There is a lot of sheperds out there because there are a lot of sheep out there! I was talking to the owner of my shop one day about a product he was carry (no names mentioned) and he told me he carried it because people are buying it. It is amazing what some hunters will spend their money on in an attempt to fool a big buck.
It doesn't bother me for me because if I decide to buy something I generally have a good reason and/or sound research to support my decision. However, it does bother me for the new guys who really don't and can't know any better. If you were brand new to deer hunting and were just trying to learn how to kill a deer, then I can't imagine how often your head would spin around like a helicopter rotor trying to figure out who is being honest and who is hoping to shoot you with a ball of your own excrement. Honestly, if you watch hunting show after hunting show and read magazine after magazine you could enter the woods thinking that with your scent can in hand and your $500 "scentless" outfit on you cannot fail. What a joke. And it is worse for other game animals. Elk hunting for instance. Many less resources out there to get info from. You could enter the woods with your new elk bugle and cow call and have no idea why they aren't running up to you every 5 minutes. In short, yes, it bothers me sometimes.
I see your point Atlas, but what I get sick of is the manufactured 180-200" bucks on outfitting property. and i get sick of the over kill on QDM and the aging of every single buck in the woods...
Didn't even mention "pro shops".........but they are right near the top of the list. For many new hunters/archers they will have a HUGE influence......unfortunately a lot of times it's a terrible influence. I see a lot of guys taking the "buyer beware" approach and I find that incredibly odd.........as if the consumer is to blame for being dumb enough to buy useless junk......REALLY??? you guys have no problem with companies flat out lying about their products and targeting hunters collectively as a bunch of uneducated desperate fools?? It bothers the hell out of me that a guy could go out and buy a bow that doesn't shoot anywhere near what speeds it says it does.....use broadheads that are doomed to fail/wound whatever they are shot at.....buy clothes that neither help him blend in nor hide his scent......and have a bag full of stuff like attractant scents, calls, "archers" rangefinders etc....all about as useful as a rubber crutch. It bothers me that EVERY product on the hunting shelves has a picture of a HUGE buck on the tag...........lowest common denominator in marketing like that is a DUMB target audience........no different then hot chicks selling beer. I personally know a guy who was getting some GREAT footage for a lighted nock company and all he asked in return was free nocks. They were SLAMMING great shots on loads of deer and all well filmed.....showed the product performance PERFECTLY. The company told them after 2 years that if they didn't start shooting bigger bucks they had no use for their footage........WTF??? My buddy says "How the hell does the size of the buck matter to someone shooting a lighted nock??.....it's not like the nock had anything to do with bringing him in?".....the answer he got was "We don't want our product associated with shooting small bucks in todays hunting world" He has showed me a bunch of their "money shots" that they use to push their product now and it was terrible......parade of gut shots and shoulder hits......but all on nice big bucks.......it's disheartening to think we are so narrow minded and gullable. There is a BIG difference in some company saying "our stands are the best!!".......something that is at least open for discussion and is really more opinion then fact...........and companies saying their bow shoots XXXfps, our suit lets you forget the wind and just hunt 360 after a spin cycle in your magic dryer, and putting thousands of gallons of "fresh" doe pee on the shelves every year even though no one knows of any production facilities even capable of producing that volume. These companies prey on people who view hunting with a lottery mentality.......they know they aren't gonna win spending that money on a ticket/gadget.........but what if they DID!!!! Then everyone wondered why Snickers portrayed hunters the way they did in that commercial
I agree, but it's the same reason we do not see fat chicks in a bikini in car ads Sex sells and big bucks are peer sex in the hunting world:evil:
