Reprinted from a Febr 3, 2008 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
I wonder how many readers have ever heard of Wally Taber? When I was a kid, in the early 1950's my twin brother and I went to the auditorium at Cochran Junior High School in Johnstown, PA, to see a hunting show put on by Wally Taber. He was the first person to bring African hunts to the movie screen, and he moderated each show. His adventures held me spell bound for a full two hours, and I remember them as if they were yesterday. As a kid, I could have never dreamed that one day I too would get to have my own hunting adventures in Africa.
Then there was the pioneer of bowhunting videos and television, the great Fred Bear. I remember the first time I met Fred Bear. It was during my second year as a wildlife professor at West Virginia University. I took a group of graduate students to a game bird conference in Michigan. It was close to Grayling and one late afternoon I snuck away to visit the Fred Bear Museum. I was the only person in the museum until Fred Bear walked out of his office. We chatted briefly and he left. When Bear Archery moved to Gainesville, FL, the museum did too. Recently it was purchased by Bass Pro and is now housed, along with the Archery Hall of Fame, in the Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield, MO.
While there in September for induction into the Archery Hall of Fame, I again toured the Bear Museum. They have a most interesting display showing how Fred Bear video taped his early bow hunts. Apparently some of the techniques Fred Bear used are still cutting edge for today’s hunting films. Fred Bear was an amazing man and he is now in the Archery Hall of Fame. As a young Professor, meeting him for the first time, I could have never dreamed that someday I’d share the Hall of Fame with him.
Taber and Bear were the pioneers of hunting videos and Bear would later pioneer television hunting shows on the American Sportsman. This was followed by the booming hunting video market of the 1970's and early 80's. Some of these hunting videos were good, ethical, and made with professionalism that allowed most anyone to watch. Most were bad, gory, and showed a lack of respect for the animal. But hunters bought them and the market grew. Fortunately good taste and ethics won out and most productions became palatable.
Which brings us to the television hunting shows of today. They started on ESPN on Saturday morning, with the Realtree folks leading the way. Well done, professional, fair chase hunts were filmed. But the general public was slowly distancing itself from hunting. And so did ESPN. Yes, they still have a few shows, but not to the extent they once did. This opened up the market for television channels that showed nothing but hunting and fishing shows.
Showing hunting on television is difficult because it just isn’t a spectator sport. In fact, hunting is not a sport, it’s an outdoor recreational activity, and it’s hard to put it on celluloid. Why? Because we spend hours and days on stand when nothing happens. But for a thirty minute television show, something has to happen. So the actual harvest, a small part of most hunts in reality, becomes the focus of thirty minute shows. And we hunters enjoy the vicarious experience of hunting, especially in the off season when we can’t get into the woods.
The biggest of the hunting and fishing channels is the Outdoor Channel, but there are others such as the Sportsman’s Channel, the Man’s Channel, and Versus. Due to a recent illness that has kept me housebound, I’ve watched more than my share of hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel and Versus. Some are good, some are boring, and some just make me want to get better so I can get out of the house. For example, I’m not big on hunting that takes place in small fenced areas. Yet, some television hunting shows, especially for whitetails and elk, are filmed in small fenced areas. Sure, hunting some fenced areas is fair chase, because the pens are huge, thousands of acres. You never see the fence, and the fence doesn’t impact ones success. But if you watch a television show where they hunt elk in Saskatchewan or Nebraska or Iowa. It’s in a relatively small pen. If you watch a television show where a bowhunter stalks an elk or deer in the open to within 40 yards, and the animal just stands there, it’s a pen. If the hardwoods are totally over browsed with no ground cover, it’s probably a pen. Not for me and bad for television.
Another TV turnoff for me are most bear hunts. Time after time these guys shoot small bears, probably because they need a harvest to make the show and they haven’t seen any good bears. You know it’s a small bear when the guide says to the hunter, "this bear sure has a pretty coat (fur)." Same for shooting tiny bucks. You know it’s a small buck when the guide says to the hunter, "it’s sure a good eating deer." Hey, anyone can harvest a small bear or buck, but to do so just because you need a harvest for a television show doesn’t seem right to me.
My major complaint about hunting television shows is that it makes the hunt appear too easy. My good friend’s Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, Bill Jordan, and others spend thousands of hours getting material for their thirty minute shows. You don’t see all the sweat equity that is needed to make a quality show. No, you just see the harvest and it’s a rare show where a harvest does not occur. Nobody wants to watch a thirty minute show where you watch food plots grow, or scouting cameras being set. It’s like watching a horse race where the entire show focuses on the horses walking around the track prior to the race, then not showing the race.
I’ve had hunts done on camera a fair number of times and making a good hunting TV show is not easy. Today, most are much better than in past years, but there is lots of room for improvement. But, just to set the record straight, on Saturday mornings if I’m not in a tree stand, or headed to a Mountaineer football game, there’s a good chance I’ll be glued to the TV, watching my favorite hunting show.
