Jump to content

Hunting shows


Robhuntandfish
 Share

Recommended Posts

Meat eaters is really good, I love that it's really about the whole experience and I really like hearing Steve's perspective and stories.

Bowhunt or die is good as well, just a bunch of regular guys doing their thing.

Growing deer I watch religiously and I'm not very religious. Great that they cover just about everything I like to do.

As for other shows I have no idea I have no cable

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Arcade Hunter said:

I just added carbon TV last night.... what are your favorite shows on this app?

I like the Salmon Showdown. In the off season I am usually fishing and love trolling for walleye and salmon so that is one of my favorites.The breaking point is good, Realtrees Chasing November, Coyote countryis neat if you like predator hunting.

Edited by chas0218
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Arcade Hunter said:

I just added carbon TV last night.... what are your favorite shows on this app?

Just did the same.. I haven't really gotten to deep into it.. just saw all the shows that are there... I did watch all the Neutral Ground episodes.. That was OK.. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to say that hunting shows have gotten pretty darn repetitive and outright boring. Anybody who has watched a couple of these could write the script for any of the others. There is nothing to learn on these programs/videos or any attempt to instruct. The entertainment value is diminished by the fake hunts where deer are farm raised and then driven past the hunter-heroes to shoot. And then there are the herds of hunting superstars being arrested for legal violations that are almost required to come up with a weekly show of success. Most of these "hunting stars" don't even select their own stands anymore. Their guides take care of all that for them.

Also there seems to be little in these shows that I can relate to anymore since there is no local hunting or anything that resemble anything that I will ever experience. The last hunting video that I watched that was worth anything was "Bowhunting October Whitetails" with Gene and Barry Wentzel in which they put out a very informative program that actually was full of tips and techniques and was done here in the Northeast where I could actually relate to what they were saying, seeing and doing. And how long ago was that put out? .... Maybe the late 60's or early 70's. Nothing worthwhile has been put out since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Doc said:

I have to say that hunting shows have gotten pretty darn repetitive and outright boring. Anybody who has watched a couple of these could write the script for any of the others. There is nothing to learn on these programs/videos or any attempt to instruct. The entertainment value is diminished by the fake hunts where deer are farm raised and then driven past the hunter-heroes to shoot. And then there are the herds of hunting superstars being arrested for legal violations that are almost required to come up with a weekly show of success. Most of these "hunting stars" don't even select their own stands anymore. Their guides take care of all that for them.

Also there seems to be little in these shows that I can relate to anymore since there is no local hunting or anything that resemble anything that I will ever experience. The last hunting video that I watched that was worth anything was "Bowhunting October Whitetails" with Gene and Barry Wentzel in which they put out a very informative program that actually was full of tips and techniques and was done here in the Northeast where I could actually relate to what they were saying, seeing and doing. And how long ago was that put out? .... Maybe the late 60's or early 70's. Nothing worthwhile has been put out since.

there are still some good ones out there.  Just have weed out the fake/staged/canned ones.  Cant beat the Meat eater show.  Down to earth guy that shows the whole process and is all do it yourself hunts.  Also "on your own" - this guy does all public land/camping hunts.  And often even strikes out like we all do.  A lot of these guys are down to earth hunters that made a good life for themselves.  Yes there are some terrible shows but dont lump them all into NOTHING worthwhile for sure.  

Im not a big fan of the "crush" show but its a good story on what they did.  Lee was working in a bank or something and one day decided to leave it all as this wasnt the life he wanted and him and his wife bought a small farm in the midwest and went from there.  Pretty inspiring!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/24/2017 at 3:42 PM, catskillkid said:

Any show with Michael Hanback and Bob Foulkrod. When I saw Bob shoot his mountain goat then sit down and cry on camera, he earned much respect from me. Been there and done that, I know what he went through.

what show is that? sounds like my style. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

people get down on these shows because of sponsers.  But without them there would be no shows.  A sponser pays for their hunt and gear and for them to have a way of life in which they hunt for a living.  I would be very grateful and be sure to show it as well.  If bear archery or muzzy or anyone would pay for me to go hunt buffalo with a bow in South Dakota i would be willing to carry a billboard on my back for them up the side of the thruway! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Robhuntandfish said:

there are still some good ones out there.  Just have weed out the fake/staged/canned ones.  Cant beat the Meat eater show.  Down to earth guy that shows the whole process and is all do it yourself hunts.  Also "on your own" - this guy does all public land/camping hunts.  And often even strikes out like we all do.  A lot of these guys are down to earth hunters that made a good life for themselves.  Yes there are some terrible shows but dont lump them all into NOTHING worthwhile for sure.  

Im not a big fan of the "crush" show but its a good story on what they did.  Lee was working in a bank or something and one day decided to leave it all as this wasnt the life he wanted and him and his wife bought a small farm in the midwest and went from there.  Pretty inspiring!  

And Tiffany is easy on the eyes.........

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will admit that it only takes a bunch of bad shows to taint all shows of the same genre. When respected hunter-heroes get caught and convicted of violating game laws to make up their weekly quota of kills, or you catch sight of a 16' or so high fence in the background, or a deer comes by the "stars" stand with it's tongue hanging out from having been driven, or up in the corner of the picture you catch an unintended glimpse of a massive feeder, or entire programs go by without a mention of scouting or stand selection, Or the recorded pictures of the hit does not match the wound on the carcass, or the blood trailing that is done at almost a dead run ends with some cameraman having already reached the dead critter and looking back at the hunters still following the blood trail diligently, and many other tip-offs that the show is more of a commercial production than a portrayal of actual individual hunting efforts, It doesn't take long before suspicion spreads to all of them. (sorry about that huge paragraph.....lol)

I cannot enjoy a show where I have to keep my eyes open for deception. The industry has ruined it for themselves by assuming hunters are not smart enough to spot fakery, and have created  a huge credibility gap that even those who try to put on a credible show are susceptible to.

And of course I have not even touched on the fact that these shows have morphed into hunting infomercials that don't even allow one to get wrapped up in the hunt before it is interrupted by never ending commercials. Yes it takes advertisers to fund any program, but when the time expended on commercials exceeds the time expended on the hunt or story, it really gets difficult to watch and actually become engaged in. The effort is not put into the quality of the show, but rather in the slickness of selling products.

Decades of this nonsense have absolutely ruined it all for me to the point where I don't even watch them anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Doc said:

I have to say that hunting shows have gotten pretty darn repetitive and outright boring. Anybody who has watched a couple of these could write the script for any of the others. There is nothing to learn on these programs/videos or any attempt to instruct. The entertainment value is diminished by the fake hunts where deer are farm raised and then driven past the hunter-heroes to shoot. And then there are the herds of hunting superstars being arrested for legal violations that are almost required to come up with a weekly show of success. Most of these "hunting stars" don't even select their own stands anymore. Their guides take care of all that for them.

Also there seems to be little in these shows that I can relate to anymore since there is no local hunting or anything that resemble anything that I will ever experience. The last hunting video that I watched that was worth anything was "Bowhunting October Whitetails" with Gene and Barry Wentzel in which they put out a very informative program that actually was full of tips and techniques and was done here in the Northeast where I could actually relate to what they were saying, seeing and doing. And how long ago was that put out? .... Maybe the late 60's or early 70's. Nothing worthwhile has been put out since.

There are actually quite a few out there that spend 4 times as much time teaching as they do hunting or killing. I do agree that there are a large number of shows that are complete garbage, you just have to weed through them to get to the good ones. Having a DVR, to record the good ones, means not having to sit through the crap after a bit. There have been many shows of the educational type mentioned on here. Maybe give a few of them a shot sometime. I dont know about you, but Im always keeping my eyes open to learn new tactics and see whats going on with wildlife studies and things like that.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoy "Meat Eater", some of Jim Shockey's Yukon shows, and "Dropped" with the Keefer brothers. I DVR them and scroll through the commercials so they don't drive me crazy. I mostly watch and enjoy the camps and scenery shown.

I remember a few years back a guy, I believe from Utica, did a New York hunting/fishing show and he was hysterical. He tripped, got lost often and fell out of a drift boat all on video. The editing was amateurish at best. The shows were so funny and they were short lived on local cable..    

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shockey's shows can be entertaining at times. It is way, way, over-advertised to the point of distraction from the point of the show, but he has broken out of the whitetail-only mode, and the photography and situations of scary danger are spectacular. I love his moose hunts, and that friggin charging elephant and hippo are tremendous shots. The scenery and landscapes that he winds up hunting in are not necessarily something that represent any of my hunting activities, but I do appreciate seeing the enormity of some of those places that I will never get to see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Doc said:

Shockey's shows can be entertaining at times. It is way, way, over-advertised to the point of distraction from the point of the show, but he has broken out of the whitetail-only mode, and the photography and situations of scary danger are spectacular. I love his moose hunts, and that friggin charging elephant and hippo are tremendous shots. The scenery and landscapes that he winds up hunting in are not necessarily something that represent any of my hunting activities, but I do appreciate seeing the enormity of some of those places that I will never get to see.

its amazing what shockey does.  The places he goes would scare me to death.  I try not to even go to syracuse more than once a year and he is Iran, afghanistan etc.  I saw one where he was in Mexico and his gun never made it so he had to borrow a gun.  Then the locals were gonna come and try to charge him $1000 for use of the gun - he got a heads up from someone in the area. His guide was missing and he couldnt get ahold of him at all.  He was on camera telling his camera guy how he had the keys to the truck they had and was gonna be sure to keep them.  Then when one of the people there left they packed up and got the hell outa there.  he goes to some amazing places and watching it on TV is as close as i want to get.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoy "Meat Eater", some of Jim Shockey's Yukon shows, and "Dropped" with the Keefer brothers. I DVR them and scroll through the commercials so they don't drive me crazy. I mostly watch and enjoy the camps and scenery shown.
I remember a few years back a guy, I believe from Utica, did a New York hunting/fishing show and he was hysterical. He tripped, got lost often and fell out of a drift boat all on video. The editing was amateurish at best. The shows were so funny and they were short lived on local cable..    
Sounds like the Bill Dance of hunting. His fishing show was histerical. "I'm goin fishin with Bill Dance todaaaayayayaayayayayayay!"

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Doc said:

I will admit that it only takes a bunch of bad shows to taint all shows of the same genre. When respected hunter-heroes get caught and convicted of violating game laws to make up their weekly quota of kills, or you catch sight of a 16' or so high fence in the background, or a deer comes by the "stars" stand with it's tongue hanging out from having been driven, or up in the corner of the picture you catch an unintended glimpse of a massive feeder, or entire programs go by without a mention of scouting or stand selection, Or the recorded pictures of the hit does not match the wound on the carcass, or the blood trailing that is done at almost a dead run ends with some cameraman having already reached the dead critter and looking back at the hunters still following the blood trail diligently, and many other tip-offs that the show is more of a commercial production than a portrayal of actual individual hunting efforts, It doesn't take long before suspicion spreads to all of them. (sorry about that huge paragraph.....lol)

I cannot enjoy a show where I have to keep my eyes open for deception. The industry has ruined it for themselves by assuming hunters are not smart enough to spot fakery, and have created  a huge credibility gap that even those who try to put on a credible show are susceptible to.

And of course I have not even touched on the fact that these shows have morphed into hunting infomercials that don't even allow one to get wrapped up in the hunt before it is interrupted by never ending commercials. Yes it takes advertisers to fund any program, but when the time expended on commercials exceeds the time expended on the hunt or story, it really gets difficult to watch and actually become engaged in. The effort is not put into the quality of the show, but rather in the slickness of selling products.

Decades of this nonsense have absolutely ruined it all for me to the point where I don't even watch them anymore.

For me it's more about the outfitters. I will say upfront that i have zero issue with fair chase outfitters. These guys put in a lot of time and effort and it's good business. But what is glossed over by some new hunters who are maybe out there hunting some over pressured farm or even worse, state land is that these outfitters can cost into the thousands. The herd, selection and pressure is all carefully managed and controlled. They are far less likely to spook and encounter numbers higher. 

I've heard the argument before that it would be cheaper and better to do a few outfitter hunts each year instead of buying land to only deer hunt on. For me personally I enjoy the property management side of things, so flying to kansas each year to get a buck I feel I didn't "earn" isn't as appealing. Many tv shows are fair chase, by good ethical hunters. But they take 4 or 5 booners a year in different states and they pay for it through sponsorship. 

I think a lot of us like shows like dropped and meateater because they go hunt some remote national forest and mostly do it all on their own. Sometimes with no harvest. And I still enjoy those episodes just the same. 

Edited by Belo
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have put a lot of people on successful stands. Out-of-town relatives, first time hunters, etc., always get my best stands if they want them, and they always seem to have better luck than I do out of those stands .... lol. I have been on the receiving end of some of these out-of-town set-up hunts, and I have to say that they are fun, but not very satisfying hunts. It always occurs to me that the most important hunting skills are being done by someone else. The scouting, patterning and stand location selections are huge elements of the hunt, The rest is just shooting ability, or essentially target practice.

That's the way I see most (if not all) of the hunter heroes on TV or DVDs. One scene, when they arrive at camp, they are shaking hands with the ranch owner or his guide, and the next scene they are sitting in a stand that a guide selected and set up. And what goes on outside the camera view, only the participants know (feeders, fences, drivers, etc.). That gets old and tired real quick for me.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I can't stand hunting shows any more, but I do tape them and watch them. I want to see the hunting part so doing it that way I can fast forward through all the talking, or  like I saw today 2 guys trying to rap. So I get to watch them in about 5 to 10 minutes now, but I have no real favorites. I actually watch youtube more, they are actually real hunts.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I don't watch much TV to begin with,  but Meateater is what finally turned the key for me and got me thinking, "I could do this." Of course, with all his experience Steve makes it look more straightforward that it is, but I do enjoy that he has shows that focus on how utilize and cook what is harvested. I also like to watch the hunts in the big mountains out West. An elk hunt in the Rockies is a long-term goal of mine now. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...