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They were expecting a gomer, complete with chewing tobacco, missing teeth, a poor grasp of the king's English, compadres who are both sons and nephews at the same time -- you know, white trash. Andy probably welcomed them with a quote from The Prophet.
Well, having know a few 'mushroom hunters' I can understand their ignorance and prejudice with regard to hunters - especially considering some of them hadn't been in the US for long, and were nothing more than 'babes in the woods' - and probably shouldn't have been out there in the first place.
 
I'm curious, would Matt Rinella have a sounding board if it weren't for his celebrity brother?
they are probably in cahoots, im sure Matts article just boosted Steves web traffic.
Cynical, and a good point. @solv3nt , I think he did not offer an opinion that was worth any more than anyone else's. The difference is he has watched the growth and success of his brother and seen how it affects fans. Is he genuine in what he writes? Don't know. Arguments and conflict sell in our society.
 
I agree with some of his points but not others. Social media has many pitfalls and has had a negative impact on fishing for sure and I assume hunting as well. I have seen it blow up very obscure fishing spots to the point of not being enjoyable to fish. My days of posting detailed information of my fishing and hunting success on the old www have come and gone years ago. I may throw up a pic here and there but minute details will be scant. Many people getting into the outdoors these days want instant gratification don't want to put in the time to earn it, stealing shortcuts from diarrhea mouthed posters who are their own worst enemy. As far as using term harvesting to somehow be more palatable to the non hunting public, I completely disagree. People really ought to be more in touch with how the food chain works. If you are a carnivore you either have to kill or be ok with someone else doing the killing otherwise you are a sanctimonious busturd. To quote a line from a favorite movie. "I got no problem with killing, Boss. Never have".
 
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Social media has many pitfalls and has had a negative impact on fishing for sure and I assume hunting as well.
Out of curiosity ive followed some hunting and fishing groups on facebook and agree its hurting the sports more than helping. A great majority of the posts are "where is this?" Or asking where to go, with no indication of any attempt at scouting.
 
@Andy54Hawken , perhaps I did not read the article with an open mind. I read from the perspective that these shows should be unsubscribed by the general hunting population because they transform hunting into a circus, complete with the blatant commercialism and the deception that was epitomized by PT Barnum.
I did not see his logic in his comment about hunting numbers increasing. I see license sales staying static. Tag sales increasing doesn't mean much to me, it's still the same hunter with their single license. Sure, in some states where deer populations (and other species) are exploding, buying six tags is not a stretch.
While he Rinella faults the ego aspect of it, you cannot (IMO) separate that primal instinct from modern man. Though, killing an animal does not make anyone any more of a stud than siring some spawn with thier cavewoman.

My point to hunting is I'd like to kill and gather some honest meat.


Yup. x10
Without all this technology and digital distraction, I believe we would live simpler, more fulfilling lives, and still work just as hard.


They were expecting a gomer, complete with chewing tobacco, missing teeth, a poor grasp of the king's English, compadres who are both sons and nephews at the same time -- you know, white trash. Andy probably welcomed them with a quote from The Prophet.
Back when I was running the marina in Southwestern Missouri I had occasion to watch the professional bass fisherman celebrities (Virgil Ward and Roland Martin for instance) tape their shows. I can't tell you how much time they spent NOT catching fish, none of which ever got on TV, or how many times they "caught" the same fish, over and over.

That's the way it is with hunting shows. It's made to look easy because all you see is the star getting out of the sponsor's truck, walking a few yards in the sponsor's boots, carrying a sponsor's backpack, shooting game with a sponsor's rifle or shotgun, and celebrating at the end of the day with a sponsor's beverage.

Hound hunting is even worse because it looks like the dogs do all the work.

And what's important about hunting is not killing an animal. Nor is it obtaining meat. What's important is immersing yourself in the experience of being directly connected to nature, not just looking at it from the road or a hiking trail, not speeding through it on a bike or a raft, but BEING a part of it, just as our ancestors who depended on nature for their existence did. Hunting is making a thousand subtle connections to the universe like an orb weaving spider connects to its web. We FEEL the sun and the earth, the wind and the weather, the rocks and trees, the ebb and flow of the seasons, we don't simply observe them. Each subtle change and vibration in any of those things MEANS something important to us as hunters. They are a part of us.
 

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