tv hunting shows

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dalegribble

New member
I'm sitting here watching some hunting show hunting some small deer type animals in Africa. The guy sits down with his shooting sticks, his guide ranges the animal at 250 yds. The hunter takes his shot, hits it clearly in the gut and takes off running and they say great shot, you hit him right in the shoulder. When they get to the animal you can clearly see it was gut shot.

My question is, why lie about the shot? I have been watching these shows lately and some of the things I see are amazing. Mechanical feeders in the background, fence wire in the background, saying "great shot" when it clearly wasn't, and my pet peeve, dragging the animal back to the truck without even gutting it.

Now I know they are made for TV hunting shows and I enjoy the animals and seeing the different places they hunt. It is obvious that some of these hunts are staged canned hunts. One hunt was for bears in a tree stand. It was obvious they were hunting over a year round baiting staion when a half dozen bears came in to feed at the same time. Hell, they showed one bear in the tree stand waiting for the hunters when they arrived. No wonder the TV hunters have such a high success rate.

Oh, and then there is my other pet peeve, all these hunter wearing all this expensive high tech camo clothing and then covering it with a big blaze orange vest and blaze orange hat and carrying a camo gun. Now I agree camo can be helpful and I know some states require blaze orange and I know animals are supposed to be color blind but how does adding a few hundred inches of a solid color to your body and a nice solid color for your head make that expensive camo worthwhile? Wouldn't a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt do just as well if you have to wear blaze orange?

All I'm saying is no canned hunts, quit bragging about poor shots they happen to everyone, quit trying to sell us stuff we don't need and gut and haul your own game. If you shoot it you should clean it not strap it to the hood of your truck and ruin the meat or even worse make your employees do your work. OK, rant over.
 
I can't/won't watch them...........almost 40 years of the real thing, all be it in a small area of the country, and I know it ain't real. In fact I sometimes wonder if it gives the rest of us a bad name? Of course there are plenty of slobs out there doing us shame in a different way but at least we know they are hurting us................
 
If I have such shows on, I leave the sound off. It's sorta "background scenery". Eye-candy of the outdoors and animals.

From what I've seen, the bird-hunting and fishing shows aren't as phonied up.
 
I really don't watch them much but if ol Mr Barta is on TV I'll watch. That guy just makes me laugh. He is good entertainment even if he has a couple of screws loose. He rarely gets his intended target as well.:D
 
I agree with the OP

Barta, though entertaining, is an idgit of the highest order. I saw him take a 50 yard shot with a longbow at RUNNING caribou. Of course he missed. He also made a big fuss about what a macho primitive manly man we was for killing a hog with a knife on a guided hunt. But it's not like it was mano a swino - the pig was totally immobilized with 3 dogs pinning him down and the guide holding its back legs. :rolleyes:

Go here if you want to talk or complain about the hunting shows on Versus channel (formerly OLN):

http://ww3.versus.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4

Last night on Versus on a show called simply "Dangerous Game" I came off very incensed at the fact that these two ol boys, after killing a grizzly bear with a rifle and tracking/finding it, made no qualms about the fact that they *packed out the hide and head and left the meat/carcass behind!!* Just amazing and incredibly outrageous to my way of thinking. :barf: :barf: How do they live with themselves or even think about calling themselves hunters?

I like Art's idea about leaving it on with no sound as "background scenery" and not listening to their guided "hunts" and other stupid stuff - as long as I'm not hooked up to a Nielson box where I'm helping their ratings- think I'll try that.

But lookit, SOME of them show good actual fair chase hunts where the animal's meat is utilized, etc., which are very enjoyable to watch, Eastman's Bowhunting Journal being one of the good ones.
 
They got their target audience all wrong. They think we just want to see somebody shoot an animal. If we wanted to see that we could go to the slaughterhouse.

They need to also stop looking like a bunch of Bubba's and making dumb statements. and doing dumb things. A gut shot or a leg shot is not a "good shot". Either edit these out or just don't do it.

I'd rather watch a hunt where they go around and get nothing, than see them shoot some drugged animal thats pinned down by 10 dogs. I like to see the people get geared up for their hunt, choose their spot, and do it right, even if they don't see any game.

Some, and I say SOME of the hunting video's on you tube are better than the TV ones. There is a couple good turkey hunt videos on there. But there was a couple TV shows were not only I but a lot of other hunters saw what they did and wanted to throw down the gloves with those idiots.
 
Last night on Versus on a show called simply "Dangerous Game" I came off very incensed at the fact that these two ol boys, after killing a grizzly bear with a rifle and tracking/finding it, made no qualms about the fact that they *packed out the hide and head and left the meat/carcass behind!
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Where were they hunting grizzly at? I know after a certain point in the year in AK you are not required to salvage the meat I think it is around June 1. I don't know if Canada has the same rules or not. While you might find it distasteful and I'm not in total disagreement with you it might have been perfectly legal. I'm sure that was the case because they sure wouldn't video tape them doing something illegal and then air it on TV.

I know that when I shot my black bear in AK although I wasn't interested in the meat I found quiet a few locals who were. The were all very happy to see me coming with free meat. I was hunting when all edible meat had to be recovered as well as the trophy.
 
These shows are terrible! Rich bubba watches, goes out and buys a way too short supper whizzer .329 ultra magnum, shoots it right behind the shoulder, deer runs off and they show them recover it well after dark..........

The largest caliber I use is a 7.62x39mm and shoulder shots, no run and no recovery way after dark.

They emphasize too much on food plots and scores and advocate poorly placed shots that require more time for an animal to die with way too longrange supershort ultra more power dum dum magnums so the animal will die qucker when they take a bad shot...........

Heck I aint even killed a deer with a scope yet, and my longest kill on a 207 pound 6 point whitetail was with a 12 guage at over 700 yards....... Ya see I was in the shotgun zone and closed the gap to 88 yards. One shot and he went 2 feet straight down. That is hunting.........
 
I find them to be lame and I lump fishing shows in among them. Basically what they are is a half hour devoted to selling goods that people don't need. I get very bored with each and every one that I watch so I pretty much have stopped watching. I think the Barta character makes the show at least somewhat entertaining, but he gets old quick.

They got their target audience all wrong. They think we just want to see somebody shoot an animal. If we wanted to see that we could go to the slaughterhouse.
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I fully agree. I really hate watching a 1/2 hour of birds being shot out of the sky or deer getting shot at feeders. Give me some substance please.
 
Someone on another forum made a good point: If these guys were actually "pros" (i.e. top notch hunters), then they wouldn't need to hunt on a ranch with very little to no hunting pressure, now would they? (for those type of shows, that is). If they were good hunters, they'd show us how they go out on highly pressured public hunting lands and still bag the big one that no one else can.
 
Some years ago I did a spot on one of these TV shows covering sporting clays. Had no idea I would be on, the host hands me a shotgun and pretends to teach me the techniques to breaking clays. Camera is rolling and I miss about half the targets. When the show appeared on TV I was breaking every target....all the misses ended up on the editing floor. Had to laugh how they can portray any image they want. Remember it's only TV for entertainment.....and nothing more.
 
My Favorite

My favorite hunting show was Hunting With Hank. To those of you unfamiliar with this program, Hank was a dog. He was an English Stter. His human companion was Dez Young.

The technical quality of this show seemed superior to most other hunting type shows. Also, Mr. Young is what could be considered a gentleman hunter. A couple times he even held off on shooting a flushed bird because he felt he had bagged enough of them. Overall, I feel that he was a good ambassador for our sport.
 
Last night on Versus on a show called simply "Dangerous Game" I came off very incensed at the fact that these two ol boys, after killing a grizzly bear with a rifle and tracking/finding it, made no qualms about the fact that they *packed out the hide and head and left the meat/carcass behind'

yeah, i saw that too and it was the guide not the hunter that carried the trophy. i also saw jeff foxworthy take a shot at a deer and get cut by the scope. he was standing there bragging about the shot and his deer with blood dripping down his nose. too much gun i guess.

there is an interesting guy that hunts with a long bow, wooden arrow with stone tips. he sems to hunt in the wild, he took a moose at about 8 yards and took the meat out with him. some shows are better than others.
 
But lookit, SOME of them show good actual fair chase hunts where the animal's meat is utilized, etc., which are very enjoyable to watch, Eastman's Bowhunting Journal being one of the good ones.
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Yep there's some good ones. Seen a couple good shows on Outdoor Channel or Outdoor Network or whatever that is called, that were good. There was a turkey hunter on there who passed up a lot of shots, he waited until he got the closest range for a shot and took it. Turkey, on the table! The tom went down quick, like they should.
I'm not good on names, the show was on tonight I think about 10:30.

The guys wife was using a 20 gauge and she passed up a couple chances because she was waiting for the bird to get less than 30-35 yards. A good hunt. That was a good show, promotes responsible hunting.
 
I agree here.

In fact, my wife and I want to start a drinking game called "Winkelman."

Everytime you heard the phrase "good fish," you have to take a shot of tequila.
 
I can rarely stomach watching those shows. Most of my distaste is caused by the reaction of the "hosts" after they shoot something. I can do without the fist pumping and the verbal descriptions such as "I just SMOKED him!" To me, I can't help but think that most of these hunts are canned and I doubt the effort that was really put into hunting the animal. Shooting fish in a barrel or deer in a pen isn't much sport.
 
The vast majority are garbage and they do a tremendous disservice to the sport. That's why we have trophy restrictions in Pa. now. New hunters or even some veterans see the shows and think that hunting on public land can be the same. Yeah, right. Hunting isn't about having a record buck tied to every tree.

I especially like when they are hunting in the broad daylight, take a shot (that is always a "great shot") but when you see the hunter with the animal it's dark out. Guess they had some tracking to do but didn't want to fess up to it.

I always like the ones who hunt out of treehouses that are nicer than my hunting camp. Nothing like being one with nature.
 
Oh, and then there is my other pet peeve, all these hunter wearing all this expensive high tech camo clothing and then covering it with a big blaze orange vest and blaze orange hat
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Dale - I guess I fit that description. My best cold weather/wet weather gear is camo (I bow hunt as well), so during rifle season, I throw a break-up blaze vest and hat on over the camo.

The camo ain't a fashion statement for me, it just happens to be the best stuff I have.
 
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