TV Hunting Shows

[Spirithawk]

My son and I are about average I'd say. He makes a decent living and I recieve a VA pension as a disable Vietnam Vet. Not poor but far from rich. We've both saved and scrimped to get some fairly decent gear but it all took time and effort to get and my son brought up a very valid point recently. These hunting shows on tv would do well to remember that not everyone hunting has a limitless budget.

Almost every show you see they are using the most expensive gear their sponsers can give them. Bows and rifles that cost as much, or more, than a good used car. Hunting ranches that charge 5 grand and up for a Whitetail hunt. Top of the line cammo and gear of every kind and all with very pricy price tags. Good advertising for the sponsers but it doesn't make for the most realistic hunts for we that watch the shows.

It would be so cool for a show that stresses using the kind of gear that most of us can afford and hunting areas such as family farms and public land. The kind of hunts that most of us hunt ourselves and less stressing the need for high dollar gear and more stressing hunting skills and knowledge of the game hunted.

I'd love to see a father and child, or grandfather and grandchild, go Coon or Squirrel hunting. I'd love to see a guy in bib overalls get out of an old farm truck and walk off into the woods with his trusty .30-30 and bring back meat for the freezer. Maybe an adult hunter taking a child on their first hunt and patiently teaching them the ropes. Things like that would excite me far more than some guy with a limitless budget, hunting a high dollar Texas ranch, for a monster buck that few watching will ever see the likes of in real life. Are me and my son alone in this thinking? What say you?

[gypsyman]

Spirithawk, totally agree. See these shows, and they have more money in gear tied up, than I can spend in 10 years. Reminds me of 25-30 years ago, building motorcycle's. Open up a motorcycle magazine, and some Hollywood star or rock singer, had a custom built Harley on parade. Total value, $25,000 or more. I had a rough time saving up $200-$300 to get a couple parts chromed. Not real life!! Real life is to boring to put in magazines or tv. gypsyman

[huntswithdogs]

I agree totally! I'd love to watch a show where they were rabbit hunting. I know it'd be hard to catch a rabbit, hauling freight to get away from a pack of beagles, on camera, but so what? So much about the heritage of hunting has been poushed back because it ain't glamorus enough. No big antlers, no show. Why in the thunder do I want to watch some feller hunting red deer or some animal I've never even heard of? Don't get me wrong, I do like watching some of the shows having kids on there hunting whatevers on the menu of the day.

Get the cameras out and film some younguns sneaking thru the woods with a 22 on the lookout for them rascally tree rats. Do some shows on kids trying their hands at doves. In other words something that's seen in various area that EVERYBODY can hunt, not just the rich and famous or some guy doing it on his sponsors dime.

HWD

[Casull]

You are totally on the mark, Spirithawk.  It's very hard to call it hunting when these guys are driven out to a "building on a tripod" overlooking a corn feeder set to go off at the same time every day, and then they sit there in a Lazyboy and watch 25 or 30 deer feeding and pick the ones with the antlers that they can afford to buy.  All this, while whispering into the camera about their love of hunting and getting back to nature.   

[bilmac]

I can't get interested in hardly any hunting or fishing show. Hunting and fishing aren't spectator sports.

[Spirithawk]

I can't get interested in hardly any hunting or fishing show. Hunting and fishing aren't spectator sports.

It can be if done right. I've seen a few where you felt like you were right there with them and anticpated every second of what happened.
 
 Magazines have sure gone way too comercial too. I can understand that sponsers need to advertise and shows need sponsers, however I think the ratings of a down to Earth show would merit at least a comprimise. Keep the pricy gear to the comercials or a small segment of the show kept aside just for advertising and describing them. Leave the brunt of the show to hunting and it's skills. Make the hunts more interesting than flying to a high dollar ranch and predictably shooting a monster buck.

I just feel like if you've watched one show you've pretty much seen them all. I aplaud the shows that show missed shots and hunts where nothing is taken. Shows that show kids being taught the ropes.  To me, that is much more realistic and things we all can all identify with. Were I a sponser I'd much rather have minimal advertisement on a show that has a large number of viewers as compared to a large amount of advertisement on a show that has way less viewers. On those shows I doubt the effectiveness of their advertising anyways as most folks I know have become numb to being force fed gear they can't afford.

Heck, we usualy talk during comercials and pay few of them any mind and even fewer any serious concideration as to possibly buying the product. Interest in the hunts is lost too when you can't identify with them. I truly believe that enough folks are so tired of all the comercialism that many have quit watching hunting shows completely. I personaly know those that have. I also know that a return to basics would draw them back. Advertising their gear does little good if it is driving viewers away. I believe there's a need to find a compromise or they'll continue to lose viewers. That doesn't do them, the shows, nor our sport any good at all.

[spruce]

Couldn't agree more!
 
For something different than all the rest try watching Benny Spies on Versus channel.  Yeah, he's a little off the wall sometimes and he's definitely a free spirit, but he has FUN hunting.  He's able to laugh at himself and doesn't let a few misses get in the way of having fun - last time I watched he went something like 0 for 9 on pheasants, and still called it a great day afield!
 
Some of the stuff on there sure reminds me of how much fun I had when I was young and had no money and hunted with a borrowed gun and bought shotgun shells 6 at a time from the local GS!

[1marty]

Most of these "hunting" shows are totally garbage. One guy shot a deer in broad day light and they found the deer it was pitch dark which means the deer probably ran a great distance. They were all high fiving what a great shot it was. I gave up watching these shows. They look more like these corporate hunts where you are guaranteed a deer before your private jet takes off.

[hillbill]

i saw a show the other day where they were squirrel hunting with dogs just like i used to do.they had a bunch of teenagers with them and they said yu didnt have to have a lot of money to have fun .but then this morn i watched a show where a guy just walkin along a road, talkin to the camera guy, shot a HUGE buck at 35 yrds he just happened to walk up on while it was sleeping. with a crossbow.ive shot tons of deer and never seen a huge buck sleeping?or any other deer assleep.then he went on about the lodge he stayed at and how great it was.i take it all with a grain of salt.

[Cabin4]

Most of the hunting shows are pretty poor in my opinion. I do like Best of The West and Jim Shockey. I like the firearms shows best like The Gun Nuts and there is another I can;t remember the name. Its been on for years with the same host.

[Old Syko]

We have one show here I really enjoy called Kentucky Afield.  It's put on by the dept of fish and wildlife.  The host has no use of his right arm due to a motorcycle accident years ago and is still an avid shooter of guns and bows who loves to hunt and fish.  It's the real deal.  He hunts and fishes with a lot of average Joes and makes it more enjoyable than any bought and paid for canned hunt.  I won't waste my time with any of the commercial shows that are nothing but advertising.  What can be enjoyable about listening to and watching someone who's main goal is to get into your pocket?   

[Cabin4]

When I lived in northern Illinois there was a TV show called Midwest Outdoors. They kept is real back then. Regular guys fishing, ice fishing, hunting. Little celebrity aspect to the show. I think Dan Gapen was the most celebrity on they would have on their occasionally. They also published an outdoor news paper. I use to have subscription to that. Not sure whatever happened to them. I should do a Google search....

[Old Syko]

I've watched Midwest Outdoors and it ain't bad but if you ever get a chance to watch Kentucky Afield, do so.  It's much more down home and realistic.  The latest show had the host working with a very smart 6 year old young man with a fly rod.  When the action started, the host was making a mad dash to get away from the young man while laughing, slipping and sliding and falling to avoid being lashed with the rod.  Now that's reality! 

[Cabin4]

I'll do that. I have not seen MWO in many years, like 13 years ago. So I don;t know if they since changed the TV show approach. It use to be pretty darn hoky but thats what made it appealing.

[hillbill]

ive been watchin a new show called "the wild within". this guy goes on some really tough hunts and its all real.he is not hawking any gear or scents or calls.he has never even said what rifle he is shooting.he stresses ethics and the real hunting and fishing experience.check it out if you get the chance!

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

   Seldom do I watch hunting shows on TV...they could be fine, but are mainly a means of selling products..Real hunting would be hard to film I suppose, and wouldn't sell many products..I did see one hunting show years ago, that was filmed in Pa... you could tell it was by average guys, but it was great...they worked hard, got everything set and had a pair of small bucks feeding on a hillside...they both squeezed off at the same time an missed...   But one could tell it was a real hunt, not some well paid actor shooting game for profit...these shows have about as much realism as soap operas ......talked about canned hunts on private land!!!!!!!!!!! As guys have pointed out there are some good ones, but sadly few and far between....

[briarpatch]

cannot stand those shows. If we were to look real close, could probably see the rope on the deer.

[yooper77]

Promotional TV hunting and fishing shows are extended commercials that is all and are never true hunting.
 
I will never take any so called outdoor celebrity or company CEO hunts seriously. Thier lives are unrealistic and all are expensive canned hunts.
 
yooper77

[LanceR]

Most of these shows are as corrosive as most print magazines are.  They have so glorified the tiny fraction of one percent of hunters who get to hunt under similar circumstances and with similar budgets that many of our peers expect to do the same thing on heavily hunted public land or small parcels of land in heavily hunted areas.  I suspect that the number of hunters who used to be perfectly happy with just about any legal animal who now feel that they need to hunt trophy animals all the time to be successful as hunters has multiplied by at least 10 times in the past 15 or so years.  When I ask these folks if they watch these shows they, almost to a man, say that they do.

I also am amazed at the number of hunters who insist that some particular pattern of camouflage or brand of boot is the only way to go and that any other choice would mean failure.  A few years ago I actually heard two local hunters arguing after limiting out on snow geese.  Each was trying to convince the other why that he was at a disadvantage due to the camo pattern on his shotgun.  Come on guys, you just took 15 geese each in a couple of hours.  Do you really think they flew to you because of the camo on the shotgun that was hidden in your layout blind and out of sight?

Sporting TV shows nearly all exist to sell product.  So do most print magazines.  When is the last time you heard anyone on a TV show or read an article in which the writer called a piece of junk what it is?  Instead of stating that a firearm has a floppy trash can stock, an overly heavy gritty trigger and a level of fit and finish that looks like it was dragged down a mile of gravel road we get a breathless announcement about the virtues of its waterproof stock, non reflective finish and the trigger that should have a great feel when hunting with heavy gloves. 

None of those folks are going to bite the hand that feeds them.  A few might nibble at them once in a while but they'll keep right on putting out what the sponsors want to hear and read because that's what pays the bills.

Lance

[BUGEYE]

I kinda like Tred Barta, he very seldom kills anything and some of his antics are amusing.