Into the Wilderness with the Pace brothers

Have you ever thought your hunting trip was worthy of a TV show? That an epic hunt for a stag would make better viewing than another re-run of Neighbours? The Pace brothers from the United Kingdom certainly think so and have made their own series featuring hunting, fishing, bushcraft, diving, vehicle and kit reviews and many other outdoor pursuits.

In the first episode of their new series Into the Wilderness, Byron and Darryl Pace arrive in Scotland ready to hunt stags. If surviving and camping in the harsh Scottish Highlands wasn’t hard enough, the pair also do all the filming for the show themselves. The extra bags of camera equipment they have to carry would be challenging for even the most experienced of hunters.

The first episode illustrates the painstaking planning, hiking, scouting and backtracking the brothers constantly go through. What might usually be thought of as the more mundane parts of hunting actually come alive as the brothers show the challenges and skills involved in finding and stalking their target. They capture the reality that hunting truly is without any pomp or glamour. It’s just man against nature and doing what needs to be done in order to survive – nothing more, nothing less.

Seasoned hunters will appreciate the completeness of the hunt as well. Once the trigger is pulled, it is far from over. Moving the prize stag back to camp proves to be just as challenging as the rest of the hunt for the Pace brothers, who have to make it over tough terrain while dragging their dinner the whole way. It’s obvious this is the real deal and it’s clear the brothers are totally alone. There are no deluxe camper trailers in the background or it seems there is no crew cooking them a five-star meal once the cameras stop rolling. The hunting is very intimate and it’s an honour to have a front row seat.

For a two-man set-up, the camerawork is cinematically spectacular. The scenery is breathtaking and it’s rare to find hunting footage this well produced. The brothers capture the story of what it means to survive and defines what being a hunter signifies in the modern world.

Elder brother Byron has been on the forefront of the hunting domain for a number of years. He has worked as a freelance filmmaker for UK fieldsports channels and writer for various magazines around the globe. Indeed, the SSAA has worked with Byron on several occasions and he has contributed both hunting articles and technical firearm reviews in our Australian Shooter and Australian Hunter magazines.

Younger brother Darryl is an ex-Royal Navy mine clearance diver and appears to be a set of gills short of becoming a fish. He performed extensive underwater exploration in the Baltic Sea, Middle East and Scotland before doing a stint as a commercial diver in Australia and then returning to the UK with what he says was an “even bigger passion for exploring and adventure”. Between them, the brothers have a wealth of hunting and adventure experience that enables them to not only handle the wilderness, but also to thrive in it.

The show and the brothers follow the mantra, ‘be at one with the wilderness around you – become the wilderness’. As further demonstrated in their pilot episode, ‘Why we hunt’, the Pace brothers are excellent ambassadors for hunting, outdoor exploration and adventuring. They are environmentally friendly and respectful of nature and animals. They portray hunters in the best possible light while leaving nothing out that might happen on any other hunting expedition.

Watch the first episode of Into the Wilderness on YouTube or find out more by searching for ‘Pace Brothers – Into the Wilderness’ on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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