November 28, 2011

One of our fast-rising stars here at The Best of the West is Brandon Davis. Brandon began work here just this August as a videographer, and has moved quickly to become one of our on-camera pro staffers. He says that working here is literally a dream come true – from a time when he was a child and told his parents that someday, he would live here in Wyoming, where hunting and the outdoors are a big part of our way of life.

As a youngster, Brandon tagged along with his family on hunts from the time he was four years old. At seven, he went along on his first big game hunt – a mule deer buck that Brandon spotted while his dad was napping! He went on his first backpack hunt at 11, and finally got his opportunity to hunt himself at the age of 12, on a late season blacktail bow hunt in Oregon. Since then, he’s drawn tags in 7 states and Canada, and been along on hunts in Colorado, as well. Just two years ago, he spent an incredible five months just traveling with his family and hunting. On that trip alone, he and his family drew 19 tags and hunted 13 of them!

Brandon’s quest to hunt for a living is quite an interesting tale. When he was in 8th grade, he traveled from his native Oregon to Hot Springs, South Dakota for the North American Longbow Safari. While on that trip, the group made a stop in Cody, Wyoming, and Brandon decided then and there that someday he would live in Cody and hunt. He even told his family about his dream, and in Brandon’s words, “they all thought I was crazy.” He moved forward with his life, attending college on a baseball scholarship with the intention of becoming a teacher, but always with the idea of moving to Wyoming someday. While in college, he changed gears and made the decision to become a journeyman lineman instead, which brought him to Casper, Wyoming – that much closer to his dream. Married by this time, he and his wife, Jesse, made a major decision – to leave their jobs in Casper behind and take their chances living their dream in Cody. Once there, he worked as a farrier and filming some hunts with a college friend. Fatefully, Brandon’s path crossed with that of BOTW’s Jim Sessions, who encouraged him to interview at the Best of the West to work in the gun shop – but his filming experience landed him a higher-profile job here… and the rest is history in the making!

Since beginning here at BOTW, Brandon has been on five hunts. His first on-camera hunt was in September with John Porter, but he didn’t get his antelope on that trip, so he went out the next weekend with his wife and young son near Casper, Wyoming for Jesse’s first big game hunt. On that trip, Brandon managed to take a nice antelope at 647 yards in an 18 mph cross wind! And Jesse dropped her antelope in one shot at around 375 yards… and they caught it all on film. So keep your eye on the Outdoor Channel’s lineup after the first of the year for that exciting episode!

Brandon has since been hunting in Canada with Lock N Load Outfitters out of Alberta, and just got back from a trip to Idaho in which they took two young people out for their very first hunts.

Meet Brandon, along with some of our other pro staffers, during our trade show tour! Check out our tour schedule at http://thebestofthewest.net/index.php/blogs/95-2012-trade-show-schedule.