An interesting opinion on social media impact on hunting

[willy]

Opinion: Unfollowing Hunting Social Media Will Make Hunting Better

Matt Rinella explains why he thinks hunters should shun social media and only share hunting photos with loved ones and IRL friends.

freerangeamerican.us

I agree with many points he makes and have thought many of them for a long time.

 

[SD51555]

Opinion: Unfollowing Hunting Social Media Will Make Hunting Better

Matt Rinella explains why he thinks hunters should shun social media and only share hunting photos with loved ones and IRL friends.

freerangeamerican.us

I agree with many points he makes and have thought many of them for a long time.

Excellent article. I've also been having more mixed feelings lately about where all this is going, and what is being done with what we post. I've been guilty of what that dude wrote about, and I think he's right. It's time for a change before things get any worse.

 

[SwampCat]

I agree with some of what he is saying, but I also think some of what he is saying is maybe a little mis-guided jealousy over his brother’s success in the hunting industry.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I absolutely love him saying this. He is my new hunting “hero”. If you listen to the new meateater podcast skip to an hour and a half in and he lays into his brother and the brand. I was smiling like a school girl.

 

[Bill Loser]

That is a great article. Very true.
To say he is jealous of his brother is disingenuous at best, and possibly illustrates some of what he wrote about.
I think he is 100% correct. Ive seen it for years. Hunters only hunting so they can show what they killed . Hunters always wanting to kill more so they can prove what a great hunter they are.
For myself, this site is the closest i get to social media, i dont tweet, i dont Instagram or Facebook or any of those . I very rarely even post kill picks via text, unless its my kids. I dont watch many hunting shows regularly, though i do watch meateater because I do think thats a good show, that shows all sides of hunting and is brutally honest with all.
Hunting and fishing has become nothing more than a swinging dick competition.

 

[sandbur]

I agree with some of what he says.

I do think that when a nice buck is killed the focus should be on that unique buck and not the hunter. Too many of us, self included, are too focused on glory for ourselves.

The scoring of antlers and the push for mature bucks are somewhat responsible for this, as well as nearly all of us on this forum.

I feel we need to maintain respect and value for each deer we kill, either young or old.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I agree with some of what he says.

I do think that when a nice buck is killed the focus should be on that unique buck and not the hunter. Too many of us, self included, are too focused on glory for ourselves.

The scoring of antlers and the push for mature bucks are somewhat responsible for this, as well as nearly all of us on this forum.

I feel we need to maintain respect and value for each deer we kill, either young or old.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only thing I disagree with is the push for mature bucks. That should absolutely be a focus because it represents proper management, something we as hunter should shoulder the burden on trying to achieve.
The problem with hunters and more largely, society is we have all become “whores” for attention. It’s a look at me society now. Hardly anyone can do anything without seeking attention, at its core i think a lot of people are insecure and that is where social media fills a niche for those folks.

 

[H20fwler]

I agree, I stopped posting trail cam pics of big bucks and kill pics of my deer even on this site.

I know for a fact that a few from my area scout to see what I have going on.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Having spent some time out west…if we think it’s bad here it’s magnified 10x out west where it is largely public. Not to mention you aren’t epic if you don’t backcountry hunt bro! Do it for the ‘gram.

 

[Bill Loser]

Only thing I disagree with is the push for mature bucks. That should absolutely be a focus because it represents proper management, something we as hunter should shoulder the burden on trying to achieve.
The problem with hunters and more largely, society is we have all become “whores” for attention. It’s a look at me society now. Hardly anyone can do anything without seeking attention, at its core i think a lot of people are insecure and that is where social media fills a niche for those folks.

I agree and disagree with all of this.
Disagree to the point that the focus of your hunt SHOULD be what makes you happy not what others believe should make you happy.
Agree with everyting else!

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I agree and disagree with all of this.
Disagree to the point that the focus of your hunt SHOULD be what makes you happy not what others believe should make you happy.
Agree with everyting else!

I do think we should feel the responsibility of being good stewards of the resource and proper management falls under that umbrella.

 

[Bill Loser]

I agree. But, being good stewards of the land and the resource does not necessarily I mean you have to only kill big bucks. That is not what hunting should be all about. If that is what you want to do that is great. But if it's not the goal of others that's great also. Neither is any better or worse than the other it's just different viewpoints. But that is not what this thread is about

 

[homerj1]

Only thing I disagree with is the push for mature bucks. That should absolutely be a focus because it represents proper management,

According to whom?

 

[Troubles Trees]

I also agree with much of what he says, I do think he leaves some aspects out though. I have left many of the hunting groups due to a high amount of disrespectful commenters that seem to judge everyone else by their own fortunate circumstances. Although I let the little ones walk I wasn't always hunting with that mindset. I was more of a fill the freezer hunter with a lot of mouths to feed back then. My entire early 20's I lived on a diet of venison, Ramen Noodles and beer :)
Seeing so many bash on crossbows comparing them to rifles and don't belong in "their regular bow season" while they're hunting with a hybrid compound that has a trigger release, 80% letoff and rangefinders built into their sights bothered me. People shaming other hunters for taking what they consider too small of a buck turns my stomach so I left most of the hunting groups.

On a positive note, for many of us hunting has also evolved into buying land and planting/maintaining habitat that creates longer stretches of food sources that keep the critters nourished during otherwise high stress periods. Hunters didn't buy/plant trees and create food plots back in the day, at least not to the extent we do today and some media (like here) encourages and enhances that.

I did find it a bit hypocritical that at the bottom of that article, in the description of the author, he encourages the reader to "follow him" on social media lol

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

According to whom?

Science…

 

[homerj1]

Science…

lol

 

[SwampCat]

He definately gives a false impression of hunting private land out west. I have hunted some private on a couple of different occasions, and I have yet to find an elk half as tame as a cow. He makes it sound like if you dont hunt public, you are cheating. I guess I havent found the right piece of private land yet. We hunted a 27,000 acre ranch a few years ago that backed up to the Gila NF. The only elk that were killed were by the folks who had a Gila permit. A lot of private land sees hunters on it all season long.

 

[hillrunner]

I also agree with much of what he says, I do think he leaves some aspects out though. I have left many of the hunting groups due to a high amount of disrespectful commenters that seem to judge everyone else by their own fortunate circumstances. Although I let the little ones walk I wasn't always hunting with that mindset. I was more of a fill the freezer hunter with a lot of mouths to feed back then. My entire early 20's I lived on a diet of venison, Ramen Noodles and beer :)
Seeing so many bash on crossbows comparing them to rifles and don't belong in "their regular bow season" while they're hunting with a hybrid compound that has a trigger release, 80% letoff and rangefinders built into their sights bothered me. People shaming other hunters for taking what they consider too small of a buck turns my stomach so I left most of the hunting groups.

On a positive note, for many of us hunting has also evolved into buying land and planting/maintaining habitat that creates longer stretches of food sources that keep the critters nourished during otherwise high stress periods. Hunters didn't buy/plant trees and create food plots back in the day, at least not to the extent we do today and some media (like here) encourages and enhances that.

I did find it a bit hypocritical that at the bottom of that article, in the description of the author, he encourages the reader to "follow him" on social media lol

I think you missed the joke. It said to follow him but listed nowhere that you could.

 

[SwampCat]

That is a great article. Very true.
To say he is jealous of his brother is disingenuous at best, and possibly illustrates some of what he wrote about.
I think he is 100% correct. Ive seen it for years. Hunters only hunting so they can show what they killed . Hunters always wanting to kill more so they can prove what a great hunter they are.
For myself, this site is the closest i get to social media, i dont tweet, i dont Instagram or Facebook or any of those . I very rarely even post kill picks via text, unless its my kids. I dont watch many hunting shows regularly, though i do watch meateater because I do think thats a good show, that shows all sides of hunting and is brutally honest with all.
Hunting and fishing has become nothing more than a swinging dick competition.

I thought he could of got his same points across without mentioning his brother at all. And if he thinks social media is responsible for vast areas of land being leased or responsible for high access fees, he must have not hunted much out west before social media got big. We paid access fees on private land in Wyoming back in the 60’s. I have bird hunted in the great plains from the 80’s up until about 2010, and outfitters were leasing tens of thousands of acres in the 90’s. And daily access fees were the norm.

I dang sure am not blessing social media - it has gotten out of hand. But social media is probably largely responsible for the increase of bringing women and some youth into hunting, it is largely responsible for a lot of the emphasis of hunting mature bucks, and a lot of the shows do have some clips here and there of habitat improvements that are responsible for providing the good hunting that is enjoyed on the area.

Heck, probably a lot of you are too young to remember when Eastman Hunting movies were shown in movie theaters around the country back in the 60’s. Me and my dad planned our first western mule deer hunt after watching one of their movies in the movie theater. How long have Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, and Sports Afield magazines been in circulation? Sports Afield magazine was first sold in 1888. These outdoor magazines were the social media before facebook and hunting forums. They all had where to go sections - and we planned a number of hunting and fishing trips based on those articles.

There are a lot of reasons our public lands and resources have been inundated with hunters - social media definitely being one of the reasons - one of the many.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I agree, I stopped posting trail cam pics of big bucks and kill pics of my deer even on this site.

I know for a fact that a few from my area scout to see what I have going on.

This is the exact reason I got an instagram account. I love trout fishing and have fished most of the streams in my area that hold good fish. I have on many occasions been able to pinpoint where a certain big fish was caught because of what is in the background of the picture. I don't post much on there and would never post a big fish pic where someone else may be able to tell where it was caught.