I probably should have just put this in the Rockpile, but Dan Steinberg pointed me to this blog post of his in the Washington Post. Coming from Northwest Colorado, deer hunting is a vital part of the local economy, so I'm probably less cynical of this then my otherwise Northeast liberal bias might suggest. The trailer emphasizes the gore element and that's a turn off, but the target audience is obviously not me.
This all started via Helton, a huge duck-hunting enthusiast. About a year and a half ago, Robertson flew out to Colorado to meet him, and was then introduced to several of Helton's hunting teammates. Robertson's family knows a thing or two about hunting videos--"I've had the number one waterfowl video at Wal-Mart eight years in a row; I know how to sell videos," he told me--and a few months later, Robertson and his MLB friends got to talking about branching out from ducks to deer.
The whole Duckmen/beard thing suddenly explains a lot about how Helton suddenly fancies his facial growth, though, so at least that mystery's solved.