Outdoor Legends II

event schedule

Jim Shockey
Jim has been an award-winning outdoor writer, wildlife photographer\videographer, wilderness guide and outfitter for the last two decades. He has exclusive guiding territories on world-renowned Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the wilds of the Yukon Territory, in the Sonoran Desert of Old Mexico and also in the heart of big whitetail buck country in Saskatchewan. Jim’s personal hunting experiences include travel to the remotest, wildest and most beautiful reaches of North America.

He has traveled for weeks by dogsled with the Inuit in the high arctic and climbed the Sierra Madres of Mexico looking for Coues deer. He’s spiritually “smudged” with the Beaver Cree and traveled the water roads of the Northwest Territories searching for caribou with the people of the Dene Nation. 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.

During the course of his adventures, he has taken numerous muzzleloading world records, including Stone’s sheep, bison, Roosevelt elk, Shirus moose, muskox, walrus, white-bearded wildebeest, Grant’s gazelle, steenbok and many more. He is the first and only hunter in the world to complete the “NORTH AMERICAN SUPER SLAM” and “ULTIMATE SLAM” using only a muzzleloader. Jim has published more than 1,000 adventure articles for virtually all the largest outdoor magazines, produces videos and hosts his own adventure television show on the Outdoor Channel.

Jim was formerly an All-American swimmer in university (combined biology psychology major) and then played on the national water polo team for six years. Jim participated in both the 1978 and 1982 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 deals in art and antiques, and his collections have appeared several times in Country Living magazine and Century Home magazine.

Jim is head over heels in love with and married to his best friend Louise (a former actress), since the early 1980’s. They have two wonderful children.

Ronnie "Cuz" Strickland
Before coming to work for Mossy Oak as the company's public relations director back in 1990, Ronnie "Cuz" Strickland had already piled up a decade of outdoor business experience, including time as a wildlife videographer. Today as senior vice president of media services, Cuz's expanded department produces North America's highest-rated, traditional outdoors television show, Mossy Oak’s Hunting the County. Mossy Oak Productions also is responsible for The Obsession Revealed, Fist Full of Dirt, Turkey Thugs and Deer Thugs.

Cuz still maintains a hands-on, through-the-viewfinder approach to outdoor television production, spending more than 100 days afield each year. Still, even with his busy schedule, Cuz has written three books, The Truth About Spring Turkey Hunting According to Cuz, The Whole Truth About Spring Turkey Hunting According to Cuz and Nothing But the Truth According to Cuz.

Brenda Valentine
Often described as the single person responsible for recruiting more women into hunting than any other person in modern history, Brenda Valentine is the "First Lady of Hunting.” She grew up in a family where wild game was the primary table fare and good hunting/shooting skills were learned at an early age. The lessons of “woodsmanship,” animal behavior and handling a firearm built a firm foundation for Valentine to become a respected leader and a role model in today's world of hunting and conservation.

A few highlights from her long list of accomplishments are: national champion archer, National Wild Turkey Federation spokesperson, Bass Pro Shops/Redhead National Pro-Hunting Team member, host of Turkey Call TV, co-host of Bass Pro's 100% Real Hunting TV, the first female inductee into the Outdoor Legends Hall of Fame and the only inductee into the Henry Co. Sports Hall of Fame for shooting. Her articles have been published in almost every major publication, she has written a book about her hunting experiences; she has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and is the only person to have a hunting photo appear in that publication. Valentine has hunted extensively in North America and Africa for almost every species and is the only woman on record to successfully take down a Cape buffalo bull with one arrow.

Valentine continues to travel the world spreading the message about ethical hunting, gun rights and conservation but her heart will always be close to her roots back home in Tennessee with her family and farm.


Bill Miller
Bill Miller has been part of the North American Hunting Club team for nearly 28 years and part of outdoor television for 23 years, including shows on ESPN, the Outdoor Channel and NBC Sports. He has hunted and shot competitively in more than 40 states and eight Canadian Provinces, as well as South America, Europe and Africa. Miller has written hundreds of articles for North American Hunter Magazine and other outdoor publications. He has also authored two books on hunting and just completed service as chairman of the board of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA).

Miller is most well-known for 13 seasons hosting Shoot More, Shoot More Often on ESPN and ESPN2, and the creation of the You Call the Shots feature that is a part of every North American Hunter television show.

A career in outdoor communications is all Miller has ever dreamed of – in sixth grade he brought home a book by one of his favorite authors, Mel Ellis, containing a description of life as a newspaper outdoor reporter in the “Golden Age” of outdoor writing. He showed the book to his dad and said, “This is what I want to do!” His father’s reply was, “Then do it!” And, from that moment on, Miller’s fate was sealed. He planned his education and career to simply “do it.” The career he built and continues to cherish is the fulfillment of that dream and he lives it every day.