Kent Michie and Dean Trumbley of Bushnell's Trigger Effect.

Image Credit: Facebook

VERNON - Not that long ago, Dean Trumbley was close to giving up on his dream of making it in the big leagues with a hunting show he co-hosts with his best friend.

The wildlife biologist from Falkand was still working part-time as an environmental consultant just to pay the bills. He and fellow wildlife biologist Kent Michie were pouring everything they had into Trigger Effect, a hunting show they had long talked about, and were finally making into a reality. The show was in Season Four, but they didn’t know how much longer it would last.

“We were kind of at our wit’s end,” Trumbley, of Thunder Boyz Productions Inc., says. “We got to a point where we said if we don’t see any significant change moving forward it was maybe time for us to go back to our old careers and say at least we tried.”

Instead, the show caught the attention of some of the biggest brands in the hunting industry and is now sponsored by the outdoors company Bushnell Canada. Currently in Season Five, the show — which plays on Wild T.V. — is going strong.

“We slugged it out in a very tough industry,” Trumbley says.

While earlier seasons filmed mainly in B.C. and Canada, the longtime friends are now travelling to places like Argentina and Africa to shoot episodes. 

“I enjoy the different habitats and I enjoy the cultures. Seeing how they hunt and how hunting affects them,” Trumbley says.

Trigger Effect is unique among hunting shows because of its focus on education and conservation, Trumbley says.

“With both of us being biologists, one of the really important things we wanted to bring to the forefront is education; an understanding of conservation and management,” he says.

For Trumbley, hunting is engrained in his past. The grandson of Charles ‘Smokey’ Trumbley — well-known in the Vernon area during the 1970s and 1980s for his radio and T.V. shows on hunting and fishing advice — much of his childhood was spent in the wilderness, learning about animals.

“He (Smokey) really wanted to teach people to love the outdoors and become an active part in it,” Trumbley says. “This is my small way of doing that.”

All of the editing for Trigger Effect happens right in Falkland, at Trumbley’s home. While he and Michie will be doing lots of travelling in the near future, they intend to keep a majority of the show built on Canadian content.

“We are very proud of the fact we are a Canadian show, because this is a very American-dominated industry,” Trumbley says.

At 48, Trumbley hopes to be filming new episodes for many years to come.

“We’re going to push it as long as we can and as long as people enjoy watching our show,” he says.

You can find past seasons of the show here.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2017