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TV- Ruining Deer Hunting?

Wow dg, not sure where you got all that from my post!! Didn't you move here because Iowa was different from Michigan. How did that happen? It would just be nice once in awhile to hear the guys that make a buck off Iowa's resource acknowledge why they are doing it here and not in Michigan. Is that such a stretch? I'm not even going to argue the hunting show, good or bad, issue, it's been beat to death and I enjoy some shows and hate others just like everyone else!
 
Look at the big picture? I'll tell you what I look at, it's what I've seen on a personal basis over probably the last 10 years or better. I run into kids all the time and by kids I mean early 20's out there hunting and doing there thing..... From what I've seen they are highly influenced by the crap on TV. None of them have anything to do with PF, IBA, Ikes, etc.... They could give a crap less actually. I swear all the young guys I work with believe you will not kill much unless you plant food, have scent reduction products, got a big one on camera and got folding blades on the end of your arrow blah, blah, blah. Sure, it's not all negative outcomes, but there isn't much positive from what I've experienced. I won't go into how hard it's getting for these kids to find a hunting spot................................
 
Couple side notes came to mind...

- I do worry about the over-promotion of IOWA in particular. All the attention I think will have rippling effects in many ways that will end up not being good for us (major regulation changes for example).

- I think I thought commercialization was hurting hunting 8-10 years back & a lot of all the extra hunting stuff beyond simply hunting - made me start not liking it as much (long explanation). What I did inn a nutshell.... I bought my own land - managed how I wanted to manage. Quit watching shows for most part. All I did was hunt, spend some time on IW & enjoy time with friends and fam on farm hunting. I simply cut everything else out that annoyed me and I enjoy hunting a whole lot more not paying attention to "the other guy" and all the annoying crap and distractions out there. Back to basics- hard core hunting with fam and tuning out the rest.
 
Oh, and dg, when I think back to when I was your age and we were hunting dinosaurs, I thought I could see the "big picture" clearly. Sorry, you pup,:grin:but I think the big picture gets clearer with age. Let's hunt!!!
 
I think it all comes down to personal perception of 'commercialization', 'industry', etc.

Think bigger picture people. ANYTHING, and EVERYTHING you purchase in your lives is tied into commercialization of some sort. You don't have to like it, but you HAVE to recognize good business....

Every single person on this website wouldn't be able to join into this conversation if it weren't for buying a computer (industry)

You bought a bow to hunt with (industry)

You bought a camera to take a picture of your kids with their first deer (industry ..... pastime) ...

I'll go out on a limb and say that anyone that claims the 'industry' ruined hunting is just bitter about something in some way shape or form. Are there bad apples and bad taste and annoying commercials and GOBS of things that bug the crap out of me about the industry.... YES, but at the same time, they don't define WHAT the industry is.

Hunting industry.. is something that promotes hunting, in the simplest definition there is, industry is simply an avenue to promote our PASTIME, a pastime that would be far less enjoyable if we were forced to sit on a rock, climb a tree with our bare hands, throw a sharpened stick at a deer after we woke up in our cave and tied a leaf over our junk because we can't stand how clothes, and cars, and treestands, and compound bows, and tv's, and computers.... are portrayed by somebody else.
 
Anything that is as much fun as hunting has the potential to be commercialized. Even more so when the possibility of success is reasonably good. Look at SD pheasant hunting & Southern CO or Norther New Mexico elk hunting. Any thing as much fun & successful as Iowa whitetail hunting is going to draw the attention of someone trying to make money on the situation. Don't think it is televisions fault. It's just how capitalism works. I watch some of the shows, mostly for the personalities, not what they kill. I can tell in about 10 minutes which people I would like to spend a week in deer camp with & which would make me wish I was back at home with my dogs. As for commercials, I record the shows I like & fast forward through the commercials. I don't need any more junk hunting toys and don't have mesothelioma so don't need the number of the ambulance chasing lawyers that "Doug" works for. Besides, that way I can watch a 30 minute show in about 15 minutes.
 
Sligh1 said:
Couple side notes came to mind...

- I do worry about the over-promotion of IOWA in particular. All the attention I think will have rippling effects in many ways that will end up not being good for us (major regulation changes for example).

- I think I thought commercialization was hurting hunting 8-10 years back & a lot of all the extra hunting stuff beyond simply hunting - made me start not liking it as much (long explanation). What I did inn a nutshell.... I bought my own land - managed how I wanted to manage. Quit watching shows for most part. All I did was hunt, spend some time on IW & enjoy time with friends and fam on farm hunting. I simply cut everything else out that annoyed me and I enjoy hunting a whole lot more not paying attention to "the other guy" and all the annoying crap and distractions out there. Back to basics- hard core hunting with fam and tuning out the rest.
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Very true, we have evolved into owning/leasing. In all aspects of life. When I was growing up in MN, it was not uncommon for lake cabin owners to allow friends and relatives to have dock space/lifts in front of their cabins.

Not anymore, same with hunting property. If something is valuable, we typically do not allow the valuable item to be used for free anymore. I still invite friends to hunt on my property, but it is not like the 70-80's when we would find easy access to properties.
 
DWilk said:
I'll go out on a limb and say that anyone that claims the 'industry' ruined hunting is just bitter about something in some way shape or form.
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I believe you are right. The bitterness is created by the feeling of being squeezed out of a past time they enjoy much. Whether it's losing land or the cost has became too great....they are getting squeezed out or just choosing not to start. The commercialization of hunting has been a great thing for those of us still in the hunt but it will continue to have a negative effect on the long term future of hunting.
 
There are some good, some great, some not so good, and some terrible. In the end though they all help us support our God given right to be free and able to hunt period. We can all have our opinions but don't run anyone out of the business as long as they are helping to support. Its normal, if every show was great what would they have to look forward to? They have to set goals to climb the ladder if they want to be part of the elite, after all we don't have to watch?
 
Thinkin Rut said:
I believe you are right. The bitterness is created by the feeling of being squeezed out of a past time they enjoy much. Whether it's losing land or the cost has became too great....they are getting squeezed out or just choosing not to start. The commercialization of hunting has been a great thing for those of us still in the hunt but it will continue to have a negative effect on the long term future of hunting.
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I think you're on to something there. Look at how much money you could spend on hunting. New gear aint cheap and the price isn't likely to come down either. Those manufacturers have to pay for those commercials somehow...
 
I also believe that hunting, and especially deer hunting, has been overly commercialized due mainly to most of the hunting TV shows. We have conditioned many new hunters to believe that all you have to do is climb into a stand on the edge of a food plot and pick out the buck they want to shoot. That seems to be what most of the PROs do. Some one else does all the prep work or scouting and hanging stands, mostly their crew or the outfitter, and the PRO shows up turns on the camera and gets in a tree to wait on the "deer of a life time". If you take notice most of the TV shows revolve around "hunting" that is very product driven. We see very few shows about bird hunting. There are some on pheasant hunting, but almost none on quail or grouse hunting. When was the last time you watched a show on squirrel or rabbit hunting? I believe that is because there is very little equipment to merchandize for these types of hunting. On the other hand, deer hunting and elk hunting and to a certain extend waterfowl hunting allows for a vast arrray of NEW and IMPROVED equipment from bows to arrows to sights to stands to food plot equipment and seed to guns or scopes or ammo or decoys or calls or the biggie CAMO. :thrwrck:

Two phrases that have grown from TV shows that I really hate are " the deer of a lifetime" and " just a cull buck". So if that 140 inch buck is the deer of a life time why do they move to a different state and continue hunting and kill a 130 inch buck that is also the deer of a life time? If you truely shoot a deer of a life time why would you want to shoot another buck which would obviously be smaller?

What exactly is a cull buck and shouldn't there also be cull does? If the deffination of a cull buck is a buck with genitics that might or might not produce off spring that might have small antlers or perhaps deformed antlers, why is it more advantageious to remove the buck that provides less than half of the genitics involved? We all know that the doe contributes more than half of all the genitic traits passed to fawns. In my humble opinon to shoot a certain buck because we don't like the looks of his horns is wrong and can't possibly truely impact any herd genitics in a wild or free roaming enviroment.:D If this would change any herd genitics, then why don't we have entire herds of bucks with those wild nontypical racks where ever one of these bucks are killed. Those bucks are usually the dominate buck in a area so doesn't it stand to reason to you genitics guys that the nontypical bucks would dominate the breeding process and there for pass along all those deformative genitics?

For a shorter answer, YES I believe that the multitude of deer hunting shows has harmed deer hunting and is rapidly driving it toward a sport of the richer class that can afford to purchase all the equipment as well as land or the leasing of land or the cost of the outfitters. This is leaving the common hunter at a disadvantage especially regarding land access, and grouping more and more hunters on our very limited public hunting acres.
 
Bowmaker- Do you really think the reason you don't see squirrel or rabbit hunting on TV is because of a lack of merchandise to market? Have you ever got squirrel fever?
 
I have read some good arguments on both sides. I don't like the direction I see things headed and I think the "industry" and it's use of TV is in a large part responsible for that. Only a matter of time before the wheels fall off. But I look around and see a lot of things going down the crapper in our society. Of course, my buddies will tell you I'm a hater and I have to agree.
 
I love watching big deer get shot in the midwest and some of the shows do show that. I pretty much cant stand the other 27 minutes. I think thats why i like Winkes online show, I can just fast forward to the actual hunt. The shows are not the only reason but are definitely one reason hunting is what it is now.
 
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singlecoyote said:
Bowmaker- Do you really think the reason you don't see squirrel or rabbit hunting on TV is because of a lack of merchandise to market? Have you ever got squirrel fever?
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You bet I do. Which hunter spend the most money each year, the deer hunter who bow hunts a little and maybe hunts a gun season, or the rabbit hunter who runs a Beagle several weekends a year? Deer hunter buys new arrows and broadheads say $150 and a Lone Wolf treestand and sticks for $300 and a couple of calls for $40 and then all the scent lok camo and scent killer sprays and detergent for another $300 and Mrs. Doe Pee and shotgun slugs @ $20 for 5 shells, and lots of other stuff, or the rabbit hunter who buys a couple boxes of shells perhaps a pair of rubber boots and some dog food?

What the heck is squirrel fever?:eek:
 
There are no rabbit hunting shows, because there are no rabbit hunting show watchers. :D

rabbits = boring

I am sure if there was an abundance of rabbit hunters there would be an abundance of products.
 
Bowmaker, maybe they just need to market a "bunny collector"? I can't even get into my favorite rabbit hunting spot anymore.....it's leased up for the collection of bones.
 
River1 said:
Bowmaker, maybe they just need to market a "bunny collector"? I can't even get into my favorite rabbit hunting spot anymore.....it's leased up for the collection of bones.
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Just lease it for a higher price and you'll be able to kill all of the bunnies you want :D
 
I'd watch....leg collector? I don't care what you call it but I cut my teeth killin rabbits. And yes, when I was a kid I got rabbit fever.
Bow maker is right, I think, in that the "industry" can't make any money from it. Is the industry going to spend millions creating a better .22 to bring to market? Its all about money. Which is kind of sad. How much fun is hunting for those tv personalities? They have essentially turned into hunting prostitutes for the manufacturers of the products they promote. They have to kill a big animal on camera or they're done. Pitiful
 
iabwhntr said:
I'd watch....leg collector? I don't care what you call it but I cut my teeth killin rabbits. And yes, when I was a kid I got rabbit fever.
Bow maker is right, I think, in that the "industry" can't make any money from it. Is the industry going to spend millions creating a better .22 to bring to market? Its all about money. Which is kind of sad. How much fun is hunting for those tv personalities? They have essentially turned into hunting prostitutes for the manufacturers of the products they promote. They have to kill a big animal on camera or they're done. Pitiful
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No, it's not just about products. Nobody will watch rabbit hunting. Sorry.

If you looked at the numbers/ratings of turkey hunting shows vs. deer hunting shows, you'd see deer hunting shows that would have twice (if not more) the views.

Now, I'm assuming that rabbit would be far far below that.
 
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