Dirt2

Right up front, let me state I do not have TV at home, but I still see it occasionally in other places. I am seeing a very disturbing trend in the hunting shows I have watched.

It seems that the majority of deer bow kills go like this: stick an arrow somewhere in the deer's body cavity, let it run and lay out all night, then go find the remains next morning. You have to watch close to see that's what happened sometimes, because they don't always tell you upfront that's what they did, but I've seen three and four hunts in a row like this on many shows. It is definitely not an unusual occurrence.

Am I the only one who finds this completely unsatisfactory? If not, I wishhunters who do have TV would raise a stink with the channels. I think it would not be too much to insist that anykill video where the deer was left over night not be shown. Do it right or you don't get paid!

These people are shooting at moving deer, fully alerted deer, long-range deer, and it's just one liver/gut shot after another. We need to police our own ranks here people!

Matt / PA

I do to a degree agree that some of the shot selection I've seen and lack of shooting ability in general on SOME recent shows and DVD's is less than desireable, but not enough for me to see it as any different than any other year's crop of shows/dvds and I watch/see a TON of them.
I will however argue that regardless of how we got that point (poor shot or poor shot selection) "leaving an animal overnight" is the right thing to do in such a situation the majority of the time.

The phrase "When in doubt, back out" doesn't exist for no reason.

Dirt2

I don't have any beef with the idea of "when in doubt, back out" as you put it. That's not my point.

My point is that if you are activating that clause just about every time you arrow a deer, as appears to be the case on hunting shows I have seen, then you need to re-assess your shot selection, shooting abilities, or your ethics.

I could phrase it as a question: What percentage of the time do you think an ethical hunter - onewho shoots competently and shows proper selectivity on shots - will need to back out and wait over night?

OHbowhntr

I agree that several of what I've watched didn't appear to have the best shot placement, I don't watch them too often, but since I have learned how to use my DVR, I've been watching more. Watching the recent episode of "Gettin' Close," Lee and Tiffany had America's greatest whitetail hunter ever, Jackie Bushman on the show, and I wasn't impressed with his shot placement at all. And I noticed that the deer acted really edgy during some of the footage, like maybe they were leary, but weren't sure what they were leary about. Making me wonder about their scent or maybe it was just too much having a hunter AND a cameraman out there at the same time. Not sure, but deer don't generally act that way when I encounter them.

Following that up, I watch an episode of Primo's Truth where they are whitetail hunting in IOWA, and the one guy misses 3 times with his muzzleloader before he finally connects.

mcouey

I think it's because there's too much pressure on the shows to produce a big "Quality" buck than it is to hunt.

Face it, they sell more DVDs with "Monster" "Giant" and "Awesome" on them than "Normal" "Regular" and "Average". And if you bought a DVD named Monster Bucks and all they got were some spikes and a basket 8 point. You won't buy from them again.

If they don't get "A Kill" on film, they have no film, if it's not "Big" it won't sell. So they take whatever shot they can to bag that pile of antlers. If they don't they don't get paid, and they're out of the cost of the trip.

I don't like it, that's why I watch very few of these shows.

Dirt2

I agree completely with your take on this question. The sad thing is that I suspect a whole lot of the audience sees this stuff, and says to themselves, "Hey if that guy can take crappy shots so can I", and as a result standards drop.

It's really nothing new where TV is concerned. The medium "dumbs down" anything it touches. Just look at politics!

Austin/WI

x2 I agree with most of what's been said as well. I think there are a few shows that are consistently worse than others and vise versa. I watched one about a week ago where one of the guests made a poor shot on an animal and you could see that he was very upset with himself, that actually impressed me. More often than not, after the shot you have the host doing a fist pump as I'm sitting on the couch asking "Were his eyes even open?!". This show I had watched, after the shot, the guest looked right at the camera and it looked like he was gonna be sick.

TexasBowHunter

I don't know what other hunter's are doing but I will say this, in the last 13 season of bowhunting myself and the 3-4 guys I hunt with, I can only recall leaving a deer overnight 3 times. I personally have never had to leave a deer overnight and if I draw back and let the arrow fly I am making an ethical shot. I have missed a couple times early in my archery career but I took shots thatI should not have. I think most all seasoned archers would have a similar situation as mine...I will also say this, site's like this one help young hunters learn from some of guys that have been there and done that, they learn a common ethic that they might not have learned else where....Kudo's to the site!!!! The more I am on here the more I see how awesome the site and the members are....Well most of them...j/k

gzg38b

Time for the weekly hunting show complaint thread.....

RobinAim Low

Exactly which shows are these, that you have seen, and just about every time they shoot a deer they leave it overnight?

I shot a nice buck 2 seasons ago, a hunt that I am editing right now, and I thought it was a botched plain and simple gut shot at close range. I said right away, "we're gonna have a tough tracking job, but we'll find it...". Waited till 3:00 to look for blood, found none, backed out till next morning and found the deer within an hour. As it turns out, the shot was a one lung/liver and exit in the guts and no need (most likely) to wait that long. As the buck stops about 80 yards after the shot, you can clearly see the blood spot just a tad back from where I hit (but we had no good tv screen to watch). I guess I am set up to really get flamed for showing a hunt like that...you know, as in what really happened...