Hunting shows...

[ol_spark]

I had the opportunity to watch a Canadian hunting show while on a recent business trip. “Canada in the Rough “or something like that. It was the first time I saw it and I don’t know if it’s a regular program or not. It’s interesting sometimes to see the different concepts used in filming outdoor shows. The camera work, interviews and overall how the hunter is portrayed appears to be a little more sensitive to the non hunting public in the US. Not to slam the show but to just point out a difference. In this particular caribou hunt, an individual was hunting with a bow for the first time, shot at a caribou and was “way short”. “Quite frankly I don’t know if that caribou was 70 yds or 40yds”, the hunter said. “I just aimed a little over its back and that wasn’t enough. You could see that the arrow fell short.” Now I’m not a sensitive type person but that comment drew my wife’s attention immediately and she made the comment about why would he something like that on TV. Not trying to defend what the person did but rather pointing out to her that evidently the people who watch and make these shows aren’t as keen to the public eye as the ones that most firms are airing nowadays. I didn’t want to tell her that the comment turned me off also. It is hard pressed in this day to find a person hunting on camera that doesn’t use a range finder. Especially for situations that can provide longer shots for a bow such as caribou or western game. Top have someone make a comment like that on camera and use it in a show is disturbing to me.

Not trying to stir the pot or anything, I just thought I’d throw that out there for a little conversation piece if anyone cares to comment

[fabsroman]

ol_spark,

I am sick of hunting shows for an entirely different reason. Like you, I don't like the fact that this guy had no idea what he was doing, but there are a lot of guys out there that don't. That is realistic. Not everybody is like you, Petey, Boyd, Rocky, etc.

How is the guy that starts out to get all the knowledge. Nobody picks up a bow and starts sticking 10 pt. whitetails the next day. Heck, it took me about 10 years to get my first antlered deer with a rifle.

Can a newbie really judge range that well. I am willing to bet that it takes a lot of practice.

What I cannot stand about hunting shows it that most of them seem canned, or they are at ranches that cost a person a fortune. I watched a SCI whitetail pistol hunt last week for all of about 5 minutes. I stopped watching when they informed me that the hunt was at Sanctuary.

I hate seeing "upland" hunts that are at game preserves. I hate seeing a bird shot alongside a 4 month old dog, the camera cutting out, and then the 4 month old puppy supposedly retrieving the downed quail. I know that they threw that bird for the dog or they lead the dog up to it. Why not show new people how to train the dog instead of making them think that every dog should be able to point and retrieve at 4 months of age.

Why don't these shows help teach new hunters and experienced hunters how to hunt. I am sick and tired of seeing bird after bird shot or deer after deer dropped. How exciting is it to see these animals get killed.

What I would like to see is a hunt, from start to finish, with whatever happens during that hunt. Granted, I understand that some editing is required to get a 3 hour waterfowl hunt into a 30 minute show, but how about showing the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Sometimes, I think about making my own show to teach people how to hunt.

[toxic111]

I regularlly watch this show, and I did see the show in question. There is a lot of talk even up here about that episode.

I look at it this way, that is what happens when hunting. We have all done it, made that guess wrong. We may say we had no clue to our selves, and may have even told our buddies that we guessed '30' and he turned out to be '40'

He may have been wrong to say it the way he did, and to hunt the way he did as well (shots at moving animals etc.) What I respect is that it wasn't edited out to be a perfect clean show, and to show he is human too and makes mistakes.

As for why he wasn't using a range finder, I have no idea. I don't have one myself yet, it is in the list of want to buys, but I can't afford one right now.

Maybe he should have not said it on camera, but in most areas up here there are tons of hunters in comparison to the US. We see these things different.

[kt]

i couldnt tell if it was 40 or 70? damn, we all misjudge and frankly yardage estimation should be part of the game i think, but if you like a range finder to help you make more accurate kills, i dont blame you one bit. as for the shot, on an animal that size how many places could that arrow have hit the caribou had it not missed completely? interesting
as for the shows they really are crap, some of the shows now adays that put a beautiful women behind the sights piss me off, hunting and women are two of my favorite things, but that doesnt mean they should come together on tv. or if you ever watch a show like buckmasters bloopers, all that talk they do in the blind or in the tree is dubbed in after the shot, or did you ever notice that the camera picks up the blood trail five steps before the hunter says look there he is right' her.
thats funny i dont care who you are thats funny
kt
i say just take the shows for what there worth, like fabs said, there is some knowledge to be had on them, and some time the pot needs a little stirrin, good thread

[fabsroman]

KT,

I definitely noticed that some of the talking is edited in afterward. On an antelope hunt from Benelli's Safari series, I noticed the guy's lips weren't moving, but he was commenting about how awesome and animal it was while they were walking up to it. That was hilarious. Again, it goes to show that it isn't what actually happens in the field.

How about this, a hunting reality show. How about showing a waterfowl hunt in several episodes. Kind of like a series. The first episodes deals with getting all the equipment ready the night before. The second episode deals with getting everything set up the next morning. Then, the third and fourth episodes can deal with the hunt, shooting the birds and how to lead them, and using the dog effectively. The fifth show could be on dressing the birds and some recipes on how to cook them.

I could give a bunch of series examples for other types of hunting. Deer hunting with a bow. Dove hunting. Crow hunting. Big game hunting.

[ol_spark]

Fabs..
I might be able to help get the equipment ready and put it out, maybe even dress( undress) a few birds. But all that other stuff in between, like callin', shootin' and retrievin' I'll leave up to you. Sounds like a good idea.

Glad the thread stirred a little emotion.

I used to view hunting shows for what they were and that was intertainment. But lately, I've become more attuned to what is actually happening when they show the shot. How many wounded does(female deer) do you see behind that buck at the feeder in them Texas shows. You'll notice a few yourself. One comment I may make is that sometimes we ( the hunting industry) bring the anti sentiment on our selves by what we air to everyone. It would be nice to assume that only hunters view these shows but they don't. People from all facets of life see them. Maybe not in the entireity but just enough to get an opinion. Good, bad or indifferent. Yes, everyone has made mistakes or misjudgements and that is the REAL story but to air them for others may not be the best judgement either.

I think it would be a worth while venture to show the hunt from start to finish. The preparation, feel the anticipation, the hard work in getting the decoys out or to your favorite location before daylight, the whole bit. Yes today's shows are falling short of that goal but it is driven by what sells and it must be kill shots. It seems like that is all there is anymore.

[kt]

fabs i do believe somebody just offered to do all the work and leave the shooting up to you, dont pass that up, its reason enough to start a show
kt

[ol_spark]

By the way..
I do prefer the "this is how it happened" home videos that the everyday Joe makes about his own escapades versus the canned/staged/replayed hunts that are now everwhere on TV. I'd gladly come over and have a beer/drink with toxic111, Fabs or whoever and watch a home video of this is how we did it rather than the other type. They are more realistic and believeable plus you don't have to worry about if a certain brand of gun or bow or ammo will kill the animal your hunting because they aren't endorsing any products. Alot of products depicted on todays shows are there because the performers (hunters?) are paid in some way or another to endorse or use the product. Now the hunting public believes that the only gun I can use if I hunt this sort of animal is the 300whizbang topped by a shootzunlooker scope using can'tmissum ammo. What a farse! Inherently accurate, what a misused term that is. Boy, I could rant all day on this but I should go back to work.

Thanks for the time.

[indyhntr]

The feeling I get more and more when I watch these shows is that I'm watching the hunting equivalent of tournament bass fishing. Everything is a contest now. The older I get, 40 this next spring, the less I care about filling a tag and the more I just enjoy being in the woods, work is enough of a competition.

[fabsroman]

ol_spark,

I cannot agree with you more about the "equipment used on today's hunt" portion of the shows. One that readily comes to mind is the Outdoor World shows. They have a segment where the equipment is listed. I rarely seen a 1969 Remington 870 or 1950 Browning Auto-5 in that equipment list. It is the newest shotgun from Browning, such as the Cynergy or Gold auto, or the Benelli Cordoba in the Benelli Safari series. Please, I have killed plenty with my dad's 1960's Win 101 and his 1960's Auto 5, not to mention thousands of birds with my 7 year old SBE.


Indyhnter,

I agree with you too. A couple of years ago I used to hunt with guys that had to get a limit or the biggest buck possible. Some of the people on this board will know who I am talking about. While I enjoy getting a limit and an antlered deer, I enjoy the same amount of time sitting in a blind with my dog and/or friends and getting nothing. I almost always bring my dog bumpers along and on slow days I work with the dog. These guys would get irrate when the dog wouldn't listen completely and there were birds in the air. Just wasn't my cup of tea. I would rather hunt with my dog, kill a single duck or goose for the day, and have the dog retrieve it rather than killing a truck load of geese so that we could display them to everybody and show that we are the best hunters in the world. To me, the best hunters in the world aren't necessarily the ones with truck loads of game or antlers. Sometimes, those are just the richest or the ones lucky enough to have access to the right property.


As far as I am concerned, I do not watch anymore "kill shot" shows. One show that I like is a father and son team of bowhunters that turn almost every show into an instructional show. However, the must not sell well because I haven't seen them on lately.

[LoneWolf]

Fabs, you talking about Dan Fitzgerald and his son?

[fabsroman]

Lonewolf,

I think those are the guys. I am not 100% sure, but Fitzgerald is ringing some bells.

[fabsroman]

I saw another show last night that I like. Tred Barta.

I don't necessarily agree with how he does things, but I still like the show. Last night, the show was about a grizzly hunt in Alaska and he showed a lot of the staulking. He also showed him coughing and blowing the hunt by coughing. He scared off two huge grizzlies and blamed it on a fly going down his throat. Guess what, he didn't have the Cough Silencer. Another thing that I think is a gimmick.

He was using a longbow with homemade arrows out of wood. He wasn't endoring anything and he was hunting the hard way. He staulked to about 10 yards from the grizzly before letting the arrow fly. The grizzly wasn't as big as the two from the day before, but it was 7'.

I watched another show where he and his son went Mulie hunting for does. They had a doe tag and they were trying to kill a doe with a recurve or longbow, the specific one I cannot remember. Again, they were using homemade wooden arrows and they weren't endorsing anything. He missed a couple of does as they got up and ran off, but he always checked the area to make sure that there was no blood.

To me, that is hunting. Sure, I can bait deer and black bear and kill plenty of them. If the laws allowed me to bait waterfowl I would have a truckload full of ducks and geese every time I went hunting, but that isn't hunting to me.

I guess we all have our different styles of hunting, and like Tred Barta said last night, "Hunting isn't about the trophy on the wall, but about the experiences you go through to get that trophy." To me, shooting an elk or a monster whitetail on a fenced or manipulated farm isn't the same as staulking one. The first big antlered deer I shot was great because it was the first, but it didn't have quite the story as the second one.

[Virginiashadow]

I can't stand watching many of the hunting shows, just because they are boring and they show them 100 times a piece over a season. I like Tred Barta though, I would like to go hunting with him. BuckMasters is absolutely the worst of the bunch.

vashadow

[fabsroman]

I will not watch another Buckmasters show even if it is the last hunting show on television. If I hear Jackie Bushman's name again, I might just puke.