In the mid 1980's Miranda gained notoriety as a professional trapper who offered trapping lessons on VHS video. Miranda was a pilot and used his small airplane to operate his trapline, a novelty that made his video instructions popular. Also, a bowhunter, Miranda began making hunting videos and by 1992 had his own adventure TV series on ESPN. Self-taught in TV production, Miranda would hire a freelance cameraman to tape his adventures then write, produce and edit the programs himself. Tom soon became known on ESPN as the crazy bowhunter who would do anything as his adventure show featured adrenaline stunts like sky diving, bull riding and bungie jumping.....along with his bowhunting.
In 2011 when Miranda completed his 13-year quest to capture the archery Super Slam on video, SCI Record Book officials contacted Tom about his hunting accomplishments. With over 20 years of producing TV bow hunts, Miranda had been scouring the globe bowhunting big game and SCI knew it. A list of species was generated and with some quick fact checking, Safari Club determined that Miranda was very close to accomplishing the World Hunting Award. After some discussion and planning, Miranda had his mounts scored, entered them to SCI and set out to fill the specie gaps in his bowhunting collection. In the last seven years, Miranda has went full draw on over 70 big game animals on six continents to complete and receive his World Hunting Award ring.
SCI's World Hunting Award is a prestigious milestone, especially for bowhunters. To date only five archers have qualified. Archie Nesbitt, Gary Bogner, Byron Saddler, Ricardo Longoria and Tom Miranda. Unique to Miranda is the fact that Tom has also captured all his World Hunting Award species on video, complete with the arrow impacts. A feat that attests to Miranda's dedication to his craft as a television producer, host and bowhunter. Miranda's latest DVD series Adventure Bowhunter Dark Continent chronicles Tom's SCI Animals of Africa archery milestone.
Accomplishments
1974: Caught first fox
1976: Walnut Ridge High School State Track Championships 220 yard dash
1976: Voted "Most Athletic" Walnut Ridge High School
1980: Built a log cabin
1983: Published first magazine article on trapping
1984: Earned private pilot license
1985 Produced first "How To" trapping video
1985 Authored first book on trapping
1990 Earned float plane rating
1992 Debuted on ESPN July
1993 Climbed Devils Tower National Monument
1994 Participated in Navy flight training syllabus F-14 Tomcat
2011 First documented archery Super Slam of North America Big Game on broadcast video
2012 Adventure Bowhunter -Tom Miranda's Quest for the archery Super Slam® book