I was just watching The Sportsman Channel specifically the show 'Hickory Creek Outdoor Adventure' (makers of the Draw-Loc), and the hunter was on a spot and stalk for a Whitetail Doe.

They spotted a doe in thick cover and proceeded to get closer. The doe moved a bit to a "semi-clearing'. It was very obvious from the cameraman's point of view that the vitals were behind some brush and the shooter did not have a shot.

What did the shooter do? Tried to punch it through the brush! You heard the arrow fly through the sticks and the deer took off. They ended up kicking the deer when they were trailing it ("we let her lay for about an hour then started tracking, and still we kicked her up"), so obviously the shot did not hit the deer ideally and most likely it was due to the arrow going through the bush.

I cannot believe that they would even show the shot! In my opinion, the shooter did not have a shot.

What do you guys/gals think? Do you consider shooting through brush 'unethical' (Not to mention unsafe!)? I do. You never know what direction that arrow is going to go after it hits a limb.

I agree. I DO NOT shoot through brush. It is hard enough sometimes to shoot through an "open place" without hitting an unseen limb. When you hit a limb you never know where your arrow will go. I hit one I didn't see one time and I still haven't found that arrow [:'(], but I did find a feather off it.

Things like that are not good for the younger or new hunters. They see people on TV and just assume that its ok to do the same tactics...

Starting out with bad habits isn't good...

Just wanted to take a quick second to let you know that after this quarter Hickory Creek's Outdoor Adventures will no longer be airing on The Sportsman Channel.

Very bad decision on the hunter's part!!

It doesn't take hardly a small twig and your arrow is pointed in another direction. Always look for clear shots. It seems to me that they would have done what other bad outdoor shows do, edit the footage and make it look good even if they have to rifle shoot a deer for a ghood recovery scene. I have heard many rumors about that sort of thing especially duning high fence hunts, it just sucks that they would even put something of that sort on TV especially with the scrutiny that hunting as a whole is always under. My 2 cents for what its worth.

Shooting through brush is obviously a bone head thing to do. however, the camera man, unless he was right over the shooters shoulder, had a very different view than the archer, the archer might have thought he had a clear path, sounds like not totally clear.

--Bob

I'm w/ Bob H on this.

It sounds like a shot that should NOT have been taken. But it is quite possible that the shooter had a totaly different view.

Did they ever recover the deer? Many deer are wounded and not recovered each year but I don't think that part of hunting should be on TV. IMO.

[:@]

Things like this are not good for any hunters. I can't imagine anything that peta like better than to see crap like this on t.v. It just reaffirms their position[:'(]

What some people won't do to get some film footage. Hope not many anti's saw this one.