Ok, here goes, and I hope I can skin out this issue a little bit, know it's probably been talked about already some'
About 4-5 years ago, when I was laid up a bit during a winter, I discovered the plethora of hunting videos on You tube. I was in hunting heaven, getting to see new country and watch other hunters match wits with bull elk. I am a die hard bow hunter, had my day of rifle hunting and it got old and too easy, so about all i watched was bow hunting videos. This went on for several years, but the last couple of winters, something just didn't sit right in the ole gut. It's not anything against the guys doing it personally, because they all pretty much come across as ethical stand up guys.
So, what was it? What was sticking in my craw? What i was picking up on more and more was the theory of " hey guys, we are going to show you how to do it, gear to use, the states where we are doing it, ...and come one, come all to the woods". They build a following on You tube, some even enough to do it full time, year round. Their sponsors are eating it up, exposure means more sales, more money. On the backside of it, states are ran by revenue also, and wildlife and hunting in general is popular and provides a stable revenue to the coffers. Money talks, and probably in the hunting world, it is carrying more weight than ever before. There are more guide outfits, hunts on ranches and premium units that have quite a few zero's on the price it costs. They call it commercialization.....and for a guy thats been bow hunting for 38 years, it's a hard pill to swallow, because I bow hunt to get away from the tentacles of mankind, and it's getting harder and harder to do. But i must preface this with the fact that I live In Colorado, which to me is nothing more than a pimp prostituting out their resources.
Here's several case in points, from own experiences, or from guys I've talked to. I live in an agricultural area and landowners can put in for landowner tags. They can in turn sell those tags for several thousand dollars. Even more, they can lease out their ground to guide services, and some questionable guide services. Pretty much all the agricultural ground is now leased, and if you don't own ground, you don't hunt. These guys leasing ground and buying tags came out of the woodwork, ie: money talks, In about 5 years, they have killed off all the mature bucks, and if you see a 24 inch mule deer buck, he's a big one, and he's dead. And, it's not stopping, the state is selling tags, the wanna be guides are making money, doesn't matter if there are zero good genetics being passed on and a 2 point buck is breeding 20 does....so, it's all ok. Right? The money is king? I've got several friends who are guides and have been for many years. Their areas are in the high country and they are considering turning back their leases . Why? They say that in the last 5-6 years during archery season, that there are groups of 5 plus 20 somethings showing up armed to the hilt with all the latest greatest equipment and they will hunt a drainage for several days and push out every single elk. Then they go to the next drainage and do the same. I call them Rambo hunters. My guys say that once they leave, you will not hear a peep in there the rest of the season. I experience the same thing. I can go into one of my old favorites and run into another hunter, and he will tell me that the elk were there last week but a bunch of hunters came in and ran them all out. So, where do these guys learn these hunting tactic's? Do these You tube guys expect that all they promote will produce ethical hunters who respect the animals, the land, and other hunters? Their come one, come all, and with them doing the " how to" instruction book on video, and with their own harvesting success, there is a fair amount of guys who never thought about hunting clambering to buy the sponsoring companys gear and hit the woods.
Several years ago some of us local hunters banded up and took the Colorado Parks to task about the decreasing amount of elk in our resident herds. We had several meetings with them and they agreed that there were too many archery hunters, and too many rifle hunters. We had hoped that we could also affect the Otc rifle tags, but that won't happen because of the revenue generated by those seasons, but they did implement cutting the archery tags and putting it to a draw. We knew going in that the archery hunters may take a hit, but we all agreed we would rather hunt every other year and have better hunting than the status quo. But it did put pressure on other archery Otc units in the state because hunters just moved north. But.....here's the big take from this. To a man, all the regional CPW guys were happy that we were voicing our griefs. They said that they need help from the hunting community to bring about needed change. In other words, get involved. The Wildlife Commission hears from a plethora of people, many who are not pro hunting. And i believe it is like this in every western state to varying. degrees.
I could beat this drum with many more gripes or personal observations. For a guy who's been bow hunting for almost 4 decades, I know that many of the reasons I started doing it are now gone or mitigated by human intrusion. I've lived long enough, seen enough, to know that mankind has a propensity to overwhelm and consume anything new thats a new fad. We are called consumers for a reason, we will commercialize a fresh pile of elk crap if there is money to be made, and hunters like me who have harvested animals, had success, and now just want to unplug from humanity and will be happy to just hear a bull echo a bugle off the peaks on a cold September morning, we are a dying breed. I told some of the guys with me after our CPW meetings that it is becoming increasingly obvious that hunters are going to have to get more involved going forward, There are so many special interest groups that are beating on doors and pushing their agendas. We hunters fill out our apps, playing so many scenarios with preference points, point creep, and the ever changing resident vs out of state hunters. I told these giuys that possibly we needed to start a local hunting non profit group with the main emphasis of having a representative at every single Colorado Parks meeting.. And I still think that. And I think such a group should be a representative of both in and out of state hunters., rifle, muzzle, and bow hunters. To get those hunters to come together with the same objective would be damn hard, but there may come a day where it is a necessity. We can bitch on forums, we can diss on other hunters and forms of hunting, we can cuss out each states game management practices. Money talks, special interest groups have a stronger voice than hunters, some You tubers will promote and respect the animals and other hunters, some will prostitute it to promote themselves. If hunters want to have a voice in the future of hunting, that voice has to be heard. I can cuss and growl at the You tubers, I can get cranky filling out apps, I can mark off my honey holes on a map.....or I can start networking with other hunters and at leastt try to have a say in the future of hunting.
Whew,
The End
About 4-5 years ago, when I was laid up a bit during a winter, I discovered the plethora of hunting videos on You tube. I was in hunting heaven, getting to see new country and watch other hunters match wits with bull elk. I am a die hard bow hunter, had my day of rifle hunting and it got old and too easy, so about all i watched was bow hunting videos. This went on for several years, but the last couple of winters, something just didn't sit right in the ole gut. It's not anything against the guys doing it personally, because they all pretty much come across as ethical stand up guys.
So, what was it? What was sticking in my craw? What i was picking up on more and more was the theory of " hey guys, we are going to show you how to do it, gear to use, the states where we are doing it, ...and come one, come all to the woods". They build a following on You tube, some even enough to do it full time, year round. Their sponsors are eating it up, exposure means more sales, more money. On the backside of it, states are ran by revenue also, and wildlife and hunting in general is popular and provides a stable revenue to the coffers. Money talks, and probably in the hunting world, it is carrying more weight than ever before. There are more guide outfits, hunts on ranches and premium units that have quite a few zero's on the price it costs. They call it commercialization.....and for a guy thats been bow hunting for 38 years, it's a hard pill to swallow, because I bow hunt to get away from the tentacles of mankind, and it's getting harder and harder to do. But i must preface this with the fact that I live In Colorado, which to me is nothing more than a pimp prostituting out their resources.
Here's several case in points, from own experiences, or from guys I've talked to. I live in an agricultural area and landowners can put in for landowner tags. They can in turn sell those tags for several thousand dollars. Even more, they can lease out their ground to guide services, and some questionable guide services. Pretty much all the agricultural ground is now leased, and if you don't own ground, you don't hunt. These guys leasing ground and buying tags came out of the woodwork, ie: money talks, In about 5 years, they have killed off all the mature bucks, and if you see a 24 inch mule deer buck, he's a big one, and he's dead. And, it's not stopping, the state is selling tags, the wanna be guides are making money, doesn't matter if there are zero good genetics being passed on and a 2 point buck is breeding 20 does....so, it's all ok. Right? The money is king? I've got several friends who are guides and have been for many years. Their areas are in the high country and they are considering turning back their leases . Why? They say that in the last 5-6 years during archery season, that there are groups of 5 plus 20 somethings showing up armed to the hilt with all the latest greatest equipment and they will hunt a drainage for several days and push out every single elk. Then they go to the next drainage and do the same. I call them Rambo hunters. My guys say that once they leave, you will not hear a peep in there the rest of the season. I experience the same thing. I can go into one of my old favorites and run into another hunter, and he will tell me that the elk were there last week but a bunch of hunters came in and ran them all out. So, where do these guys learn these hunting tactic's? Do these You tube guys expect that all they promote will produce ethical hunters who respect the animals, the land, and other hunters? Their come one, come all, and with them doing the " how to" instruction book on video, and with their own harvesting success, there is a fair amount of guys who never thought about hunting clambering to buy the sponsoring companys gear and hit the woods.
Several years ago some of us local hunters banded up and took the Colorado Parks to task about the decreasing amount of elk in our resident herds. We had several meetings with them and they agreed that there were too many archery hunters, and too many rifle hunters. We had hoped that we could also affect the Otc rifle tags, but that won't happen because of the revenue generated by those seasons, but they did implement cutting the archery tags and putting it to a draw. We knew going in that the archery hunters may take a hit, but we all agreed we would rather hunt every other year and have better hunting than the status quo. But it did put pressure on other archery Otc units in the state because hunters just moved north. But.....here's the big take from this. To a man, all the regional CPW guys were happy that we were voicing our griefs. They said that they need help from the hunting community to bring about needed change. In other words, get involved. The Wildlife Commission hears from a plethora of people, many who are not pro hunting. And i believe it is like this in every western state to varying. degrees.
I could beat this drum with many more gripes or personal observations. For a guy who's been bow hunting for almost 4 decades, I know that many of the reasons I started doing it are now gone or mitigated by human intrusion. I've lived long enough, seen enough, to know that mankind has a propensity to overwhelm and consume anything new thats a new fad. We are called consumers for a reason, we will commercialize a fresh pile of elk crap if there is money to be made, and hunters like me who have harvested animals, had success, and now just want to unplug from humanity and will be happy to just hear a bull echo a bugle off the peaks on a cold September morning, we are a dying breed. I told some of the guys with me after our CPW meetings that it is becoming increasingly obvious that hunters are going to have to get more involved going forward, There are so many special interest groups that are beating on doors and pushing their agendas. We hunters fill out our apps, playing so many scenarios with preference points, point creep, and the ever changing resident vs out of state hunters. I told these giuys that possibly we needed to start a local hunting non profit group with the main emphasis of having a representative at every single Colorado Parks meeting.. And I still think that. And I think such a group should be a representative of both in and out of state hunters., rifle, muzzle, and bow hunters. To get those hunters to come together with the same objective would be damn hard, but there may come a day where it is a necessity. We can bitch on forums, we can diss on other hunters and forms of hunting, we can cuss out each states game management practices. Money talks, special interest groups have a stronger voice than hunters, some You tubers will promote and respect the animals and other hunters, some will prostitute it to promote themselves. If hunters want to have a voice in the future of hunting, that voice has to be heard. I can cuss and growl at the You tubers, I can get cranky filling out apps, I can mark off my honey holes on a map.....or I can start networking with other hunters and at leastt try to have a say in the future of hunting.
Whew,
The End
