Rinella's brother says social media is ruining hunting. I don't disagree.

[hippietrekker]

Originally Posted by raab

Butchering is a whole other level, and you're probably going to want to have a butcher lined up to take your deer to

Social media is where I learned to butcher. I have butchered all my own deer and moose. Butchered numerous pigs too. If there is a desire to learn this aspect of harvesting your own food I would encourage everyone to do. It will require some space you don’t mind getting messy and some extra equipment. I wouldn’t hunt if I wasn’t first intrigued by the prospect of butchering - I don’t come from a hunting background, and if it wasn’t for social media I would not be into hunting now.

With that said there are ramifications for social media, both in the hunting community and society at large, the extent of which is perhaps not fully realized.

[Chowdowncowtown]

Originally Posted by hippietrekker

Social media is where I learned to butcher. I have butchered all my own deer and moose. Butchered numerous pigs too. If there is a desire to learn this aspect of harvesting your own food I would encourage everyone to do. It will require some space you don’t mind getting messy and some extra equipment. I wouldn’t hunt if I wasn’t first intrigued by the prospect of butchering - I don’t come from a hunting background, and if it wasn’t for social media I would not be into hunting now.

With that said there are ramifications for social media, both in the hunting community and society at large, the extent of which is perhaps not fully realized.

I'm in a similar boat, I've been an avid cook for a very long time now, so butchering is actually much more in my wheelhouse than field dressing, since I've worked a decent amount with primal cuts, hog heads etc. Getting into hunting really grew out of my desire to be more involved with producing the food that I eat, similar to gardening.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Chowdowncowtown

True enough, it would be a pretty big loss to spend a lot of time and effort creating an opportunity only to have it wrecked by a bad partner. Climbing is a little more forgiving in that sense, easy to see how people handle themselves in a lower-stakes scenario before doing anything committing.

Really for the first season or two what I want to focus on learning is the pre and post work, scouting, tracking, getting land access, camera placement, field dressing, butchering etc. Just going out and shooting an animal doesn't hold much appeal to me if I don't have the skills and knowledge to reproduce the result independently.

I have actually had better luck mentoring rookies than hunting with “experienced” hunters

The biggest thing is finding people who are trustworthy, have drive, desire to have good ethics, willing to put in the work scouting and a personality that I can get along with when I choose to mentor someone

For myself I am not worried about losing an opportunity on an animal because of a rookie as I expect it. Usually the rookie give the opportunity because I know they need to learn. Also I don’t take a rookie on a hunt where the priority is filling my personal tag

I am picking about who I teach but a rookie should also be picky about who they learn from too because there is plenty of crappy mentors out there too

Odds are by your username name you are in Calgary so I am too far to be effective first hand help. But if you have an interest in targeting bush country Whitetail and have ?s regarding scouting, calling, habitat, and habits you are welcome to PM me. I will give my honest opinion and provide information on how but I don’t draw Xs on maps or tell people where to hunt

It’s not promising success but if you put in the work the extra knowledge can definitely increase your odds

[Chowdowncowtown]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Odds are by your username name you are in Calgary so I am too far to be effective first hand help. But if you have an interest in targeting bush country Whitetail and have ?s regarding scouting, calling, habitat, and habits you are welcome to PM me. I will give my honest opinion and provide information on how but I don’t draw Xs on maps or tell people where to hunt

That's perfect, I'd much rather learn how to find the spot to draw the X myself than have it drawn for me. I'll send you a PM.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Chowdowncowtown

That's perfect, I'd much rather learn how to find the spot to draw the X myself than have it drawn for me. I'll send you a PM.

Easiest time to help is when you are scouting and have questions as you go

[Demonical]

Excuse me for maybe drifting off topic....

My first year hunting big game in Alberta (1980) I asked one of the guys, "How do you hunt moose?" His answer, "You drive around the roads until one walks out..."

So I did that, and yes, I shot a bull moose. I was thrilled to get a moose, but the 'hunt' was completely unsatisfactory to me. And I resolved to get out of the vehicle and put boots to the ground.

Took a few years to figure it out, but so worthwhile.

There's just nothing like firsthand, in the bush experience: observation, questioning what am I seeing, really learning what sign means, where/when to locate deer-moose-bear etc...

And being a solo hunter, most all the learning was on me.

Yes, there was a few guys I shared camps with when moose hunting. And we sure had some goods times. And the logistics of moving large moose (as we were very successful) meant having several people to assist was kind of necessary. Those damn moose are big!


Anyway the single best advice is still boots to the ground.

And the best 'shortcut advice' for me today, whenever I begin to prospect new country first place I go is FATMAP.

FATMAP is Google Earth on steroids, due to the 3D feature that really lets you see elevation, topography etc...

[Chowdowncowtown]

Originally Posted by Demonical

And the best 'shortcut advice' for me today, whenever I begin to prospect new country first place I go is FATMAP.

FATMAP is Google Earth on steroids, due to the 3D feature that really lets you see elevation, topography etc...

Thanks for this tip! I've been looking for a good topo map of AB that's easy to use. There's GIS data and open source software to use it, but it's hard to combine that with sat maps to see what habitat is there.

[BorealBucks]

I hate seeing other hunters, I used to be able to not see a person for a week hunting. The pandemic ruined that, everyone started hunting or buying recreation properties which brought new people to areas and a bunch of hunters.

[Pekan]

Originally Posted by BorealBucks

I hate seeing other hunters, I used to be able to not see a person for a week hunting. The pandemic ruined that, everyone started hunting or buying recreation properties which brought new people to areas and a bunch of hunters.

I bought a rec property that's now got me hunting further away from the city.
I can sympathize because I know I must be hunting in someones great secret spots.

[gulo]

Originally Posted by Pekan

I just listened to an episode of the Meat Eater podcast. Steven Rinella's brother was a guest and went on a huge rant about how social media is ruining hunting. Ep. 304 The fish shack's revenge.

Considering Meat Eater are the absolute masters of modern hunting media use to promote commerce, it was interesting they gave him a voice to oppose them on their own social media platform.

Some of his points were around hunter recruitment and how many hunters are enough, social media likes as a major motivation for killing big animals, how hunting shows hunt private land but promote the public land hunting lifestyle, he also asked them outright how many animals they've wounded and not recovered during filming but never mentioned. They never really answered that question (no judgment on my part, we've all wounded animals)
It sounds like the over crowding of public land hunting areas is just as bad in Montana as it is in Southern Alberta. 2020 and 21 were so busy out in the foothills and I found it detracted from the overall hunting experience. It makes me wonder how many hunters are enough hunters, but I don't want to give up my opportunities so why would anyone else?

Hopefully when covid goes away things go back to normal out there. But somehow I don't think it ever will.....

It's a broad statement - "ruined hunting." It hasn't ruined my hunting. I suppose it depends on how you hunt. If you cruise around in a truck or on a machine, i expect you're much more susceptible to having your hunting ruined than if you get out on foot and log some miles. Hell, i even saw hunters this year with their trucks parked at the side of the road at pipeline ROW's, rifle tripods resting on either side of the road - literally on the road - waiting for something to cross so they could snipe it - standing there by their tailgate sipping from their thermos's. Hard to ruin that sort of hunting, it's already ruined in my opinion. And illegal.

I wouldn't say any of my public land hunts have been ruined by social media, but i don't doubt the game is a helluva a lot more wary. I think what's ruined hunting in general more than anything is human population. There's just too damned many of us, pretty much everywhere. Alberta included.

[270person]

Originally Posted by gulo

It's a broad statement - "ruined hunting." It hasn't ruined my hunting. I suppose it depends on how you hunt. If you cruise around in a truck or on a machine, i expect you're much more susceptible to having your hunting ruined than if you get out on foot and log some miles. Hell, i even saw hunters this year with their trucks parked at the side of the road at pipeline ROW's, rifle tripods resting on either side of the road - literally on the road - waiting for something to cross so they could snipe it - standing there by their tailgate sipping from their thermos's. Hard to ruin that sort of hunting, it's already ruined in my opinion. And illegal.
.

I'm guessing WMU 511.

[WV911]

Best Canadian fishing and hunting show was the Red Fisher show at Scuttlebutt lodge.

Not too much TV now where the hosts would get visibly hammered to go out fishing.

[35 whelen]

Originally Posted by WV911

Best Canadian fishing and hunting show was the Red Fisher show at Scuttlebutt lodge.



Not too much TV now where the hosts would get visibly hammered to go out fishing.

The first Lodge I guided at on the Winnipeg River had one of red Fisher's old boats it was like a 22 FT Cruiser did lot of river runs in that

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Steelhorse Cowboy]

Cannt stand most of the big money shows.
Fat dudes driving around in side by sides, with 5000 bucks of "wonder" rifles and scopes, ripping shots off 700yd + at game.
How many bad hits are we not seeing where the game runs off?

When Steve had that bad bow hit on an elk he declared his tag full.

I enjoy the work hard type shows of Randy/Gritty/Solo etc.

enuf said
my 2 cents