The Low Bar: did Matt Rinella get it wrong?

[Trap]

I hate onX when others use it but I love using it social media has had more negative impact than good but it’s not the sole problem. Huntn fool got people addicted to the draws and made every state system easily understood. OnX makes finding hidden pockets of public and access easy to find, navigation is easy. Cell phone trail cameras and just trail cameras make finding and patterning game easy. It’s just been made to easy to hunt out west. There is not a big learning curve like there once was. Social media compounds the problem by promoting it and you now have people hunting 5 state in a year. It’s basically a lot of things working together.

 

[TreeStandAthlete]

I hate onX when others use it but I love using it social media has had more negative impact than good but it’s not the sole problem. Huntn fool got people addicted to the draws and made every state system easily understood. OnX makes finding hidden pockets of public and access easy to find, navigation is easy. Cell phone trail cameras and just trail cameras make finding and patterning game easy. It’s just been made to easy to hunt out west. There is not a big learning curve like there once was. Social media compounds the problem by promoting it and you now have people hunting 5 state in a year. It’s basically a lot of things working together.

Not to mention guiding services, where if the expedited learning curve is still too much work you can just pay for someone else to do all the work for you.

 

[dirtshooter]

I love how he called out the big bow hunters

Social media hunters further degrade opportunities for traditional hunters by deceiving people into thinking hunting is something it’s not. When famous hunting personalities pay to kill elk on ranches that are off-limits to the public, what they’re doing is more like slaughtering livestock than hunting wild elk. If that’s what gets them off, great, but putting videos of their “hunts” on social media without indicating they are stalking areas off-limits to the public dupes legions of newbies into thinking publicly accessible basins are brimming with bulls just waiting to be shot. Nothing says, “let them eat cake,” quite like using social media to inundate traditional public land hunters with throngs of aspiring hunting influencers while stalking quasi-domestic wildlife on private ranches.

Cam joe jocko, try some public land non guided hunts.

 

[huck]

Seems the same everywhere ,I was planted and hatched here 53 yrs. ago E WASH. 20 yrs. ago half mi. off road no poeple .10 yrs. ago 1 good mi. off road no poeple . Today 6 day hunt 3 to find no poeple 3 to hunt .Its alot easier for poeple to gather information and equipment than knowledge and skill . Why learn how to clean a deer when ypu can u tube it .

 

[OMB]

MossBack Outfitters on Instagram: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks with a muzzleloader👊👊 #MB2021 #mossback #mossbackguides #mossbackoutfitters

2,409 likes, 30 comments - mossbackoutfitters on January 2, 2022: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks w...".

www.instagram.com

If this is the content the "top tier" of outfitters is posting, I think we need to take a flame thrower to the entire industry. It's been overdue at this point. Unfollow these people, demand their sponsors stop supporting them, it's not hard. Stop liking their stuff.

 

[Deadfall]

Simply no replacement for time in field. Had some drop campers this year. Said they studied maps and know the area better then we do. Granted they harvested some does. Mostly just complained about the lack of attention we them. We always thought was the point of a drop camp. Also complained said they were in a bad place. Idk. They were almost exactly in between the 2 outfitted camps. They did shoot one 330 ish type bull. It was feeding a couple hundred yards from their drop camp. 1.5 miles up the drainage they were camped in had elk all fall. A good many elk.

Where I'm at. That has become the norm. Guys get their heads filled with to much nonsense from the likes of elk 101 and associates. Noone takes into account the need for understanding wildlife at different times of year. Just go toot your horns, glass for days, take a bunch of pictures and they animals run you over.

Social media is not the problem. The consumers are the problem!

 

[Dos Perros]

If one is on the Titanic and as it's sinking manages to climb aboard a lifeboat, is it wrong for that person to monitor the rate of people also climbing into said lifeboat, and speak up if the boat is nearing or over capacity?

 

[LostArra]

Too many people
Too much money
Limited space
Limited resource
Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and even Jim Bridger bitched about the wagons coming west. Look where that got 'em.

 

[KurtR]

MossBack Outfitters on Instagram: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks with a muzzleloader👊👊 #MB2021 #mossback #mossbackguides #mossbackoutfitters

2,409 likes, 30 comments - mossbackoutfitters on January 2, 2022: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks w...".

www.instagram.com

If this is the content the "top tier" of outfitters is posting, I think we need to take a flame thrower to the entire industry. It's been overdue at this point. Unfollow these people, demand their sponsors stop supporting them, it's not hard. Stop liking their stuff.

I watched it and they snuck up and a deer and shot it then had some pictures not doing any weird stuff. What was bad that they did?

 

[Gobbler36]

Social media isn’t the sole problem, i think it’s multi faceted bug he damn sure nailed with hunting growing in popularity is for sure negative. It pisses people off to face the truth that there is limited space (amount of public land is always shrinking or the threat is continually there) anc it’s a limited resource. Those are the facts, no matter how much you wanna jump on the R3 band wagon. If people really wanted to help hunting they would show the positive out comes and gain a positive public image instead of inviting every Tom, Dick and harry out to participate to sell them more gear or the latest and greatest hunt application service or mapping software

 

[GunnersMate]

CO born & raised but I only started bowhunting four years ago as an adult. So far I have harvested an Elk and a cow moose on public land. I guess that makes me one of “those new guys crowding the mountain”. There are two hunters I watch, Rinella and Newberg and they are helpful. Because I’m a newer hunter I’m interested in how they think and approach situations with their experience. Most hunting content though is just a digital pissing contest. “3 bulls down in 3 days”. “1,000 yard elk shot”. The problem with that model is you always have to go a step further for attention. It seems like there is a crossover when it’s less about hunting and more about followers and making money.

I personally haven’t taken any courses. I just focus on lots of scouting, hunting hard, failing often and learning from my mistakes. I’ve been lucky to have a few chances and I took them. I’m qualified to talk about how things have changed over the years. I enjoy hunting public land and happy to support any productive initiatives that may come from the conversation.

 

[Gobbler36]

Here's an example that illustrates a Stage Agency (CPW) using their social media account to lower the bar, followed by a glaring example of the laziness prevalent in many of the new comers. CPWs response to said laziness blew me away.

As if giving away this "trick" (or at least what used to be) on how to figure out draw odds wasn't enough, this dude wants it printed in the brochure for him. CPW tends to agree this would be a good move....not only in the turkey brochure, but possibly the big game as well. Hold on to your hats folks, you thought point creep was already bad...

Hahaha that’s ******* insane
Everyone wants the info spoon fed to them on a silver platter

 

[Billy Goat]

I watched it and they snuck up and a deer and shot it then had some pictures not doing any weird stuff. What was bad that they did?

Wasn't a lot of sneaking, it was a wounded deer that they decided to make a video of.

Seemed like they were trying to make make more of a music video than anything out if it.

It all seems pretty poor taste to me, but tastes vary. If that wasn't a wounded deer, I don't think it was a very ethical shot, if it was a wounded deer as eluded to I'm all about getting any shot into it that will finish it, but don't think you need to advertise it.

But some like the Texas heart shot.

 

[OMB]

I watched it and they snuck up and a deer and shot it then had some pictures not doing any weird stuff. What was bad that they did?

Do they have to show a follow up shot on a wounded deer in the hind quarters? I'm not saying the shot wasn't ethical, but who does it benefit to show that?

 

[deertrout]

I think he got it mostly right. This whole thing seems eerily similar to the whole #keepemwet fad that swept through fly fishing social media and traditional media over the last 5 years. Catch and release anglers were accidemtally killing fish by the bushel by keeping them out of the water for the sake of getting fresh content. Of course that was nothing new, mainstream media fishing photographers have been doing it for decades, but now everyone is a photographer and the impact was starting to add up.

Unfortunately, hunting is a blood sport. There is no catch and release and I totally get Matt Rinella's point which I would sum up as it's ethically wrong to kill something for content that is truly meaningless.

I'd also agree with his thoughts that hunting pressure is being inflated in places because of social media but I think the blame there rests largely on the shoulders of biologists and game managers who would agree 10/10 times that predator populations need to be managed to maintain some balance. Well, that goes for hunters, too, and it's obvious we're exceeding our carrying capacity in many places.

 

[cod007]

Absolutely agree on your second point. The waters have been muddied and I think we're having more than even 2 different conversations at this point. I do think it's good that we are having these conversations and I find myself on both versions listed in your reply.

I spent some time out of town over the holidays with my younger nephews (young teens). One evening they posted a Tick Tok onto their "outdoor channel" they've created, of them blowing a crow to smitherings while they were duck hunting. I watched as that video got 10k +views in 30 minutes before it was taken down. Made me sick, as they were obviously addicted to watching that number go up and up. I've tried over the last few years to be a good mentor to them when I'm around, and this just wasn't what I was expecting and aligned with some of Matt's points. It was all about the bragging rights and views to them. I can only imagine it's similar for nearly every kid in their age class and group of friends. It's not about getting outdoors and enjoying time with their friends or family, it's about how many views or sponsors they "might" attract on their social media accounts.

I'm still torn on the other portion, and struggling to see the comparison to GoHunt and a State Agency giving away this information when it's already out there for those that want to put in the work. GoHunt has a rather expensive fee attached, correct? I'm honestly not sure, not trying to be a smart ass. Hunting multiple states in the west every year, I get to dive into all of their respective websites each spring to calculate where I may or may not have a chance of drawing etc. I understand that it may be simple math, but for those of us that actually do it, it's really not that simple and there is a skill set involved beyond basic algebra and it IS a gate keeper in itself. Some make it easier than others. Wyoming can seem like reading a foreign language at times. Thinking out loud here, maybe my issue lies more with the individual's reply wanting them to make it EVEN easier for them rather than CPW posting it up in the first place. Selfish on my part? Probably. I'm not naïve enough not to see my own hypocrisy's. We're all learning here.

In the end, I truly am open to exploring everyone's thoughts on all of this, and am glad the conversations are happening.

Great post.

 

[GunnersMate]

MossBack Outfitters on Instagram: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks with a muzzleloader👊👊 #MB2021 #mossback #mossbackguides #mossbackoutfitters

2,409 likes, 30 comments - mossbackoutfitters on January 2, 2022: "MB prostaff Chad Fraughton putting an epic finishing shot on a buck he had a good one in. Tough suckers! Nothing like brushing up bucks w...".

www.instagram.com

If this is the content the "top tier" of outfitters is posting, I think we need to take a flame thrower to the entire industry. It's been overdue at this point. Unfollow these people, demand their sponsors stop supporting them, it's not hard. Stop liking their stuff.

T

Do they have to show a follow up shot on a wounded deer in the hind quarters? I'm not saying the shot wasn't ethical, but who does it benefit to show that?

Judging by the fact that in the description it says “epic finishing shot”. I would assume they believe it will benefit their guiding business. Not my style but I wasn’t there, just seeing a snapshot.

 

[PMcGee]

Do they have to show a follow up shot on a wounded deer in the hind quarters? I'm not saying the shot wasn't ethical, but who does it benefit to show that?

Wasn’t that one of Matt’s points? He said they should show the whole hunt not just the good side. I do agree something’s are better off not being shown.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[WA209]

elk shapes New Mexico archery elk hunt video.
Fast forward to 22:40…..
Seems to illuminate one of rinellas point of killing for content.

 

[KurtR]

Do they have to show a follow up shot on a wounded deer in the hind quarters? I'm not saying the shot wasn't ethical, but who does it benefit to show that?

I thought it was the it was the first shot didn’t realize it was wounded all ready . I thought it was just in front of the hind quarter and dumped it.