During breaks today, I've watched hunting shows on the Sportsman's Channel ... 605 on Direct TV.

When the celebs get to their hunting destinations ... they check their guns. For some reason, they don't show the targets. ;?) You may hear a spotter tell them where the shots fell ... but you don't see targets.

Now, ole Larry Washum or something like that (Mr. Whitetail they call him) ... they just say that he tested his guns .... ah ... earlier. This is the fellow who insists upon hunting with a pistol much of the time. I watched an episode once, where he missed a buck from a elevated box blind in Texas. He missed ... then fired again ... missed again. Then shot a third time at the same buck IIRC. He then got out of the box ... walked around on the sedero (dirt road cut into the brush) looking for blood. Nothing. He went back to the box. I think the same deer came out again and he missed again. I'm not sure if he ever did hit the thing. Story is correct in general story lines ... might have forgotten exact details. But - it was absurd.

Recently, I've watched more and more shows where they hunt for the whole show and then miss at the end .. and that's it. Bear hunt that never got a bear (except the ones where they hunt over the drum full of jelly donuts ... I don't like those). Goat hunt where they climbed most of the way to Heaven's gates ... only to shot three times at a trophy ram ... and watch it go over the hill. Then they hiked down for days to go home.

Guys this am were putting on drives for deer. The shooters were actually taking running shots at deer. Then, hitting one big one ... they lost it.

Seems nearly everybody now has a hunting show. The ten year old kids get the biggest bucks I've ever seen. They love to show those to all the middle aged men in the audience who have never had the chance they provide the kids with.

Guys sit in stands and pass on trophy after trophy after trophy until the last day ... wanting a bigger one ... then driving home without shooting anything. They go on for ten minutes about how sportsmanlike that was. hahah.

There are some amazing shots made. And there are some great stories. But - I can't imagine the crap they also put out, and you don't know what the show is gonna be until you've watched it. The other day ... old Mr. Whitetail's show made it appear that a client at a huge outfitter's ranch, had stumbled, and shot his guide!!! Right there on camera (which did seem awful convenient). But ... they went on for 20 minutes with the client a complete basket case, and the guide in the hospital in critical condition (having been tossed into a truck and rushed off the scene). Good thing they didn't field dress him! Well ... I joke because they turned the thing into a dream old Mr. Whitetail was having!! You've watching a hunting show for entertainment ... (cause there are few posts on Rendezvous) ... and there you are witnessing some guy on the hunt of a lifetime having his life ruined and the guide's kidney blown out. Great show!

Anyway ... SHOW US THE TARGETS. Too many have become like the home improvement shows where the camera cuts away right as the drill point has slipped off the screw head and is gouging it's way across the custom hickory cabinets ...

Then ... take a read thru the NRA magazine and look at the group sizes posted for most of the guns. THAT will make you appreciate the targets we post here too.



Gary

You are so right Gary. Every so often I buy a hunting magazine and I am staggered at the number of times accomplished hunters with massively powerful (non-air) guns miss completely or wound their targets and have to track them for miles. It's nice to be a simple airgunner after all of that...
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

Have you noticed that you have to really look to see the yardage of any target that is posted. And, you might be shocked to see it's at 15 yards for a pistol. Or 25 yards for a rifle.

You read the charts, and you'll find 3-4" groups at 50 yards - off a bag!!!

We really should get a plaque or something. Hey - We could get a plaque for each other! haha. But the postage would kill us. There's a catch to everything.

How about .... I'll get your plaque. Leave it on the kitchen counter. And ... we'll just exchange homes. I could suffer thru down there for a couple of decades ....

Gary

"It's amazingly accurate...take my word for it!" "average 3 shot group at 100 yards was 1.6" with the best ammo, 1.9 with the worst, great gun...." Lot's of BS out there and the hunting shows are now leading the charge into absurdity. Yeah, not only are the sight-in groups never shown but these shows are making actual professional guides look like idiots. I expect that while the viewer familiar with hunting and/or shooting is dissappointed or annoyed, the guys trying to make a living out of guided hunts are infuriated!

I agree, they hardly ever show the targets but they usually always show someone sitting at a bench sighting in. And the camera is all up the persons nose as they are concentrating and sighting in...lol.

And you are right again, the dang kids get all the big deer nowadays. The part that gets me though the most is it seems like on all the hunting shows on tv today, the host always lands the BIGGEST DEER he's ever shot. Yeah, like that's a true portrayal of how hunting really is. And to be honest, they WASTE a lot of film and time just to shoot either 1 deer or 1 javelina or 1 goat or whatever. Its about 25 minutes of build up just to see at the end, they guy gets his ONE COYOTE! LOL

Then, how do you like the ENDLESS commercials and product Placement. I'm Surprised they don't paint sponsors on the side of the deer. After the ten minutes of sponsors ... They finally come back ... And then they "REVIEW!".

Gary

Yeah, because we're too stupid to remember what we were watching 4 minutes ago!

Ok. Just came in. 11pm. Sat down to watch some hunting. Long Range Pursuits is the show. The host is clearly knowledgable and I've seen incredible long shots from him.

BUT

They hike to the tip of the worlds highest mountain, and there stands two big rams. They determine it's 450 yards and the guy sets up for his shot. Are you ready. Yep - I'm gonna bust 'em. Bang .... And rocks and dust fly up all around the ram farther down the hill. The ram jumps and runs up the hill past the other ram. Goes a good bit beyond where the other had been, on fact. Nothing is said about the miss. The shooter just chambers another round.

Ok, I'm watching the upper sheep now. Bang. And both sheep just stand there ... But I think the lower sheep had flinched or taken a half step. Well, everyone congratulates the guy for a great shot. But the ram looks pretty untouched to me. AND the camera is now ignoring the upper ram (which is the one that got dusted with rock spray). It's clear now that the guy had changed sheep but nothing was said.

Now the guy prepares for a third shot. Bang. The sheep takes it's time and falls over. High fives all around. They go down to the sheep and I keep waiting for the explanation for the switch. I actually think they are gonna realize they screwed up. Nope. Not a peep. Not a mention of where the bullets hit. Just a mention that the ram is 13 1/2 years old by the horn rings.

So, they just treat you like you are barely watching. Actually ... THEY probably got confused when they went to a ten minute commercial break and forgot which sheep they had been shooting at!

Gary

iPhone post

I just watched "Hollywood Hunter" or something very similar last night. Four shots at a standing monster elk with a 338. Three complete misses and finally, I believe what really is another miss, turns into a head shot on the 4th. Worst hunting show I've ever seen.

Yeah ... and they either have decided their audience is Soooooo dumbed down by now .... or they just really don't care anymore. They will show anything that fills the half an hour. That's 20 minutes of commercials, and five minutes of reviews and product placements, and five minutes of maybe shooting a game animal. I wonder if the "anti-hunting" lobby has taken over the production of the shows. You show half of them to the anti-gun people and they'd have hissy fits at the bumbling they show.

Gary

It's painful to see at times, isn't it? Some of what passes for "hunting shows" seems more like an outtake or bloopers reel that someone posted to youtube. My guess is that the outfitters and guides are so afraid of making the the shows "star" look bad in front of the camera that they'll pretty much overlook anything except (possibly) the so-called "expert" shooting one of the packers or the cook. Personally, I'm waiting for one of them to accidentally shoot one of the horses and have the guide say "great shot".

Another serving of antlerless saddle elk, anyone?

OK, just saw a show were the host was taking his 13 year old daughter on a PIG HUNT. She had never shot one before. So after they arrive to the location, the dad and daughter exit the vehicle and approach its rear. The dad pulls out a STUBBY little AR-15 in 223 cal. The barrel was about 16". The whole gun looked to be about 2 ft long....lol. Anyways, they lock up the truck and start walking towards a ground blind that was just off center of a shooting lane. All they had on was a black t-shirt with his shows logo proudly displayed, some blue jeans and a pair of rain boots. No knife, and NO sidearm no Camo NO SCENT BLOCKER, NO FACE MASK. So now, they enter the ground blind and about 4 small does step into the center of the shooting lane about 150 yards or so downrange. The deer were very SPOOKY and kept looking right into the camera which was in the ground blind. They would not leave. So the dad steps outta the blind and flails his arms repeatedly to scare the dear away.

DEER GONE!

Long story shorter and 200 yards downrange, 2 MASSIVE JET BLACK hogs with RAISED hair on the shoulders step into the shooting lanee. The dad tells the daughter that its too far and to wait till the MASSIVE hogs step to within range. I assume that magic range was 100 yards. So the camera shows the hogs calmly coming into RANGE then they stop and you could see them smelling the air and acting all scared cause they sensed humans. The hogs then look right at the blind and the dad tells the girl to stay calm and to not move. The shooter hog then flinches TWICE and was attempting to BOLT at any given moment. Now, during those 2 major flinches, he presented the perfect broadside shot. The dad never tells the daughter to "TAKE THE SHOT" and by now, I'm screaming at the TV....TAKE THE SHOT DUMMIES....TAKE THE SHOT...GO GO GO GO...lol. On the 3rd jolt from the hog, the shooter pig now takes off in a full out run away from the hunters. AND NOW THE DANG DAD TELLS THE 13 year old daughter TO..."TAKE THE SHOT"..."TAKE THE SHOT". She then shoots the hog in what looks like the front right shoulder but, i could tell by the angle of the hog that she honestly had NO SHOT what so ever. The hog was not quartering away he was "1/8 ing away..lol). It was more of a graze than a solid hit. The dad is now in the blind shaking badly and so is the daughter and he is ecstatic that his little girl made the PERFECT SHOT on a trophy boar.

The show now goes to commercial and i'm now on the couch LOUDLY talking to myself about that shot. I knew iy was a bad one. So now the show comes back on and the dad and daughter decide to call a friend of his with DOGS who was a professional tracker. When they faded to the next scene, it was pitch black and the trackers were there with their dogs and they decided to start the tracking. Bear in mind that, they shot the hog in the morning and it was now NIGHT time. They then show the father and daughter in the wood looking like there NEVER gonna find the hog and suddenly....LOW AND BEHOLD...the daughter hears the hog and tells here dad to SEARCH OVER HERE with the light and the dad mysteriously sees the hog in the brush and commenses to fire one into it with the AR. He then tells the daughter congrats on her first hog.

But i'm laughing cause in my sick mind, the girl not only DID NOT KILL THE HOG (her father did) but she made a horrible shot cause her dad told her WHEN TO SHOOT. Not the 13 year old girls fault at all.

Am i just being the MEANY or does that show tell you "HOW NOT TO SHOOT A GAME ANIMAL"?

HOG DOWN.

My Golly .... that is a BEAUTIFUL story Ced. You just can't BUY memories like that with your little girl. I'm all choked up remembering when my daughter pulled her grandmother's idling Buick into reverse at a Highs convenience store and T-Boned another customer's car ....



Life is memories like that ...



These people should have their shows taken away ... and given to us Cedric.

Gary

he he he. Long ago i think having a hunting show would have been cool cause there weren't many out. But TODAY, i think its a total waste. The problem is that everybody has one. And i mean EVERYBODY. And its all sponsor promotions and such. Also too, almost every show host is trying to be FUNNY. Long ago, no one in a hunting show cracked jokes or had overly long advertisement commercials. A lot of it today is comedy and sponsorship. Just look at Bone Collector or Gun it With Benny Spies. And i don't know about you guys but i don't consider hunters FUNNY...lol

That's a poor attitude Faz ... hehehe

Yes ... it's commercials ... and THEN the whole segment is product placement and testimonials (which they somehow see as different from commercials). They will have had a full five minutes of clips from other shows as their introductory song plays nine times. Then they will waste about ten minutes as we watch them put their boots on and get into their trucks. As you say, a long back slapping gut busting comedy segment will transpire as about four truckloads of the guys meet up. Talk will be about the 50 weeks they've spent hunting this year and how tired they are of the travel ... now lets go to our sixty five sponsors. They finally come back long after you forgot they were there, and then ... right ... review.

I could do an entire season with the material in one of my range session's videos and targets.

But, it's not like me to complain ....

Gary

Hey Cedric ...
Was just watching a DVRed show at almost 2am. And the commercial is for these super duper custom rifles. They say ..."their 1/2 inch MOA guarantee makes the difference". Guy with that deep voice of God sound says this. You think the people that are gonna buy those rifles know what's wrong with that statement?
Shows are full of stuff like that. Just read off a card written by someone else that didn't understand. Like most TV, if you know the given subject you realize half they say us wrong. You can assume that when you don't know the subject you are also being told half as incorrect.
Gary

Actually Tofaz, one minor correction.

It's "black hog down".

lol...your right......

I totally don't mind that I've missed these shows! This is a public service announcement that is actually valuable to protecting mental health!