Tred Barta

[jeepmor]

He's pretty real and doesn't take himself too seriously. You see him miss shots, you see him get skunked on high dollar trips. But you also see him making no excuses for himself either. Sure, he's a bit over the top, annoying and arrogant, but he admits that too. That's a pretty big man to be on a national TV and allow the true mistakes be included in the show. I can really learn something watching his shows because he shares more of the true experience in my opinion. Most hunter extraordianaire types would never allow you to see their flubs on their show. If they did not succeed, you would not see the footage, plain and simple, because you don't.

I like how you get to go on the hunt with him via the camera man. Not just a show about a bunch of kill shots editing out the true spirit of hunting. The pursuit of game in the outdoors and the process, or journey if you will, to a successful hunt. I think he illustrates more than others that he is still having fun and the fact that he did not get his game does not reduce his joy factor to zero. It's not 100% without success, but hey, he enjoys himself.

I just spent 4 days in Eastern Oregon getting busted by coyotes and missing all the ones I shot at. Did it ruin my trip with no fur to hang on the wall, no. Would I prefer to have been successful instead, of course. Did I still have a good time and learn a lot, heck yeah. It's only encouraged me to go back and try it again. We started agriculture for a reason, hunting is not easy, simple as that.

He's comes across as one of those goofy eccentric guys that seems just as bewildered as his viewers that he got lucky enough to get a job like that and he sure looks like he has fun at it whether he's successful or not.

I think he has a lot to offer that nearly all of the other shows are simply afraid to show because the hosts don't have any humility.

The footage of him on a bear hunt in Alaska dancing on top of the little boat top was funny. He's a real guy, I give him that. I might have to stuff a sock in his mouth after a few days in the bush, but that's just how it goes.

 

[B.D. Turner]

99% of the hunting shows make hunting look too easy.

 

[MWenzel]

Tred Barta is an annoying man who is full of himself.

 

[mothernatureson]

Well, at least you spelled yankee correctly. Did you have your mom help you ?

 

[Pa. Patriot]

Watched a couple episodes. Hog w/ knife and a caribou hunt.
on the latter there was a stalk where the bull was leaving in a hurry and he litterally just winged a shot in their direction as they were walking at least 45 or so yards away.
Apparently he has little self control resulting in taking unethical shots with a long bow. I wonder how many animals he has wounded rather than harvest through the years.
I have no further use for him.

 

[xd45gaper]

lol i would rather watch 1000 episodes of Tred not killing anything with his longbow and homemade arrows than any of those other clowns that walk 50 yards on a hunting ranch and have an animal placed in front of them shoot it with there 9000.00 weatherby topped with a 2000.00 swvorski.

 

[hard h20]

I just watched an episode with him chasing sheep. He ended up shooting through some brush and missing and then winging another shot and nicking the animal in the leg. They had left the guide's rifle back aways so they just watched the animal through the glass and declared that he wasn't hit bad so they would just let him limp off.

He proceeded to demonstrate a personal locator beacon. He forgot to turn it off and the U.S. Coast guard showed up in a helicopter at there lodge.

He seems surprisingly out of shape but describes himself as "195 pounds of twisted steel".

I will not be watching his show in the future. He is not my idea of a hunter nor a sportsman. He is selfish and self righteous.

 

[phantomak47]

I can't stand the shows that take kids and put them in stands who make awful shots often missing or wounding the deer. I am sorry but if your kid needs some super bipod or rest in a deer stand and cant shoot a lick, you dont need to be taking that child hunting. I recently watched some girls shoot a deer near its back leg and then cry when they couldnt find it. What is this!!!???

 

[kmrcstintn]

on the positive...he's for real...what you see is what you get...flub ups included! he hunts like our ancestors did generations ago...trail spotting and stalking; he goes against the grain and doesn't follow the current trend of sit in a blind with lots of scent killer using high power optics and taking way too long shots

on the negative...he's very hard headed and feels that his way is the best or at least that no other way is good enough...bad example for the impressionable kids and inexperienced adult hunters that might not have alot of self confidence and are willing to try anything

 

[rantingredneck]

I find him hard to watch due to his personality. I have no problem with the way he hunts or fishes, though and as others have said, his shows are more "real" than the other guys.

I mostly avoid those shows anyway.

 

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I've read many of the posts here trashing Barta as a "Nore Eastern snob" who "only hunts in Orivs gear", etc....with a great amount of amusement. I've yet to see a single show in which he was doing his hunting under anywhere near the leisurely conditions you see on most hunting shows. Yeah, the guy's a walking ego. So what? 99% of televised hunting is nothing but heavily edited commercials disguised as programming, where you only see resounding success on guided (to the point of babysitting) "hunts". Utterly worthless. While Barta is a bit on the obnoxious side (but often funny as well) he at least is honest enough to display his blunders as well as his successes. And anyone who saw him take a Canadian moose with a long bow and then spend two days with his guide packing it out in a canoe that they carried a couple of miles through woods and ponds would be hard-pressed to look down on him in comparison with the vast majority of T.V. hunters.

I saw one show last month where a guy was on a guided stalk hunt for Alaskan caribou. The guide not only dictated the "hunter"'s every move, he carried all of the gear (except for the rifle) and even held the steady stix for him when it came time to take a shot. I'm just greatful that they edited out the part where the guide wiped the hunter's nose for him. Compared with stuff like that Barta is a regular mountain man.

 

[islandphish]

I'm probably like a lot of you out there that get a little put out by watching a guy who seems so "city". T. Barta just doesn't have that comfort level with the outdoors. The outdoors seem to him as something "out there" not a real part of him.

I saw him Longbow shoot a grizzly, that was hard core. So for that I will give him props.

Other shows I like? I can't remember or find the name of it. but there is a hunting show that is a guy and his wife and they pretty much bowhunt everything. Good tips, real hunts, I like that one. In one episode the guy was nailing prairie dogs with his bow from, i think, about 40yards. He was using a range finder to help.

 

[chemist308]

I for one actually like the show. Seeing him take a hog with a 12" knife was interesting, but also something often done for sport. The best was watching him shoot a grizzly with a long bow, while on the ground, from 10 yards away... He was all excited about the arrow placement while his back-ups (armed with slug guns and high powered rifles) were scared sh@!less

 

[H&Hhunter]

Somebody needs to put a stake in this things heart. It keeps coming back to life and it's lame subject to begin with!

Jesus, Joseph & Mary, we are talking about a silly little TV show here. It reminds me a bunch of overweight house wifes arguing about the best soap opera.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES, NO! GENERAL HOSPITAL, NO................

Realize that this thread was started over TWO YEARS AGO, LET IT DIE.

 

[Porter_Rockwell]

Not my hero...but....

Maybe this thread outta die, but I have to say this. I have two hunting buddies who criticize me for bow hunting. They laugh and complain when I don't come home with anything. They only put in for the the local hunts that are guided. They both have purchased 300 Win mag rifles and have not used them in 3 years because they did not draw their cherished hunts with a near 100% sucess rate. They both watch Tred and make fun of him and me at work.

I can take the ribbings just fine, but I have to admit I really like Tred's line when he says "What are we all afraid of, failure.? I take my failure and learn from it. It makes me tougher and it makes me a better person."

I may not agree with the ego fueled attitude of Captain Barta much of the time, but I certainly like that statement. I hunt with a bow becasue it really gives me with best chance at failure, but how much more joy and sense of accomplishment I have when I walked my butt off 8-20 miles on public land, arrow the beast and carried it out myself or with little help. It is the hard way, but I learn so much more. It is so much more personally satisfying!

Another good program where I think the personalites are much better is Eastman Hunting TV. Now those guys, (especially Cameron Hanes) are some serious hardcore, non ego centered guys who teach anyone that a DIY public land hunt is the best way to go. These guys have it right...no fences. No guides, no thousands of dollars in mega equipment.

Just my .02

God Bless,

Porter

 

[H&Hhunter]

These guys have it right...no fences. No guides, no thousands of dollars in mega equipment.

Just my .02

Of course it doesn't matter if you are hunting with a rifle, a bow a muzzle loader, or a rock. there is right way a and a wrong way to do things. Weapon choice is nothing more than a personal preference. I hunt with them all.

 

[countryrebel]

Barta is an ******* and he treats people like they are idiots,not the kind of person I like to watch.

 

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Barta is an ******* and he treats people like they are idiots,not the kind of person I like to watch.

I have yet to see him treat anyone like an idiot. He engages in a lot of sarcastic amd tongue-in-cheek humor. Perhaps you're taking his banter too seriously.

 

[cpttango30]

TV shows are killing hunting. They make all these armchair hunters think that you go out and sit in a tree stand drinking coffee. untill a monster buck (The one they feed all year long) comes walking up to the stand then you shoot and it is over. 30 minutes or less. I personaly do not watch a single deer hunting show. Would rather watch extream underwater basketweaving while driving red hot 16 penny nails into my eyes with a spoon. The only hunting show I used to watch is Predator Quest, but ever since Comcast took that channel away and gave me 99 mexican channels I do not get to see it.

I watched one once and the guy pulled up to a herd got out of his Land Rover and said into the camera ok we are going to stalk them now (He was 50 yards away) turned around took his $5000 custom 300 Win Mag rifle with its $2000 Ziess scope and walked stright (Oh my bad Stalked) up to the heard now only 25 yards away and just blasted one and it ran off more than 100 yards. because he gut shot the darn thing. I am sorry hunting on a ranch where they raise deer is not hunting it is killing. and 99% of the guys on the shows and the guys writing the magazines are not hunters they are killers nothing more and maybe a lot less in my eyes.

I happend on Ted Barta once, and all i seen him do is fling sticks wildly into the woods hoping to killing something.

 

[Redneck07]

I like Tred Barta... hes a bit full of himself... but he has a good show.

I would watch him anyday over the 'lets sit out over a cornfield and wait for the 14 point buck we have been feeding for 3 years' bullcrap.

 

[hacksaw]

Sorry, but Tred just cracks me up, egomaniac that he is you never see Bill Jordan fall off a mountain or do anything foolish/clumsy. As for the other shows, well if I had a 450 Acre farm that I knew the location of every food plot and watering hole I bet i could pop a buck or two every year....

 

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I just TiVo'd an episode of "The Best and Worst" in which Tred goes on a public land elk hunt in Colorado. The point of the show was not the outcome of the hunt itself, but Tred's recurring theme about the erosion of access by the common man to public hunting land. What he was illustrating was how to do your homework and use "the system" in order to find access to land that is not generally known about, rather than resorting to shelling out $1,000s for leases and/or private ranch hunts.

Of course, he was doing his usual longbow hunting and the multi-day expedition was a total bust in terms of game-taking (in spite of the presence of a fair number of elk). But the show was far more informative and useful than 99% of other hunting shows currently on the air.

 

[Daking]

What most people here really don't like about Barta is that he has an opinion, he states it plainly and he doesn't back up. I saw a reference to Jimmy Houston's pen hunting. Old Jimmy is so sweet on TV that butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. In person, he threatened the people who used tape admitted into evidence in court that showed him pen hunting. I've had occasion to interview a lot of the television anglers and hunters. The two that are the genuine article are Barta and Mark Sosin because the way they behave on television is the way they behave in person. Some of the others put on their game face on the show and are alpha hotels in real life.

I'd rather deal with someone who is the same way every day.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Interesting first post.

What is your association with Tred?

 

[Old Trapper]

Heart vs. Personality

Barta exhibits a strange combination of an egotistical personality, but from a person whose heart is in the right place. He has good intentions, but sometimes bumbles his execution of his good intentions.

Barta is flawed human being just like the rest of us.

The key to enjoying Barta is not to take him too seriously, but seriously consider some of his ideas about hunting. Enjoying watching what he hunts and where he hunts it. Take Barta in small doses, and be glad that you aren't snowbound in a cabin with him for the winter.