Unfollowing Hunting Social Media Will Make Hunting Better: Matt Rinella Essay

[svivian]

Good article but nothing new about it, just being done on a larger scale.... Anyone remember the Eastmans Hunting Journal that showed a 200"+ buck with one of Colorado's most famous peaks in the background on the front cover?? I'm not even that old and I don't use social media, but this isn't going anywhere.

 

[Newtosavage]

Good article but nothing new about it, just being done on a larger scale.... Anyone remember the Eastmans Hunting Journal that showed a 200"+ buck with one of Colorado's most famous peaks in the background on the front cover?? I'm not even that old and I don't use social media, but this isn't going anywhere.

Exactly. Outdoor writers have been selling their information (many of whom learned that information through connections and not on their own) for years. I remember when the Devils River in W. Texas was a best kept secret. Then someone wrote an article about it for TPWD magazine and next thing you know there are articles about it everywhere. And that was before social media.

Like you said, this is nothing new.

I still think a lot of this is just more people with more disposable income and more time off than ever in our nation's history. Blame prosperity if you want to blame anything.

 

[TheTone]

Truth. As a veteran, it makes my skin crawl when I see an influencer like Hanes crowing in front of the camera about how supportive of the military he is while using that association to line his own pockets.


It's perfectly respectable to work for a sewage treatment plant, dude. Own that.


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He has to be the most insecure, “successful “ person of all time. I think a psychologist would have a field day with him

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

Yeah, I think it’s a way of life at this point. It will just have to get to the point where folks that aren’t that dedicated give up and move on after years of no success.

 

[svivian]

Exactly. Outdoor writers have been selling their information (many of whom learned that information through connections and not on their own) for years. I remember when the Devils River in W. Texas was a best kept secret. Then someone wrote an article about it for TPWD magazine and next thing you know there are articles about it everywhere. And that was before social media.

Like you said, this is nothing new.

I still think a lot of this is just more people with more disposable income and more time off than ever in our nation's history. Blame prosperity if you want to blame anything.

I agree, the only other difference I will say is information is travelling faster, easier to find, and spreading over a much larger area. To that I say yes it does make a difference but the principles are the same...

 

[Tod osier]

Like you said, this is nothing new.

I still think a lot of this is just more people with more disposable income and more time off than ever in our nation's history. Blame prosperity if you want to blame anything.

I agree with both of these, but also we have better tools now too. Tools to research and hunt and tools to brag, which feed on themselves.

 

[S.Clancy]

Sounds like a bunch of grumpy old men…

“back in my day!”

matt even says its its extremely difficult to determining hunter numbers. So how can he be certain its actually getting more crowded other than anecdotal information?

Is it really that bad out west or in Midwest? Maybe it is I have no clue? In Virginia virtually no one hunts public land anymore. Seriously!

Could it be that a lot of private land that had allowed hunting keeps getting sold to developers and/or really rich people who make it a hunting lease business or just say sorry no hunting. Then those people are now moving to public land with an additional influx of some new adult onset hunters. So it appears like all hell is breaking lose?

I know a lot of people who follow social media hunters and tell me they are trying hunting for the first year, or trying public for first time. But they barely make it out more than 2x a year or they never get anything cause they don't hunt effectively.

Again, never been out west, but I don’t think everyone hunting is just in it for the likes. Plus matt is literally publishing media about hunting and has written about hunting prior.

Maybe Matt’s jealous of his brothers success? Imagine going to be a dentist thinking you’ll be the money maker compared to your brother whose a writer for an outdoor magazine. Now that brother is making half a million to hunt…

Just look at historical trends in draw odds, pretty easy to tell significantly more people are putting in for the same number of tags

 

[Troutnut]

This is an interesting take by Matt and very well stated, but I'll play a little devil's advocate here and respectfully disagree with his main point. I think social media is causing other major problems, but not so much this one. I agree with many of Matt's sub-points, especially about people who dishonestly portray what they're doing, and he provides great food for thought on others (like the pros and cons of showing bad shots).

There is something ironic about discussing the downsides of social media here on a forum, which is one of the original forms of social media, and I think still the best form. I've learned things and made connections here on Rokslide that were 100 % critical to my success learning new hunt areas and species. One of my main problems with new mainstream social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook is that they're siphoning audience away from smaller topical forums but are nowhere near as conducive to long-form conversations or generating an archive of useful advice like you find on Rokslide. However, many of the people with the highest profiles on social media are also generating different kinds of useful, long-form educational content too.

Rather than butchering meat for the freezer or tanning a hide, these kinds of hunters mostly want photos on their iPhones to beam out across the internet.

What percent of guys you see out there in the woods are really out there primarily for this reason? I think in most cases social media just provides a new way of doing things people have always wanted to do. It's just a more efficient version of the photo boards in Sportsman's Warehouse. Most people are still in it for the meat, the experience, and the head on the wall to remind them of the experience or impress visiting friends.

Does anybody here really feel like social media changes your motivation for hunting, or it's the reason you're hunting in the first place? I don't know anybody who'd say yes to that. I'm sure there are a few, but they're probably a tiny minority with out-sized visibility.

I do like to document my hunting and fishing adventures and share them on my website and forums like Rokslide. I'm always thinking about how to capture the experience in photos, both to help me remember years later and to share with others what it was like being out there. I like to read a well-told hunting story with some good photography and live others' adventures vicariously in the off-season, so I contribute my own to that pool too. I enjoy photography and telling stories, and for me mixing those interests with hunting simply makes it better. And when I walk ten miles on spotty trail up a drainage with none of the animals I'm chasing, capturing some great photos to remember the place really takes the sting off the long walk out.

Years ago, I completely stopped after seriously asking myself why I wanted lots of people to see what I had shot. Upon reflection, I realized bragging was my sole motivation. This troubled me.

One benefit to having people like Cam Haines and Ryan Lampers posting their kills on social media is that I can't be accused of shooting anything worth bragging about.

I suppose you could say I'm bragging about the experience rather than the animal, but I think it's more of a normal human inclination to swap stories, just the next technological iteration of what started with cave paintings. I don't like to listen to people brag, but I love to read a good hunt report.

public land hunting often begins with struggling to find parking at the trailhead, followed by struggling to find animals so pressured they suffer from PTSD. According to 2017 survey data, over half of hunters have abandoned spots due to crowding

Every time I've been frustrated by overcrowding in a hunting spot, I felt like I was asking for it by exploring too near the road system and not getting deep enough into the backcountry. Every time I research a backcountry spot carefully, I end up worrying about people and then only seeing few if any. I know it doesn't always work that way for everyone or in every unit, but I'm satisfied with how easy it is to get away from people in my experience.

There are also benefits to maintaining a high number of hunters. Hunters are very important to protecting hunting politically. Hunters on the political right curb the desire of some right-wing politicians to sell off public lands or drill, mine, and log them into oblivion. Hunters on the political left curb the desire of some left-wing politicians to pass pointless, over-the-top gun control measures like heavy ammo taxes. It's hard for either party to do these kinds of damage if even 10-20 % of their members rely on hunters for even 10-20 % of their vote to win primaries. Basically, hunters pull both parties toward the center on some key issues that matter to hunting and prevent some rash mistakes.

I think some hunting media also helps curious non-hunters better understand hunting and be more likely to support hunting politically. In non-hunting online communities I run into a lot of people who don't hunt themselves but respect it as a more sustainable and ethical way to get meat than agriculture. There are plenty of other non-hunters who still think hunting is just about "proving your manhood by hurting innocent animals" or similar bullshit, and it's good to have shows out there like Meat Eater that do a decent job portraying what the experience of hunting is really about: food, being out in nature, tackling adversity, camaraderie, etc.

The target audience for all this is clearly hunting-curious nonhunters because seasoned hunters don’t need 101-level how-to content.

Lots of the long-form content these guys are putting out is above 101-level, though. I've hunted all my life but still learned a ton from educational stuff put out by people like Remi, especially when learning a new species.

Steve Rinella is more 101, but like I said above I think he's doing a good job as an ambassador to help non-hunters respect hunting, and that's really valuable in its own way.

Influencers like to believe they’re elevating our reputation among the nonhunting public, but social media has severely damaged our reputation among nonhunters as well as reduced hunting opportunity.

I'm sure this is true to an extent, especially with some of the people who just post trophy shots instead of long-form content that treats the experience with due respect. But social media isn't going away, and no essay is going to convince the actual braggarts to stop. Given that fact, I think this makes an argument for more people to representing hunting the right way on social media. Otherwise, small number of highly visible people who are in it for the wrong reasons are going to take over the public face of hunting.

 

[AZ8]

Many of y’all sound like a bunch of whiny old bitches complaining about how the “good ole days” are gone. The hunting industry along with just about everything in life has changed in the last 50 years. Not too long ago I didn’t have enough money to rub two nickels together but I would make due by knocking on doors and gaining connections for hunting access. I now pay for mostly outfitted hunts and do hunt private ground. I used to run trail cameras and had a lot of money wrapped up in tree stands and gas for scouting. I have more money now and my situation has changed. I guess that makes me part of the problem but who the hell are you to tell me that guys like me are the reason why the hunting industry is going down the tubes because I pay big money to hunt private land. I work my ass off and save money to have a few hunts a year.

I honestly don’t care if people like to hunt public land, private land, self guided, and or outfitted hunts. I don’t care if you hunt with a bow, rifle, and or a spear. I don’t care if you like to hunt behind high fences, low fences.

Who cares if people like to post pictures to strangers on social media. I am one of those people that does it and I enjoy looking at other peoples hunts and what they’ve killed without being jealous or pissed off about how the good old days are gone.

Love,

Pk


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Damn, man…..you need a snickers bar! Relax!

 

[dreamingbig]

My wife works as an education administrator. When social media first started she said it is the worse thing that was ever created. She's a smart woman so I took her advice and stayed off all of it. I don't feel like I am missing anything.

Silicon Valley employees are doing everything they can to keep their kids off social media. And that started 5 years ago. My oldest is in 6th grade and wants a phone. They aren’t getting one until they are out of the house and some day they will thank me for that.


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[bozeman]

I feel for all of the young kids who had 'grip and grin' pics of their first buck/nice buck that their dad showed at work or hung up a the local gun shop..........horrible example for the kids to follow........ruined hunting.......

 

[dreamingbig]

Social media has brought more than just hunting spots to the limelight.....the jealousy it has exposed in people has been more disappointing to me, than any other aspect of it........

Agreed.

Comparison is the thief of happiness.


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[Maverick1]

Cute story.

 

[OregonSteeler]

Bowmar is a turd but that zone has always been in high demand. Not like that matters though to him and the other influencers hunting The Huntin Fool ranch though. I wonder what the fall out from his supporters will look like when/if he’s convicted?

Dude! I had no idea who the Bomar guy was (he was mentioned a couple times on this thread) so I looked at his YouTube. Are you kidding me? A 118yd bow shot? 63yd heart shot? And he has over 200k people following him thinking that's how to bowhunt?

Glad our society is "influenced" by clowns like him.

I'll also give props to Randy Newberg for sticking his neck out on here and replying to this thread. Yes, his videos do add to the negativity of social media in hunting as Matt Rinella stated. But he also seems to have done a lot of good for public land advocacy, conservation, and hunting related issue awareness. Guaranteed you won't see BRO on here anytime soon trying to defend their product hawking mantra anytime soon......

 

[The Ri Guy]

I guess that's one advantage to being born in Washington and hunting here...always been overcrowded with bad animal numbers and quality. No one ever expects to kill anything, let alone a big one.

I should be an influencer...

 

[TheTone]

I’ll say this; “conservation” is a huge buzzword for many social media hunters. If these people really are so into conservation what stopped them for going to school for a biology degree (or similar) and getting a job with a state wildlife agency or land management agency and do actual in the field conservation work?

 

[wind gypsy]

Does anybody here really feel like social media changes your motivation for hunting, or it's the reason you're hunting in the first place? I don't know anybody who'd say yes to that.

I don’t know anyone who would say yes but that doesn’t mean they aren’t lying or at least they aren’t being honest with themselves. I think it’s a subconscious thing for many people.

Posting epic hunt pictures to have a heaping pile of compliments and likes causes a positive flow of endorphins for most humans. Doesn’t matter if none of those folks are big names or “someone” in the industry. It is a motivating factor for many. It has impacted my motivations in the past and that is very embarrassing to admit.

It’s not just hunting. Look at the people in a concert on tv sometime. So many phones in the air so they can show everyone else how cool it would have been if they were actually in the moment.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

It’s not just hunting. Look at the people in a concert on tv sometime. So many phones in the air so they can show everyone else how cool it would have been if they were actually in the moment.

Bingo. That’s what I meant earlier. The social media pull to jockey for cool kid position is strong in every aspect of life these days, not just hunting. It’s on you and I to be wise enough to separate online fantasy from reality.

 

[OXN939]

Dude! I had no idea who the Bomar guy was (he was mentioned a couple times on this thread) so I looked at his YouTube. Are you kidding me? A 118yd bow shot? 63yd heart shot? And he has over 200k people following him thinking that's how to bowhunt?

I think one thing Matt didn't touch on is just that- how the monetization of hunting has caused these idiot influencers to push the envelope more and more to get the most followers and likes. Bowmar not only shoots stuff at unethically long distances, he's also a convicted poacher. Would he, that Muley Freak douche or the Fear No Evil idiot have poached if it weren't for insta-cred? Probably not. These are all experienced hunters who know very well what they were doing, and even with evidence of them committing a crime being produced at a hundred frames per second, did it anyway.

Yeah, people used to make cave paintings of what they shot, but it was never this narcissistic. Social media is designed to be poisonously addictive, and these people are its waste products. I think there's a very serious comparison to be made between these influencers who set up a camera, remove their shirt and then do a staged river crossing and that chick who did a photoshoot at her dad's funeral. If you spend your entire year investing thousands of dollars and god knows how much time and effort tuning your gear to make the most ethical harvest possible on an animal you respect and care for deeply, and then some dickhead influencer flings an arrow at it from over a hundred yards away, wounds it and then deletes the video because that was all it was worth to him, it is impossible not to be disdainful.

IMO, this public shaming is exactly what the world needs. Maybe if the companies who provide the free stuff see that a lot of hunters are judging them for the company they keep, incentives for this behavior might start to dry up.

 

[wapitibob]

I'm not a Bomar fan but you might do some fact checking.
The guy says he's innocent but unlike every other celeb that says that then pleads guilty, he's saying fu and going to court.


"Bowmar not only shoots stuff at unethically long distances, he's also a convicted poacher."

"October 26, 2021

ORDER granting 76 Motion to Continue Trial as to Josh Bowmar, Sarah Bowmar, Bowmar Bowhunting, LLC. Jury Trial continued to 4/18/2022 at 9:00 AM in Courtroom 4, Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse, 111 South 18th Plaza, Omaha, NE before Chief Judge Robert F. Rossiter Jr."