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Elk hunt turns into TV show Local woman’s hunt to be shown on Outdoor Life Network

Kathy Smith poses with her elk shot in early October in Eastern Kentucky. Smith's hunt was filmed for a show on the Outdoor Life Network. By Todd Martin

Kathy Smith was pretty lucky to get one of the 1,000 elk hunt tags state game officials distributed this year. As one of about 46,000 to apply for the tag, things were already looking up. But the fact that she was one of just 250 to get a tag for a bull was even luckier.

Then to be contacted by Fish and Wildlife to be the subject of a Hunting the World Southern Style on the Outdoor Life Network, well maybe, she thought, her luck had run out.

"When they called, I said I can’t answer that,” her husband Kevin Smith said. "She didn’t want that added pressure, but I just tried to encourage her. I told her, not only would it probably be a better chance to get an elk, but it might also encourage more women to go out and hunt.”

They’ll have to wait and see if it encourages more women to go out and hunt when the show airs next summer, just before elk season begins. But Smith said that once she finally decided to do it, everything went really well.

While she was nervous at first, Smith warmed up to the cameras as the day went on. "I was nervous at first, but the cameraman said, ‘Don’t pay any attention to me, just act like I’m not even here.’ So it got easier as the day went on,” she said. Especially once Smith got her big bull. Her elk, which she killed Oct. 10 in Eastern Kentucky, weighed in at more than 800 pounds field dressed and was 9 feet long. The successful hunt was great, the Smiths said, but it was definitely different.

"They had to be real particular about everything,” she said. "They guided me through putting on the scent blocker and the label had to be turned the right way [to be seen by the camera], I had to wear a Knight & Hale hat so people could see it. We had to pack our guns a certain way because the scope we use is different from Nikon.”

Kevin Smith said it made for a long day. "It was the longest I ever saw for us to take an animal out of the woods,” he said. A lot of the show was shot after Kathy Smith already had bagged the elk.

"We had to walk up on it several times, so they could get just the right angle,” she said. "We had to wipe the blood off the elk because they didn’t want that on TV. I even had to stand and look out over the fields a few different times, looking through the Nikon binoculars, so they could get the
right shots.”

Though the Smiths said the hunt was very different, they’re not complaining.

Smith and her husband Kevin pose with the elk's rack after her shot. The elk was 800 pounds field dressed and was 9-feet long. "We had a great time,” Kevin Smith said. "The guide we used, Voncel Thacker of Shady Creek Outfitters, was great, and we’ve even taken him hunting on our land down in Western Kentucky since that hunt. We made some great friendships and had a really good hunt with that group.”

Although Kathy Smith has been hunting since she was 16, the two just started to hunt together about seven or eight years ago, Kevin Smith said.

"For us, it’s not about the shooting or the killing, but about being outdoors and the camaraderie,” he said. "You can learn so much out there. Even if you don’t get anything, you can learn something that might help you the next time. Plus, it’s something we can do together, outside the house and work.”

The two go often on their farm in Shelby County off Figg's Store Road.

"It’s so much fun out there, the anticipation that gets you going when you hear something,” Kathy Smith said. "It might just be a squirrel, or it may be a deer. It’s just amazing how close the animals will get to you when you’re out there.”

Kathy Smith gets covered with Scent Killer for the TV cameras during her elk hunt in October. Kentucky elk hunter lottery open Applications for Kentucky’s 2010 elk hunt lottery went on sale Dec. 1. Applications cost $10 and are available online only at www.fw.ky.gov. Click on the "Buy Licenses Here” on the right side of the page.

Last year Kentucky issued 750 cow elk tags and 250 bull elk tags, and more than 46,000 filled out applications.

Youth hunters 15 years old and younger may apply for the 2010 youth-only elk hunt at Paul Van Booven Wildlife Management Area. Youth may apply for the regular quota elk hunts and the youth-only hunt, but each application costs $10.

Other hunters can apply only one time, and the deadline for the May drawing is April 30.