Silly Elk hunting Shows

[mtelkhntr78]

Does anyone else sit and shake their head when they watch some of these hunting shows, elk hunting in particualr, on TV? I think of it as Elk hunting pornography.
I though up a list of some of the most foolish things I have seen that happen:

1. Passing up absolutley monster bulls in order to shoot an even bigger bulls. Then making a coment like " he is just to small" Passing bulls that if I saw in the wild I would drop my rifle and keel over dead on the spot.
2. Guide cooks breakfast, saddles the horses, does all the spotting, does all the calling, tells hunter exactly where to step on the stalk, tells hunter where to sit, loads the rifle, tells hunter where and when to shoot. Hunter then gets on camera and proclaims the amount of work he put into killing his monster bull and what a great hunter he is because of it.
3. A party of people killing multiple elk in one day. Usually monster bulls!
4. Celebrating the kill seconds after pulling the trigger. The high-fives are all over the place before the bullet even impacts the Monster Bull!
5. Best of all, 1-4 all happening on one hunt.

Maybe it is just me but I think some of this is borderline comedy! I have hunted before and gone for days without even seeing an elk and when I do get the chance the elk is teleporting himself thru the trees!

If you can think of any others to add to the list please speak up, we all like a good laugh.

 

[AJ Peacock]

I can't add any to your list, but I agree with you. Some of the things that the hunting shows try to slip by folks that have actually been there/done that.

As bad as the hunting shows are, I feel the fishing shows are worse. They cut 5-6 clips together that are supposed to be happening all back to back, but if you pay attention to the shadows and clouds, they obviously took all day (or multiple days) to catch the fish. Or when they are having unbelievable fishing and there isn't another boat anywhere to be seen (can you say 'private lake'?).

AJ

 

[Leupold308]

Ya, and when and if you finally do drop one, sure would be nice if he could teleport his *** back to the freezer. Work starts when the hunting over (for most).

 

[dirtball]

I watched PART of one of those shows about a week ago. When they ZOOMED in just before the shot this "MONSTER" Bull had a tag in his right ear!!!
Probably the bar code indicating the price.
Any how when they did the "after-the-kill" segment the tag had miraculously disappeared.
That's when I turned it off.
Dave

 

[old_heli_logger]

Yeah, that's Hollywood hunting for you...

I watched a sheep hunt one time and the outfitter was telling the "hunter" to aim high because he was uphill. The guy took the shot and the sheep all bolted downhill...imagine that, it hit high. Then on the second shot the outfitter told the "hunter" to aim low because they were downhill of him...jeez. The funny part was when they finally hit him with a rangefinder and it was 200 yards.

 

[JAWZ]

And here i thought it was just me laughing myself stupid when the grosely overweight hunter drives up the hill in the guides 4x4, gets out and struggels to walk to the hood of the truck for a rest . Then proceeds to shoot the biggest red stag you are likely to see . It falls over dead they start back slapping and proclaiming what an tuff hunt it was.

The guy walked all of 6 ft------ YOU THE MAN!

 

[mtelkhntr78]

Some of the stuff protrayed on TV is just ridiculous. There is one program though I think does a reasonable job of promoting what real hunting is like. "Best of the West" has had a few elk hunts on it that I enjoyed watching. The elk they shot were not huge by any means either. The ones I saw I dont think were any bigger than 5 pts. Honestly I would rather watch a TV show in which they shot a small bull or cow but did it by believable fair chase means. So far BOTW is the only I have seen come close to that.

 

[devildoc]

Well boys, it's all coming to a theater near you before long. The outfitters and other outdoor-whores are leasing up all the private land and public land access so they can sell the aforementioned style of "hunting" for top dollar to some rube who could'nt tell the difference between an elk and a palamino if it was peeing on his leg. And all of you guys that pay these guys are part of the problem. No matter where in the country, no matter what animal. If you're paying for anything besides your tag, you're contributing to the return to the kings deer. I don't hold it against you, I've been tempted to go down to Texas and throw down a few bills, thankfully I haven't made myself a hypocrite yet (as far as hunting goes anyway).

 

[buffybr]

devildoc, It's a double edged sword. The "pay for" hunting has made many species of animals, like the "exotics" in Texas, available for the " average Joe" to hunt without forking out the big bucks to travel to those animal's native range. And in some cases, like the blackbuck in Texas, and the white rhino in South Africa, they are now huntable ONLY because of "pay for" hunting.

On the other hand, the "pay for" hunting here in the US has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of instant guides and outfitters and millions of acres of both private and public land being taken over by those guides and outfitters for their "pay for" clients. So now, even if you've never seen an elk before, or don't know the difference between an elk or a palamino, you can plop down $10-30k and someone will take you by the hand to a record book bull (or buck or ram). This has also opened the door for corruption and has increased the cost of hunting for the rest of us.

Many, if not most, of the hunting shows are filmed on these private hunting preserves or with guides because of either time constraints of getting a kill shot for the show, or because the "hunters" in the show lack the hunting skills to hunt on their own.

There are other places, like Canada, where non-resident hunters are required by law to hunt with a guide. So if you want to hunt any big game animal in Canada, you book a hunt with a guide.

Although I have successfully hunted most of Montana's big game animals without a guide and mostly by myself, I finally became a hypocrite and booked a Dall sheep and Mountain Caribou hunt with a Canadian outfitter that flew me deep into the MacKenzie mountains for my hunt. And I did it again a few years later when I booked another Canadian outfitter to fly me into the arctic bush for another caribou and musk ox hunt.

I've also done 3 hunts in Africa taking many animals that would have been cost and time prohibitive without the aid of a Professional Hunter. In southern Africa the hunting industry has made multi-animal hunts available for about the same required time and cost of a guided deer or elk hunt in one of our western states.