WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A... (FIRST OF 10 PARTS)

Buck McNeely spends most of his time in the office preparing for trips and television shows.

A baboon is one of the trophies in his office.

In the small Cape Girardeau production studio and office, Buck McNeely talked last week with a cable television executive about the possibility of adding his outdoor adventure show to their line-up.

Behind him, file cabinets organize contracts, syndication agreements, marketing information and dozens of other details. Across the office, film editing equipment fills a small room.

McNeely sighed. Such is the life of an adventurer about 90 percent of the time, he said.

But the other 10 percent of the time, when McNeely tracks elephants and bears and lions through the bush, provides the payoff that keeps him in the profession.

"I guess I am an adventurer," he said, wearing a rattlesnake hat and carrying an elephant rifle.

"Keep your drugs and alcohol," he said. "I'm an adrenaline junkie."

With a small film crew, McNeely travels around the world hunting and fishing with professional guides and hunters. He's been to Siberia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and Africa. "Africa is my favorite," he said.

In fact, he just returned from a three-week hunt in Zimbabwe.

"People are always telling me I've got the easy life, traveling around hunting and fishing," he said. "But don't understand all the things that have to happen before I can set out on any trip."

0To pay for the adventures, McNeely must sell television stations around the country on his show, "The Outdoorsman."

"It's about marketing, sales and syndication," McNeely said. "No matter how good your product is, it will die on the vine if you can't sell it."

As a college student at Southeast Missouri State University, McNeely shot a few episodes of an outdoors show, hunting and fishing in Southeast Missouri. He made a deal with a local cable company to air a few segments and got good reception.

"The Outdoorsman" was born. The show airs on 190 stations.

For young adventurers, McNeely recommends strict attention to school work, starting in the first grade.

Geography and map-reading skills are essential. A map of Africa is posted in one corner of McNeely's office. A map of the United States pinpoints stations carrying the show.

"I think it's important to know about history too," McNeely said. "Then you have a better understanding and appreciation of the places where you travel."

He said communication skills, including writing and typing, have proven very important. "I have to get in front of the camera and do a show," he said.

And part of the preparation for each show is research about the animals hunted. "You should read the books and watch the Discovery Channel and visit the zoo and learn as much as you can," he said.

McNeely said producing an adventure television series isn't the only way to become an adventurer.

Some people are successful as professional hunters and guides. "But that's not always fun either," he said. "I know a guide who hasn't been hunting himself in six years. He's always taking care of details for the paying clients."

The best option would be to become independently wealthy at some other occupation. "They you could spend all your money playing," McNeely said.

But McNeely isn't complaining about the paperwork and production. Those things make his adventures possible.

"My motto is live large," McNeely said. "And part of life is the fascination of learning. The day you are too old to learn is the day you die."