BY Dave Beck - of The Shopper/Free Press

Have you ever sat around on a Saturday morning watching a deer hunting show and thought, “I could do that”? Now you can and it’s easier than you think. “Battle Of The Bow” (BOTB) is just the show for you and it’s based right here in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. The premise is a simple one: find a partner and submit both a written and video application. Ten lucky teams are selected to film their fall archery hunts. The hunts are then edited and aired on the Sportsman Chanel and viewers vote on the best team. In short, this is “Dancing with the Stars” for deer hunters.

This is the second season of BOTB. The first season had twenty interested teams. The success of the show inspired almost 200 would be TV archers to apply for the ten coveted spots this year. Interest in season three is even greater still and the number of applicants could easily double from this year’s total.

I recently visited with Elliot Jenson who makes up half of the Brickner Oil team. Elliot’s cousin, Cody Holden, is his teammate. Both are from Ellsworth. They are both pursuing secondary education degrees and they have been bow hunting together since they were old enough to hunt so pairing up together was a no brainer. They share a passion for deer hunting and the dream to harvest a big buck on film. The format of the show is to basically air the hunts chronologically as they unfold. For example, Elliot and Cody’s archery season actually starts out with Elliot harvesting a black bear with Cody running the camera.

I asked Elliot how they decided who was who would film and who would be the hunter and he replied, “We took turns”. He went on to explain that their hunts were filled with highs and lows. On one particular hunt Elliot missed a nice eight point buck after his arrow grazed a limb. To make matters worse, Cody witnessed the encounter while looking through the camera lens but forgot to turn the camera on. As frustrating as the hunt was, the hunters also experienced the other end of the hunting spectrum as well. With Elliot manning the camera and Cody being the shooter, the two managed to harvest a huge ten pointer that scored 165 gross Pope and Young inches. This time the camera was on and the entire hunt was captured on film and can be seen on the show. After each hunt airs on TV, they can also be viewed online.

Elliot and Cody’s hunts, as well as the other nine teams can be seen on the Sportsman Channel on Tuesday nights at 7:00 P.M. The shows are rebroadcasted four times throughout the week leading up to new episodes every Tuesday. The thirteen week show started on December 28 and it will run through March 22, 2011, which is the show finale. During that episode the winners of the second season of BOTB will be crowned. To find more information on BOTB, go to www.battleofthebow.com, or to see previous shows or to vote for your favorite team. You can also text your vote to 22333. To vote for Elliott and Cody text team6.