The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA) national outdoor TV series, Brotherhood Outdoors, takes Derek Carrington of Buchanan, Michigan on a Kansas whitetail hunt on Sunday, April 6, at 11 a.m. ET on the Sportsman Channel.
After spending more than 30 years hunting deer, elk and squirrel and reeling in his share of fish, Derek Carrington, a member of Roofers Local 23 in South Bend, Indiana has seen a lot. He never expected, however, to come face-to-face with a monster buck and a camera lens at the same time. It happened just like that during Derek’s recent experience as a featured guest on USA’s Brotherhood Outdoors.
Derek Carrington sits, watches and waits for a prize deer to come into view during a Kansas whitetail hunt with the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s Brotherhood Outdoors TV crew.
“This was the trip of a lifetime,” said Derek. “Since I was small, I was always watching the hunting and fishing shows. I never thought I’d be the one who got to go.”
Derek said it was his dad, a retired union roofer, who started him early, fishing bluegill and hunting squirrels. By the time he was 18, he learned how to bow hunt. “It’s still my passion,” he said.
Now, like his dad, Derek enjoys taking his two sons Hunter (8) and Holden (5) out on his boat to fish for perch and salmon near their home on Lake Michigan but said it’s not just about the catch or the harvest. “It’s the laughs, sharing stories,” he said. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Just like with family, camaraderie and good times are wrapped into the show like on the first day of the Brotherhood Outdoors trip, when Derek sits, watches and waits patiently all day with co-host Julie McQueen to no avail. That’s when it became clear to Derek that hunting deer that have room to grow on hundreds of acres in Kansas is quite different from hunting on smaller parcels of lands like he is used to doing in Michigan. “It’s so much broader and wide out there,” he said.
The next few days of the hunt present quite a different story with deer running everywhere and a huge buck that Derek calls, “an absolute giant,” showing itself to the crew at about 500 yards away, in the final hour of the show. “It is the biggest buck that I have ever seen,” Derek said.
Tune in to Brotherhood Outdoors Sunday, April 6, at 11 a.m. ET, on the Sportsman Channel.
Brotherhood Outdoors, winner of “Best Combination Show” in the 2011 Sportsman Choice Awards, rewards union sportsmen and women who are committed to preserving North America’s outdoor heritage with a guided trip or the opportunity to show off their guiding skills and local hunting or fishing destinations on national TV.
Presented by Bank of Labor, Brotherhood Outdoors is also sponsored by the following unions, contractors and corporate partners: Buck Knives, Carhartt, Employee Benefit Systems, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, National Electrical Contractors Association, ULLICO and United Association/International Training Fund.
For more information about Brotherhood Outdoors, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance or Sportsman Channel, visit www.BrotherhoodOutdoors.tv and www.facebook.com/brotherhoodoutdoorstv.
About the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) is a union-dedicated, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose members hunt, fish, shoot and volunteer their skills for conservation. The USA is uniting the union community through conservation to preserve North America’s outdoor heritage. For more information, visit www.unionsportsmen.org or www.facebook.com/unionsportsmen.
About Sportsman Channel: Launched in 2003, Sportsman Channel, and Sportsman HD, is the only television and digital media company fully devoted to sportsmen in the United States, delivering entertaining and educational programming focused exclusively on hunting, shooting and fishing activities. Sportsman Channel reaches more than 32 million U.S. television households and is available in HD. Visit www.thesportsmanchannel.com, follow on Twitter, @SPORTSMANchnl (twitter.com/SPORTSMANchnl) and Like on Facebook, facebook.com/sportsmanchannel
