As man evolved throughout time, so did his weapon of choice in taking down game animals that provided food and, in some cases, shelter.
Spears and boomerangs became bows and swords, which gave way to tanks and guns.
In sticking with the times, one Illinois man has achieved notoriety worldwide thanks to his marksmanship with one of the oldest weapons in human history.
Tim Wells was born and raised in Canton, and had quite the imagination and ingenuity growing up. He said that in his adolescence, he wanted to be either a cowboy or a caveman.
“I grew up in central Illinois, so if you live out in the country, you don’t have anything else to play with other than your dog or a gun,” Wells said. “You hunt whatever’s available. As soon as I got big enough to sling an arrow, I was out hunting whitetails, and it just progressed from there.”
Wells, 55, attended nearby Monmouth College, and took a few courses at my alma mater of Western Illinois University. He went on to start an environmental consulting firm, and also bought and sold real estate. A healthy stream of funds allowed him to spend plenty of time and money filming his hunts.
As more eyeballs started to witness Wells’ uncanny ability to spear animals, he started to diversify in hunting different game.
“My grandfather and certainly my father instilled in me that we play to win. We started a business with the goal of being the best business,” Wells said. “When I started, there wasn’t a whole lot of guys going out and making videos. So I set out to be the best I could be. I wanted to be one of the best whitetail hunters in the world.”
Wells isn’t known only for his outdoor adventures or videography, either. He has written for major publications North American Whitetail, Buckmaster and Bowhunter, and also wrote a fiction book called “A Demon in the Dark”, which warns about what could happen if poaching continues worldwide.
Wells is also the host of Sportsman Channel’s “Relentless Pursuit,” which follows his exotic and domestic forays into the wild.
“People love to watch squirrels and birds get shot out of the air,” Wells said. “About 15 years ago when we started to really take off, I realized that we had something special here if I don’t screw up or do something stupid.”
A 2015 trip to Africa nearly cost Wells his life. While filming a hunt for Relentless Pursuit, he accidentally speared himself through his right thigh.
Wells roughed up two of his fingers in the process and pinched an artery in his leg closed for 2 hours before he got the bleeding to slow down. His next step was to turn his GoPro on and say a few words to his family and fans in case help didn’t arrive in time.
“At that moment, I was thinking about my daughter and son,” Wells said. “It wasn’t about if I could make another TV show. It was survival mode at that point.”
He was rescued after 6 hours alone, as he was sewn up by a doctor back at base camp. However, the doctor didn’t wash the hole out.
“At the point, my spear had been through four different animals, and had hair, blood, dirt and whatever else on it,” Wells said. “By the time I got home 36 hours later, my leg was black and blue from my hip to my foot. Then it was a race to stop the infection to save my leg.”
Wells lost a little feeling in his right foot, and still feels the injury, especially in cold temperatures.
Midwestern animals like whitetails, turkeys, squirrels, coyotes and waterfowl have all fell victim to Wells’ bow or spear. He has also killed a grizzly bear, a babboon, an alligator gar, wild boars, wolves and lions.
Wells has used a blow gun to kill 5-foot iguanas, became the first white man to ever kill and document spearing a cape buffalo, and even speared a bumble bee.
One of his most recent kills was a 220-inch Coues whitetail in Arizona this year.
“I’ve hunted them for 35 years dilligently, and I’ve never been on any private land where they’re really big,” Wells said. “This was a free-range, public-land deer. When I walked up on him after tracking him, it was pretty humbling.”
Despite all his travels, Wells said his favorite hunting spot has never changed. Behind his dad’s house stands the same oak tree he’s sat in every fall and winter since he was 7 years old.
“I still make it a point to go there every November,” Wells said. “That’s my favorite place in the whole world.”
Wells said his passions remain bowhunting and taking down animals that are extremely difficult to harvest. One of the critters that challenges his skills the most is an elusive resident of the Sauk Valley.
“If you told me I had to hunt one thing for the rest of my life, I’d probably tell you I’d hunt coyotes. A coyote one-on-one is the hardest bow kill on the planet.”
The Illinois native has also mastered picking waterfowl out of the sky with his bow, which makes for a picturesque hunt.
“When I shoot a duck or a goose or whatever bird it is I’m hunting out of the air, I go back and watch the film and see my Lumenok on the end of the arrow,” Wells said. “When I see that arrow go across the blue sky and pick off that bird, I’m humbled every time. It’s so fulfilling to watch it happen.”
Wells’ hunting genes have also been passed down to his children. His daughter, Sydnie, is regularly featured in Relentless Pursuit episodes, and his son, Clint, speared the new Illinois record for a grass carp with a bow and arrow (71 pounds) on June 6.
With the platform he now has, Wells fields tons of calls and emails from youngsters asking how to get in the hunting business, which he described as “loaded questions” (no pun intended). He feels pressure to give the right answer to every young hunter who reaches out for advice.
“It’s harder now to get in the hunting industry than ever before,” Wells said. “You can out-shoot me or anyone on the planet, but getting sponsors in today’s world is a rough go. I would tell kids to pursue academics, pursue a field that isn’t hunting where you can buy your freedom.”
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It was an absolute honor to talk to Mr. Wells after having watched his show since the pilot episode. I thanked him for his time and for doing what he does in the hunting community, and he reciprocated the gratitude. He thanked me for doing this story on him, and wished me luck in my career.
Tim Wells’ marksmanship made him a star, and in this interview, he nailed it.