I just saw a short video of Jim Shockey bowhunting the L & L Preserve in Texas for whitetails. On this episode he's "spot and stalk" hunting. So, he and his camera man "stalk" up to within 20-30yrds of this big 10pt, who just looks at them. Jim draws, but the buck just goes back to feeding and he shoots him in the gut! They found him using dogs that night. I can understand a bad shot, but what's up with a mature 10pt not running from 2 very obvious humans? I mean this buck didn't pay them any real attention at all. This HAD to be a somewhat tame deer. Yep, Mr Shockey let me down. Anyone else see this show?
Actually Sota, Jim Shockey got his start simply as a trophy whitetail hunting guide a lot years ago. He didn't get into the TV aspect of his career until much later on. I actually spoke to him on the phone about 15 years ago regarding a hunt.
I watched it (I am laid off right now with lots of down time). He kept saying stuff like "I've never seen anything like this" and "This is amazing". I thought preserve deer do that, not wild free range whitetails. Shameful he tried to pass those off as truly wild deer.
This is so true, and that's why he's lost my respect. I only ever watched him on "fair chase" hunts in the past, never at a petting zoo. That's why I was shocked (pun). lol
If this place was 15,000 acres of free range I can see the deer acting like this especially if all they do is drive around and not pressure the deer to much. It really didn't cause me to lose any respect fpr him. Bottom line is he still has a show to put on.
Here's my point. I don't care how many acres you have and how little the deer are disrupted, any "healthy", "normal" whitetail is going to run from you when you get within their "comfort zone". This didn't happen.
To me is doesn't matter if it is 15 or 15000 acres. Most these deer are hand fed / pen raised and then released later (into a bigger pen ). This is why I speculate he was able to get so close without the deer blowing out of there. Some guys will do what ever it takes to get good footage...
I wouldn't say that's 100% true. There's plenty of videos out there of people getting extremely close to wild whitetails without them spooking. On of our own guys, Tyler Rector, got within spitting distance of a whitetail last summer and filmed the entire thing. Just because the animal didn't run doesn't mean it was tame. Jim Shockey has worked for decades to build his name and his brand in the hunting industry. I don't believe that he would ever go on a truly canned hunt and risk alienating his fans or advertisers. Being Texas I have no doubt it was a "high fence" ranch most likely several thousand acres in size yet far from shooting fish in a barrel.
I'm not a high fence supporter by any means but there's a huge difference between those two. Most wild whitetails live within a few hundred acre area they never leave. Living within a 15,000 acre enclosure is for all intents and purposes almost the same thing. Not true at all. There's hundreds, maybe thousands, of deer within those large enclosures. They most certainly aren't all hand raised and let go. The vast majority of them are born within the enclosure and live their entire life there. And some guys will speculate on what another person did or didn't do without having any real proof and then bash them on the Internet. Again, I'm certainly not pro-high fence in the typical sense of things. But in the case of some of these massive ranches in Texas it really isn't anything like what most guys picture in their head.
Justin, I agree with most of what you said, but this was a large mature 10pt buck, that under "normal" circumstances wouldn't have let these two guys get anywhere near him, let alone within 20-30yrds in the open. It's like I mentioned previously, I'm not used to seeing Jim Shockey go after anything except completely wild animals.
I can see why you would defend a fellow "production" hunter but us as viewers are supposed to suspend belief in what we see on TV vs what we see real deer do in the wild? Not like there are not TV hunters who are frauds and liars and sell out for the highest sponsorship $ are there? TV hunting is garbage and an insult to anyone with intelligence. TV hunters whispering to their camera man as a big buck approaches? Reverse camera angles as the guy is tracking the deer? The catchphrases and the schilling of products? I know some people enjoy it but there is only so much suspending belief I can do to watch TV.
