Whats your idea of a canned hunt?

[big medicine]

I just got done watching some TV hunting shows. Real Tree Out Doors, and Babe Winkleman. These guys all get billed as experts ect. I cant help but laugh everytime I watch any of these shows. I dont see them as experts, and I have my doubts about even calling them hunters. They are guys who pay to go to Joe Bobs 20,000 acre ranch with their latest greatest camo and shoot animals. Maby there isnt a 12 foot fence around the place, but to me canned none the less. For lack of a better term. Here are my reasons.

1. It doesnt take an expert, just some one with a lot of money to pay someone else to do your scouting, set up your stand, wake you up in the morning, cook your meals, and point out the animal to you.

2. Anyone of us could do the same thing if we had endless amounts of cash. We would also have access to the best hunting.

3. Just watching Babe makes me laugh. they always drive him right up to the spot, he has coolies that hump his gear for him, get his tripod set up for him so he make a 50 yard shot. Why not just roll down the window and shoot it out of the truck?

4. It all boils down to paying someone else to do all the work so you can pull the trigger. Isnt doing all the work that leads up to the trigger pulling all part of being a hunter and hunting?

I do not in anyway thing stuff like this needs to be banned or anything like this. It just bothers me to see this stuff billed as hunting by experts. It is more paid advertising much like the last night infomertials, but I think some folks think that is how you hunt. I laugh at all the advice given out by the experts, like they really have any idea? I would like to see the real hunt show where they do all the scouting and hunt from a National Forrest with everyone else. Where they dont get to hunt over food plots, dont get a 5 star blind, and might have to hunt off the ground ect. I believe there is a reason we dont see those thypes of shows.

[tucoblue]

It kills me to see the bucks these guys let WALK while waiting for a bigger one. The "Walkers" are trophys around here. The "Trophys" I have taken over the years would never make the cut for the "Experts". They are nice deer for our area but.......

We have to hunt swamps with no alfalfa fields or "Funnels. Our hunting is still hunting or stand hunting. To be successful you have to know something about deer habits. In our shotgun season (6 Days) the gangs take over and drive deer. Not a whole lot of hunting skill in that but some folks get off on it. Just like canned hunts. Oh, well.....to each his own.

[jh45gun]

I agree but I have seen a few shows where they miss a shot now and then too. At least they show that side of it.

[NONYA]

the majority of the hosts of those shows only hunt to make money,if there was no money to be made Ill bet most of them would never hunt...

[jh45gun]

I am disabled now I used to hunt stand hunting with my backside to a tree  or doing deer drives like is common in WI.   I never got into tree stand hunting and now I either stand hunt at the edges where I can access them or I vehicle hunt. I do not shoot out of a vehicle but get out to shoot and I try to stalk the deer if possible or need be or shoot if I am close enough but like I said I do not shoot from the vehicle yet some may look down on this as maybe not being sporting. A lot of times the deer may see me and other times they do not and some times they down right ignore me. If they give me a shot fine if they do not I go on.  I will say the way some one hunts some one else may think is wrong or not the right way to hunt compared to the way they do it.  I suppose it depends on where you live  but some disabled hunters can hunt the side of a road in a vehicle some may think that as not very sporting or you can basically road hunt if you want to. Considering that it may be the only way to get a deer for some one disabled  some may see it as wrong and others may see it as a legit way for some one to get a deer. I have seen plenty of folks road hunting that were not disabled so that is a way of hunting to them.  I see nothing wrong with that if it allows folks that cannot hunt any other way to be able to hunt. Because I suppose some could call that a canned hunt. So what is a canned hunt. Certainly going to a penned deer and shooting it would be canned to me but to some one else so would be road hunting so is their a difference? Others stand hunt and hope the deer come to them and take their chances that they see a deer. Others do the same but put bait out like corn or deer mixes or now the big thing food plots to attract deer so they can shoot them. So is that hunting, most would say so as it is the thing that a lot of folks do and call it hunting. So whats the difference if you road hunt until you see a deer or you bait them to come to you? Not much I do not think. Baiting deer is big business in WI when the CWD came out and the state tried to  ban baiting and feeding hunters had a fit and so did the folks who sold the corn and other deer baits. So while this is legal and a now accepted way to hunt is is like a canned hunt as you are concentrating the deer to at a area you can shoot them. Driving deer the same way some places still drive deer at least part of the day. So you are driving the deer to a hunter so whats the difference if you drive the deer to you or you to them? I would think the purest form of hunting would be stalking deer in a area that is considered wild but not every one can do that so what is right or wrong. There are no easy answers here folks as lots of ways to hunt and most are accepted as time honored traditions. Even back in the old days I can remember the old guys that I hunted with if it was raining or snowing bad they would get in a car and drive hoping to see a deer and some still do that then go for a short stalk or drive on old tote roads or logging trails that is legal to do so as they are not main roads or even secondary roads. If my dad was alive today he died in 69 at the age of 69 he would scoff at tree stands and feeding deer corn. To him a stand was your backside against a tree and waiting for a deer to show or they drove deer too. Both were time honored traditions. So by their methods they might consider that all the newer forms of hunting to day would be canned. My dad would not believe if he saw tree climbing stands or tripod stands. He would scoff at stands that are like small houses with all the comforts including stoves and a easy chair. Yet to some it is a way of hunting so it is perfectly acceptable. So what is a canned hunt? Well to me if you go and shoot a animal in a pen that cannot excape that would be a extremed canned hunt but wnat about all the other methods of hunting? Certainly fair chase is considered and what is that? Is stalking tthrough the woods fair chase? if so than for the disabled using wheels instead of legs is that as fair? is driving deer or baiting deer fair chase or using stands that has all the comforts of home while shooting deer under a timed release bait feeder that trains the deer to come when the dinner bell rings as these feeders make noise? So what is canned and what is not?? This is a post that you will get a answer for every way and variation that some may hunt. As far as the origional post goes yea these guys that can afford guided hunts and stuff may have the advantage to trophys and in some cases how hard is it? Hard to say I know I am in no shape to go and hunt out west no matter how easy the tv makes it look. Same with some other hunts. Even though the tv makes it look easy I could not do it. Yet others can so more power to them. What is a Canned hunt? How about all your food in cans for a week.  

[Savage .250]

Canned Hunts:  Most are "business" related. Selling somebodies
   product(s) while offering the viewer a half hour of  "being there"
  with out the cost, hard work, travel,  getting up early or making your own PPand J sandwich.  
   Like Confucius said," you no likey....no watchey."
 
 " The best part of the hunt is not the harvest but in the experience."

[FWiedner]

A canned hunt is the one where no preparation is required.  Just open the can and chow down.

Those TV guys "hunt" to showcase their sponsor's products and to plug guide and outfitter services.

There's more to huniting than taking the shot and packing meat in ice.

By definition, hunting is the search for game.  In my book that is doing the research, preparing and maintaining equipment and resources, pre-season look-arounds, late nights around dinner table and the camp-fire, the whole package.

IMO, If all a fellow chooses to do is step out of the truck and pull the trigger, (given that he has the choice) he's chosen to skip the best part of "hunting".

 :-)

[tscott]

Wasn't the babe in a little hot water over poaching last year in Perham, Mn.?
I am at the point where.... "whatever's legal"! For myself I will stop deerhunting, when my body tells me that it is no longer a good idea to hunt wilderness, remote. Heck i'm only 59, so that's easy to say for now, but I look forward to another 25 years. I'm kinda lookin' forward to those stories around the fire with great grandchildren thereafter!

[jh45gun]

Did not hear about Babe and the poaching deal got any particulars??

[tscott]

Don't know about conviction, but Babe was cited for a limit violation on fishing in the summer of 04, in his home town in Mn. It was in the papers.

[clodbuster]

Big M  I got to admit to getting caught in a canned hunt back about '86 when I lived in Minnesota.  A friend took me to this place to hunt ducks, only catch was that the ducks were trained to fly past a certain spot on their way to being fed.  I only caught on after the host told me it was okay to go on shooting after I was over the limit and also found I could stand out in the open and the ducks still flew past.  Well, I'm slow but not stupid.  I admit to massive embarrassment and leaving immediately!  Lots of "game preserves" planted pheasants, quail, chukkar etc on their farms at $10 a pop so you can walk through to blast pen-raised game;NO THANKS--  That's canned hunt to me and it sucks!

[big medicine]

I have been on a few of the pheasant hunts for one promotion or another. It is nothing like hunting real pheasants. When you have to kick the bird to et them to fly, well that just aint right :lol: It is good practice for the dog, he enjoys it no matter what. It is nothing that I would pay to do, but hey, when I get to go for a promotion of some company, it beats working :wink:

[Hooker]

Hmmmm Canned Hunt I prefer Freeze Dried Hunt
Some among us have higher standards than me, thats alright. My idea of a canned hunt is where the prey either has no chance, ability or instinct to get away. When you do that you are harvesting and I have no problem with that if that what they want, but they are not hunting. Someone harvested the steak I just ate for supper. They were not hunting. Some folks either live to far from the places they hunt or lead busy lives and don't have time to scout  these areas. Their best bet is to hire a guide to do this for them. This does not make their hunt a canned hunt. As long as fair chase rules are applied, they are hunting. Have you ever killed a deer that stumble on to you through no effort on your part accept to be in the right place due to luck. Was it a canned hunt? Hosts on hunting shows are there to sell products and services, any entertainment is purely there so you will watch these well designed Infomercials. How long would you watch if they showed hunts that were unproductive. So they pay ole Billy Bob with air time on their show to set them up with a hunt. On a game ranch where there is not only deer but managed deer that are usually better than average so they pass on the lesser animals.  I'll pass on a the average buck for a fat doe any day of the week if it's legal.

Pat

[RaySendero]

Guys,

I feel same as many of you about "canned hunts" but don't let this drive a wedge between us and some that partake of them!  Better to put that energy back into teaching others to hunt - PASS IT ON!

[stimpylu32]

Just never saw the need to shoot a black bear that was trained to eat out of a 55 gal. trash can  

Figgered that the poor beast has enough problems being turned into a garbage digger , don't need me killing him for it  :eek:

STIMPY