Editor’s Note: Eva Shockey combined the two lifestyles of both her parents – dance and the outdoors. Besides her extensive dance background, as far back as Eva can remember, she’d gone on hunts with her dad as an observer to spend quality time with him. According to Eva, “I didn’t think that girly-girls shot animals, until I saw the first ‘Hunger Games’ movie, and then I was hooked.” Today, Eva co-hosts the "Jim Shockey's Hunting Adventures" TV show and represents the Shockey family at outdoor trade and consumer shows. “I love to go to the shows and meet other hunters. Then I can enjoy the serenity of the woods when I’m there and the socialization of the shows.” Eva has been wearing Mossy Oak for the last 3 years, and the Mossy Oak family is proud to have she and her dad as a part of it.
One of my most-exciting hunts was a moose hunt in the Yukon. I usually go to our moose-hunting area in September, and that’s where I was hunting this past year. Moose are unbelievably large beautiful animals. I really like to hunt them, when they are in the rut, because you can call them in to within bow or gun range.
Last year, I was hunting moose with my dad. My dad was the shooter, and I was running the second camera. We spotted the moose down in the valley in our spotting scope – at least 1 or 1-1/2-miles away from us. Dad started calling to the moose with his mouth. We could see the moose coming to us through the spotting scope. We didn’t think this moose was very big. My dad said, “I’m not going to shoot this moose. I’ll just call him in, and then we’ll get some good footage of a nice moose coming to the call.” Dad kept calling and calling, and the moose kept getting closer and closer. I used my Leupold range finder to find the yardage Dad was from the bull. But then, when the moose was at 52 yards, my dad pulled his Bowtech Insanity bow with a Rage broadhead on the front of his arrow shaft to full draw and took the shot.
I couldn’t believe Dad had called the moose from more than a mile away and had made a perfect shot on the moose, from about 50-yards away with his bow. The moose never saw us. We were standing on the edge of a river. As the moose came in, he was walking in the river, before Dad took the shot. Then when the moose turned and presented a quartering-away shot, Dad made a perfect shot and double-lunged the moose. The bull only went about 50 yards, before he tipped over. Dad said. “That moose was way too close. When he presented the shot, I decided to take that nice bull.”
If I’m not going to be the shooter when I go on a hunt with my dad, I carry a pair of binoculars to help glass for the animals we’re hunting. I also have a small video camera I take with me. We have the main camera man, who is carrying a big shoulder-mounted camera, and I carry my small camera to get a second angle of the animal coming in, Dad making the shot and then my following the animal, if I can, until the animal drops. When we start our postproduction, we have video shots from different angles for the viewer to see. Much of my footage doesn’t get used, because I often don’t have the best angle to shoot the video. But technically I am the second camera.
Day 3: Eva Shockey - Hunting When the Weather's Hot
Tomorrow: Eva Shockey Loves Elk Hunting and Wants to Go As Often As Possible
