Are they realy doing our sport justice???
 

At age 42 I am most likely an old timer on here, so bear with me . Televised huntig has made leaps and bounds in there ability to show giant whitetails meat thier demise . You turn own the tube, dial in to your favorite hunting channel and like clock work the buck of a lifetime prade to the bait , food plot or mirical mix deer attractant . My son killed his first deer last year and yes it was over a corn pile and man was I proud , later in the year I took him hunting several times where there was no bait and own public land where you had to actually hunt by interpreting sign and determining a location with a probability of seeing a deer . My son asked me why don't we just go where we can pour out some corn.? I explained to him that that isn't what the hunting exsperience is realy about . He replied well that is how the pro's do it on TV .
After thinking about this I started talking to other parents and some of the more prominent upcoming youth hunters about how they hunt and the answer was almost all the same ;food plot , feed and mirical lures , what happend to hunting ?
If you study the hunting shows it seems that they are just one long commercial, does our youth realize that few of us can afford such a hunt. It seems that what we are watching is just killing on a garanteed deal and our youth believes that this is the norm.
Kids believe (or at least the ones I have talked to believe ) that it is only with the help of bait and many other gimics will you get your deer. I explained that most of the so called mirical lures do what they are intended to do and that is seperate you from your money!
plese weigh in on this !

I think you pretty much said all that can be said its the only way a city slicker can get a deer its no longer about nature or a good tasting meat its about antlers and bragging rights.

Yep it is sad what hunting has evolved in to. I remember how the early hunting shows were where you got 20 min of in stand footage in a 30min show and no music during the hunt. :biggrin: Our kids may not understand what they are missing and some may not have a care as long as they are killing but then again hunting isn't for everybody !

I dont even like watching deer hunting shows on tv anymore... Those shows have nothing in common with the kind of hunting i do...

I dont even consider jackie bushman, mike waddel, lee& tiffiny, etc hunters!!!

While I wouldn't go so far as to say they aren't hunters, I do think a more appropriate label would be game managers. Most of the "hunters" you see on TV are hunting well managed farms. While some of these farms are not fenced in, they have given the deer every reason to stay on the land and the hunting pressure is low. They also tend to have larg tracts of land to hunt. Because I am fortunate to have land to manage I find some value in their shows in setting up some of the food plots and managing the deer that live on our property. We have witnessed bigger deer and even our 2.5 year old bucks would be a buck of a lifetime for most hunters. We don't have huge tracts of land (the biggest section has about 50 acres of woods) but our neighbors believe in managing for bigger deer too so that helps. It is still difficult to get a large buck. We know they are there, but if one or two of us gets a big buck(out of 10-12 hunters) we consider it a good season. Last year I got four bucks on camera after season that I would consider shooters. Again the hunting experience is different depending on what kind of land you have to hunt. My hunt is very different on public land. I think the value in the shows is that they show what is possible to accomplish if you work to manage the deer herd.

A person needs to be very selective on which hunting shows you watch if you want to see the real hunting. Its not on TV but about the only video's i watch are from Todd P. of White Knuckle productions. He does an awesome job of showing the shed hunting, scouting, stand placement and work that goes into it and then sometimes a succesful hunt. IMO there's is nothing wrong with passing small bucks until you see a mature one and in the mean time harvesting doe's to help keep the ratio in check.

I agree that being as it were put on top of Deer infested areas groomed for the paying customer is by no means the norm. But I'm not against outfitters or what they offer the one who has a limited time to hunt and who do not care to put in all the hard work hanging stands or locating deer in less groomed areas. I can't judge whether they are poor hunters or not not knowing thier past or skill level. For those of us who do it the old fassion way and do not have thousands of dollars to spend on outfitters the old ways will always be available for us to pass on to our kids and youth we mentor. In our country we are blessed to have so many freedoms such as how we choose to hunt and why we hunt. I enjoy the hunting shows for what they are, I enjoy the personallities who make them interesting such as Michael Waddell,Travis and Nick on the Bone Collectors. Nick Mundt is a very good hunter in my opinion based upon what kind of hunting I have seen him do while hunting bear,elk,moose amd many game species in Africa.We are responsible for what our kids are taught,not others. If we want our kids to learn good woodsmanship and to work hard for what they harvest then I think it is up to us to make clear how that is done. The hunting industry is just that an industry designed to make money hawking thier wares to us the consumer. I don't buy a lot of stuff but I'm glad it's there if I choose to give it a try. As has been said in past threads if you don't like the shows don't watch them, if you do you can. Choice is a great thing,it makes us decide after thinking and forms what type of hunter we choose to become. I've learned a lot watching some hunting videos and shows and it has helped me harvest deer and turkey each season I have hunted as well as by trial and error in the field. Thats my take on the issue.

I enjoy Todd and his team a lot as well,they show the reallity of the blood,sweat and tears which are apart of the real world deer hunting expierence.

I am not a big fan of hunting over corn and other products such as that either... not because it is unethical or anything, but because it rele just becomes a contest of who can throw out the most... the man with the fattest wallet in an area will typically have the most deer on his place. This does put the average hunter at a disadvantage. I do, however, agree with the use of land management practices and other things like that to not only improve your odds of tagging out, but also helping to better the deer herd. As stated earlier, a lot of the shows on tv (lee and tiffany; Drury outdoors; etc) are not only about the harvest but have a lot to do with the actual management of their properties. I do not put planting food plots and baiting with corn in the same catagory because it takes MUCH more work to get a crop to come up than to put a feeder out and fill it up once a week. I can agree that some shows may not be up to par but others are

"My son asked me why don't we just go where we can pour out some corn.? I explained to him that that isn't what the hunting experience is really about. He replied well that is how the pro's do it on TV . "

Sometimes, perception is reality. It's sad that our youth thinks that what they see on TV or some DVD's is the norm, when it's really not.

Unlike professional sports like football, baseball, golf, hockey, basketball, etc where being called a professional happens because these individuals have amazing talent that most of us don't, in the hunting industry, being called a pro is much different. It's more about marketing. It's about being put in unrealistic situations that provide high percentage opportunities to kill deer most of us would only dream of seeing on our private or public land.

I'd love to see the "pro's" go and hunt where most of us hunt and see what kind of deer they come back with. Many of us regular folks are great hunters. We scout. We read sign. We put in the effort. To me, I'd rather go hunting with you or learn from you than many of the "pro's" that we watch.

In fact, I am on a mission to do just that - Film America's Hunters. One at a Time. Last season was amazing. This season will be too.

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