The (Hunting) Social Dilemma

An eastern Montana sunrise on public land

I hesitated even addressing this whole idea that is being promoted by Montana hunter Matt Rinella, regarding his opinion that if you are a hunter and you are on social media talking about hunting, you are in fact ruining hunting. But I happen to be a hunter and I happen to be fairly active on social media, so I felt like my opinion on the matter holds just as much weight as his (which let’s be honest here, neither his or mine holds much weight at all, in the big picture).

If the name Rinella sounds familiar, that’s because Matt is one of two brothers to outdoor media mogul and author, Steven Rinella, of MeatEater fame. It is a strange situation with these two Montana transplants, as they are on very opposite ends of the spectrum on making hunting a public spectacle, and even more split on the idea of financial gain one may get from the act of hunting. I have met both brothers, they are very different on the surface, but it is clear when you listen to them have a conversation on Steve’s podcast, they are certainly cut from the same cloth. So how did they end up with such polarizing viewpoints on this issue? I don’t have the slightest damn idea, and I am not in a position to call them up and ask. It’s a peculiar family dynamic though, that is for sure, and also none of my business.

I met Steve Rinella at a Live MeatEater Podcast
recording in 2018.

What I can tell you is why I have a very different viewpoint from Matt entirely, and I can’t even say that my take on hunting in the public eye matches with Steve, either. What I am about to describe is simply my experience as a hunter who shares their experiences in a space for both acquaintances and strangers alike to see, to judge, to criticize, and at times, even troll. 

I should start by pointing out that Matt repeatedly uses the word “influencer” both in his article “Unfollowing Hunting Social Media Will Make Hunting Better”, and while defending his opinion on the Blood Origins Podcast he recently recorded which was released on November 22nd. I am not a social media influencer, and I don’t necessarily know what makes someone qualify for that title, but I know I don’t. However, he also repeatedly grouped anyone who hunted and posted about hunting on social media into the same destructive, evil group, so that is where I come in. 

If you have read the article or listened to the Blood Origins episode, you probably had some of the same thoughts I did, specifically “Dude pull it together for crying out loud, you’re off the rails.” You may have also been like me and really struggled getting through the podcast. I know he will be on an upcoming MeatEater episode where he will address all of this again, and while I bet it will be highly entertaining in some regards, I don’t think I can go down that road twice. But I will give my thoughts on the article itself, in the order that he makes his arguments as it is written.

The first point Matt attempts to make is pertaining to hunter numbers, hunter recruitment and how more hunters are making public land so overcrowded that in his mind, it’s “no longer worth it”. I am going to pass on the subject of new hunters in the field and his take on hunter recruitment, because if you know me, you know that my passion lies in teaching people how to hunt. Plus that fight has already taken place earlier this year, via a few different articles, and it’s a whole different subject than this social media argument. 

Teaching the daughter of a friend of mine firearm safety in my garage a few months ago.

But I will say this, when Matt talks about the public land that he hunts being overcrowded, he is not at all considering public land everywhere else in the country. He fails to recognize that he comes across very selfish and almost entitled when he constantly complains about seeing trucks at the trailhead. Has he forgotten where he came from? East of the Mississippi is an entirely different planet when it comes to the amount of public land available compared to the west, and specifically, Montana. He has more than we in the east could ever dream of. He is in his little bubble, which is a theme that carries throughout his opinion piece. 

Matt blames the “influencers'' on hunting social media for the increase of hunter numbers on already crowded public land. As I mentioned, I am not an "influencer", and to be honest, I'd have to go look to even know how many Instagram followers I have, but I will absolutely encourage someone to hunt if they have a genuine interest in learning. Not only will I encourage them, but if they are in my local area, I will take them out and teach them myself. I ask for nothing in return, except for them to be a good example of an ethical hunter moving forward.

As a side note, if I showed the list Matt cited in his essay, of the top 250 Instagram hunting influencers (https://blog.feedspot.com/hunting_instagram_influencers/) to a random selection of 1,000 hunters in my home state of Indiana, there is an excellent chance that 99% of those asked wouldn't know who any of those influencers are, including his brother Steve. So there needs to be a realization on Matt's part that just because this is the world he knows, his "bubble" if you will, whether by default because he is a Rinella, or because he associates with a lot of folks in the industry (both paid and volunteer), his accusations of those who share their hunting escapades on social media as the people who are "ruining hunting", would likely fall on deaf ears for vast majority of hunters in the U.S., outside of about six states in the west.

Matt addresses the concept that if you are a hunter who posts on social media calling yourself a conservationist, you are essentially a liar. He claims that you are actually doing more damage than good in the big picture. The fact that you are posting about hunting on public land, you are in turn, inviting thousands of other hunters into that very space and therefore you are ruining the resource. That’s a stretch in my opinion. I always post about my hunts and the general area I am hunting. I can honestly say that In the last six years that I have been doing so, I have seen zero increase of hunters where I hunt. I am speaking specifically to public land in southeast Wyoming and in eastern Montana, so obviously my viewpoints are quite limited, but at the same time, so are his. 

And while I am no Doug Duren (whom I greatly respect, met, and became friends with on social media, so therefore he must also be the enemy in this scenario), I absolutely like to think I am making a positive contribution to conservation. While I can’t be everywhere I would like to be for fence pulling events, or counting animals for game and fish agencies, I do what I can by contributing to the non-profits who are out there doing the work and volunteering locally to teach others about the importance of conservation and how they can also get involved. 

Rinella goes on to claim that social media has severely damaged our reputation among non-hunters, as well as reduced hunting opportunities. I am going to offer a big “hold up, wait a minute”, right here with the reputation part of that claim, because in my personal experience, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The notion that social media has severely damaged our reputation among non-hunters in bunk. Anti-hunters, maybe, because they are just looking for a reason, but as far as non-hunters in general, I don't think so. I have had many non-hunters reach out to me and confess that they feel differently about hunting due to how I talk about it on my social media pages. They feel that before reading my thoughts on hunting, they didn't fully understand all of the work or thoughtfulness that went into hunting, or they always thought of hunters as people who just like to kill things, with no real moral code. I even had one woman tell me that the only reason she is a non-hunter rather than an anti-hunter, is because she follows me and appreciates my passion for not just the act of hunting, but also for the animals I hunt. So, I staunchly disagree with this idea from my personal perspective.

The next claim, if you are following along in sequence, is that as hunters who kill multiple animals, we are seen by the non-hunting public as full of greed and we don’t believe these animals are a valued resource. Again, he is blaming only the hunting “influencers'' for this, but I myself kill multiple animals every year, if I’m lucky, and if anyone wants to question what I do with the meat, I will tell them. I eat it. Not only do I eat it, but I eat a lot of it. In our household, my partner, Chance, and I may put anywhere from five to nine deer in the freezer on a good year, between hunting in Indiana, Wyoming, and Montana. We eat venison four to five nights a week, we share it with friends and none of it goes to waste. 

Meat from my Montana mule deer doe I shot on public land this fall.

I like to think I surround myself with solid, ethical hunters and I can tell you that none of the hunters I know take animals that they don’t fully intend on utilizing to the fullest. And in the instance that I am introduced to someone who likes to hunt but doesn’t enjoy the meat, I make every effort to take that meat off their hands for our own freezer, or for someone in need. I can see where, if you didn’t know any better, there could be an assumption that TV personalities who kill two or three elk and a handful of deer every fall couldn’t possibly eat all of that meat, or even need it. But Matt knows as well as I do, that those “personalities” are sharing that meat with their crews, either the guys who are filming or the guys back at the office who work in post production. So again, that feels like a stretch to accuse hunters of waste in that manner.

Matt then goes on to say that he believes that hunting social media is bad for public access. This one doesn't resonate with me at all. Of all the landowners I have talked to in my ten years of being a hunter, none have ever told me that they wouldn’t give permission because social media made their land too valuable. What they did tell me, and I imagine this is the case for many private landowners across the country, is that disrespectful people are what made them stop giving permission. Hunters who left gates open that they should have closed behind them, hunters who shot things they didn’t have permission to shoot, hunters who stepped over property boundaries, causing disputes between neighbors, hunters who left garbage, hunters who didn’t remove tree stand or blinds in a timely manner, and a plethora of other reasons. 

Hunting leases have been a thing for ages, especially in states with minimal public land opportunities, dense hunting populations, and prime hunting properties that are owned by people with no interest or knowledge of hunting. All it takes is a broker to reach out and wave a price in front of their nose and they are in. Social media didn’t cause this, irresponsible hunters who once had permission but then screwed it up for the rest of us is what caused landowners to stop granting permission. For the others, it's simply dollars and cents. 

The last two things I am going to address are the two opinions of Matt’s that really irritated me the most, his claim that private land hunters deceive the new or non-hunting public because it’s like shooting domesticated livestock, and that overall, hunters on social media are blatantly dishonest. Believe me, this is just as exhausting for me to write, as it is for you to read it, but we are nearing the end, I promise.

I hunt private land in Indiana. Some of it is farmland owned by my partner’s father, which offers mediocre deer hunting at best, some of it is land that the landowners contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in hunting. Yes, you heard that right, lightning struck twice, and I jumped at the opportunity both times. So I have to ask, if I go out and hunt this private land that is surrounded by timber on all of the neighboring private properties, and I happen to kill an incredible, mature buck that was passing through, on absolute happenstance, am I to believe that by sharing that experience on social media I am deceiving new hunters or non-hunters, by trying to make them believe that that can happen to anybody? Absolutely not. And do you want to know why? Because it CAN happen to anybody. 

I shot this buck in 2020 on the very first sit on a piece of private property I had
 never stepped foot on before that afternoon. It was total happenstance.

The notion that private land hunting is a sham, is disgraceful, and somehow duping everyone, when there is absolutely no way of ever assuring what animal is going to pass through at any given time, is complete and utter bullshit. Unless it is a high fence operation, I don’t believe hunting is a sure thing no matter where you are, public or private, and it is incredibly insulting to those of us that don’t have any other options close to us, other than the private land we have been lucky enough to have permission to hunt. And as far as the people who lease land, at least around here, a small percentage get out and put in food plots or make improvements to those properties, so it is a crap shoot for them as well. Hell, most of them are only able to get out and hunt three or four times a year and even then, they may have to drive three to four hours just to get to their lease. In a state with limited public land, it may be their only option to hunt at all. I guess I’ll just keep on deceiving my social media followers, sorry Matt. 

Lastly, let’s talk about dishonesty. I personally am the first to share when I have screwed up, I mean if you do it enough, it becomes second nature. I’ll tell you that I missed the buck of a lifetime in my first season hunting because I wasn’t paying attention. I will confess that I had to shoot an animal more times than I should have, because I was lazy and didn’t check my rifle when I arrived in Wyoming one year. I always tell you if I fail to fill my tags and why. And most recently, I told everyone who follows my social media pages that I put two bad shots on a deer and lost him. I described my heartache, my frustration, my disappointment. I talked about my inability to sleep that night due to the dreams I was having about finding him, but being jarred awake each time just as I walked up on him. I talked about how I searched for him for fifteen hours over three days. I also talked about how I won’t hunt another buck this year because I know I wounded that one, and that was my one buck tag.

These bone fragments are all I found of the deer I lost two weeks ago.

My social media is not a highlight reel, whether I am posting about hunting or life in general. Being guilty by association, according to Matt, because some folks only show the positive outcome, is a broadly false accusation directed toward many of us, on his part. 

Look, I have gained some of the truest friends I could ever ask for, through social media, Nicole, SJ, I see you. I have had long, meaningful phone conversations with people I have never met in person, because we met on social media, I’m looking at you Travis Thompson. I randomly meet people for coffee as they are passing through my town, Amy, let’s do that again. I have driven across the country to sleep in the mountains and hunt with complete strangers, because of social media. I have been contacted by new hunters who just need some encouragement, because of social media. I have had writing opportunities put in front of me from people who said I talk about hunting in a way they have never heard anyone else talk about it before, and that meant something to them. I have had vegans and vegetarians reach out and thank me for attaching emotion and respect to the act of hunting, because they believed all hunters were simply cold-blooded killers that killed just for fun. 

The inaugural Deer Camp. I drove solo from Indiana to central Montana in 
2018 to camp and hunt with 17 women I never met. I was invited through social media.

Now I will tell you what I haven’t gained from social media, because these are the things Matt claims drives hunters who post on social media. I haven’t gained any sponsorships. I have never been offered free gear by a company, not once, not ever. I do not make money from posting about hunting on social media. If anything I have lost money, due to my relationship with hunting, and a substantial amount at that. If anyone wants to bring up my most recent stint of employment in the “industry”, I think it's safe to say that my entire yearly salary of barely $18.5k would be a good indicator that I'm not posting about hunting to social media to get rich. This last year has been a struggle like no other, so tell me again what my motivations are?

Matt’s opinion is his own, as is mine, and let’s tell it like it is, there are some self-serving, shitty people on social media who really only care about making money. They will lie, cheat and steal to do so. There are some whose motivations are skewed. They post for the ‘Gram and for the fame they hope they might achieve someday. But to cast that negative light on all hunters who post to their social media accounts, regarding their hunting experiences or the latest tag they filled, pictures included, is wrong and irresponsible.

But there are also a lot of amazing, honest, good people, who just like to share their experiences in the hopes that they connect with other folks who may be going through the same things in life, or in their hunting journey. I personally choose to follow real people, mostly those with jobs having nothing to do with the hunting industry. Those people aren’t selling anything, they are not out to gain social media fame or notoriety, they hunt when they can, and they are seeking knowledge from friends. They fess up to their mistakes, because they want to help someone else realize that shit really does happen to all of us and how we learn from it is what matters the most, not how many likes or followers we gain or lose because of it.

Turkey hunting on public land this last spring in Idaho.

I will keep hunting and I will keep sharing the whole damn thing on social media, you can take it or you can leave it, I really don’t care either way. But that’s just my opinion. 

Would I continue hunting, fishing, mentoring and everything the outdoors has to offer just as passionately as I do right now, without social media to share it all to? You bet your ass I would, and you know what, I wouldn’t be destroying hunting either way.

Mentoring: More Than Just A Morning in the Woods

There is a feeling one gets when they see someone fulfill a lifelong dream, or even a goal that they have been working toward for relatively short amount of time. The feeling is hard to describe, but plainly put, it’s a mix of immense pride and sheer happiness. Parents feel this when their children accomplish something, spouses feel this when their partner receives that promotion at work, and if you’re like me, you may feel this when you witness a new hunter take their first animal. 

I have had the privilege of taking several folks to the field over the past few years for their first hunt, and have experienced the “feeling” I described above, a handful of times. It could be that I simply enjoy watching other people succeed, but there is also a feeling of satisfaction that is a little self-serving at the same time. But not how you may think, this isn’t about being able to run to social media and proclaim “look what I did for so-and-so”, this goes so much deeper than anyone knowing, or even caring, that I sat in the woods with someone. 

Cianni showing off her first turkey at age 10

If you have ever gone on a journey with someone who truly wants to accomplish the taking of their first animal, but they are overwhelmed with apprehension or self-doubt, you probably understand where I am going with this. If you have never participated in the journey of a new hunter, I highly recommend it and I am happy to explain how it could completely change your relationship with hunting. 

There has been an ongoing, sometimes tumultuous discussion in a portion of the hunting community related to getting new hunters in the field. This isn’t about that, this isn’t about statistics, it isn’t about trailheads being full of pick-ups trucks, or someone taking your “spot”. This is about changing a person’s life by simply taking the time to help them learn a new skill, to encourage them, and to give them the confidence they need to continue their journey as a hunter, long after you walk away from each other. 

I think we should all make the effort to take someone new to the woods, field, or duck blind, if we are able to do so. The reason I feel that way is because I have experienced first hand the full range of emotions while watching a new hunter take it all in. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing that the time and effort you volunteered to someone, enabled them to be confident and potentially successful in a space that was so foreign to them in the beginning. You have passed on something to them that you cannot place a value on, nor is it anything that anyone can take away from them. 

But understand this; it is work, it is time consuming, and it needs to be done the right way.

If you know me, you have probably heard me say that I will take anyone hunting that genuinely has an interest in going. And that is the truth. Being a Hunter Education instructor, I am a little biased, but I want my new hunters to go through hunter education before I start mentoring them. It gives me the piece of mind that they are not only serious about this venture, but I feel safer knowing they have had their basic firearm safety course before they get in front of me with a rifle or shotgun. 

Noah with his first Whitetail.

When you agree to spend time with a potential new hunter, it goes beyond teaching them how to shoot at a target or spending a morning with them in a blind. There needs to be thorough discussions about why they want to be a hunter, about ethical decisions and what that even means. You should make sure they understand the laws and the consequences of violating those laws, and without a doubt, there needs to be a discussion about death and dying, prior to ever placing a firearm in their hands.

It is my experience that emotion is a big part of a new hunter committing to killing a living thing, and it should be. You cannot take back what you have done after you pull the trigger or let that arrow fly. You have fully and completely committed to ending a life, and you need to be in the right place mentally and emotionally, to be okay with that. 

By taking the time to have these discussions and really doing a deep dive into this person's motivation, you make a connection and develop a relationship that allows them to trust you and feel comfortable that you are going to steer them in the right direction. This isn’t a task that can be taken lightly and I have to wonder if that’s why more people shy away from it, than not.

Most of the people that I spend time teaching on a personal level are youth, although I have taken a few adults out for their first hunt. For my current job, I work specifically with adults, but for the purposes I am writing about, I’m going to stick with what I do on my own time. I have taken kids as young as eight to the woods and I have taken grown women to the woods who have their own children at home. Obviously, you approach people completely differently depending on their maturity and what they are capable of at that moment. 

Despite the uncertainty in her face, Ava loved going fishing this summer!

Nonetheless, they are all introduced to hunting the same way when we start out. We sit in my garage and have “the talk”. I remind them; boy, girl, man or woman, that death is final, and if they have any apprehensions about killing something, we need to take a step back and take a little more time until they are comfortable with that. If they assure me they fully understand the consequences of pulling the trigger, we move on. 

I always go over firearm safety at nauseum, almost to the point that they could go home and confidently teach it to their own family members, and I won’t ever apologize for my emphasis on that. We also talk in-depth, about shot placement, using diagrams and targets that are stuck to our garage freezer, but offer a great visual to the aspiring hunter. If you are a hunter, you will inevitably make a bad shot on an animal at some point, it happens, and you will never forget it. However, the more education you have to prevent it from happening, the more confident you will be when you pull your rifle or bow up on an animal in the heat of the moment. 

If the new hunter kills an animal, I walk through the field dressing or cleaning of that animal with them. For some people, the idea of this process can be imagined to be as traumatic as the initial killing of the animal. That being said, I have found that when it really comes down to it, folks get in a zone when it comes to dealing with the animal after the initial shock that they killed it. I think the realization kicks in that the animal is now their responsibility, and they take complete  ownership of that, out of respect for the animal itself.  

Cianni learning how to skin a squirrel.

Generally, the parents of the kids I am taking out are present during the pre-hunt discussions, and for good reason. Hunting used to be something that was passed down from generations past, but it’s just not happening anymore, for a variety of reasons. I want to make sure these parents know exactly what I am teaching their children and why. It offers a sense of comfort for the parents that I care about their kids and I will do everything within my power to keep them safe. Plus, when their kids come home after a hunt, they can have discussions with them about how they are feeling and what they are thinking, especially if that child killed an animal. 

Look, even as a forty-five-year-old woman, I have to take some time to reflect on my feelings after I have shot and killed an animal, regardless if it is a squirrel that weighs two pounds, or a mule deer that weighs two-hundred pounds. The act of killing brings about powerful emotions and I fully believe in talking about those emotions after the fact. This doesn’t make anyone any less of a hunter, or weak in any way, it just makes us human. 

Committing to being a mentor for a new hunter is something that you need to be sure about, you need to understand that you are possibly the only person who is giving them the opportunity to learn the right way to do this, and if you make it a bad experience for them, simply because it’s more work than you thought it would be, you are taking that opportunity right back away from them. That’s on you and whether it is a child or an adult, it's shameful. 

I just reached out this week to a few of my local young people who I have taken out hunting the last year or two, to see if they would like to go again this year. I have one local family that I have taken four of the six kids, ages ranging from five to eighteen, either hunting, fishing or both, and I will keep doing it as long as they have an interest in going. 

Sitting with Ty on his first deer hunt, in 2020.

Mentoring to me isn’t a “one and done” situation. It is my opinion that if someone wants to learn how to hunt, you should try to give them the opportunity to hunt as many different species that your space allows. They may think they want to deer hunt, but realize after chasing turkeys a few times, that deer hunting isn’t for them and they are all about spring birds, and that is okay. It’s about answering their questions outside of hunting season, or sharing articles with them so that they may learn a new skill, or learn more about conservation. 

The biggest thing I hope people take away from what I have learned from mentoring new hunters is that you are taking responsibility for not only the way this person will progress ethically as a hunter, but you are walking a path with them that includes some heavy topics like death, firearms, the law, utilization of game meat, and how they represent all of us as hunters, in the future. You are giving them the tools to become self-sufficient and to potentially pass those tools onto someone else down the road. Your time and effort are absolutely worth it.

Obviously, this is a passion for me and it isn’t that for everyone. Hunting has changed for me in the last few years, and I attribute that to mentoring. I used to be obsessed with getting out there, being alone with my thoughts, and filling my tags. I would set aside everything else in my life for as long as necessary to do that. These days, I am sitting beside new hunters more than I am sitting alone and hunting for myself, and I’m enjoying every minute of it. 

Colby and I waiting on some whitetail, in 2019.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love my time alone in the woods, but seeing someone light up with excitement during their first hunt, or witnessing firsthand the moment they take their first animal, will always be better than my best day hunting alone.