You say toh-may-toe I say toh-mah-to.
Do you guys honestly believe that all of this is staged or could it possibly be that some people might just be cut from a different cloth?
Neither do they. It's all for the camera brother....
After a long hard season I get a little excited after the shot.
Am I grateful for the opportunity and the fact I now have some meat to eat and maybe some antlers to hang on the wall? Sure. But there'll be no high fiving, no fist pumping, no hooting or hollering, no jumping up and down and no talk of "smoking" anything ... until the meats actually IN the smoker.
You read on here how people are disgusted when they see high fives and whooping on TV shows.
I am always excited when in the stand after the shot and at recovery. I'm even more excited if it is a difficult blood trail and I think I might lose the animal then find it.
Every deer my kids have killed through the years, I give lots of high fives, hugs,and make a huge deal out of it.
I think about it sometimes when I'm in the stand how some on here think it is a bad deal and disrespectful to the animal. (Like sticking an arrow through it's heart and lungs is showing due respect.)
I've come to the conclusion that, SCREW you if you don't like it!
Hold your little prayer sessions and silent reflections if you want to and I won't mind at all.
OFFHNTN
I really don't care how others celebrate. I don't care what car they drive, either. Both rate about the same level of importance.
Sometimes guys and gals do amp up their celebrating for the cameras tho.... But I dont let it bother me.
When you find him, go crazy if you want.
I am relieved and thankful when I find the animal and the excitement of the "shot" has subsided by then. to busy admiring the animal to jump up and down, fist pump, etc. If I am with someone else there are the hand shakes, hugs and congratulations...then we get to work. But that is just me.
But....who is to say I might not strip off and move it like Bernie?
I just think that there is a possibility that some of these guys that many consider "over the top" may just be 100% sincere.
I'm OK if it is who you are. It's just awkard if it's not you and you can tell when it isn't. That's why when some guys score they can do a dance and some it's better that they don't because they look foolish (aka Mark Madsen).
I am an extravert.
When I shoot a doe, buck or whatever I get excited.
So do my friends.
Yes there is a lot of excitement! Hollering...yes. High 5s...yes. Video...yes. Whether alone or with buddies all but the high 5s are happening.
I don't believe there is reverence in shooting an animal. I don't worship animals. They are put here for our use. They bring me happiness and food for my family for the year. It's a celebration of life...
On the first "good" buck I killed with my bow- immediately after the shot and watching him run and fall I sat down in my treestand and called my mom. I was 30 yrs old- I still called my mommy and told her the whole story. If there had been someone else there it probably would have been hugs, high fives, handshakes, laughing in disbelief, etc I had been at it a long time without having a successful opportunity at good buck. I was excited.
This season a friend and I stalked a mulie, I made the shot and watched him go down- we shook hands and said "that was awesome", no yelling, high fives, etc. It was still lots of fun, but it wasn't a jump up and down moment. Still a great hunt and great memory. Doesn't it completely depend on the situation? Some hunts require much more of us, some are lifelong dreams, some are the result of great shots made, some the redemption of finding an animal you thought you lost. Celebrate as you see fit in the moment. Live and hunt with reverence AND enthusiasm.
Just thinking about these hunts is getting me going! Man I love hunting, when does the season open again?
I'll admit though, when they truly wig-out I feel a little awkward and embarrassed for the guys. If it was me I'd edit out the scenes where I went all "Stan Potts" after a kill.
elkmtngear's Link
If there's a killin', theres gonna be a "man hug" to follow!
The day I stop feeling excitement and joy, will be the day I hang up my bow for good.
I also ALWAYS give a silent thanks to the Lord
But, that's just me ;)
Best of Luck, Jeff
The person I am thinking of is light years worse than any other I have seen on TV...
I don't mind a nice hand shake and some kind words after finding the animal. I typically get a pretty good adrenline rush after the shot, but making noise and freaking out are not on my list of things to do.
When Elk Reaper shot his bear last year here in Idaho with Dan and I, I couldn't stop farting... Wonder if that would be considered too much celebration? LOL
We do not allow that in our elk camp. You are entitled to drink as much as you want after all the work is done.
By the 6th day, I was having full on conversations with myself, outloud too I think. On the afternoon of the 6th day, I watched 3 bulls come jump in the pond and make their way to within 10 yards of me.
I could hear my heart pound, smell them, feel the water they were splashing land on my face. I watched that arrow fly; for what seemed like an eternity.
You bet your butt I celebrated, something I will never forget. My first elk with a bow!
I put just about every TV personality to shame in the celebration department.
To each his own.
Usually I'm by myself, so I just get a huge smile and wallow in the surreal feeling and awe of the animal
I'm not one to celebrate usually until I find the animal though. I'm just sick usually, worrying about whether the shot was as good as I thought.
However, my buddy shot a great bull in 2010 and we were unsure of the shot, so we waited a timed 45 minutes. My buddy was pretty sick. I somehow just knew we were going to find that elk (and we did, he laid 45 yards away, dead, while we waited forever), and I was GIDDY. I mean, acting like a little school girl. My buddy and I made fools of ourselves while waiting. I made up a bull dance. We were laughing. But of course, completely unscripted, that's just how we felt in the moment
Then when we found the bull, it was completely different. No hollering or hooping. Just huge smiles and exclamations over his size, etc. We were just in awe of that bull
I don't have a problem with anybody acting out their emotions within reason. I'm not a fan of anything done for show, whether it's in the woods or anywhere else in life
Bake
A filmed hunt by it's nature means you're hunting with someone else. With two or more people you are going to have much much more emotion on the site. You turn and see the grin on somebody's face, you have to grin, then giggle, he laughs and it all rolls from there, takes on a life of it's own.
By yourself.... air high fives are awkward....hugs are kind of strange, I may throw my arms in the air, talk to myself a bit maybe. It's not the same. Not that it's a bad thing by any means, I love it. It's just different when you are alone. Solo celebrations, a party of one... everybody goes home early....
I also know some are staged for the camera. They just come off as too forced. I agree, those are not fun to watch.
If you guys are talkin' about Fred, from all I hear it's totally genuinely real passion. He just plain lives and loves to hunt and shoot stuff. After he shoots one he wants to go do it again, right now. I like that. I like when a person can let himself roll around in it a bit.
He's shot a lot of stuff, but I hear he's the same if he's shooting Grizz or shooting prairie dogs, he just loves it. For me, I like seeing a person take great joy in what he does. Too many people live their lives just going through the motions. Sometimes, at the moment, e-motion is where it's all at.
But remember, this is on TV. A lot of people that could see these shows don't hunt. If you don't hunt there is no way you could understand the emotional thing that hunting is. When these people see someone jumping around and laughing after killing an animal, they only see it at face value, a guy acting like a crazed idiot that he killed an animal. And that is ALL they see. They don't see the guy overcome with emotion because he just busted his tail for miles a day for days on end just to have the opportunity to take an animal.
So it does turn me off when I see that. Simply because if your going to be on TV and be one of the faces of hunting that the public sees, you should behave in the most respectful way you can. Have your personal celebration off the camera and act a little more composed in front of it. Because once your in the public eye, your "to each his own" fist pump, hollering, laughing as an animals dies, is not just your own anymore. It now belongs to the general public and represents all us bowhunters.
So next time you think about acting anyway other than very respectful about taking an animals life, take a minute to consider a lesson that my old man taught me.
When I was kid, I could run around the yard and act like the biggest idiot in the world if I wanted. But when we went into PUBLIC and I attempted any such behavior, I was met with a quick smack to the back of the head and a simple statement " ACT LIKE YOU HAVE SOME DAMN SENSE"
This still applies when your an adult.
Just kidding. I don't begrudge the celebrations. Take it with a grain of salt. With that said, I don't ever make a peep. I'm so focused on watching him run away and trying to study the shot that it just doesn't register to celebrate. Another thing, I'm worried about spooking him off. I deer hunt in THICK cover. They are out of sight in two bounds usually. Don't want to gamble on them hearing me and bounding off more.
People's utter disregard for the value of another's life apalls me sometimes.
Good God. Should you be happy you just fulfilled your goal? Of course. There is a lot of adrenaline involved.
Should you act like killing something makes you a big man or the happiest person in the world?
I don't think so.
if you have not been there before act like you have
Exchange teenage daughter with video camera and you get my point.
Please YouTube Mark Madsen Dance and then you will know what I mean...
Obviously I'm kidding - I'm pretty much on board with what most of you guys are saying - watch the animal, concentrate on the recovery and then say a little thank you to the big man upstairs and whoever I "think/feel" was with me during the hunt and if that turns into a little hooping and hollering so be it, but not usually. Just taking the moment in is the best feeling. I like to reflect on the animal whose life I just ended before I get the camera out and start taking the hero shots...but like so many of you have said, to each their own, if it's not hurting anyone else then it's fine by me.
I Am PUMPED!!
I put the Schmackdown on that Mac Daddy thunderchicken!!
Did you see that!!!
I could go on & on quoting verbatim & tell you what the reactions will be for I don't know how many shows.(I know, i don't have to watch them) Same reaction every time! I don't have a problem showing some excitement about a kill but at least wait until you know the animal is dead.It also doesn't have to be on camera. Also, if you spine shoot something, please put another arrow in it right away! I agree with Sage Buffalo. I don't have any reverence for an animal. But I do have respect for them in the way that they are killed; as humanely & quickly as possible. By the way, I don't do "fist bumps" either. I still shake someone's hand.
Maybe I'm sick or something. I came within 63 points of winning a world championship. I didn't dance around the arena pissin and moanin. I just shook the winner's hand and accepted my runner-up buckle. Then I went outside and hit my finger with a hammer.
Twice.
I don't know what the winner did. Went back to CA, I guess.
I had a not quite dead deer kick the crap out of me. I showed him some reverence, allright.
I don't know how you are supposed to act. I can't find a book on it. Maybe M.R. will write one and then we can all know what to do.
In the meantime, I guess I will go on getting whatever is inside one on the outside and then start dragging. If I am lucky, it won't be a long drag and I can silently fist pump the bejeeprs out of myself in the truck.
I don't care what you do but I won't stand around and watch someone make an idiot out of themself or take my hat off while you thank God for creating an animal so you could kill it. Never could figure that one out but I aint an Indian.
You can't depend on much a Shoshone will tell you. They want you to be happy and tell you whatever they think you want to hear. But living on the Wind River will do that to you.
We all figure a deer is second cousin to an elk and an elk is and earth animal so thank Tam Segobia. Most of us don't like bears. It's all good at the pass.
Lineman, if I had been elk hunting several years and had not killed one, I would celebrate, too. It takes a lot of gumption to elk hunt several years and not kill anything, enjoyable as it may be.
I can tell you, the last one Ikilled, my first thought was "Oh Shazam, look where that sucker fell. It has to be 1.500 feet out of here."
There was no celebration and the camera was running. My comment on tape was, "Always shoot small elk."
The idiots on hunting shows often forget that they are representing more than just themselves in front of a national audience.
What I have a HUGE issue with, is when the hootin', high fiving and fist pumps start immediately upon arrow entering flesh. In Tom Mirandas videos, his typical MO is, Thunk..whack."GOT HIM, CENTRAL CANADA BARREN GROUND CARIBOU!! HE'S A GIANT!!" all as the perforated beast is still running away, even after some BAD hits. One of the caribou was hit about 4" in front of the hind quarter and he was still doing the "GOT HIM" routine.
Makes me cringe a bit...
P.S. Just got back from taking a kid ice fishing & we "High -Fived" & we Celebrated! Celebrate with Style!
It is all about having fun. If it is a spiritual experience that makes it worth while then by all means make it that. If it is bonding with family and friends then go that route. Me and my friends are goof balls but we have a hell of a lot of fun in camp. It makes it fun. Do whatever makes hunting enjoyable because when it boils down to it, w are all out hunting because it is fun!
Just not my style. "act like you're been there before" is my style.
My "TAG LINE" on most sites is: "It's the hunt, not the kill" and when I make the kill I re-live the hunt and all the season long work.
good luck to all the dog
Only time I ever really whooped and hollered was when my buddy and I took our first elk. It took years of hunting together, he took the shot, but we tracked it and found it together and I hollered at the top of my lungs.
For example, my good friend got a cheap camera back in 1999. The deal was, however shot their deer first, they would film the other one. On opener he got a buck and the following week he filmed me. I had a nice 2-3 year old 8 pointer come in and was 25 yards on the edge of a cornfield. He couldn't get the camera to focus on the deer because he had it on auto focus and it was focusing on the leaves in front of the buck. The footage is all over the place and I call it the 'Deer Which', but the audio is hillarious. You hear the whack of my arrow hitting the buck and the footage gets even worse. My friend was so shook up he turned the video to himself briefly stating I just shot a nice buck and then proceeds to tell me he loves me. I was the calm and collected one, but still very happy, and he was just as excited as I, if not more. Unfortunately there was no hero footage as I hit the shoulder and we couldn't find the deer and obviously nothing to reveal on the video since it looks like someone is filming a ride on a tilt-a-whirl. The audio is priceless.
My celebration is a Quiet prayer for the animal Harvested ( a kill can be a kill without a recovery) .
HAVEST ENTAILS MUCH MORE THAN A kILL .
My Opinion = is the more harvested with bow....the the less the Vocal or animated celebration will be .
JMO. To each his own.
YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE IN THE WOODS....SHOW SOME CONSIOUSNESS ANd COMMON SENSE ...
great reason why "some do not " get on my ranch to hunt.
As bad as leaving gates open .... or trash in the woods There is an impact ..!!!!!
Noise is Pollution
EP,
Don't worry, I pick up all of my noise and take it out with me.
Having someone with you at the moment of truth definately causes a little more emotion to be let out. I know when my wife or I film each other shooting something we get a little more visibly excited than normal. To me it feels liberating to let go a little after the moment of truth. When I'm by myself I don't do it as much because it's just different. Plus for those of you who film you know how difficult it can be to get a good kill on camera, and it just makes it that much more exciting when you do.
All that said I do think there is quite a bit of acting some of these guys do, and it can get a little annoying. Makes me chuckle just thinking about it. Stan Potts after shooting a 125" "OOOOOHHHHH Boy just gimme a second" Come on bro you just whacked your 142nd buck and it's 50" smaller than what you just missed the day previous. Oh well......
Some people are more outgoing and have no problem being the center of attention. Others are more reserved and pretty much keep their emotions to themselves. I think this pretty much determines how we view "celebrations".
I enjoy watching someone display true emotion, but I don't enjoy it when someone seems to be playing to the camera. To me, there is a huge difference between someone enjoying the moment and someone acting like they're having an epileptic fit.
For one moment when everything you've prepared for starts to come together, and you know that there are a million ways for it to go wrong. You remain focused, over a heart that feels like a hammer in your neck, and beats so loud in your ears that you can barley make out your own thoughts. You can't wipe the sweat from your brow, because one hand is shaking in your grip while the other settles in behind your jaw bone. The determination that got you to where you are, allows you one split second to pull it all together and do what you've taught yourself to do. You stop breathing and pull. The 340 inch bull elk you've been stalking for days finally knows your arrow, and lays down next to an old pine to draw it's final breath. Right now words are hard to find.
If this doesn't even inspire a high five, what's the point. I don't celebrate the actual killing of the animal, I celebrate the experience, and I celebrate that i have met a challenge that I set for myself.
I agree with wyobullshooter,epileptic fits might be taking it a little too far, but maybe not, but a fist bump and high five are just fine with me, hell I've even seen a couple guys that could break me half (and I'm not a little guy) cry like babies, and believe me, it wasn't for a camera.
Of course if you go to the same tree stand and shoot 12" wide 4x4 white tail every year, you wouldn't have much to celebrate, so it might be a little tough to explain to you.
to act like it's their first animal ever on every single freaking kill is in a word....pathetic!!!!
I'm almost afraid to ask but....How?
Methinks that this guy was drinking the SACRED spirit prior to posting......
Little button at the upper right corner of your post (looks like a pencil). You can delete all the wording in your posts (your handle will still appear with a blank post).
kellyharris's Link
As for acting like I have been there before I have killed over 100 deer so yes I have been there many times all with some sort of celebration in one form or another.
NOISE POlLUTION? Well I can see that being said but when you can hear neighbors talking from their farms or folks on ATV talking loud to each other to get over the engine noise well I have seen deer stop for a moment then about 1 minute later go on as nothing had happened. I dont put to much emphasis on noise pollution myself. as long as it is not over an extended period of time.
I remember hearing my cousin shoot a deer as we were hunting about 70 yards apart one on each side of a ridge. The deer makes it to the top of the ridge and falls over! All of a sudden I hear "BoooooYAH" I couldnt help but belly laugh at his excitement and tone when that happened. If you ask him other than his kids being born it was one of the best days of his life.
Here is a video of me grunting and videoing in a buck for my cousin Erik. The deer falls in under 7 seconds "Yes 50% quicker than Pats :0)" But you can hear us laughing at how successful that kill was and how quick also. No screaming or yelling but definitley celebrations!!!!
Life is short and can be AWESOME if you just take the time to let go of the prude in you and celebrate lifes achievements!!!
I mean, he/she didn't wake up that day and say, you know what I am going to let someone shoot me today...
I grew up killing and butchering rabbits, 100 in a day at times. Not remote control like with a rifle or a bow, with a club and a knife while you hold them in your hands. 200 Pheasant hens in a day. Pigs, cattle, seems "everything that walks or crawls at one time or another...."
You try not to name things on a farm becasue at some point you may have to do the deed and eat them too.
Those lives are not any more or less special than a deer or elk or what have you, a life is a life is a life. I'm not gonna pray over every one of them, all I owe them is as quick clean death as possible. I hit a switch and then get the job done. The knives come out and you get to work.
I give my thanks at meals. Whether I took that life to eat or someone else in the chain did. That one life itself is just one of thousands. That you actually took it yourself or not is of no real importance, especially to the animal. You're eating it, your life becomes it's final purpose.
It didn't give it's life....you took it.
I think the animal would be slightly more offended by having an arrow shoved up is arse, than a high five afterwards.
If someone ever kills me for sport or food, she better celebrate. TD
I grew up on a farm too, had to eat "Baby" one year, that was the last cow I I ever named, I don't think it mattered much to her that I killed her rather than the butcher, I was just there when she broke her leg.
Animals are on this earth for our use. They shouldn't be mistreated/abused, but they shouldn't have shrines built in their honor either. They are not humans, it is not murder.
Yes, and you can show a little respect and display a little humility for the animal instead of dancing around yelling and screaming like an idiot wide receiver who just scored the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl. Far too many people are hunting these days for all the wrong reasons.
Personally, I have done different things depending on how I felt.....at times I have shouted loud because I was excited, and other times I'm very quiet about it. Usually depends on how much work I put into it, after a long stalk or hard day I'm more excited, but if I walk 100 feet to my treestand and happen to shoot something right away I'm not as pumped up.
No matter the initial reaction I always say a little prayer once I find the animal, giving thanks for the chance to hunt and harvest and also thanks that the animal died a quick death. Also, we always give a toast to the animal when we are eating it.
I agree with what others have said.....the day I stop getting "that feeling" is the day I hang up my bow for good.
Do Amish hunters (who have never watched TV), jump, hoot, and holler after killing a deer?
Something to ponder...
elkmtngear's Link
I do not have TV.
When some of you guys killed your first buck, did you really just silently ponder what you had done??
Outwitting and killing big game with archery tackle makes me feel 15 again! I will apologize for my enthusiasm beforehand, if I am ever lucky enough to share a campfire with any of you.
Best of Luck, Jeff
Yes, I did. It's the way I was brought up and the way I was taught to hunt from the time I was old enough to tag along ... about 5 years old.
Some guys do, some guys don't( I did). My point was that each persons real personality may be different from anothers. But I believe most are going overboard now because they think they "have to" (on camera).
I just want people to be real, whatever real is for that person.
