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Published on: 9/13/2008
Last Visited: 9/13/2008
Tom Miranda's success hinges directly from his deeply sewn roots as a fur trapper. Here's how his exciting career in the outdoors took shape.Realtree: Community: The Advantage Adventurer
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Tom Miranda's success hinges directly from his deeply sewn roots as a fur trapper.Here's how his exciting career in the outdoors took shape.
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As a young child growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Tom Miranda loved all things outdoors.He'd spend hours exploring the creeks and railroad trusses near his home in search of small animals and fish.When he was only 11-years old, a neighborhood boy introduced him to the sport of fur trapping, which unknown to Miranda, would eventually lead to the career of a lifetime involving world travel and adventure and his own television shows.
Miranda started off trapping muskrats and raccoons with his neighbor who eventually lost interest in the sport and sold all of his traps to Miranda.
"As he grew older, my friend's interest turned to girls, but I wasn't about to give up trapping," Miranda says.
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Miranda eventually decided to quit his summer job as well and just run the trap lines.One thing led to another, and he started writing books on trapping and making his own trapping scents.
James Churchill, an outdoor writer at the time, heard about Miranda and ended up doing an article on him, which appeared in Fur, Fish and Game magazine.
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"The article was basically about a city boy who moved to the country to run a trap line," Miranda says.
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When fur prices dropped in the early 1980s, Miranda moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota, to work as a government trapper.He trapped in 10 counties getting rid of nuisance animals such as coyotes and beavers.The government provided him with a truck, a secretary and all of his gear.He also continued working on his books and selling his trapping scents.
Fur, Fish and Game magazine was the first to showcase Miranda's extreme talent as a successful trapper.
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"During that time as a government trapper, I started to film how-to-trap videos," Miranda says."I learned how to fly a plane as well.I ended up buying my own plane with the money I had made from selling books."
Miranda made one of the first trapping videos ever made.It focused on fox and coyote trapping and was based around the map that Miranda kept in his skinning shed.
"The map was one inch to the mile of my entire trap line," Miranda says.
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With the money made from his video, Miranda bought more equipment and ended up making 15 more trapping videos, including eight for "Fur, Fish and Game" and two for "Trapper and Predator Caller" magazine.
"The videos were homemade but professional looking," Miranda says."I 'm still the largest trapper video maker, and I still sell thousands of those videos that I made in the 1980s, which are now available on DVD.My videos are still popular because the techniques we used back then to trap are the same we use today."
After his videos made it big, Miranda started getting telephone calls from animal activists.
"I'd get on average $2000 worth of calls on my 800 line a month from animal activists who wanted to kill me because I was teaching people to trap," Miranda says."People just didn't realize the good things trappers do for those animals.Of course, some animals die, but eliminating a few animals makes more food and habitat available for all of the other animals."
Early hard work making videos and trapping for the government has brought Tom Miranda to the very top of the outdoor-entertainment world.Today, with his Whitetail Country and Advantage Adventures shows, he works just as hard if not harder than he did in his early days.
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Miranda wanted to get this message out, so he called numerous people who had TV shows to ask if he could appear on their shows to talk about trapping, but no one would agree to it.So he decided to do his own show.
THE OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
He came up with the idea to do a show called The Outdoor Adventure Magazine, which would feature hunting, fishing and adventure footage.
"Since I was a pilot, I could participate in adventurous activities like sky diving, and I was in pretty good shape, so I could rock climb and kayak as well," Miranda says.
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"The Outdoor Adventure Magazine ended up being the highest-rated show on ESPN Outdoors for its time slot for two years," Miranda says.
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Miranda is living the hunter's dream life going to exotic places to hunt some of the most amazing game animals in the world.But don't be fooled, he puts in tons of work both on the road and at home.
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After he thought about it for a while, Miranda called the folks at ESPN, and together they decided to team up with Realtree and change the name of his show to Advantage Adventures.The new show would focus on bowhunts around the world to places like Africa, Australia and the Arctic.
"For this show, I travel all over the world hunting and learning about the area, the outfitter and the species I'm after," Miranda says.
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In addition to hosting "Advantage Adventures," Miranda is also the host of a new Realtree-sponsored show called Whitetail Country, which is also featured in Realtree's Outdoor Block on ESPN 2.
THE TRAP LINE OF LIFE
Thanks to his dynamic personality and disciplined work ethic, Miranda has become an in-demand TV star.Not only does he stay extremely busy flying around the country hosting his TV shows, but he also does all of the production for the shows himself.
"I do all of the production for my TV shows in my home studio, which has only top-notch equipment," Miranda says.
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Miranda says he's blessed to be able to tie his talents as a writer and a producer into his passion for the outdoors, and he wants others to truly benefit from watching Advantage Adventures.
"I want Advantage Adventures to entertain and educate people," Miranda says.
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