Editor’s Note: Mossy Oak’s national Pro Staffer, Jim Shockey (www.jimshockey.com), officially began hunting when he was 2-years old. “I started off hunting bugs and collecting them,” Shockey says. Next he graduated to hunting mice, gophers, rabbits, squirrels and then coyotes. By the time he was 14, he’d started hunting whitetails and has been hunting them ever since. Shockey now travels the world hunting exotic game species on every continent. “According to my wife, Louisa, who keeps up with this kind of thing, I was on the road 305 days this past year.”
Question: Jim, you’ve always been known for not wearing camouflage clothing. Why did you decide to become a part of the Mossy Oak family?
Shockey: The main reason I didn’t wear camo was because I couldn’t find any camouflage clothing manufacturer that produced the type of clothing I needed and wanted to wear on my adventures. For me, camouflage is not a fashion statement. In many of the environments where I hunt, my clothing is often the difference between life and death. I know that many hunters like to hunt wearing cotton clothing. But in many of the places that I hunt, you easily could die while wearing cotton. For instance, I wore a lot of mountaineering type clothing, and none of it was camouflage. But when Mossy Oak and I got together, there was some real technological advances being made in camo clothing. Many of those high-tech camouflage clothes were being made by Under Armour. I saw the quality of adventure hunting clothes, and the technology of high-tech clothing had begun to bloom. So, when I realized that I could finally buy the high-tech clothing that I needed in a camo pattern, I began to look at the opportunities of working with Mossy Oak.
Question: Jim, you could have worked with any camo company in the nation. Why did you pick Mossy Oak?
Shockey: The owners and staff of Mossy Oak are really good guys. They’re the kind of people I want to be around, and the people at Mossy Oak and the products they produce fit me, my personality and my hunting needs. I believe that the people at Mossy Oak have the same outdoor and hunting philosophy I have. They hunt for the right reasons, they're in the outdoor industry for the right reasons, they understand hunters, and they know why we hunt and the type of equipment we need. If I had a choice between wearing camouflage and not wearing camouflage on my hunts, camouflage is better. When the high-tech clothing with the Mossy Oak pattern began to evolve, I found everything I needed in the type of clothing I had to have. Then to sweeten the deal, I got to hunt with and be around the type of people with the same philosophy and hunting outlook that I have. There's no doubt about it. When you're making a stalk on an animal, camouflage clothing is better than clothing that’s not camouflage.
Question: Jim, you hunt all over the world all year long. How many days did you travel or hunt last year?
Shockey: Last year I was gone from home 305 days. However, that’s not as bad as it sounds, because 25 percent or more of the time, I have my wife, my father-in-law, my daughter, Eva, or my son, Branlin, with me.
Question: Jim, we rarely see your son Branlin. What does he do?
Shockey: I believe he’s a video-production genius. The quality of our shows is Branlin’s responsibility. He's very gifted in the area of television production.
Jim Shockey Remembers People Told Him a Hunting Adventure Travel Show Would Fail
Jim Shockey Remembers When His 21 Year Old Daughter Eva Told Him She Wanted to Hunt
