Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why do hunting shows suck so bad?

When I think of how foolish some of the folks on the hunting shows look, I can only imagine how stupid I'd look -- trying to make a hunting show better in my own way.

I really like the hunting shows from years ago. I can't remember the names correctly, but . . . American Sportsman (Curt Gowdy, Phil ?), Wild Kingdom, Marty Stouffer, etc. Nowadays, it seems to be all about advertising, the kill, the grip and grin photo ops, and the over-done thumbs up, "that was AWESOME", high-five crap.

I doubt if I could do any better, but I'd sure like to see someone make a hunting show like they used to in the good-ol'-days.

TC must give out a lot of ad money. I don't know anyone who owns an encore rifle, or admits it.

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The only one I watch now is Jim Shockey.Tired of the muzzleloader but at least he has some interesting hunts. I can't stand watching shows where the "hunter" is sitting in a tree stand watching a food plot and whoops it up when he shoots something.

My hunting buddy has made 31 home-made hunting videos. You guys might like them. I am in quite a few of them. We film everything to do with real hunting. That's it. We film shots, talk about our guns and loads of the day, sighting in, camp, sunsets, storys at the end of the day - everything. We're not actors and we don't always act all giddy and foolish (but sometimes). The one he is putting together right now is about our cull shooting this summer. There are lots of impact shots and a couple misses (we don't miss often ). It's a blast!

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I can't figure out the TC thing either. Everyone including their dog uses one on the shows, but I don't know anyone that has one either.

It irritates me to see the major bloopers that get no commentary.

like the guy who shot off one complete side of a moose rack with his first shot.

Or the navy seal sniper who missed a ranch raised elk at what looked like 100 yds, prone with bipod. Oh yeah, shooting a 338 lapua tactical rifle w/brake. Well... he did blame the camera man.

Or the poor shot placements you'll see and then seconds later there they are with their trophy when you know a long tracking job was involved.

I like Leupold's Big Game Profiles, anybody else watch it?

The one show that is always good and shows tihngs as they are, with good humor and good information, is the show by Ken Barrett of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. The show is called Life in the Open, and features a longer piece on hunting and a shorter piece on fishing, often in the same place where the hunt took place. Ken lives in Bozeman, MT, and has made shows there, and from Alaska to Africa. A friend of mine in Alaska helped him make two there, and they turned out really nice.

He's not only good at making the films; he's also a genuinely good guy, and fun to be around. And his advertising isn't by any of the companies selling firearms or other equipment, so none of that shows up to raise questions.

Other than Tracks Across Africa and maybe one or two others, I can't stand to watch any of the rest of them either.

Dennis

The music, get rid of the incessant heavy metal music!!! And that goes double for that suspenseful music they play when the shot is imminent. Just give me the actual sights and sounds of being out in the fields or woods with no staged scenes and just a minimum of TASTEFUL music thrown in every now and then. A little less high-fiving and hooting and hollering after the shot would be nice too.

And like some others have mentioned I'd appreciate some information on the rifle, cartridge and loads being used. Maybe talk about why they chose a particular bullet.

Did I mention I don't like the music?

The reason that most TV hunting shows are so bad is that apparently some hunters will watch anything.

One that is pretty good is Benelli On Assignment. Of course it's an infomercial, but they spend the money to make the show right--using two professional cameramen, for instance, instead of the single semi-amateur cameraman used on the the I-shot-a-whitetail-from-a-treestand shows. I did a couple of BOA shows last fall and they will air this season. One may be showing today at 5:00 Eastern Time (repeated on Sunday at 8:30 Eastern) on Versus. I can't tell for sure, even though I just got an e-mail about it. In one place it says that the first show of the season will be on Argentina dove shooting, and in another place it says the first show will be on Montana elk hunting, one of the shows I did!

I like to watch some of them to see the country, the game, and to see if they actually talk about rifles and loads (almost never). I lose it at the back slapping jmping up and down, and constantly reliving the shot. I find that I don't even enjoy seeing the "kill shots". I love to hunt, but it's a personal thing with me. If I'm there to participate, either as a shooter or observer, that's fine. But to watch remotely....But, that's why there's the History channel, and NCIS reruns on USA network.

The ones that really suck have the whitetail-whacker prove he can count up to 10, by pointing to each of the tines and saying (very slowly), "One, two, three, four....."

Had that moose been a camel, or wearing a turban, it would have been in serious trouble.

Agreed.

+1 on the hideous music that is played during the supposed high point of the show.

One of the worst scenes, which is widely shown, is the hunter and his/her guide slipping quietly up on the fallen trophy to make sure it's dead, rifle/bow pointed at it...with the cameraman on the other side of it filming the animal and them sneaking up on it!

Duh...

Dennis

X2 on the music. They pretty much all suck. I'll watch a fishing show before one of those hunting snuff-films, and I am a casual fisherman. Atleast in-fisherman will try to teach you something interesting. I've come to the opinion that somethings aernt meant for TV shows and hunting is one of them. Definetly gets be-littled, dumbed down, and info-mercialed when on TV. Looses all its value and becomes a "product". Now the Marty Stoufer series, some shows on discovery, etc have good content.

The ones that REALLY suck are the ones that shoot livestock in a pen under the pretense of actually hunting wild animals. Then the people have the gaul to actually complain about how "hard" they hunted, and say something like, "I hunted 'hard' for THREE DAYS to get this trophy." Or something like, "I really 'earned' this trophy." Many people who actually engage in real hunting in the wild never see what those TV shows describe as a "trophy-class animal." I actually know a guy who couldn't (or wouldn't) get away from his job to go to a fenced-in game ranch and shoot the animal he had reserved, so he paid another guy to go do it for him. What the he!! is that? It certainly is NOT hunting. There's more accomplishment and satisfaction in a cull doe I kill than any of those fenced-in livestock "trophies" killed on TV.

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The one show I really like is Eastmans. At least they are not hunting elk in tennis shoes and no packs and he has used the same rifle for at least 3 years. I like the concept of no fences. There is a new show I saw for the first time last week called On your Own Adventures it looks interesting.