Rinella article.. CUT AND PASTED

Or in contrast - is the content obnoxious, amped up, all about the antlers, small penis syndrome, guys-only junk?

Judging by hunting shows on TV and most social media crap in general, this is exactly what people want. I fully agree with your post though.
 
Nothing dramatic, simple request for accountability. They reaaaally don’t like that kind of thing. Especially touchy on the coordinate selling topic haha.

View attachment 204675
Man, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that place. I'm not a fan of the "scouting packages''. Not a fan of the bro culture element. And there is a metric ton of, shall we say, mediocre information being passed along from people who are over estimating their level of experience. ( And I probably have been guilty of this at times). Not to mention a propensity to take things a bit too seriously.......

But if you know who is who, there is also some great information. And the classifieds..........
 
I gave up on RS, MM and 24 when I found HT. No insta or FB. So my perspective is this informed:
sonora-trackway-two-column.jpg.thumb.768.768.jpg


Hunting and outdoor sports have long been the antithesis of competition to me. I'm no longer baffled or incensed when people post live updates or record their exploits and publish them. But I feel like those posters are missing out on the best things about being outdoors. Time with friends, time alone, time with nature which for me surpasses all the rest, heals the broken places, reconnects us with the authentic world. Time away from work, current events, devices, traffic, noise, civilization. Time to think, to feel. space and time to just be.

Videos and photos can't fully capture a hunt, a powder run, making love. They can only represent the most obvious aspects, pruriently and poorly.

There was absolutely racism, slob hunting, poaching, swollen egos, toxic personalities, feudal lord landowners, scofflaw trespassers. Some wardens were arrogant, others were professional. When you killed the reward was success, meat in the freezer, handshakes, perhaps a mention @ the family Christmas. There was Boone and Crockett, Pope and Young for those counting inches. Both groups said their highest goal was conservation of game species. However, trophy hunting monetized game and gave more visibility to those who seek to elevate themselves by their hunting "accomplishments."

I wasn't raised with likes, emojis, gifs, icons; they are little cartoons, not reality.

All those moments and emotions I treasure are still available, still sought by many through their lives outdoors. Now social (and all) media distract from those deeply personal experiences, hard to identify and express. The bruh mentality that more is better and biggest is best elevates the outcome above the accomplishing, the grip and grin above the blood, sweat and tears. Images have replaced experiences and stories. "The media is the message," McLuhan wrote in 1964, when hunting media was bragging boards @ local sports stores and articles in a few magazines. Now images are reality, video convicts or exonerates in court, "It didn't happen without pics." We've stopped trusting our own eyes, hearts and minds.

Our role models stopped modeling or we stopped admiring; yielding that authority to counted clicks by faceless strangers, and charlatan influencers with the ethics of a carnival huckster who preaches Sundays as a side hustle. With no live connection between influencer and viewer the video clip is now the expectation of greenhorns. How can these hordes catch a glimpse of the richness of the moments of a blown stalk? How can they come to value anything short of killing the Spider Bull? What are the odds they'll discover the passion of pursuit separate from the dirt nap, when brown is down, DRT? Without real mentors showing real examples by really hunting w them, odds are zero. I wanted to learn all that more than anything, I would have never figured it out without my dad and his friends breaking trail. Without quality mentorship of hunters, the fall woods will continue becoming the video games that used to represent them.

“Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
 
Last edited:
Man, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that place. I'm not a fan of the "scouting packages''. Not a fan of the bro culture element. And there is a metric ton of, shall we say, mediocre information being passed along from people who are over estimating their level of experience. ( And I probably have been guilty of this at times). Not to mention a propensity to take things a bit too seriously.......

But if you know who is who, there is also some great information. And the classifieds..........
Agreed on all.
 
I gave up on RS, MM and 24 when I found HT. No insta or FB. So my perspective is this informed:
sonora-trackway-two-column.jpg.thumb.768.768.jpg


Hunting and outdoor sports have long been the antithesis of competition to me. I'm no longer baffled or incensed when people post live updates or record their exploits and publish them. But I feel like those posters are missing out on the best things about being outdoors. Time with friends, time alone, time with nature which for me surpasses all the rest, heals the broken places, reconnects us with the authentic world. Time away from work, current events, devices, traffic, noise, civilization. Time to think, to feel. space and time to just be.

Videos and photos can't fully capture a hunt, a powder run, making love. They can only represent the most obvious aspects, pruriently and poorly.

There was absolutely racism, slob hunting, poaching, swollen egos, toxic personalities, feudal lord landowners, scofflaw trespassers. Some wardens were arrogant, others were professional. When you killed the reward was success, meat in the freezer, handshakes, perhaps a mention @ the family Christmas. There was Boone and Crockett, Pope and Young for those counting inches. Both groups said their highest goal was conservation of game species. However, trophy hunting monetized game and gave more visibility to those who seek to elevate themselves by their hunting "accomplishments."

I wasn't raised with likes, emojis, gifs, icons; they are little cartoons, not reality.

All those moments and emotions I treasure are still available, still sought by many through their lives outdoors. Now social (and all) media distract from those deeply personal experiences, hard to identify and express. The bruh mentality that more is better and biggest is best elevates the outcome above the accomplishing, the grip and grin above the blood, sweat and tears. Images have replaced experiences and stories. "The media is the message," McLuhan wrote in 1964, when hunting media was bragging boards @ local sports stores and articles in a few magazines. Now images are reality, video convicts or exonerates in court, "It didn't happen without pics." We've stopped trusting our own eyes, hearts and minds.

Our role models stopped modeling or we stopped admiring; yielding that authority to counted clicks by faceless strangers, and charlatan influencers with the ethics of a carnival huckster who preaches Sundays as a side hustle. With no live connection between influencer and viewer the video clip is now the expectation of greenhorns. How can these hordes catch a glimpse of the richness of the moments of a blown stalk? How can they come to value anything short of killing the Spider Bull? What are the odds they'll discover the passion of pursuit separate from the dirt nap, when brown is down, DRT? Without real mentors showing real examples by really hunting w them, odds are zero. I wanted to learn all that more than anything, I would have never figured it out without my dad and his friends breaking trail. Without quality mentorship of hunters, the fall woods will continue becoming the video games that used to represent them.

“Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
Copied and pasted in my notes. Good stuff.

Especially interesting to think that this discussion has been going on since 1949 when Leopold published "The Almanac." And was preceded by the entire "Nature Faker" debate that went on in the outdoor space in the 1880s and 1890s, and even later, when during the T. Roosevelt administration, Nature Faking became a big deal in society as a whole.

This debate in the hunting space goes as far back to when Grinnell first started with Field and Stream (editor from 1876 to 1911) and wrote critically to insinuate that Roosevelt, and TR's first book, was merely another one of those braggadocios well-healed easterners who was really a greenhorn trying to make a name for himself by writing dramatic stories of that which he really had little knowledge; the west. Roosevelt was pissed enough to pay Grinnell a personal visit, where Grinnell really didn't relent. They later grew to be friends, and the media of the time, Field and Stream magazine, was used as a pulpit to carryout much of Roosevelt's conservation agenda.

Thanks for posting this.
 
I think Canada's Grey Owl must represent the peak of the Nature Faker movement. He was Native "conservationist" popular writer who turned out to be an Englishman boozer who painted his face. The ultimate fake.
 
My only redeeming character trait is that I never got into Rokslide.
I bailed after a couple debates about the intrinsic worth of bobcats to the outdoor experience and the legal process national monuments go through after presidential designation.

Pretty hard to take that place sersly when some dude from Florida is espousing the need to kill all bobcats because they are a carnivore, and one of the moderators is offering up mistaken facts on how multiple use planning works.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
114,023
Messages
2,041,494
Members
36,431
Latest member
Nick3252
Back
Top