one thing that really annoys me

[ozy clint]

it really gets to me when i see photos in hunting mags and the heads of animals are out of frame or obscured by foliage, but low and behold the big shiny antlers are there taking up the whole frame. i mean what do they say, "this is the monster elk i shot, oh and by the way thats what half it's face and body looks looks like".

i just think that it's disrespectful to the animal, afterall they didn't hunt a set of elk antlers. they hunted an elk.

oh yeah, i won't go into hunters sitting 3m behind the animal.

[JEFF B]

you got it bro  

[Sharpster]

I couldn't agree more Ozy.

Same for TV shows. They always talk about the great spread and "nice G1s and G2s" like there's no animal there, just a set of antlers. Great lesson to teach huh?

Ron

It really annoys me when TV hunters refer to animals as"the 168"  or the "146". How about:what a beautiful animal and what a privilege to take him!

[DJTJR]

totally agree, i have dropped subscriptions to mags for stuff like this.  one that annoys me to this day was an article by one of the usual talking heads about slugs where they discussed stopping power and such.  the photo showed the hunter standing over a bear that could not have gone more than 90lbs and the guy is there standing over this "bear" which was smaller than my lab talking about the superiority of the terminal ballistics.  and how it excelled on this tough animal.  it was a discrace and a total plug for some manufacturer this is 10 yrs ago and it still drives me nuts.
sorry for this but had to get this off my chest after all these years.  Some of these things make it harder for us hunters to convince the non ordained that what we do isnt just about the typical negative stereotype of hunters.

[Leon.R]

Agreed!!!!

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

I'm with you all on this one, it's part of what's bringing the sport down. I'd love to see an outdoor magazine with a bunch of friends sitting around a campfire on the cover. Or a family table, surrounded by smiling faces and covered with venison roast, homemade bacon, braised fowl and other fruits of time in the wilderness.

What we also have to keep in mind is that most of the guys wrapped up in the commercial hunting circuit are hunting EXACTLY THAT, big antlers. I see over and over again on "horn porn" channels where the hunter runs up to the buck and focuses completely on the antlers! These are probably the same guys who have a hard time looking women in the eyes...  :rolleyes:

[Bowmania]

I don't really agree.  The guy at least thought far enought ahead to bring a camera.  The shot that drive me throught the roof is the one in the back of a pick up truck or in a garage.  With the worst being the hanging in the garage and wonderful hunter holding the antlers.

[ozy clint]

the idea of a cover with friends around a campfire is a good one  

[amar911]

I just use really big, sharp broadheads so I can shoot off the antlers for my pictures and let the animal go off unharmed. Anyone buying into this story?    

Allan

[Nakohe]

ROTFLMAO Allan, you are killing me. I spewed Mountain Dew all over my puter screen. Now that is funny I do not care who you are. LOL

[hunt it]

Try readin something Chuck Adams has written, everything has a measurement attached to it.

[The Ursus]

Yeah, the emphasis on antlers and horns in photos has always bugged me.  I find it disrespectful as well.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Originally posted by amar911:
I just use really big, sharp broadheads so I can shoot off the antlers for my pictures and let the animal go off unharmed. Anyone buying into this story?      

Allan

So true! The Antler-Guillotine! I can see it now! You better hurry and get the patent, I'm drawing as we speak!!!  

[Leon.R]

I must be honest, I have flyfished all over the States and Africa and UK, not bowhunting but I have many pictures of where I was but hardly any of me with fish or fishing

[Sam McMichael]

Unfortunately, a lot of hunters are actually "hunting the horns". Their measure of success is often very much a question of record book statistics. "Kill the most, kill the biggest" is the attitude of many, many hunters today. Magazines will always put on the covers the photos they feel will most boost sales. Usually that "other crowd" is their target group. Best thing for the rest of us to do is to ignore it, and live within our own universe,   valuing the hunting moment rather than trying prove that our trophy measures up to all the expectations of the masses.

[BTH]

And alot of these guys we see call themselves Professional Hunters. One that makes me gag is the "Bone Collectors" title to a new show.

[Brian Krebs]

yes horn porn is having its day. I like hunting wild animals that understand my intent. I hate it when I see a 'small buck' get passed up until its a 'shooter'. Seems like they are breeding for no brains and bigger antlers in deer.
 'Professional hunters' - gag ! I want to be a 'professional person at enjoying the wild' . Not a farmer that grows 'magic deer food plots' and sits behind no trespassing signs waiting for a shooter buck....
 And if I see one more hunter shoot a deer bigger than 90% of us have ever dreamed of; and say:"its a management buck or I wouldn't have shot it" I am going to start an underground movement: to talk Texas into succeeding from the union !

[pdk25]

I would say that I am usually pretty easy to annoy, but how someone decides to take pictures of their kill doesn't do it.  I don't care if it is draped across the hood of a ford fairlane with it's tongue hanging out like some of my dad's pics, hanging by the neck in a garage, just a skull mount, if it shows the bow that it was shot with, or just about any other permutation.  I guess if I was trying to show respect for the animal, I probably wouldn't have shot it.

[Bill Carlsen]

Well, I am sitting here thinking along the same lines as most of you. BUT, every Fall when the deer season is in full swing I see a lot of hero pics here on Trad Gang that show some awesome animals, in regards to antlers and such....or bears with big heads...or large hogs. To be fair, I also see a lot of "first kills" that do not make it to the trophy catagory and I think that that is great.  I shoot mostly small to average size deer each year because they are being hunted primarily for the freezer and here in NH it is rare to see really big bucks. We can also get four tags so shooting a couple of deer that are not trophy quality is all I really expect out of a hunting season.  Having said that there are one or two really nice bucks that frequent the property Laura and I bought two summers ago. We have pics and have had run ins with these bucks so now it has become a personal thing to put one on the ground and I am especially anxious for Laura to do it first. And if one of us gets it done you can bet the pics will show up here first thing.

The other thing I have been thinking about is that when you pick up a magazine or watch a TV program you are mostly going to see the big bucks simply because that is where the money is. The only two guys that I know that will shoot any animal and consider it to be a trophy are Fred Eichler and Tred Barta, but even their level of excitement picks up when an animal they shoot is large. Maybe, from now on on this forum we only show  a pic of the successful hunter and no animals. Let's face it, it is a conundrum, but I, for one, like to see the animals that the folks on this and other sites harvest. I see nothing wrong with it. If the animal is exceptional in some way the more enjoyment I seem to get out of it and for the succesful hunter I say, "Good for you". No one seems to care about the size of the deer the Wensels shoot and the bigger the better...in fact there was a thread this year asking them to show us what they had accomplished and there were lots of praise and envy conveyed in the thread. Let's get real, we all like to see those big bucks, bulls, bears, pigs, antelope, etc. It makes me want to be a better hunter.