During the course of his adventures, he has taken numerous muzzleloading world records, including, Stone's sheep, bison, Roosevelt elk, Shiras moose, muskox, walrus, white-bearded wildebeest, Grant's gazelle, steenbok and many more. He is the first hunter to complete the "NORTH AMERICAN SUPER SLAM" AND "ULTIMATE SLAM" using only a muzzleloader. Jim has written three books and published more than 1,000 adventure articles for the largest outdoor magazines, including American Hunter, Outdoor Life and North American Hunter. He has produced over 50 DVDs and hosts Jim Shockey's Hunting Adventures and Jim Shockey's Uncharted on the Outdoor Channel.
Jim has been an award-winning outdoor writer, wildlife photographer/videographer, wilderness guide and outfitter for nearly 30 years. He owns several exclusive outfitting territories in the wild lands of Canada, including the renowned Pacific Rim Guide Territory on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and the famed 12,000-square-mile Rogue River Outfitting in the Yukon Territory. His television productions have won 15 Golden Moose Awards from 2009-2015, and he is accomplished in archery, muzzleloader and rifle. He serves as the Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of 4 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (4CRPG) Canadian Armed Forces and is a Member International of the Explorer's Club in New York City, and works in production with his entire family-Louise, Eva and Branlin.
Jim was formerly an All-American swimmer in university (combined Biology Psychology major) and then played on the national waterpolo team for six years. Jim participated in both the 1978 and 1982 Aquatic World Championships but did not attend the 1980 Olympics because of the international boycott against Russia. Jim is considered to be one of the world's foremost experts on the Ethnocentric Folk Art forms from Western Canada. Jim dealt in and still collects tribal art, artifacts and antiques, and his collections have appeared several times in Country Living magazine and Century Home magazine.
ABOUT JIM'S DEBUT NOVEL CALL ME HUNTER
"Astoundingly original, relentlessly paced, and purely authentic." -Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
An elite secret society of killers has controlled the world's treasures for hundreds of years. until one member tears himself free to salvage his soul and protect his daughter's life in this electrifying and thrilling debut. The single greatest work of art in the world is not in the Louvre or The Met, or in any private collection. In fact, its whereabouts are unknown. Once in a long while, a child is born possessing the rarest of gifts, the innate ability to feel impossible beauty, to recognize priceless works of art. When such a child is discovered, a 250-year-old secret organization called Our World trains them to acquire the greatest works of art through theft, bribery, forgery, and even murder. Once found, the masterpiece will disappear again without anyone ever knowing it surfaced and sold for billions of dollars of profit at a secret auction attended by only the wealthiest of the art world's patrons.One of Our World's rare geniuses is Zhivago. He is also a psychopathic killer. On his trail is Hunter, a man who will stop at nothing to destroy the organization and save his daughter from suffering the same fate her mother did at its hands.
