Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Do hunting show "stars" take unnecessarily high shots?

That's it exactly. The reason people use shotguns is so the turkeys have to be called into range.

Picking one off at 200 yards with a 22-250, not so sporting.

Partsman; love the WKRP reference

I understand your reasoning completely. Its all in how you view the game. It IS sporting with a rifle if you confine yourself to head shots....and it saves the meat .

I have never been one to get worked up about birds. They represent a change of diet to me from venison. I just want to convert them to edible things as expeditiously as possible. If you want more sport involved you can create it yourself, as we all do with other things we feel are important. i.e. fly fishing instead of spinning, stalking varmints instead of sniping them from long ranges etc.
So carry on and have fun with whatever you are doing!


What rankled me about turkey hunting is the back east turkey hunters lobbied here and got legislation passed that made shotguns only legal in the spring.

I promise you the birds don't care what they get shot with.

Yes, the birds do care. When I hunt with my buds in Nebraska, they only use bows and arrows. I miss a lot, and it makes a big difference to the birds

There's also a big difference between hunting turkeys in spring and fall. We can still use rifles in the fall in Montana, and I can assure hunters who've only hunted gobblers in the spring that putting a .22 Hornet bullet into a big gobbler during autumn can be a pretty sporting proposition, regardless of whether you shoot him in the head or body. Jakes and hens, not so much.

Especially if you're wearing orange.

Don't know when it changed. I've never hunted them myself, just been told by others not to shoot them with a rifle unless I wanted to lose the rifle and pay a huge fine. I did look up the regs before posting and they state clearly that bows, crossbows, and shotguns are the only legal weapons.

Tatel:

Thnx for your time and checking:


Jerry

In most instances, the rifle restrictions on turkey are due to the perception that a hunter would be more likely to hit another hunter with a rifle load than shot out of shotgun as the bullet is thought to travel further. The fear here is driven from hunting on crowded public land, where you never know what's beyond your target.

In truth, a 38 SPL target load would be perfectly adequate to kill a turkey at close range and probably be in the dirt within 80 yards. However, you probably won't see these rifle restrictions coming off any time soon. In reality, if you took my example and said it was legal to shoot 38 SPL at turkey, somebody would then try to push it with a 38 SPL +P and there would be some idjut out there with a .223 REM trying to take them at 200 yards. I see the point. I just wish I could shoot 38 SPL at turkey here in Kentucky.

As to the original topic: I used to watch a lot of hunting shows, but it was because I had a dog that loved to watch them. Barney really took those shows seriously, and we had a lot of fun together.

In my experience, the average TV show hunter is a lot like the average hunter I see coming into the local deer processor. Some deer come in blown in half. Some look like pincushions.
Most hunters start out with good intentions, and it just does not always go so well. The TV guys are not all that bad, they just do it on TV.

The reason you see so many trophy shots taken in the dark is that it takes a while to do the setup, and the video cameras are not as sensitive relative to the human eye. Any deer shot around sundown is going to require artificial lights, even if the human eye can still see it.

Take this as an example:

Tagging out, 2014

I shot this doe at 4:15 PM. She fell just inside the treeline about 60 yards from where I hit her. Sundown was at 5:30. It was right at sundown but still plenty light when I got the truck to her, but I had to use a flash to shoot.

To the human eye, this was a perfect early evening, but to the less sensitive camera it was black as night.

I can't say I've noticed high shots. But I have noticed an inordinate number seem to have very long tracking jobs. I've had a long track with a bow (my first deer). Never had to "track" more than a minute when using a rifle (knock on wood).

Horribleness??? That's not even a word.

You forgot blonde hair and big bazoobas!

May not be intentional but it does appear to be the normal format.

Most of those females are hard for me to stomach. There are a few exceptions.

Is now. Bet you'll think of it every time some Gomer is whispering into the camera 30 seconds after he's discharged a high powered rifle at a deer eating corn.

I think the shows do.. I mean today folks are bored. They demand action.

Shoot a deer in the lungs that runs off, folks will be bored. No one can high five and fist pump themselves off...

They want a spectacular impact and the bullet "knocking" the game off its feet to brag about.

Caveat.. its been years, but after I was involved with filming a turkey hunt for a big name show, I"ve basically not watched much of any other than a part now and then while flipping channels... of any hunting show.

They make my gut wrench with what and how they do and what all they fake and edit...they are a scripted reality show basically... puke....

Just hate " the outer limits " [bleep] always present the worst example of LRH. No buget limits and thats what you get. Target shooting not hunting. JMO

well now, nothign wrong with long range hunting, but shows just generally suck all the way around.

Guess I'm glad I don't watch TV.

Bahahaha! Had to revisit that episode on youtube.