most of us who pursue elk with a passion know how grueling it can be,but to those of you that have been watching the fairy tale elk video's out there on the market every year,have a rude awakening when it comes to hunting these truly incredible animals that we have come to love so much.the fact of the matter is to those of you who don't already know,these animals are on private ranches with manmade waterholes,foodplots,and so on & so on.its never as easy as it looks.just for example(i'll not mention names)a friend of mine was invited to elk hunt on a private ranch where also a very well known group of hunters were filming their hunts for a video.the owner was already gone on business when my friends hunt ended so when he returned home and after a couple days he contacted the owner about how impressed with the ranch and quality of animals that he had experianced while he was there,he then asked about returning the next year to hunt also,he was then informed that the video crew had been unhappy with the other hunters beeing there and having to share the ranch with them so they purchased all the tags that the ranch would recieve for the 2008 season,enough said!!! all comments welcome.

Sad thing about hunting nowadays.  Money talks, and you know the rest....

Had a great deer lease in Texas for $350 a year (very reasonable I might add!) New guy takes over the ranch and bumps the price to a grand a year.  Before the guys on the lease had a chance to respond, it was filled with guys from Houston (350 miles away).

Brett

Don't ya wish ya had the money to do that? Be honest.
 Like the hunter that complains about all the land is being posted around him so he buys a plot of land to hunt on himself and posts it of course.
 We the hunters are the ones keeping the video crews in business and it sounds like they're doing pretty well.

While your friend might not be happy about being bumped off the client list let's face it, for a farmer or rancher running their operation as a business I find no fault with looking at the bottom line. In the past the same thing has happened to me and while I admit I was put out, having a small farm operation myself I fully understand the decision on the ranchers part. It's a free market and if he can bring a higher price he has the fiscal responsiblity to his family's security to consider that decision.

An elk is my favorite animal to bowhunt.  I know how hard elk bowhunting really is and I am not a "hunter.... keeping the video crews in business".  I just laugh whenever I happen to catch one of the mentioned shows, if visiting somebody with cable TV or if the RMEF sends a free video my way, knowing that it is entertainment and not hunting that 99% of us experience.  That includes ol Wilbur's "The Truth" series.  I can't even watch for 5 minutes, before remembering something else I have to do.........

HONEY?? WHERE'S THE POPCORN???

Merry Christmas everyone!  

me and a friend of mine lost a deer lease we had for 6 years. the owner did'nt ever bother to tell us until august. i month before our deer season. no time to find any more land.

                         b-dog

(got my popcorn and soda ready - well actually oatmeal and coffee)    

It's unfortunate to see how a passion for hunting becomes an opportunity to make money and an obsession to be famous for killing the biggest (insert animal here). They all start out the same way. "Gee, if I get some sponsors, I can finally go hunting for (insert lifelong dream here)" Then it turns into a business, once they find out what it takes to put a film together. After all, if they want to make a living at it, they better please the sponsors and increase their odds of killing a magnificent animal. You see these videos of (insert personality here) when they first started out, and through the years, they become someone I'm quite sure they were not, when they first started hunting. It becomes a numbers game. They are under pressure from their sponsors, and whatever network their show is on, to produce, produce, produce!

One needs only to see a commercial for that special layered archery target, to see how they are willing to pimp themselves out, in order to continue being "pro" hunters. It changes their train of thought when it comes to hunting. The sad part is that they are perfectly nice people, for the most part, but they have that show that they need to get in the can, and they do whatever it takes.

I'll end by saying this. There is hope. The one good ol' boy from Georgia (initials are MW) has really taken a shine to shooting a recurve! All of his other challenges have been met, for the most part. I believe he has found something fun again. I have often thought of sending someone like him a wooden bow and some wooden arrows, along with a note that says: "Here...take this and become proficient with it, have fun with it, and then go hunt with it. No need to film it."

Well there's my final rant of sorts for the year...

I don't see anything positive coming out of this topic guys and can't tie it to trad bowhunting.