This is a movie that I saw several times as a kid. I know that I saw
it in 1987 or before, so it was made that year or before. I would be
surprised if it was made before 1982. The copy that I had was most
likely recorded from hbo or some other premium channel (there were no
commercials)  I dont know if it was ever released on vhs (or any other
format for that matter)

The movie was about a kid that goes to visit his dad, who lives in a
cabin out in the middle of nowhere. then when the kid is on his way
home (he is at a train station I think) he is kidnapped by two guys
and taken into the woods. they leave the kid in a large hole in the
ground, but the kid gets out. I think the rest of the movie is the kid
trying to get away. I remember a part with the kid riding a dirtbike
and a part where the kid is crossing a ravine (on a rope i think) to
get away.

There are some weird detials that I remember about the film,  I
remember that the kid and his dad have tunafish for lunch and I
remember that one of the kidnappers had one of those horseshoe puzzles
and he kept it in his back pocket.

Hello.

Your movie was "Kid Colter" (1984).

From Google Groups:

"Ok I have this old movie, not sure what the exact title is we always called it
"Kid Colter"  Ok the movie starts out with this kid playing on his computer in
his room.  He goes to meet his dad who lives in the woods.  They take a ride on
a canoe and his dad plays music they sing bond you know.  Ok dad tells kid
story and gives him horseshoe puzzle this is a big part of the movie...
... the kid goes in the woods and fights off these bad guys." 
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.past-films/browse_thread/thread/821996ce3c8ca81a/064bc9f43f511dbf?q=%22horseshoe+puzzle%22+movie&rnum=1&hl=en#064bc9f43f511dbf


Also see user comments at the Internet Movie Database:

"This film starts out with a somewhat spoiled Boston city boy flying
out to Oregon, none-too-enthusiastically, to spend a few weeks with
his divorced father in his new house. Here Dad has set himself up to
enjoy all the beauty of the wilderness outside and all the cozy
comforts of civilization inside. For at least half an hour we see a
routine but heartwarming renewal of a father-son relationship...
 Then, suddenly, on his way back to Boston, the boy becomes the
unwitting possessor of a undeveloped roll of pictures so valuable to
the spies who took them that they will coldly kill not only to get
them back but to cover up all trace of the confusion. They kidnap him
and deposit him with a pair of heartless roughnecks living up in the
mountains, whom they pay to dispose of him..."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217603/usercomments

VHS at eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6391352305&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V
Or Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301805372/

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search strategy:
"horseshoe puzzles" movie

Thanks.