Could ‘kill shots’ eventually kill hunting?

John McCoy , Staff Writer

April 1, 2017



If hunting is ever outlawed in America, I believe the kill shot will be delivered by — well, the kill shot.

Kill shots, for those of you who might not watch hunting shows on TV or DVD, are video sequences that show the arrow or the bullet or the shotgun pellets striking the animal being hunted. People in the video industry, perhaps in an effort to reduce criticism, have started calling them “impact shots.”

The label doesn’t matter. Fact is, it’s almost impossible to watch a hunting show or video that doesn’t include a kill shot or two.

It wasn’t always that way.

From 1965 to 1986, ABC aired a show called “The American Sportsman.” During the early part of its run, before animal activism and political correctness became a factor, episodes centered almost exclusively on hunting and fishing. The hunting segments usually featured some charismatic celebrity hunting upland birds, waterfowl or big game. The cinematography (for most part, this was before video gained widespread use) was excellent, the editing superb and the music appropriate to the mood the producers sought to create.

Only rarely did you see a kill shot, and that was almost always a bird or a duck folding and crashing to the ground. You never saw an arrow plunging into a deer’s shoulder. You never saw a Cape buffalo stagger from the impact of a .577 Nitro Express slug. And you certainly never saw an elephant drop straight to its knees after taking a bullet in the temple.

You saw the lead-up — hunters stalking through the bush, the quarry approaching, hunters shouldering their guns or drawing their bows — but producers spared young viewers from seeing the sometimes-grim scene of an animal being mortally wounded or struggling in its death throes.

Instead, they watched the hunter fire the gun or shoot the arrow and then they saw the aftermath — the animal, often cleaned up to show as little blood as possible — surrounded by the triumphant hunters and their companions.

Yes, it was sanitized. Yes, the action was implied. Yes, it wasn’t quite reality. But doggone it, it was something almost anyone could watch without wondering what pleasure the hunter derived from watching a turkey flop on the forest floor or an impala thrash in the bushveld dust.

I once asked a prominent producer of hunting videos why his shows almost always included kill shots.

“People are pretty cynical nowadays,” he replied. “If we don’t include kill shots, people in the audience won’t believe the hunter actually killed the animal.”

Fair enough; kill shots satisfy the cynicism of people who watch hunting shows and videos. But, I fear, they also lend ammunition to anti-hunting activists all too eager to depict hunters as bloodthirsty savages.

Kill shots made the news recently when two Kentucky men — the co-hosts of Pursuit Channel’s “Hunting in the Sticks” show — were convicted of poaching two elk, a pronghorn antelope and a rabbit in Wyoming. A Wyoming Game and Fish investigator, Mike Ehlebracht, said he believed the two defendants “were driven to get kill shot footage for the television show, and that resulted in their making bad decisions.”

The people who wish to eliminate hunting aren’t going to go away. They’ll use any wedge they can to rid society of a practice they abhor. Let’s hope kill shots aren’t that wedge.

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Befor we know it, it'll be participating sport
" Got close "
What a silly world we are entering

Did not Osa Johnson show kill shots? I seem to remember her facing down a bull elephant? Been a while.

Can we really expect any common sense when this is going on?


I wonder what happened to calling a spade a spade?

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
Did not Osa Johnson show kill shots? I seem to remember her facing down a bull elephant? Been a while.

Yes. Mrs. Johnson goaded animals to make them charge so she could drop them a few feet from her husband's camera. The difference was that in her books and on her public-speaking tours she would badmouth safari hunting at every opportunity. The only "reputable" hunter (in her mind) was their patron ($$) George Eastman.

Bill Quimby

quote:

Yes. Mrs. Johnson goaded animals to make them charge so she could drop them a few feet from her husband's camera.

Not related, even distantly, to someone we know, surely?

Two comments on this and Saeed's response.

First, on the comment quoted below, he must have watched a different American Sportsman than I remember. I remember kill shots on big game including Elephants, but there was not the celebrating or graphic details that appear in modern day shows.

quote:

Only rarely did you see a kill shot, and that was almost always a bird or a duck folding and crashing to the ground. You never saw an arrow plunging into a deer’s shoulder. You never saw a Cape buffalo stagger from the impact of a .577 Nitro Express slug. And you certainly never saw an elephant drop straight to its knees after taking a bullet in the temple.

Second on the articled Saeed posted, in his immortal words, it has become "Mind Boggling" as to how RABID some folks have evolved pushing the whole "Gender Neutral" ideology. No words/terms/phrases indicating masculinity or femininity regardless of the situation. Pure

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

I wonder what happened to calling a spade a spade?

....................................................................The Casper milk-toast weaklings of today live in a make believe world of Disney cartoons! Our schools are infiltrated with anti hunting teachers who are brain washing our children to think meat come from the grocery store and not from live animals who must be killed to produce that meat. They love to eat the meat, but want someone else to kill it and keep it a secret.


Hunting is the best way of conserving not only the game animals but all wildlife by sustainable quotas, saving habitat for all wild life while not taking more than any one species can tolerate and forming a continued population of all wild life.
The quote above in bold print is a question everyone needs to hear the answer to!

Political correctness is what will kill the human society, not any KILL SHOT!

....................................................................... ....

As far as Im concerned I don't see this as an earthshaking subject, it is what it is and that's Killing not harvesting game..The real game here is political correctness btw...

To suggest that the Govt or state will outlaw hunting is suggesting were going to have a revolution, to many of us feel hunting is a God given right, even the dumbest of politicians arn't dumb enough to bring that one up. and the bleeding hearts are more of a joke than a threat.

John McCoy (the person Kathi is quoting) is incorrect; the "kill shot" most certainly did kill big game hunting on American Sportsman. The show that featured Fred Bear shooting a polar bear showed footage of the bear running away with blood all over. Curt Gowdy was on record as saying that single show resulted in a deluge of viewer protests which resulted in ABC deciding to end big game coverage on the show.

Hunting shows are like porn: if you don't want to watch it, don't. No one is making you do it.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
John McCoy (the person Kathi is quoting) is incorrect; the "kill shot" most certainly did kill big game hunting on American Sportsman. The show that featured Fred Bear shooting a polar bear showed footage of the bear running away with blood all over. Curt Gowdy was on record as saying that single show resulted in a deluge of viewer protests which resulted in ABC deciding to end big game coverage on the show.

This one John?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnj6h6U5yK8

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
As far as Im concerned I don't see this as an earthshaking subject, it is what it is and that's Killing not harvesting game..The real game here is political correctness btw...

To suggest that the Govt or state will outlaw hunting is suggesting were going to have a revolution, to many of us feel hunting is a God given right, even the dumbest of politicians arn't dumb enough to bring that one up. and the bleeding hearts are more of a joke than a threat.

Ray, I surely wish I could agree with you, but the right to hunt is being lost in drips, dribbles and dabs and usually not through the legislative process.

(A well-known exception is the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act that not only bans limited hunting of a growing population of walrus, seals and polar bears, but it also prohibits us from bringing home any part of such creatures that we might have hunted legally in another country.)

Ballot issues have cost hunters the right to hunt bears with hounds in a couple of states, and the right to hunt mountain lions by any method in another. In Arizona, voters severely limited the right to trap on public lands. Our own game department voted to outlaw bait for big game hunting, including bears.

Anti-hunting groups won't go after our right to shoot abundant and widespread species such as deer -- yet. They know better and choose their targets carefully. Look for them to attack limited hunts in urbanized states, such as bighorn and pronghorn hunting in California first.

Hunting in rural states such as yours will come last. Arizona used to be as rural a state as Idaho and Wyoming are now, but we now have 6.4 million people, with only about a million of them living outside Maricopa(Phoenix) and Pima (Tucson) counties.

For most of these urbanites, their experience in the great outdoors has been limited to golf courses, Forest Service and Park Service walking paths, and PBS wildlife "documentaries."

Speaking of TV, at least two generations have grown up watching wildlife fakers spew garbage while "saving the poor animals" every Saturday morning.

If it came to a vote in November, I think you would be shocked at the number of people who would vote to shut down hunting completely here.

We still could defeat a total closure now, but I couldn't predict the outcome if a ballot measure came along in a year or two seeking to close varmint or quail or waterfowl hunting (choose one, because that's what our enemies will do). These pursuits simply don't have that many participants here.

Bill Quimby

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
John McCoy (the person Kathi is quoting) is incorrect; the "kill shot" most certainly did kill big game hunting on American Sportsman. The show that featured Fred Bear shooting a polar bear showed footage of the bear running away with blood all over. Curt Gowdy was on record as saying that single show resulted in a deluge of viewer protests which resulted in ABC deciding to end big game coverage on the show.

This one John?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnj6h6U5yK8

Must have been, but I didn't see too much blood in that one. I do recall reading an interview by Gowdy, and I thought he said it was that hunt that caused the end of big game hunting, but perhaps it was a different hunt.

Well we have been here before. The "impact shots" quoted in the article refers to what ESPN made the shows on that channel use. It eventually went away along with all hunting there.

I personally don't see how just showing the kill shot is in it self bad. What is bad is how some over glorify it with Bubba jumping up and down yelling the stupid stuff they do. This in the end does none of us any good.

As much as I hate to say it the tv hunting shows need some kind of system to meet agreed upon standards of conduct. This is not to mean that we all start calling everything "harvests" but it's the dimwits that will do in the rest of us. I'm sorry but jumping up an down yelling like a bloodthirsty savage isn't the way to act on television.

I believe if you are going to show a hunt on tv or to a large audience it would be best to use that opportunity to portray hunters in a very good light, ethically and conservation oriented.At least doing the show that way, it might not be used against us.

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
As far as Im concerned I don't see this as an earthshaking subject, it is what it is and that's Killing not harvesting game..The real game here is political correctness btw...

To suggest that the Govt or state will outlaw hunting is suggesting were going to have a revolution, to many of us feel hunting is a God given right, even the dumbest of politicians arn't dumb enough to bring that one up. and the bleeding hearts are more of a joke than a threat.

Ray, I surely wish I could agree with you, but the right to hunt is being lost in drips, dribbles and dabs and usually not through the legislative process.

(A well-known exception is the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act that not only bans limited hunting of a growing population of walrus, seals and polar bears, but it also prohibits us from bringing home any part of such creatures that we might have hunted legally in another country.)

Ballot issues have cost hunters the right to hunt bears with hounds in a couple of states, and the right to hunt mountain lions by any method in another. In Arizona, voters severely limited the right to trap on public lands. Our own game department voted to outlaw bait for big game hunting, including bears.

Anti-hunting groups won't go after our right to shoot abundant and widespread species such as deer -- yet. They know better and choose their targets carefully. Look for them to attack limited hunts in urbanized states, such as bighorn and pronghorn hunting in California first.

Hunting in rural states such as yours will come last. Arizona used to be as rural a state as Idaho and Wyoming are now, but we now have 6.4 million people, with only about a million of them living outside Maricopa(Phoenix) and Pima (Tucson) counties.

For most of these urbanites, their experience in the great outdoors has been limited to golf courses, Forest Service and Park Service walking paths, and PBS wildlife "documentaries."

Speaking of TV, at least two generations have grown up watching wildlife fakers spew garbage while "saving the poor animals" every Saturday morning.

If it came to a vote in November, I think you would be shocked at the number of people who would vote to shut down hunting completely here.

We still could defeat a total closure now, but I couldn't predict the outcome if a ballot measure came along in a year or two seeking to close varmint or quail or waterfowl hunting (choose one, because that's what our enemies will do). These pursuits simply don't have that many participants here.

Bill Quimby

Sage words....

I have noticed several show are already eliminating the kill shot. At first I thought the camera guy just missed it but after several times it became clear. They are editing it out on purpose.

It seems that we had clear minds back in the 70's at least when there were no kill shots on TV.What was the point of showing the kill shot to the general public?

quote:

I personally don't see how just showing the kill shot is in it self bad. What is bad is how some over glorify it with Bubba jumping up and down yelling the stupid stuff they do. This in the end does none of us any good.

Courgarz has it right. The laughing and back slapping shows no respect for the animal, and is a huge turn off.

I have said this before and some defend it as tension relief or nervous reaction. IMHO these slobs should learn some self control and programs should edit the offensive actions out.

Yes, the snowflakes that are not allowed to to use the words "he" or "she" in referring to someone will have an awful wake-up call in their first employment in the "real world."

MANY OF YOU DON'T GET IT...and using derogatory words to describe "the other people" just makes it worse.

The "other side" is reading all this garbage and using it in MANY WAYS to work on ways to develop ways to take away your hunting rights, ammo, restrict reloading components and develop regulations to **ck us over. Too many of us are so far over the hill we'll be dead before it happens...hopefully...and just like old men we barf up the "olden times" krap without thinking or even caring of what effect it has for the future hunters.

The majority, or getting close to it, of the WORLDS educated and affluent are getting tired of watching something as large and magnificent as an elephant OR giraffe, or even "bambi" getting blown away in one program and the life history of those critters being depicted in a nature program...then hearing about poaching, white rhino getting near extinction, elephants dying in great numbers due to habitat destruction, human over population, drought and all the other extremes that wipe out populations...and the rest of the human overpopulation are just trying to get something to eat, anyway they can and just keep on reproducing...MINDLESSLY.

You might NOT like what I say, but I guarantee if WE DON'T POLICE OURSELVES the hue and cry will BURY US...AND I ALSO GUARANTEE, there are MORE of "them" than there are of "US".

It never ceases to amaze me that it seems to me all the BS said on this site is like an "old Boys club" with closed doors and only the members are hearing what is said...

THIS IS THE WWW, WORLD WIDE WEB and EVERYONE IS LISTENING IN...there is no such thing as "speaking to the choir"...I wonder how many of you really read and understood the "April Fools Joke" on 4/1 and it "REAL" implications or really care.

Too many equate waving a gun around, blowing away some animal for "sport" and pecker waving with being a hairy legged, manly, cud chewing, "beasty boy"...take a look at extinctions ugly face speedily coming down the road, and YOU'RE just pouring on the NOX.

LUCK???????

quote:

The laughing and back slapping shows no respect for the animal, and is a huge turn off.

This comment and related video clips was raised several years ago but the majority of the AR crowd pissed on it - only now, several years later has it sunk in!

quote:

This comment and related video clips was raised several years ago but the majority of the AR crowd pissed on it - only now, several years later has it sunk in!

Sometimes, people simply do not want to face reality.

Until we police ourselves those that want to take hunting away from us are going to win.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

This comment and related video clips was raised several years ago but the majority of the AR crowd pissed on it - only now, several years later has it sunk in!

Sometimes, people simply do not want to face reality.

Until we police ourselves those that want to take hunting away from us are going to win.

What reality?

From the nutcases who want us to comply withe all their stupid desires?

When one hunts, one kills animals.

That is the reality of it.

They don't like it, they can bloody well go to hell.

These are the same people who are quite happy going to McDonald's to get a burger or to the supermarket to get a steak to cook at home.

Completely ignoring the fact those animals were actually KILLED for their nourishment and enjoyment.

I have given up appeasing those who do not like what we do.

Yes Saeed, but those people out number us, and combined they have more money, than even you and your family!!!!!!

I do not try to appease or really get along with anyone, but you have seen that, it is not new news .to you, but these folks have $$$$$$ and influence.

I don't like it/you don't like it, but they out number us.

I believe I noticed, but could be wrong that you and I are about the same age, 66/67 give or take a month or two, and I am afraid that we will live to see the one thing we have in common, hunting, taken from us I pray to God/Allah that will not happen in our life times, but I fear our enemies have too much of a head start.

quote:

I do not try to appease or really get along with anyone, but you have seen that, it is not new news .to you, but these folks have $$$$$$ and influence.

I don't like it/you don't like it, but they out number us. I fear our enemies have too much of a head start.

The above is the stark and sad reality on the final outcome and as though it hasn't been noticed, it has already taken a foothold through bans on several species!

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:

quote:

I do not try to appease or really get along with anyone, but you have seen that, it is not new news .to you, but these folks have $$$$$$ and influence.

I don't like it/you don't like it, but they out number us. I fear our enemies have too much of a head start.

The above is the stark and sad reality on the final outcome and as though it hasn't been noticed, it has already taken a foothold through bans on several species!

California is a prime example. Sad.

What I find interesting are the kill shots on Fieldsports Britain. Very anti hunting, antigun climate in the UK, yet their show never seems to apologize for the kill.

Without the "kill shot", no one would watch or buy hunting videos. People who want to watch "Bambi" movies, buy Disney. Hunters want to see actual hunting videos where animals are successfully taken.

Maybe a hunting bloopers video could be economically successful? I know I've made my share.

I've noticed that on many TV nature shows, they blur the dead animal being torn apart by predators. How will kids ever fully understand nature if they "blur" the non-PC parts?


BH63

I don't like watching hunting shows where they don't show the impact shot/s.


Like watching a boxing bout with the knockout blow edited out. No conclusion.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

This comment and related video clips was raised several years ago but the majority of the AR crowd pissed on it - only now, several years later has it sunk in!

Sometimes, people simply do not want to face reality.

Until we police ourselves those that want to take hunting away from us are going to win.

What reality?

From the nutcases who want us to comply withe all their stupid desires?

When one hunts, one kills animals.

That is the reality of it.

They don't like it, they can bloody well go to hell.

These are the same people who are quite happy going to McDonald's to get a burger or to the supermarket to get a steak to cook at home.

Completely ignoring the fact those animals were actually KILLED for their nourishment and enjoyment.

I have given up appeasing those who do not like what we do.

Saeed.

I also have given up trying to change the minds of those who do not like what we do, and I now just try to ignore them. Throwing insults at them or trying to shock them only convinces them that we must be stopped.

As an outdoor writer I chased windmills for over a half century while trying to protect our hunting heritage until I realized a few things.

1. The guy who first said we cannot reason prejudice out of someone because it was not reasoned into him was absolutely correct.

2. We lost the war to protect hunting way back when Walt Disney first made cute cartoon animals talk.

3. Not all of our opponents are hypocrites. Their leaders are as passionate about their beliefs as we are of ours. That passion has caused incredible numbers of animal-rights leaders and soldiers to stop eating meat, drinking milk and wearing/using anything made from animals.

4. To many who oppose hunting, saving the life of a single animal is more important than preserving the species. Some of our enemies are on record of saying exactly that.

5. Our foes have warchests, influence and the ability to launch "public service" broadcast and print campaigns that we could never combat effectively.

Bill Quimby

Bill,

You hit the nail on the head with #4. Yes, people are very sympathetic to the plight of a single animal, but don't have the time to think of the whole picture. It is the "do something" disease. "If we could just save this one cat/dog/lion/deer, the world would be a better place. Please give..."

It takes a hell of a lot of thinking and researching to think about a population of animals on a large scale because it engages all of the natural and social sciences. Saving one animal, apparently, only takes clicking "like" on a Facebook page.

An aspect that some on here may have never heard of or thought about, and it is similar to #4 on the list, is that the folks that are so against hunting, go even farther than that.

I remember when U.S. Fish and Wildlife along with other concerned parties made the original proposal to capture the remaining California Condors from the wild to save them from extinction, and these type individuals protested, claiming it would be better to let the species become extinct than do anything to save them.

I have a hard time believing that 22 minutes of video production is ruined by not showing a split second of bullet impact. There's another 21 minutes and 59 seconds of several days of work and effort to be appreciated.

YouTube some of the tacticool hog hunts. Pathetic assholes acting like idiots.


Guys obsessed with shootgasms fall in the same category of those enthralled by cum shots.


Have it your way....

I do not think it is just the kill shot that harms the image of hunting. American Sportsman did show kill shots, I well-remember watching an elephant collapse from a perfect frontal brain shot, and there were many others. There is so much junk video on hunting television shows now. The advent of cameras like the GoPro, with its' wide angle lens, distorts the features of hunters, and accentuates their celebratory antics to the point of nausea. Show after show of grossly obese, poorly groomed, and sloppily dressed bubbas gyrating like fools in front of a wide angle lens after a successful shot paint all of us hunters as mouth-breathing Neanderthals. Add in all the rap-crap audio, and the, "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" bad taste cliches and it is no wonder we are fighting an uphill battle to keep our hunting birthright. We all know the craziness that results from dealing with the adrenalin dump that comes after the animal is down, but it needs to be controlled out of respect for our quarrie and our fellow hunters. "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

In general, I think hunting stories should have stayed where they are told best - in books.

And an elephant drops to a brain shot at the beginning of King Solomaon's Mines. Times and attitudes were different then. Today there is too many high fives and fat good old boys dancing around the dead animal and bragging about turning gophers to red mist. Kills behind high fences. Lions with names. The antis are winning. We are all dying a slow death but it will come eventually. I'm glad I've seen Africa and Alaska when I did as there are far more yesterdays than there will be tomorrows.
Cal

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
In general, I think hunting stories should have stayed where they are told best - in books.

Bingo....

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

This comment and related video clips was raised several years ago but the majority of the AR crowd pissed on it - only now, several years later has it sunk in!

Sometimes, people simply do not want to face reality.

Until we police ourselves those that want to take hunting away from us are going to win.

What reality?

From the nutcases who want us to comply withe all their stupid desires?

When one hunts, one kills animals.

That is the reality of it.

They don't like it, they can bloody well go to hell.

These are the same people who are quite happy going to McDonald's to get a burger or to the supermarket to get a steak to cook at home.

Completely ignoring the fact those animals were actually KILLED for their nourishment and enjoyment.

I have given up appeasing those who do not like what we do.

BINGO!!!

quote:

And an elephant drops to a brain shot at the beginning of King Solomaon's Mines. Times and attitudes were different then. Today there is too many high fives and fat good old boys dancing around the dead animal and bragging about turning gophers to red mist. Kills behind high fences. Lions with names. The antis are winning. We are all dying a slow death but it will come eventually. I'm glad I've seen Africa and Alaska when I did as there are far more yesterdays than there will be tomorrows.

And that Sir, is about as accurate as it gets. Wished it was not that way, but we all came along too late, and we did not make enough of an effort to instill what hunting actually is or means to those coming along after us.

Now we know how the Free Trappers in the Rocky Mountains felt when silk replaced Beaver and how the Buffalo Runners felt when the big herds were gone. We lived at the end of a time.

There will be hunting available for a while in the future, but nothing like that many of us experienced in our lives.