Hunting Pornography

No, this isn't about looking very hard for porn, this is about the direction that much of the media in the hunting industry is going and has been for quite some time.

This year's hunting season is pretty much over for me.  I still have a tag and there is time left for muzzle-loader or late gun season, but I happily took a doe a few weeks ago and between that and my antelope I'm set for meat.  It was a tougher season than most as for whatever reason I just wasn't seeing as many deer as I often have.

I get several hunting magazines.  Some I subscribe to or get through other memberships, and I've recently started to get a few more that I assume are showing up gratas in the hopes I will love them and pay money to continue in the future (I won't).
I enjoy reading magazines early in the morning with my coffee, but I am finding myself reading less and less of the material in the hunting periodicals.  There are always a few articles I find compelling or stories of hunts that are interesting, but much of what is written approaches fiction.

Hunting magazines have become analogous to what porn is to real personal relationships.

Too many writers (or hunting personalities/celebrities -ugh), will espouse an ethos that if just xx is done, big bucks will come rolling out of the hills and walk into the crosshairs.  Or, if you buy yy product and use zz tactic, the biggest baddest bear in the area will gleefully appear ready to take a bullet.
Pure fiction.

To be fair, I do believe almost every area, no matter how heavily hunted will hold a few impressive animals.  But most of us mere mortals are hunting public land or if lucky enough to be on private land, it will still be hunted hard enough that having a decent shot at a decent animal can be an awesome experience.  With hard work, time put in, and a lot of luck, most of us mere mortals will have rare opportunities to see animals like the porn stars that grace the glossy pages of the hunting magazines.

I would also like to see more screw-ups admitted, bringing more reality to hunting fiction.  Every hunter I know has more moments that end in expletives, than blood.

I don't pay for TV at home, but do occasionally find myself watching the rare hunting show while somewhere else.  These are an even more exploitative form of hunting porn.  While on a guided hunt several years ago, I found myself talking to a minor hunting celebrity (he was actually a really nice guy).  He freely admitted that much of the footage used in the industry is restaged for effect or combined from completely unrelated time lines.  I have seen examples of this where lighting changes dramatically from scene to scene, making it appear what happened in a brief period was actually done at much different times and different places (in one example, the hunter must have changed clothes and sponsors mid-hunt).

To industry insiders, hunting is an industry, a job.  They have a product to sell, whether it is a do-dad from a sponsor or the porn itself.
I'll continue to get magazines for the interesting bits in them and skim the rest; the cost is relatively small. More importantly, I'll continue to enjoy real hunting, with the long wonderful days with little animal movement, the screw-ups and missed opportunities and the times it all comes together to put meat in the freezer.