Sarah Palin's 'rookie' hunting gaffes

Sarah Palin says a successful hit is a &quot;great feeling of accomplishment.&quot;

(Image credit: TLC/ Gilles Mingasson)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: The latest episode of the reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska" has raised questions over the former Republican vice presidential candidate's skills as a hunter. (See clip below.) At the end of a two-day hunting trip with her father and a family friend, Palin shoots a caribou — but not before missing four shots, and making a string of what the Los Angeles Times terms "rookie mistakes." A commenter on Palin's Facebook page criticized her for letting her father load her gun, saying any "true hunter" can load her own shells. Other hunters expressed shock that Palin immediately put her finger on the trigger of a loaded rifle as it was handed to her — a safety no-no. But many Palin fans raved about the episode, and echoed the words of her father, who said, "When Sarah shot the caribou, I thought 'That's my girl.'"

The reaction: "Palin's hunting-for-TV jamboree certainly impressed the hockey moms," says Abe Sauer in The Awl, but "it seriously eroded her base of genuine hunters." To many avid outdoors-types, it looked like the former Alaska governor hadn't "handled a gun many times," and her bumbling caribou hunt made her look like a "phony." Nonsense, says Kathleen McKinley in Tubular. It was "very sweet" to get a glimpse at this father-daughter hunting trip. And Palin showed her mettle on the "cold, rough, rugged" tundra. This is "why Sarah is so tough." Watch Palin in action below: