TV Hunting Shows

[N80]

I noticed another thing while I was watching one of these shows the other day (yes, I usually end up stopping on one of them when I'm clicking through the channels) and that's the music that goes along with them. Its usually some sort of canned, heavy metal studio music. For one thing, its just awful music (and I like rock music) and the other thing is that it just doesn't seem to suit what's going on in the show. Why heavy metal guitar riffs when you're watching a deer walking up.

Anyway, was just curious what other's thought about them. I'm sure there must be folks out there who like them, and it is certainly a personal preference, but they just don't do much for me......except when I'm clicking around...in which case I'm just as likely to watch a cooking show or This Old House.

 

[RonMar]

On that same sattelite feed, you can find racially segragated programming, religious programming, telemarketing, politics, sports and pornography, so it is up to you what you want to watch and what you want to block. As for hunting channels, I occasionally watch, but for many of the same reasons that N80 covered, I watch very few for any great length of time. Canned hunts and shooting an african game animal while it's head is down in a feed trough full of grain, just dosn't have that much appeal to me having spent many hours in a tree stand, and would never be a way I would hunt.

 

[bigshovel]

As an avid big game hunter nation wide I don't lose sight it is television. I find it enjoyable and revolting at the same time. I never have shot any whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, antelope, caribou, sitka deer, moose, wild boar, eastern, merriam, oceola turkey, over a bait pile or food plot. I hate it when the trigger man, archery or rifle high fives the camera man for a gut shot animal over a bait pile they retrieve the next day and say they ran out of daylight and didn't want to bump it. Early on in this programming it wasn't uncommon to see a high fence in the background, shooting penned game isn't for me. But as I said good and bad but it strikes me as more entertaining than watching a five hundred pound women and a 300 pound daughter on tv trying to loose weight on national tv.

Brad

 

[EddieWalker]

I enjoy most of the hunting shows, except for Tred Barta. That guy is just so full of himself that it ruins anything that he might be doing. I've tried to watch his show because he was hunting an area that interested me, but then he opens his mouth and ruins it.

One time I booked an elk hunt in Idaho with an outfitter who had a very nice lodge, lots of private land to hunt on and access to some areas of public land that were dificult to get to for the general public. It was a great area with allot of animals that should have been a good hunt. Unfortunately, a TV show was there the same week. I wish I could remember the name of the show, but I never seen any of their episodes and it's been so long now that I don't think I'd recognize them is I saw them. I do remember they were out of the Seatle area, but that's about it.

The problem was that they took over everything. If a guide saw some good bulls someplace, they went to hunt there and nobody else was supposed to hunt in the same area. It led to allot of tension with the other hunters at the lodge. Then because of the cameras, batteries and getting the shot on film, they never got anything. Lots of animals, lots of oportunities, but nothing shot. Those of us at the lodge didn't care for this either. Some guys went home empty, others never even saw a legal bull, but the TV show was on bulls every day.

When I see the shows, I realize that there is a full week of filming for that half hour show, and that after the editing, you end up with something that might be totally different then the reality of what they went through to get that animal. The hoopla and chatter the host gives is just silly in my opinion, but I think it's just their attempt to stand out and create a large audiance. I call it the Ty Pennington Wannabe's. After he hit it big and has his own hit TV show, I've noticed allot of these guys acting like he did when he was just the wood working guy on Trading Spaces. Act like Ty and get your own show. The same is true with these hunting shows, I think that some of them think they will hit it big by over acting, or just being over the top. To me, it's annoying, but heck, they are getting paid to go hunt all over the place. Must be smarter then I am.

Eddie

 

[DMF]

Hey George - You're one up on me; I've been without TV (oh, we can get 2 channels with rabbit ears if we really want to watch TV) for almost 6 years now. I do see hunting shows now and then at my Dad's house, but for me it's mainly videos. My Dad gets the American Hunter series videos from the NRA and he shares them with me. For the most part, these movies are not typically that bad. The Drury hunting team do pretty good on public land but the majority of the places they hunt are owned and/or leased by them. They manage the land for game, have trail cameras, do intensive shed searches every spring and catalog them...basically, it's a big science project.

Now the way I hunt deer in New England is to still hunt when there isn't any snow, and track deer when there is. I have also been successful tracking in wet leaves as well. To me, there is not a more exciting way to hunt! If you are interested in see some of this kind of hunting, check out some of the Benoit Brothers video or read their books. The old man, Larry Benoit is kind of a deer hunting legend in New England, but a lot of the old timers up in Maine where I hunt used to always track and there are still a lot of folks that still do.

 

[4720 OWNER]

I have wild cattle. If they wanted to they could leave at any point and do just fine on their own. They know who i am after (usually the one that has just got aggressive). If you want one specific, it is hunting and not just throwing grain out and shooting. They will refuse grain, they will hide where you swear a rabbit could not, they will hide in the middle of the herd, etc. The real people who hunt i feel are only jubulant because the hunt is over and can rest and be proud of the accomplishment (rituals to reduce the stress of the hunt and the ability to feed the family, think primal), but then the real work starts of transport, butchering and finally the consuming. Anyone who eats meat should have this experience as in the 'olden times'.

To qualify a bit, i have hunted large and small game all my life and have had whole days of walking with out seeing a quarry. Those are good days to have a dog along and just enjoy each others company. It is not about the kill persay, it is the experience. The shows try and portray this, but we now of this generation need things at high speed and in bites and RIGHT NOW. Different times, different values.

2 pennys worth.

 

[Sigarms]

Unless it's the public broadcasting network, a T.V show is usually about marketing SOMETHING.

Reminds me when we use to go up to Canada as kids, with my dad, uncle and cousin.

Me an my cousin would be by ourselves that first night fishing from the boat dock. Going on an hour, and me and my cousin haven't caught anything. My cousin looks really down in the dumps and I ask him what's got him down.

I'll never forget this...

He tells me "well, when I watch the fishing show they always catch fish left and right and we don't have anything yet".

First time "really" fishing for him.

I also remember a show I saw a couple years ago up in West Virginia. Guy had a buck at like 400 yards or so, and he took like 5 shots. Bullets bounching all around at that buck, just standing there. Took the 5th or 6th shot to get that deer.

Personally, if I were the camer man, after the second shot missed I would of hit that "hunter" for shooting at a distance that you have no clue about.

 

[kylethekilla]

I agree 100% with George, most of the hunting shows are not even worth watching. I am only 18 years of age, live in Alberta, canada, and up here there is no real trees or anything like that for the tree stands or blinds, we walk around draws and such to try and spook deer out. Today I was so happy with myself for shooting a small 4x4 white-tail buck, wasn't a monster or anything but it had good body mass. My family isn't really big into the huge trophy's we hunt more for the meat, so it doesn't matter what is on their heads. Most hunting shows also dont show what is done after the shooting of a deer, people who might just be getting into it may think that after shooting a deer your done, but your not the real work starts now. That is my personal opinion on this topic.