[RifleFan]

I must admit I watch quite a bit of outdoor TV. Some of the guys they are getting on these hunting shows now leave a lot to be desired. They know little about firearms and not much more about hunting. I was watching a show tonight and one of the "professional hunting consultants" was surprised that a cold front that brought a couple of inches of snow actually got the animals moving. Really? Then the guy said the wind was starting to move up the slopes so they were going to move down to get ahead of the animals. Uh, ok. Move down so the wind carries your scent all the way up the hill. Good move.

I'm curious as to what some of you guys think of some of the folks on these shows.

 

[big dan]

i don't watch them... to me they're just infomercials and listening to a lot of those idiots is like listening to a nascar chucklehead after a race... moronic!

 

[MikeG]

Hey I guess sometimes you just can't think of anything intelligent to say

On the other hand, sometimes there isn't much to report from an evening of hunting. Just got back from a friend's place - he's on a different deer management program and it's still open season. All we saw was a feral cat, and a fox that stopped by long enough to hike his leg on the feeder. My son thought that was hilarious, but I don't know how good of TV it would have made.

Just one more evening in the blind!

 

[winbag338]

I watch, sometimes i learn. I could do without the constant metal music though.

 

[broom_jm]

As a die hard NASCAR "chucklehead", I am not averse to the visceral roar of normally aspirated race cars or the vicarious enjoyment of sporting experiences portrayed on television. Some shows are very good, some are mediocre and more than a few are truly awful, but a sufficient number of them are interesting and worthwhile. If some are guilty of extraneous product placement, that can be attributed to the obvious financial demands of any well-produced and widely distributed entertainment. I'm not aware of any outdoor programming that has escaped this simple truth of modern broadcasting.

I've witnessed a whole litany of unrealistic, fanciful, and even downright stupid antics on hunting shows, but I view these as comical, in a sense. On more than one occasion, I have told my young daughter (who hunts AND watches NASCAR) to completely ignore what some guy just said or did on a hunting show. Fortunately, she is an intelligent young woman and does not buy into everything she sees or reads, nor does she cast aspersions or perpetuate inane stereotypes, whether in real life or in a virtual forum.

Were it that all people were as sensitive and insightful.

 

[Chief RID]

I watch more outdoor shows than I care to admit. ESPN has cancelled their outdoor programing. Pretty interesting move on their part. Maybe they will return outdoor programing to ABC. Remember American Sportsman. I miss Fred Bear, Curt Gowdy and Arther Godfrey. Did Elmer Keith ever do a show? I kinda doubt it. "Men were men and cows were afraid."

 

[GMFWoodchuck]

The trouble with these hunting shows is that most of them are by idiots for idiots. And like Big Dan says, they're little more than infomercials. I only watch them because MASH, Golden Girls, and All in the Family aren't on.

I love it when they're "whispering", more like a talking, while the game is ten feet below them under the stand. I know the deer where I live aren't that tame. You breath wrong and they bolt.

 

[Gil Martin]

Too much idle chatter to suit me

The constant talking about mostly nonsense and what often seems like staged big game hunting situations are too much for me. I do like the pheasant and waterfowl hunts. All the best...
Gil

 

[Flat Top]

I normally dont watch hunting shows on TV, but, I came across one last night that seemed to be presented in a more "realistic" light than the few I had seen in the past (which turned me off to hunting shows). It was on Discovery Channel I believe. It was not your typical guided hunt, from a heated blind, on a game ranch chock full of "bred and fed" animals... type of show. These two guys were actually still hunting/stalking deer for a winter food supply (Alaska, I believe), for the family, and, went to great lengths to climb a mountain, where the deer were in abundance...7 hours of climbing to get to the hunting spot! Anyway the first guy spots and stalks his deer for a one shot kill...the second guy blows his shot on the deer he finds, and both of these fellas have to do a followup to kill the second. When the hunt was over, the "star" of the show, sits down and has a heart to heart talk with the viewers about "fair chase", the "realities", and the why's and wherefores of hunting.....then procedes to field dress the deer and explains why the proper care of the meat is so important! This was the most honest portrayal of what hunting is "really" like that I have ever seen, but, it seemed to be aimed at a "general" non hunting audience. If I was a non hunter, and an open minded veiewer, this show would have been very enlightening, and given me a much better understanding of why we do what we do.!

 

[BKeith]

Don't watch them at all. Most are caned hunts and show very little in the way of hunting skills. Some actually make idiots out of the people hosting/hunting them. I mean, how much skill does it take for someone going to a private game preserve, get put on a stand by someone feeding the animals in selected spots and kill a trophy, just so they can hang it on their wall and say, look what did. BIG FRIGGEN DEAL!!!

I also don't agree with making a public spectical of killing animals and showing how some suffer before they die. Bow hunting shows on TV should be totally banned. At least with a rifle, the animal is sometimes dropped in it's tracks. All this does is provide anti hunters more reasons to ban it. Does not matter that hunting is an essential part of the enviromental control for many species.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against bow hunting, enjoyed it myself for many years until uncle arthur got me to the point it hurt too much to practice. It's just not the most efficient way of killing an animal and looks bad on TV when you see them get shot and how them jump and run in pain and fear.

 

[slim 60]

i watch them.. don t necessarily agree with all the advice ,but its better than the news.

 

[lowcountrytj]

Everybody has a show now...its flooded.If you have a descent camera and a buddy to film,BAM..ya gotta huntin show.Yep,it has become an infomercial as with anything these days.There are only a couple of varmint shows that I watch.
Oh yeah ,I have the Tivo thingy so I record them and fast forward through the BS
Then I turn that crap off and go outside!

 

[tpv]

Seems like this thread gets brought up ever so often.

TC and Nikon advertize on every one of them which is why I think both products are overhyped, and everyone has to get their cutsy wife on the camera.
By the way, how many of you leave the gun manufacurer's decal of your stock when you hunt?
There isn't any real information on any of them, so I just go hunting.
If they don't get a kill on camera, the show is a failure, and I hate to see an animal killed for those reasons alone.
I guess someboby is watching or there wouldn't be so many of them.
Thanks God for the NFL this week-end!

 

[big dan]

actually broom i was not refering to the fans as chuckleheads, and actually i'm sure that the drivers themselves aren't but when they start that stupid gotta name every sponsor blather i just have to roll my eyes and think maybe that person would have had a chance at a normal life if his parents hadn't been related before they were married... shake & bake, go ricky bobby!!

 

[Bob D]

I can't stand the high fives and hooting and whoooooing at the kill. For me it is a solemn moment.

 

[Kevin 2]

Flat Top,

I saw that show also and agree with you it was a very good depiction of actual hunting. Nothing like many but not all of the other reality/hunting shows. They were very serious about safety discussed the dangers of going to where they were going and the goal, food for their family. I was impressed with their gun handling and they would be welcome in my camp any time.

When one of the brothers rifle misfired two times he kept cycling the bolt and got a shot off. He discussed the failure as abnormal and made no excuses for the manufactures or go into some long winded technical discussion.

I do like some of the shows on the Outdoor and Sportsman channels but for the most part not the hunting shows. Wont even get started on some of the Tactical/I am the smartest guy you need this new wizz bang or your life is over shows.

Bob D,

Your are dead on with the contrived end zone crap.

Kevin

 

[tjrahl]

Any show with a canned hunt sucks, so that's what 75% of hunting shows?
As to the rest, they might enter the realm of enjoyable television if they spent half as much time hunting as they do talking about how they never could have done it without the xxxx scope and the xxx gun/bow.

Sorry but that's well, every hunting show there is in the failing category.

 

[Sinbad12-2007]

The only hunting/fishing/outdoor type shows I get are on Vs. If they're hunting from a tree stand over bait then I utilize my perogative and change the channel. No problem. If the hunt is an actual hunt, still hunting, then I tend to watch it. The arthritis has got me pretty crippled up so I don't have the ability to get out anymore. So, I live it vicariously, watching it on TV. I love watching the African hunts though. I watched one African adventure where the Sport was after a lion. HUGE male. And there in the background was a fence. I still watched it, hoping the PH would get his butt et, along with the Sport. It ALMOST happened too. The lion got shot, attacked the party, knocked the PH on his butt before expiring. I'm with broom on this one.

 

[RifleFan]

I can't stand the high fives and hooting and whoooooing at the kill. For me it is a solemn moment.

Agree completely. That is one of the biggest turn-offs when watching these shows.

I actually don't mind all of the sponsors and understand someone has to pay for the air time. My problem is with some of the knuckleheads they have on the air. Some of them are decent - the Eastman guys come to mind - but a bunch don't have a clue.

And I don't want to get the thread locked or get off base but ESPN is getting more and more political in their programming and has a definite liberal bias. It is not surprising they cancelled their outdoor programming.

 

[Flat Top]

Kevin 2; I am glad somebody here saw that program...it was probably the best hunting program (out of the few I have seen), and dipicted what hunting is like in the real world...or as close to it as TV can get, anyway.

Why is it when I shoot game, that I dont jump up and down, hoot and hollar, high five a tree...high five the game animal I just shot, while simultaniously doing the "bobb and weave"............is there something wrong with me?!?!?!?!?!!?