Hunting T.V.

[AKaviator]

This has probably been discussed before on this forum; I wonder what your opinions are about the proliferation of all the hunting television programs that are out there.
Personally, I like some of them, Eastmans, Shockeys, and a few others. However I won't watch any that make hunting a team competition and I'm tired of the "blast a whitetail from a tree stand" shows, especially if the whitetail already has a name!
I believe many of these shows discredit hunting and hunters and in this day and age, that's not a good idea.

 

[ando_31]

I used to like all the hunting shows when I was young, now I hate most of them. When that Banks fella says in his commercial, "they said it couldn't be done, they said I couldn't grow a booner in Georgia....but I did, again, again, and again", I blow a fuse every time. Growing a deer?!?...Like its a farmers crop... That is not what I want people to think of when the word "hunting" is used. (I've been waiting to vent about that for some times now)

TV hunting isn't even about the hunt anymore (with the exceptions of a few shows). Its all about advertising products and "ranches".

 

[ivorytip]

thats what makes eastmans classy, " no high fences"

 

[Chippy Hacky]

I'd rather not complain. Some are good, some not so good. I remember though (not too long ago) when you couldn't find hunting on t.v. You had buy the videos and that was too expensive. Then they came out with a show or two on T.V. and half the time they didn't get an animal at all or, they wouldn't even show a "kill shot". It's all good, just some of it not for me.

We are pretty blessed to have so many options.

 

[hardstalk]

+1 chippy. I support em all. Im glad to see the exposure and even if it becomes really commercialized (like it has) its still giving the general population the oppurtunity to view what we love to do. High fence, desert, above treeline, or african plains its all a rush and we share a common bond of harvesting and eating what we harvest. Heck i was in albertsons the other day looking for some spices and rubs for a venison roast i was going to smoke and low and behold old micheal waddell has an entire line of "bone collector" spices on the shelves. It caught me off guard at first but then i was enthralled at the fact that this man has a following large enough to be endorsed and allowed into grocery stores!! Awesome if you ask me.

 

[Chippy Hacky]

Yes, we may very well look back and find out that this, indeed, could be the glory days of hunting.

I was behind a rig the other day with a gal driving. She had a sticker on the windshield of her car with something about being a women bowhunter. 10 years ago you wouldn't have seen that. I think that these shows might have something to do with it, not all, but something.

+1 chippy. I support em all. Im glad to see the exposure and even if it becomes really commercialized (like it has) its still giving the general population the oppurtunity to view what we love to do. High fence, desert, above treeline, or african plains its all a rush and we share a common bond of harvesting and eating what we harvest. Heck i was in albertsons the other day looking for some spices and rubs for a venison roast i was going to smoke and low and behold old micheal waddell has an entire line of "bone collector" spices on the shelves. It caught me off guard at first but then i was enthralled at the fact that this man has a following large enough to be endorsed and allowed into grocery stores!! Awesome if you ask me.

 

[hardstalk]

Antis dont have tv time. The more we have the more it drowns them out. Good bad or ugly i leave the tv on the outdoor channel even when im not at home.

 

[AKaviator]

I agree that showing the good side of what we do is important. I don't agree that showing the bad and ugly side is. First, I wish hunting didn't have bad and ugly sides. We are truly blessed that we're able to enjoy our passion for the outdoors in general and hunting specifically. Not everyone believes we should be able too. When we as hunters conduct ourselves in a manner that doesn't cast us in a good light, we risk arming those who despise us for what we do with a passion to stop us.
I believe that some, not all, of the hunting shows out there do more to turn the non-hunting public against us. I believe deeply that we need to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of respect, especially in what is broadcast on T.V. It doesn't stop there, we need to show respect by not trashing out our hunting areas, respecting game regulations and the wildlife we all love.
Some hunting shows don't. Many demonstrate horrible gun handling/safety and a lack of sensitivity for wildlife.
Read some of the blogs when hunting is in the news. Non hunters and anti-hunters do watch and pay attention and some truly hate us. Hunting and hunters may suffer if we continue to to display ourselves as a bunch of blood-thirsty slobs.

 

[ceby7]

High fence, desert, above treeline, or african plains its all a rush and we share a common bond of harvesting and eating what we harvest.

I disagree 100%. High fence is NOT a rush nor is it even hunting, it's merely killing. This is a real sore spot for me.

 

[ivorytip]

the high fence thing is and will allways be a hot debate. i personaly havent done it. would i? if i was wealthy and had several of thousands of dollars to spend on that instead of my fam i might considre it. it would be neat to harvest an animal that looks absolutely unrealisticly huge. lots of guys hunt that way and have only hunted that way but until they are on a diy hunt back in the middle of nowhere and harvesting and packing out ur game is a chore they wont understand the beauty in it.huntning is hunting? no way, there is high fence hunting, then there is hunting. as long as we both cheer on the 2nd amendment then amen!

 

[Maineboy]

I agree with both ceb7 and AKaviator and the tv hunting is going to be the leading vehicle to the fall of hunting. There is only one show that is trying to fix the public perspective that is badly damaged. That would be Meat Eater but I'm afraid the machine is too big. I worry about what will be left for my three year old. I think of all the rights that have been lost since I was a child and I hate to imagine what will be left when he is my age.

 

[Muleys 24/7]

I disagree 100%. High fence is NOT a rush nor is it even hunting, it's merely killing. This is a real sore spot for me.

X2 I feel the same way. Canned kills, are something I'll never do. Fair chase is the only way IMO

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

If you don't like the high fence thing, then you better stay out of Texas. Lots of them there. I know that a lot of the property owners have spent a lot of $$$ stocking exotics and want/need to keep them on their property. There are still a lot of the hunting shows that are not "Texas" shows and pretty much fair chase. The thing you won't see is all the footage they shoot that result in missed, wounded and lost animals. The thing that you have to keep in mind is that a lot (I'll bet a majority) are on private land and not typical for the way most of us hunt. But you guys are right about one thing....the more exposure, the better, as long as its in good taste.

 

[THelms]

Tons of great and hot words on here... high fence, fair chase, classy vs. trashy, etc. The debate can and will rage endlessly. I will say one thing to hopefully add to the wisdom on both sides. The hunting demographic has and is changing; more women and young people with more old gentlemen hanging it up coupled with the massive bleeding of traditional literacy out of our society have changed the face of entertainment and advertising. How do we reach a generation who spends very little time reading? How do we make up for the loss of our mature vanguard? Media, electronic media! That means T.V., blogs, twitter, facebook, Warren Miller style movies like "Searching for West." All of these are hugely popular in our outdoor cousin's crossover world of flyfishing. Gone should be the days of whack 'n' stack t.v. with Jethro and Cletus/Eino and Toivo/Ole and Sven... the hunting world we must portray is the one we all love and need to strive toward; involved, wholesome, real, family/friend oriented, celebrated, conservation minded, ethical, and above all, appealing! If that means trail cams and food plots in Iowa, fine. There is a huge segment of people in this country whose passion is whitetails... hook em! Get them in a treestand, get them in a voting booth. There are the guys and gals on here whose passion is western big game; strap a pack on them and get them in a drainage listening to screamin' elk. Sit them behind a spotting scope and glass mountains and plains for mulies, prongies, or bears. It doesn't matter, whatever reaches and hooks them. If that is electronic media then great. It is our responsibility to police our passion and applaud the good while weeding out the bad.

Let them never divide us brothers and sisters of the hunt! For it is then when we will have nothing to be divided about, nothing to fulfill our passions for the wild and wildlife and it is then that our cherished environments and animals will suffer the greatest for our lack of stewardship.

Soapbox relenquished.......

 

[SprintNShoot7]

I agree with Grizz on many things. The younger generations are far more illiterate than previous generations, with social media, internet and texting. Kids also have video games, games on their phone, and loads of entertainment to hold their interest, so we need to take it upon ourselves to show them how awesome hunting is. I would rather have a bad day of hunting then a great day of video games. I also agree that there are many different breeds of hunters, who like different animals and different species. I'm just as sick of Outdoor Chanel and Sportsman's Chanel being 90 percent whitetail hunts and would rather see more mule deer, bear, and elk hunts, but the hunting community needs to unite. The anti's who want to ban hunting don't care how we hunt, where we hunt, or what we hunt, they want to shut us down, and fighting amongst ourselves weakens our defenses against them. I also agree with other statements about hunting tv should be more about the hunt than the kill. I would like to see a show where the hunter works his butt off and it doesn't work out for him. Not that I want people who are on tv to fail, but because that is how it really is. Only about 10 percent of people who bowhunt elk are successful; yet you almost always see the guy on tv get a bull on the ground. I also support being educational about hunting as conservation, which I think On Your Own Adventures does really well, RMEF's Team Elk does a put in a good effort. I think if we had a few more shows about hunting for the sole purpose of meat would be good as well. I think if there was a show that took someone who knew nothing about hunting and conservation and throughout the course of the show taught them how hunters are the biggest ally wildlife has, how to hunt, and most importantly how to make a game animal into food, that it would be really positive for hunting. I'd also like the shows to display some of the unique and awesome things that hunters see in the wild while hunting.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

This has probably been discussed before on this forum; I wonder what your opinions are about the proliferation of all the hunting television programs that are out there.
Personally, I like some of them, Eastmans, Shockeys, and a few others. However I won't watch any that make hunting a team competition and I'm tired of the "blast a whitetail from a tree stand" shows, especially if the whitetail already has a name!
I believe many of these shows discredit hunting and hunters and in this day and age, that's not a good idea.

I'm so over the whitetail and turkey shows! I want the western big game DIY public ground hunting! I don't mind the guided hunts but I could tell you what's going to be said and how the hint is going to go one every whitetail show before it starts. Bleh! I'm done

 

[ivorytip]

eastmans puts on some pretty cool western big game hunting shows... haha. how about those okland A'S baby!!!

 

[AKaviator]

Grizz,
Your'e welcome onto the soapbox anytime. You articulated much of what I think quite well, so did SprintNShoot7. I'll add that in teaching Hunter Safety classes for some years now, we tell the students that about 15-20 percent of our population are hunters, about 15 percent are Anti-hunters. Pretty much whatever gets aired on T.V. is not going to sway their opinions of hunting in general. However, the rest of the population are non-hunters that generally support ethical hunting. Their opinions can be changed, either for us or against us. I worry that T.V shows that open with kill after kill after kill and hunters jumping around beating their chests, gives non-hunters a bad first impression. That demographic may not watch the show but in changing channels may watch the opening minutes and form negative opinions which may sway them to support the Anti-Hunting agenda.
I don't advocate fighting among ourselves. I do believe that our industry does need to police itself and accentuate the positives that hunting does for wildlife. However, with that said, I do take issue with the very long range animal shooting shows. I won't call them hunting shows. I've read of guys that have quit working with them because of all the wounded animals they don't recover that you never see on T.V., but that's for a different thread.
Thanks for responding to the thread.

 

[JMSZ]

I don't get to watch the hunting shows (no cable/satellite tv), but I was watching Sixty Minutes or a similar show recently and they were talking about some of the ranches out in Texas that are raising African antelopes and similar animals that are nearly extinct in their native areas.

The ranches are able to raise those animals by doing the big-dollar hunts.

Personally, I don't consider chasing down an animal that is artificially restricted to a confined area to be hunting. I think that the guys (and gals) who engage in those hunts are just there for the trophy, not for the hunt, not for the time in the outdoors, etc.

In my mind, they're the same as the guys that pay Boyd or some other shop to build a perfect kit hot rod for them, instead of finding a car and restoring/modding it themselves.

That said, the by-product of those types of operations is that those endangered animals continue to exist, just like the Boyds of the world make some really nice wheels and other nice parts that the rest of us can use that are by-products of the kit car building operations.

So, like a lot of things, there's a place for them and what they do.

However, I don't think that what is done on those ranches should be called or portrayed as hunting. It should be called what it is, paying to corner an animal and shoot it. That distinction needs to be clearly defined and articulated so that non-hunters understand that there is a difference and what it is.

As an aside, during that Sixty Minutes show, they interviewed a lady who is rabidly anti-hunting. She was opposed to the ranches doing the hunts, even though the hunts paid to keep the animals alive.

They asked her if she would prefer that the hunts were stopped, even if it meant that the animals would go extinct and she said yes.

We, as hunters, also need to make sure that non-hunters know that those kinds of people are also out there and that those kinds of people are the ones that will find the what they know to be the worst non-typical behavior by bad "hunters" and portray it as behavior typical of all hunters.

 

[In God We Trust]

Well put Grizz, the west vs. everyone else that whitetail hunts is a bad thing. I go to Iowa and hunt whitetails every year so I see both side of the coin. I prefer DIY public land hunting out west but we are all hunters in the end and need keep that in mind. I think most of the t.v shows are ridiculous but if they draw more people to the sport than it is a good thing. I will say that On Your Own Adventures and Eastman's are two of the better shows.