Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

Do you think turkey hunting videos and tv shows have had a negative effect on the sport?

Quote from: guesswho on June 21, 2011, 09:08:10 PM
Do you think turkey hunting videos and tv shows have had a negative effect on the sport?

Well, I guess it depends some. Do you mean currently, in the past, or both?

In my opinion, shows in the past were less focused on promotion of products, more ethical, and all around, just better in promoting hunting. Most of the people who made the earlier shows seemed to be in love with the outdoors, and the animals they hunted.  Although, some of the same people who are still around, have changed, along with the reasons they tend to hunt. Maybe I've changed, and I'm just more aware of certain things, but I like the earlier years. Not too impressed with today's shows, other than the quality of video produced in HD is quite awesome.

God Bless,
David B.

It seems that everybody and their brother has to have a hunting or fishing show now days.  I don't bother with any of them any more and haven't for quite some time now.

I don't think it has a negative impact on those who know how to turkey hunt. But if you are a new turkey hunter and all you had is the new videos and TV of today I think you are going to have a hard time killing turkeys. They would also think the only way to turkey hunt would be to use a blind with decoys and a Primos call. You can kill turkeys like that but there is so much more to turkey hunting than what the TV and videos show. JMO

TRKYHTR

I certainly think many shows give the wrong impression. However, turkey hunting is more popular than it's ever been and preservation funds have more support than ever and this is due in some part to these shows.

The tv shows and videos now are all about selling blinds, decoys and calls. I think they go overboard with it too. The old Truth videos were not this way!

I have to say that if the videos of today are all I had to go by to learn about hunting, I would just as soon stay in the house. I agree with Bird on this issue, shows are all about promoting their stuff and not the ethics of the hunt and I just don't bother with watching them. BUT...like Guesswho, I too think the old shows had character and they did care about the hunter's education concerning safety and the final outcome was a great hunt and harvest. So, it depends on the age of the videos and who is making the video.

I voted true...I would say the majority of the TV shows over the last 10 years have done nothing, but give a false representation of what I believe turkey hunting is all about.

They aren't so much hunting videos anymore as they are infomercials. There all about products and outfitters with some dead turkeys mixed in.

Quote from: BOFF on June 21, 2011, 09:27:06 PM
In my opinion, shows in the past were less focused on promotion of products, more ethical, and all around, just better in promoting hunting. Most of the people who made the earlier shows seemed to be in love with the outdoors, and the animals they hunted.

Quote from: TRKYHTR on June 21, 2011, 09:32:23 PM
I don't think it has a negative impact on those who know how to turkey hunt. But if you are a new turkey hunter and all you had is the new videos and TV of today I think you are going to have a hard time killing turkeys. They would also think the only way to turkey hunt would be to use a blind with decoys and a Primos call. You can kill turkeys like that but there is so much more to turkey hunting than what the TV and videos show. JMO

TRKYHTR

Quote from: Shotgun on June 21, 2011, 09:44:31 PM
I would say the majority of the TV shows over the last 10 years have done nothing, but give a false representation of what I believe turkey hunting is all about.

Dang, ya'll pretty much summed up my view on the subject. :you_rock:

I don't watch TV hunting shows anymore after the last one really ticked me off watching a couple of idiots who didn't have a clue on how to Turkey hunt. I enjoy the hunting videos by Shane, and this year really got a kick out of the Hardcore/Flydown video hunts.

Quote from: guesswho on June 21, 2011, 09:08:10 PM
Do you think turkey hunting videos and tv shows have had a negative effect on the sport?

No idea, don't watch them.  Need one more option in your poll.

Quote from: bird on June 21, 2011, 09:30:39 PM
It seems that everybody and their brother has to have a hunting or fishing show now days.  I don't bother with any of them any more and haven't for quite some time now.

Same here

Quote from: Jay on June 22, 2011, 01:07:32 AM
I don't watch TV hunting shows anymore after the last one really ticked me off watching a couple of idiots who didn't have a clue on how to Turkey hunt. I enjoy the hunting videos by Shane, and this year really got a kick out of the Hardcore/Flydown video hunts.

I will have to agree with Jay on this too.  I would much rather watch Shane, Ronnie and Chris's videos as they are much more enjoyable and "real" than any of the shows you see on TV.

Al

Negative impact?  No.

Sometimes they don't realisticly show what turkey hunting is about but I don't think they hurt.  If it wasn't for some turkey hunting I saw on TV I may have never tried it.

If you want a good turkey hunting video with no adds, this one is the best I have ever seen!
http://www.vaturkey.com/pureturkey/

Joe Slaton has some good ones to.    I love real turkey hunting footage,    the "you got to buy the latest thing commerical,"  not so much.

Quote from: TRKYHTR on June 21, 2011, 09:32:23 PM
I don't think it has a negative impact on those who know how to turkey hunt. But if you are a new turkey hunter and all you had is the new videos and TV of today I think you are going to have a hard time killing turkeys. They would also think the only way to turkey hunt would be to use a blind with decoys and a Primos call. You can kill turkeys like that but there is so much more to turkey hunting than what the TV and videos show. JMO

TRKYHTR

Great post Joe!!  :icon_thumright:

I think that if a new hunter was to go out and buy the latest and greatest DVD's, then go out and purchase all the "junk" in the DVD then went hunting they wouold get burned out VERY quickly!  They don't get to see all that goes into a turkey hunt like scouting setting up moving on birds.  I think they would think all you had to do was go out and set up your blind and decoys the call a few times and shoot a bird.  It sure doesn't happen like that very often for me.

A negative impact no but most of the videos are all about selling product.

I love hunts in the woods where the gobbler is searching for the source of the calling and if you can see him he is in range. Nothing else measures up for me, but this does not translate to video. Anticipation is impossible to film. I hate watching all of the commercials but without them I would not have three different outdoor channels 24/7. I do love to watch them strut and gobble! It's funny to me that so many are slamming hunting shows for advertising products when on this site you are constantly viewing ads and pics of kills with a particular custom call or choke or shell?

For me the commercial videos are getting too much like the onslaught of reality shows put put for the return with little quality. Some of the members videos on the other hand are done with respect to the sport and promote our hobby in a professional way.

Quote from: guesswho on June 21, 2011, 10:59:57 PM

Quote from: BOFF on June 21, 2011, 09:27:06 PM
In my opinion, shows in the past were less focused on promotion of products, more ethical, and all around, just better in promoting hunting. Most of the people who made the earlier shows seemed to be in love with the outdoors, and the animals they hunted.

Quote from: TRKYHTR on June 21, 2011, 09:32:23 PM
I don't think it has a negative impact on those who know how to turkey hunt. But if you are a new turkey hunter and all you had is the new videos and TV of today I think you are going to have a hard time killing turkeys. They would also think the only way to turkey hunt would be to use a blind with decoys and a Primos call. You can kill turkeys like that but there is so much more to turkey hunting than what the TV and videos show. JMO

TRKYHTR

Quote from: Shotgun on June 21, 2011, 09:44:31 PM
I would say the majority of the TV shows over the last 10 years have done nothing, but give a false representation of what I believe turkey hunting is all about.

Dang, ya'll pretty much summed up my view on the subject. :you_rock:

Not much that can be added to that.  Answering the original questions depends on what a guy considers a negative impact.  More turkey hunters in the field....positive or negtive impact depending how you look at it..  More new turkey hunters relying on gimmicks to try and kill turkeys.........negative impact.  More turkey hunters sitting on their butt in a blind and hoping the latest strutting decoy drags a tom in.......positive impact for my style of turkey hunting becaue I don't have to worry about them running the bird down that I'm trying to get positioned on.

I don't have an tv programming, so I don't see many of the shows unless I catch a clip on the internet.  I buy the usual stack of videos every year to enjoy the turkey footage, but spend a big part of the time explaining to my kids that the guy promoting his product is full of bull, otherwise they'd believe it to be gospel.  I also think the HS boys should learn to shoot a bird in the head.  With all their blabbering about their scopes you would think they could shoot a bird somewhere other than the body.

Negative impact on turkey hunting?  No.

Negative impact on turkey hunting videos?  Yes.   Some are just terrible.

The negative I see, and it may be more of a personal opinion than actually a negative impact is the fact that video's and tv turkey shows are teaching people to take shortcuts and cheat themselves and the turkey. 

I get to where I'm going early and wait for the wood's to wake up.  I can't stand to be there fo 30 or 45 minutes listening to everytrhing come alive while aniticipating that first gobble, and then  hear tires rolling on a gravel road and some Jack-Azz stop, open his door, owl hoot, crow call, coyote howl, cut on a box call ect.  If he hears nothing he slams his door and eases on down the road riding right past my vehichle and repeats the process.  If he does hear something me slams his door, pulls off to the side of the road in sight of my vehichle, gets out and slams his door again, racks a shell, and grabs his blind and dekes out of the back of his truck and takes off towards the bird.  This seems to be becoming more common in my neck of the woods.

Quote from: guesswho on June 22, 2011, 01:11:22 PM

I get to where I'm going early and wait for the wood's to wake up.  I can't stand to be there fo 30 or 45 minutes listening to everytrhing come alive while aniticipating that first gobble, and then  hear tires rolling on a gravel road and some Jack-Azz stop, open his door, owl hoot, crow call, coyote howl, cut on a box call ect.  If he hears nothing he slams his door and eases on down the road riding right past my vehichle and repeats the process.  If he does hear something me slams his door, pulls off to the side of the road in sight of my vehichle, gets out and slams his door again, racks a shell, and grabs his blind and dekes out of the back of his truck and takes off towards the bird.  This seems to be becoming more common in my neck of the woods.

This seems to be happing more and more. We had a guy in our club last year that would ride from green field to green field glassing with binos and if he saw a turkey he would stalk it to get in place for an ambush. Never call or anything. Stalked up on a couple of pretty boy dekes a time or two.

I think that they mislead a lot of new and younger hunters.  Now you have a lot of folks running through the woods owl hooting at 11:00am.  They would do better coming to these forums and listening to folks that have hunted for years. 

I'm not sure if I would say they have a negative impact on turkey hunting, but I don't feel like they present a true picture of what a turkey hunt is like for the average guy.  Besides the obvious push of this product and the next product with every turn, many of the personalities are self-absorbed and come across as though they left their ritalin at home. 
I like a little more reality than what I see in most of the current hunt shows.  No offense to ranch owners, but I don't really care to see 89 birds flying down to a food plot.   That's not reality for most of us. 
Show me some public land hunts.  Don't show me a couple of guys piling out of a truck with more sponsor stickers than a NASCAR racing team.  Sure, hunt with great products.  Fine, give props to the sponsors in the credits before and/or after a hunt.  Produce commercials for them that run before or after a hunt.  I've had enough of cameras panning in on some gadget attached to a shotgun or some awful noisemaker pulled out of a vest.  As many others have said, the commercializing of the hunt has gone way over the top.  Enough so for me that I no longer buy or care to watch the yearly crop of hunting videos.

Quote from: stinkpickle on June 22, 2011, 12:58:21 PM
Negative impact on turkey hunting?  No.

Negative impact on turkey hunting videos?  Yes.   Some are just terrible.

:agreed:

I say true......they have introduced turkey hunting to all the deer hunters that used to fish during the spring, and there is some HORRIBLE calling that because its on a show...people think its good.

I liked it better when the woods were empty. To many inexperienced crazies running around the woods these days.

Quote from:  link=topic=11193.msg128427#msg128427 date=1308838564

Quote from: savduck on June 22, 2011, 07:52:54 PM
I say true......they have introduced turkey hunting to all the deer hunters that used to fish during the spring, and there is some HORRIBLE calling that because its on a show...people think its good.

I liked it better when the woods were empty. To many inexperienced crazies running around the woods these days.

That's the NWTF's biggest contribution to turkey hunting.

I had an encounter this year with one of those hunters while I had a friend down from Ohio this year.  We had the bird inching his way to us.  Then after about 20 minutes I heard horrible yelping from a box.  Then crashing through the woods.  The gobbler shut up "wonder why"!  Now the guy goes to cutting on a mouth call, at least thats what I think it was.  Then more crashing, after about five minutes I see the guy coming towards us, just walking while his box call in its holster is sqeaking as he walks.  I spoke to him and he stops, I speak again to make sure he knows were there.  Then he spots us and comes over to talk.  He tells us about a gobbler he was after and some hens he had heard "us".  We tell him we had heard him to.  We talk a minute or two more and he says well I'm going after him ::)   This guy looked like he just came off the front page of the Cabelas spring catalogue, and about everything he had had a N"WTF" emblem on it, nothing wrong withj that, I just found it ironic .  We didn't kill the bird that day but I killed him two weeks later, a four bearded mature bird. 

I figure the only reason that guy was out there was because he saw turkey hunting on tv and figured why not.  I know he has as much right as we did to be out there, but come on.  I don't mind sharing the woods, but at least have a clue.  As savduck mentioned there are a lot of inexperienced crazies running around thanks to tv.  That would be like someone watching a traffic report on tv who had never driven before and deciding that looks like fun.  I'm going to get me a car and a license and start driving.

I'll watch'em if I see one on. Don't think they are hurting anything.

I enjoyed the early primos vhs tapes they had alot of what I would call hometown hunts I could relate to southern type atmosphere that I am custom to. But now you see very little on dvd or television of people hunting those same conditions in the south the TV hunts are always out west or north west and I dont have a problem with that but I realy cant relate to that here in bama on turkey hunts. Now if I was from the west it might be different but it seems thats where most of the hunts are being held. Yes I would go to the west or north west on a hunt to get some extra turkey hunting in a heart beat. When I went to texas it was like shooting fish in a barrel and my closest friend hes been all over and hes never come back empty handed. So I guess growing up hunting here in bama and MS. and hunting from middle of march to the end of april working to kill a limit of 5 all year and then going to texas and 4 people kill 8 in 2 days the last week of season after they have been chased or even more, it just aint the same for me but I love turkey hunting and will not miss a chance on going anywhere for I am a turkey hunter thats what I do! For as the sponsors on the tv shows well price a spot on the outdoor channel blow your mind what it cost a quarter so I can understand how they have to do it and they could do some things to the shows to make them not so chopped up with ads and sponsors to make better tv. All in all its just a tv show not reality for most.--lyle

Specific gripes:  The biggest thing that ticked me off about the latest Primos DVD was that all the footage made it on the TV show.  There used to be extra hunts and funny/interesting stuff on the DVD.  BUT now, there's more stuff on the TV show.  I think I'll just DVR the whole TV series instead of messing with the DVD's from now on.

Silver lining:  One show actually impressed me this year.  Blood Brothers TV.  It's still new, and I hope it sticks to its current formula.

You know.......one thing will never change. Companies are in business to make money.....especially publically traded companies, big corporations. A bunch of these mom and pop companies have all sold out to corporations, but they still are involved as the "face" of the companies. Lohman, MAD, K&H, Primos, etc. The corporations can say all they want about educating new hunters, but goal number one is to make as much profit as they can for stock holders. They could give two craps if they ruin the sport. They are trying to maximize their exposure so they have more customers to sell their products to. Its very clear by the crap calls and the poor excuse for turkey videos that are being put out these days.  Sad to say, but most of our "hunting heros" have sold their soul for the dough.

I started hunting in the early 80s. There were very few turkey hunters back then. It was like a frat, you had to earn their trust before they would teach you anything about turkeys. Im the same way. I'll take someone thats new to turkey hunting on their property if they ask me to, but I dont take anyone but my own family to my spots. And if I call one in for a newbie and they shoot.....the lesson is over. I dont call for them again. Sorry, Im just a butt head I guess.

This is the kinda fella running around the woods these days and offering advice to newbies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeFIkS_WOco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A65zLtZapM&feature=channel

I here a bunch of his students every year, at least they sound like they've been to his school of turkey calling/locating.

No Joke. About 7 years ago, the main river flooded near a very good public land spot that I frequent. Of almost 20 thousand acres only about 4K were huntable. The birds were stacked up. I had 9 in one spot gobbling. I was getting there 2 hours before light. Birds would gobble a couple of times early, then you would hear the gravel road parade begin. The birds would hush. It would  get quiet and the birds would crank up. Another car would come....they would all stop at the same place, all slam their doors and hoot or crow 10 seconds after slamming a door....I heard one guy do "who cooks for you" on a crow call. Probably heard 25 hunters in three weekends in that same area, none of them must have heard the birds I heard, because everyone of them would drive off, and then the birds would crank back up. I didnt hear but three shots all three of those weekends...and they were all mine as I tagged out for the season.

Its getting to be a joke these days.

In the late 60's and early 70's as a kid I remember everyone that turkey hunted which wasn't many, hunted slow and quiet on foot.  And if you asked them about turkeys most of them didn't know anything, didn't even know how those turkey feathers got in their vehichle.  I don't see much of that anymore.  And you don't even have to ask for advice anymore, just go to youtube, it's full of experts of all ages. 

Hunting in general has changed quite a bit over the years.  15+ years ago there was not near the turkey hunters or duck hunters as there is today.  At least if there was I never ran into them until the GPS got popular.  Once the GPS and decoys got popular not to mention the videos being massed produced I started seeing a difference in my hunting.  Like any other hunter I adapted and moved to greener pastures.  The problem I'm running into now is that the greener pastures are getting few and far between without money and I have less time to chase them.

I still know plenty of "old school" guys that know nothing.
"Did you hear any this morning"?
"No, I haven't heard one in weeks"!
Walk around to see dead gobbler in their truck bed.
"What's this"?
"He just happened to walk by, never said a word".

I cringe every time I hear hunters bragging about how many they heard.

they can be entertaining and sometimes educational for those getting into the sport with little experience.some of the videos out west make it look so easy they can be fooled by an Eastern or Osceola.

I agree with some of the other guys. The current shows are more about selling products than they are hunting. I hate seeing the sport of hunting being commercialized. Also, due to the popularity hunting has taken on, partly due to these shows, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable land to lease to hunt on. So I guess these shows have their pros & cons.