Do you watch hunting shows on TV?

B

BumbleBug

New member
I’ll be the first to admit that I watch the hunting shows on TV. They are interesting especially the archery shows, since I have seen the most evolution in that sport’s equipment over the years. I also realize that hunting shows are presented as commercial entertainment by sponsors that want to sell products. I don’t mind all the gadgets either, since they are interesting & sometimes even comical!

Here of late, these TV shows have started to bother me some. It might just be the holiday season which ever since I was boy, I have associated with deer hunting. I’ve been reminiscing about hunting with my dad & brother as a kid. My winter wear was an Army surplus field jacket. IIRC, they were $5 with a liner & they didn’t keep you warm. I only hunted in my oldest clothes because I’d get in a heap of trouble if I got blood on my good jeans or shirts. We’d nail a few scrap boards in a tree & that became our deer stands. These stands then got interesting names like “Lil’ Live-Oak” or “The Buzzard Roost” or “Fence Line Cedar”. The names were how we declared where we were hunting. I remember dad grabbing three .30-06 cartridges out of the box & stuffing them in his pocket & out he go for an evening hunt. If your rifle had a scope on it you didn’t need to take along the shared pair of binoculars.

I’m a big believer in that everyone legally enjoys the outdoors to his or her own wishes. I like & enjoy all the new stuff & TV hunting isn’t bad & I’ll keep watching, but it is not exactly the hunting I’ve grown up with or know. I guess a TV show with a cold kid sitting on a tree limb wouldn’t sell much stuff, LOL!

Am I the only old guy that feels this way?

…bug
 
no I don't. too much editing out of the boring parts, too many successful hunts, too much bragging and orgasms over dead animals... I prefer the real thing.
 
Sometimes

much bragging and orgasms over dead animals... I prefer the real thing.
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Mostly agree for like sex, hunting is not a spectator sport. If it isn't personal and dirty, you aren't doing it right ....... ;)

Be Safe and;
Be Safe
 
Mostly agree for like sex, hunting is not a spectator sport. If it isn't personal and dirty, you aren't doing it right .......
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I like the analogy ..... I always had a gut feeling that hiring a guide had ..... a certain ..... meritricious quality to it ....
 
I enjoy watching some shows. Particularly in locations where I know I'll never get to hunt, or for species I'll never actually hunt. I can't get excited about watching some guy sitting in a blind over a pile of corn waiting for a white tail to show up. Shows set in Africa, Alaska, and in other exotic locations get my attention. Same with guys who hike, float, or ride on horseback into remote locations.

I agree, there is too much celebration in hunting shows. Too much on the football fields and other sports arenas too and I feel like many TV hunters are trying to choreograph their kill dance as much as football players do their touchdown celebrations. I coached HS football for 30 years, we always told our kids that when they got to the endzone to at like they had been there before. I'd like to tell some of these TV hunters the same.

There is a lot of advertising on many shows, too much, but it is what pays the bills. Some is to be expected. I realize many of the products are useless, but some are not. I ain't going back to the old army surplus jackets.
 
I used to enjoy watching one show, I think it was called "The Barta Way" but he had health problems and the show ended. I've tried watching others but none can keep my interest.
 
My father inlaw enjoys them, so while at his place I'll watch if one is on.

But, for me, they are too much reality TV, and not enough reality.
 
I only watch one hunting show, Pigman: The Series. I find the Pigman entertaining and like the way he does his show. As for the other shows, Nah, I don’t watch them. Too boring.
 
I usually have some kind of hunting program turned on for my dad to watch on the weekend days. I dont tend to pay much attention to them. But I will watch Meat Eater. It is down to earth and most hunts are on public ground and fair chase. Jim Shockey is another one I can watch. He has a lot of heart and he travels to some unique locations. Then there is Fred Eichler (sp?) for predator hunting. He demonstrates skinning techniques that are educational.

For the most part I can't relate to much of the programming due to the fact that the hunts are conducted out of ground blinds, tree stands, in front of feeders or food plots, high fence or otherwise canned hunts. Very far removed from my hunting experience.
 
Shooting shows only for me. I guess they don't have to follow the "no loud commercials" rule. Sportsman Channel ads nearly blow me off the couch.
 
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Stopped watching hunting shows years back. Everything on them is staged and fake, including the deer. The funny thing is that old movies about hunting are more realistic than these new hunting shows and ethics were a lot looser when filming back then.
 
After watching several of these shows being filmed in Colorado and noting
that actual kill took place at another location (game farm at Hayden) I now think of them as another scripted program. All I know is what I have observed!
JMO
Dan
 
I've watched them but not followed any. If I watch one it usually be in Africa or Alaska, I don't care to watch things I can hunt in the lower 48 being hunted.
 
I occasionally watch a TV hunting show, usually to look at the technology being used, but otherwise they are a bit too canned. Probably one of the best TV hunting shows I saw was more than a decade ago and it was one show of the previous seasons of flubs, missed shots, goofs, falls, cussing (bleeped out), and general silliness. It was more "real" than real TV because it showed the unplanned and human side of things.

I have gotten a kick out of looking at a lot of Youtube videos. There is a lot of garbage on YT, but there is a lot more real life type hunting being done there than you can get on TV. Some of the stuff isn't pretty, but it is what happens in real life. Of course there is an overly high percentage of successful kills since people are much less apt to show off their bad shots, but there is still some really good stuff.

I think the best part of going the YT route is the sheer variety of what is being done there and some of it is searchable.
 
I used to watch them all the time.
Then I figured out how fake they were, all script.
Also how much meat is lost on those shows. Almost always a bad shot and the last few years have started preaching to let the animal rest overnight and "expire" vs going after it. Even if its supposedly a good hit.
I'm sorry, but when its 80* out, you do not want to eat an animal that has been laying out all with the guts in. Even when its 50* that deer will stink very bad. I know.:o
 
Some of them I like to watch, like the ones in places I won't get to go, or ones that are somewhat educational (trapping shows), I really like watching predator hunting shows and pig hunting shows. Predators I can hunt now (just too lazy mostly), pigs, well they are on my bucket list. The shows I have tried to watch and personally bore me so bad I can't stick with one long enough to determine if it might be fun are the 3 gun matches etc., watching and being able to tell the difference from my chair between someone who is one second faster than another guy, for me its worse than watching golf. What I truly enjoy watching are the historical shows, maybe its the history of the AR-15, or the .50 BMG or whatever and how they were developed, and used, don't know why but I really like those shows, though they are not hunting shows, just sort of a "how its made" for gun folks.
 
let the animal rest overnight and "expire" vs going after it. Even if its supposedly a good hit.
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The only time a TV hunter & film crew ever hunted my area (that I was aware of- the proliferation of leases and the "confidentiality" they engender might affect my awareness of this nowadays), they did this...... and the coyotes found the animal before they did. Stripped it to the bone.


I suppose if all you want is the rack, then the coyotes would save you some work that way ......
 
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