I had an interesting conversation earlier today that made me think. I was approached by a company called TourHero.
Apparently what they do is organize various tours, trips, etc in partnership with different influencers.
The influencer does the marketing, i.e. convince his/her audience to buy this customized tour, while the company does all of the logistics.
The idea is that they get several people to pay extra for a tour package which pays for the influencer in question to come along and, apparently, make some money on top of it, depending on how much the influencer is able to get out of his/her followers.
How I got on their radar is very unclear since they are very focused on the Instagram crowd and I have a very small Instagram channel. https://www.instagram.com/darklordofoptics/
My best guess is that they saw the picture of my daughter and me after her antelope hunt and made some sort of an incorrect conclusion. Frankly, the types of the things that they push require levels of narcissism that I might not be capable of.
To be blunt, I am not running an OF sight here, so if any of you are itching to pay the cost of a trip just to enjoy the pleasure of my august company... you need to get out more.
However, that did get me thinking that perhaps there is a way to do a meet-up of some sort that will offer something more useful.
For Option 1, for example, there are plenty of large ranches in Texas where a group activity can be booked for 2-3 days where they offer a variety of game from hogs to axis deer to whatever else is in your budget.
The advantage of doing something like that in Texas is that it is within a driving distance from me, so I can load up the truck with a ton of different optics, guns, thermals scopes, etc and drive over. That way, aside from the hunting, you get your hands on all sorts of glass that you might not be able to see all side by on a regular basis.
If there is interest in an "in person" optics lecture, I am happy to do a mini-seminar of sorts on how all of this stuff works. If you do not feel like flying with guns, I'll have all sorts of artillery available that you can use for the hunt. I am not sure how much it would cost to book a hunting lodge for this, but I can look into it.
Option 2, would be to organize a shooting class. There are a few facilities around and I know enough instructors who would be able to do it. There is a shooting school of some sort a couple of hours form Albuquerque, for example, that I can reach out to, but there are plenty others.
Option 3 would be to combine the two endeavors, but that could start getting a bit of a pain logistically.
Given that you are all spread out geographically, mostly around the US, but internationally as well, is this something that you have an interest in?
If we do it in Texas, it is best to avoid summer heat, so some time in the spring (March?) would be our best bet.
If we get 6 to 10 people to join, it might be viable.
I added these options to the poll below. Let me know what you think of this idea or if you think that I am off my meds or if you have other suggestions.
Hell, I can probably organize a PRS match around here and call it "Dark Lord Invitational" just for the humor of it. Or we can go big an arrange a group hunting trip to South Africa, although that is different kind of money.