Am I the only one who doesn’t connect with many of the hunting shows on TV? These shows seem to portray hunting as a shallow and materialistic endeavor, where a guy with a bunch of money buys all new gear and sits in a box until he is successful.
If you were just learning to hunt, and all you had to go on was cable TV hunting shows this is what you might takeaway:
- You must hunt from an elevated box or stand
- You must only kill the biggest animals in existence...nothing else has value
- You must hunt with the latest cutting edge and most expensive gear
- You must wear matching camo
- Deer only exist around food plots
I taught myself how to hunt when I was in my early 20’s. I learned everything I could about my quarry. I learned how to find them, how to move in the woods, how to track them, how to control my emotions when surrounded by animals that would take flight if they knew I was on the ground only 10 yards away. I learned how to butcher, process, and feed my family. I learned about my prey, my gun, and myself all along the way.
I started taking my son hunting when he was 3. He started hunting with his own rifle when he was 7 (and me supervising). He has learned everything I learned. We’ve spent countless hours together in the truck and in the field. We have an awesome relationship to some degree based on how much time we’ve spent enjoying the challenges and the joys of the outdoors together. He is now 14 years old and you could drop him off in the wilderness and he could feed himself.
It seems that today’s hunting shows portray our sport as one where you go sit in a box all day over a food plot until a big deer happens to come by, then you shoot him. To me that totally misses the true nature of hunting.
Shows don’t have to be like this. Steve Rinella does a show called Meat Eater...it’s a great show. Obviously I think it’s great because he sees a lot of things the way I do...but it’s proof that a show doesn’t have to follow the same tired script that portrays our sport as a shallow activity whose only connection to nature occurs because the box they sit in happens to be outdoors.
A mount for the wall is great, but it’s not the most important thing about hunting for me. The real trophies to me have been the relationship I’ve forged with my son, the love affair I’ve enjoyed with the outdoors, introducing others to hunting/shooting/fishing, or sitting down to dinner with my family to a meal that we took from the field together.
Am I alone?
If you were just learning to hunt, and all you had to go on was cable TV hunting shows this is what you might takeaway:
- You must hunt from an elevated box or stand
- You must only kill the biggest animals in existence...nothing else has value
- You must hunt with the latest cutting edge and most expensive gear
- You must wear matching camo
- Deer only exist around food plots
I taught myself how to hunt when I was in my early 20’s. I learned everything I could about my quarry. I learned how to find them, how to move in the woods, how to track them, how to control my emotions when surrounded by animals that would take flight if they knew I was on the ground only 10 yards away. I learned how to butcher, process, and feed my family. I learned about my prey, my gun, and myself all along the way.
I started taking my son hunting when he was 3. He started hunting with his own rifle when he was 7 (and me supervising). He has learned everything I learned. We’ve spent countless hours together in the truck and in the field. We have an awesome relationship to some degree based on how much time we’ve spent enjoying the challenges and the joys of the outdoors together. He is now 14 years old and you could drop him off in the wilderness and he could feed himself.
It seems that today’s hunting shows portray our sport as one where you go sit in a box all day over a food plot until a big deer happens to come by, then you shoot him. To me that totally misses the true nature of hunting.
Shows don’t have to be like this. Steve Rinella does a show called Meat Eater...it’s a great show. Obviously I think it’s great because he sees a lot of things the way I do...but it’s proof that a show doesn’t have to follow the same tired script that portrays our sport as a shallow activity whose only connection to nature occurs because the box they sit in happens to be outdoors.
A mount for the wall is great, but it’s not the most important thing about hunting for me. The real trophies to me have been the relationship I’ve forged with my son, the love affair I’ve enjoyed with the outdoors, introducing others to hunting/shooting/fishing, or sitting down to dinner with my family to a meal that we took from the field together.
Am I alone?
